Problem Of Potency- Principles And Practice
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2000 Nov / Dec VOL II NO 6.
Compiled by
T K Kasiviswanathan
'Calc-c
Clinical Testimony:
- Dr P S Rawat has made a big compendium in which he has tabulated under each remedy, the experiences of several leading Homoeopaths of potencies used by them in their practice and it ranges from the lowest to the highest with case illustrations. (See his book- Select your Dose and Potency). The various cases of Dr Nash, Dr A Lippe, Dr Kent, Dr Boger and other stalwarts specifically indicate that high potencies have been normally used by them in treating their patients with great success.
- Some leading Homoeopaths have also stated that certain medicines develop their powers only above a particular potency. Dr S P Koppikar says that Podo 200 was quite useless in his practice in constipation whereas 6th potency worked very well. In high fever of children with threatening or actual convulsions he found that 6th potency increased fits and fever while 30th or 200 cured without any aggravation at all. On the other hand, Dr Bhattacharya in 'Tridosha and Homoeopathy' says that Baptisia in 6th potency tamed dangerous fevers. In diarrhoea Koppikar found 3rd or 6th potency of Bryonia effective, while in constipation Bryonia above 30th potency was excellent.
- In almost all cases published in recent issues of Homoeopathic journals usually medium to high potencies have been used; first prescription is always either 200 or1M as the similimum is selected mostly on the mental symptoms; many of the cases are chronic ones.
- In his book "The System of Homoeopathy" Dr Rajan Sankaran says that the potency of the remedy should match the intensity of the state in the patient. A case, with predominant mental and general symptoms, requires a high potency; where the disturbance is more intense in the peripheral plane, a lower potency is indicated. Where the pathology predominates, the disturbance has reached a peripheral level. so moderate to low potency. He cited a case of a man suffering from lung fibrosis, treated with Opium 30. See case given in 4/2000 issue of NJH. When characteristic symptoms present- moderate to high potency.
- Reiterates importance of potency in relation to the age of the patient. In children where no physical pathology but with intense fears and dreams, say in a Calcarea state, one can safely give high potency. In an old man or woman one will see no fears, hardly any dreams but intense arthritic pains in knees. This is evidence of a Calcarea state suppressed and pushed down to pathology and such a case will require low potency. The more the negative side is expressed at the conscious level the higher the potency.
- Nosodes are always used in high potencies.
- Certain Homoeopaths use also side-by-side mother tinctures, which have organ affinity. See case Thiladarai of Dr Ranga Krishnan in issue 4/2000 where she has prescribed Paeonia, Hydrastis, Chimaphila in mother tinctures along with the indicated remedy.
- In a paper " What potency" presented by one Dr Plumb Brown, he says "I am frequently disappointed with my results. I take case carefully and with precision select my similimum. I then give a high potency with absolutely no result. I retake my case and confirm my selection of the similimum and change my potency to a lower scale. The result is most gratifying, a cure is effected. I frequently have to change under similar condition from the lower potency to the higher and higher."
Dr Hubbard "I feel that one basis which was fairly safe for choosing your potency was the degree of pathology in the patient in ratio to his vital force; in other words our remedy, particularly if in higher potency is supposed to stimulate the vital force to cure. If it is feeble and has too great a stimulation, you are likely to burn out the fuse. If the vital force is active, even though the disease is extremely serious, it seems to me that the higher potencies can be used to make a quicker result."
"In cases where pathology is very marked, there is, of course, a great organ resistance to the forces and we have to be more careful, in order not to start an aggravation that the patient cannot go through with."
"I am inclined, in cases with very marked mental symptoms, to give a much higher potency in opening the case."
Dr Green: It seems, rightly or wrongly, that we instinctively watch for the sensitivity of a patient or the nervous irritability of the patient in deciding where to begin with the potencies. Patients who seem rather slow and phlegmatic are given lower potencies than those who seem highly sensitive.
Dr Hubbard: On the other hand, the opposite works with me. I feel that a high potency is often a tremendous shock to an organism and that some people who are very phlegmatic, need a bomb and a high potency will sometimes rip them open, not make them severely aggravated but really affect them, where a lower one will not, and on the contrary, in some sensitive patients, particularly those who do any kind of spiritual work on themselves, a high potency will shatter them for days, even though it is the right remedy and ultimately does them a lot of good. I feel with some self-conscious sensitives you have to be careful and give low and gradually increase. The question is in which class of remedies (plant, animal and mineral) do you tend to begin with the higher potency?
Dr Roberts: There is a basic law of potency, enunciated way back in 1700's by the great French physicist, Maupertius, and has been accepted in other things than medicine That is "The quantity of action necessary to effect any change in nature is the least possible; the decisive amount is always a minimum. That is the basis of your law of potency.
Remember, those who are ill are more susceptible than people who are well and what will hardly touch a person who is well, will affect an ill person tremendously; so that susceptibility comes into play in deciding the dose and potency.
Of course, all potencies do work; but the potency that is called for is in ratio to the similarity of the symptoms of the remedy to the symptoms of the case. If they are very similar you can go as high as you wish in your potency. If they are not quite so completely similar the higher potencies will not reach them. The less sure we are of our similarity, the lower our potencies, as a rule, unless we have good reason in our study of the case to think there is pathology or other factors that would make the medium or high potencies dangerous.
Dr Waffensmith referred to the fact that he was practicing in a place in USA where 99 % of the population were Mexicans. "They were accustomed to taking massive and crude doses and he invariably used the 200th potency.
Dr Grimmer: The question of potency has been the means of dividing us and bringing more bitterness into homoeopathic ranks than any other thing. All we have to know is that if we get the similar remedy and any potency within reasonable range say from mother tincture to 200 potency, you will not go astray. You will get results that will be satisfactory, especially in acute conditions. In chronic cases you have plenty of time to study the case and decide.
We know that chronic remedies are among the minerals and in the animal kingdom we get those that correspond to diseases of a very profound and deep nature. If, however, there is a great pathology present in changes in the vital organs, if you give an extremely high potency you stir up such a reaction that you bring on quick death, generally a painless death and in many cases of advanced cancer the patients have been put to sleep in a very short time with a very high potency of the exactly similar remedy.
I have seen some terrible aggravations in heart disease from very high potency, probably similar enough to effect a change but not the exact remedy and there was a violent reaction produced with increased suffering. I have also seen a remedy down near the tincture, perhaps not quite so similar, yet it would produce a degree of palliation and comfort and carry the patient along to a painless death.
He added "Kent always started his chronic cases with 10M potency and followed it up through a series. When he got a response, he went on for a month, six weeks, and some times two months. Then he would repeat 10M once and generally his next step was the 50M and up and when he had to repeat he would select another potency and he would go to CM and in very, very advanced cases that had done well along that line he would step even to DM and MM. I have seen a number of these case records and that is one method we can follow successfully in our chronic cases."
Dr Underhill felt the other way. He said " In prescribing for chronic cases using moderately high potencies, the 30th or above, in the single dose, gives you a sharper reaction, one that is more easily recognized than when low potencies are employed. It starts a cycle of curative action, which it is impossible to tell beforehand how long the cycle will last and when it has run its course.
It is of course rare that a single dose of the exact similimum will completely cure a