| Welcome to herbs2000.com - Number one source of traditional and nutritional health care. | |||
| H O M E | ||
| |||
How Homeopathic Remedies Are MadeHomeopathic medicines -or remedies, as homeopaths call them -are made from many substances. The preliminary treatment that each material needs to prepare it for the dynamizing process of dilution and succussion varies according to the substance. The original substance from which the remedy is to be made must be collected or otherwise prepared in the way that is as near as possible to the way it was done when preparing the material for proving. Great care needs to be given to every detail of the process, so that the curative homeopathic properties are most accurately replicated. If this is not done, a new proving should be carried out in order to reveal any differences in effects caused by differences in preparation. SourcesRemedies are made from plant, mineral, and animal sources. Though 70% of remedies are of herbal origin, many of the deepest acting ones are derived from minerals. Homeopathic medicines may be produced from healing substances (marigold flowers), neutral substances (table salt), or highly toxic substances (arsenic). Yet through the unique homeopathic process, they all become safe, deep acting medicines. In fact remedies made from poisonous or toxic material have effects opposite from the original substance (e.g. arsenic causes diarrhea but homeopathic Arsenicum can cure this condition). Nosodes are remedies made from bacteria or other disease substances. Like other homeopathic medicines they are prescribed based on their symptom picture, not just for treatment of bacterial or viral infections. Sarcodes are homeopathic medicines made from specific healthy organs or tissues. Remedies may also be prepared from nonmaterial sources, such as moonlight, musical frequencies, electricity, or magnetic fields. The possibilities are endless. TincturesOnce a plant, or part of a plant, has been gathered it is made into a tincture (called the 'mother tincture') in order to prepare it for potentization -the process of sequentially diluting the remedies to achieve higher and higher potencies. It is washed, and then the juice is extracted and added to absolute (water-free) alcohol. The proportion of alcohol to juice varies with the plant and its condition, particularly the amount of water in the fresh plant; homeopaths have very specific criteria for this. A remedy has been made up from Calendula officinalis, the common marigold, with an interesting variation. A fresh tincture of the leaves and flowers is often used as a remedy for treating superficial cuts and grazes, and for treating other symptoms too. In this particular case the preparer deliberately chose a bloom growing near a busy highway, so that a remedy could be made that would be particularly suitable for the wounds of the modern city dweller. Strictly, a new proving of this remedy should also be done for the sake of accuracy. When making up remedies from plants, the exact species must be carefully identified, and it is important to find the most perfect specimens of the species available. The plants should be collected in the optimum conditions, growing in their natural habitat. They should be harvested at a time when the part of the plant that is to be used is at its best, which is usually during spring or summer. The plants must be growing away from polluting factors, such as pesticides or artificial fertilizers leaching from nearby fields. Sadly, because so much of our atmosphere and water is polluted these days, it is difficult to ensure that there is no contamination. However, on the positive side, the fact that traces of some pollutants may be in the tinctures used for treatment may actually help people to fight off the effects of the environmental pollution that is now part of our every day lives. TriturationThe energetic properties of many minerals and other chemical substances, and even of some plant products, cannot be prepared for potentization by making tinctures because the materials are insoluble. The way they are prepared varies with each substance, but commonly the process involves what is called trituration: that is, grinding the substance with a specified amount of milk sugar, using a sterile pestle and mortar, for three hours. Milk sugar, also called lactose, is employed as a medium because of its neutral properties. This process reduces the remedy to the millionth dilution, also called 6x or 3C potency. At this level the substance is soluble in alcohol. Dilution and succussionThere are two different ways of making each dilution before succussion. In the Korsakoff method, after the succussion of the first potency the contents of the phial are poured off, either into another sterile container if the potency is to be kept, or down the drain if it is to be thrown away. One drop of the remedy is left clinging to the wall of the phial. Then fresh alcohol or distilled water is added 9, 99 or 49,999 drops according to the scale being used. In this method the same container is used for the making of each potency, except that from time to time a fresh sterile phial is taken to ensure contamination from the atmosphere is avoided. In the Korsakoff method 4, 6 or 8 phials may be used to make a 30 or 200 potency, whereas in the Hahnemannian method 30 or 200 phials are needed. Hahnemann used pure alcohol with each new potency. This meant that to produce a high potency, tens of gallons of alcohol were needed. In practice this is very expensive, especially if the pharmacist is using the Hahnemannian method of dilution with a new phial each time. So today many pharmacies use double-distilled water for the intermediate potencies, and alcohol only for those they are going to keep. Many of the dilutions are not used, as experience has shown that certain potencies are the most effective. There is some disagreement about the validity of the Korsakoff method, but as there is no difference in the proportion of the dilution at each stage, there seems no scientific reason to doubt it. SuccussionSuccussion, or forceful shaking, was originally done by hand. Nowadays much of it is carried out by machine, but even with mechanical aids it may take up to 10 or 12 weeks to prepare tinctures of the highest potencies. In the nineteenth century this time element led to the work of preparing some of these potencies being entrusted to people like lighthouse keepers, who had long, lonely hours on duty with only their light to tend. The rhythmic, carefully repeated motions required in trituration and succussion helped to keep them awake, while at the same time benefiting homeopathy. Each succussion should be equivalent to the force exerted by an average healthy man when striking a hand-held phial (a firmly-stoppered test-tube or other laboratory container) forcefully against a firm surface. Hahnemann used a large leather-bound book. At each succussion the phial came to a brief stop, inertia making the liquid jump in the phial. Today machines imitate this action, but they need careful regulating and frequent maintenance to ensure that the succussion is standardized. PotencyHomeopathic potencies indicate the strength of remedies. The more a medicine is diluted the higher is its potency. The potencies are measured according to two principal scales of dilution -decimal and centesimal. In the decimal scale the potencies are diluted ten times each time. Such potencies are indicated by a number for the potency followed by the letter x in Britain and America (the letter D is used in Continental Europe); for example 6x or 6D. In the centesimal scale the potencies are diluted 100 times each time. Such potencies are indicated by a number for the potency followed by the letter C in Britain and America (CH in Continental Europe); for example 6C or 6CH. Remedies may be prepared for use in the form of tinctures (alcohol-based liquids), pilules, tablets, triturations, granules or powders. Whichever form is used, it is labeled with the potency according to either the decimal or the centesimal scale, more rarely with the Greek letter phi signifying mother tincture. Hahnemann said that the method used in preparing the various potencies played an important part in releasing the energetic quality of the substances used. From the initial mother tincture or trituration one drop or grain of it is diluted or triturated with 9 or 99 or 49,999 drops or grains of alcohol or lactose, the resulting dilution is succussed in a specific way between 40 and 100 times, whatever the pharmacist decides. This succussion makes the first decimal, first centesimal or first millesimal potency. The potency scale preferred by Hahnemann, and by many other homeopaths who follow his teaching closely, is the centesimal. Each centesimal potency is equivalent in dilution to two decimal potencies; in other words 30C potency is the same dilution as 60x. However, the 60x will have received twice as many succussions, and is therefore regarded as a higher potency. It is the process of succussion which releases the dynamic energy of each dilution into the solvent. The millesimal (LM) scale diluting the remedy by 1 part to 49,999 for each potency, was developed by Hahnemann towards the end of his life. However, this was not known until the sixth edition of Hahnemann's Organon was discovered in this century and was then translated and published in the United States in 1921 by Dr William Boericke, first Professor of Homeopathic Materia Medica and Therapeutics at the University of California. From clinical experience, practitioners have found that different scales of potency seem to be more effective than others for certain conditions. The different potencies within each scale may suit some patients or their conditions better than others. The harmonic progression of potencies that Hahnemann used was 3C, 6C, 9C, 12C,15C, 18C, and so on. This progression seems to be particularly effective in treating people suffering from major chronic physical diseases who have a low vitality. It seems that in severe acute conditions, if the vital force is good and the indications clear, high potencies work best. This is not always true, however, as a recent research project, despite being poorly analyzed statistically, demonstrated. It indicated that bruises responded better to the higher dilution of Arnica montana 10M (1,000C) than the lower dilution of 30C. Non-toxicityHomeopathic medicines have no inherent toxicity and, as a result have no side effects. Homeopathic remedies do, however, cause reactions that can occasionally be intense. These are part of the healing process, rather than side-effects, and are sometimes necessary in order to return the person to health. As safe as they are, these are powerful healing agents and must be used with intelligence and respect. Common homeopathic remedies
Comments | |
Back To Top
©2002-2010 herbs2000.com |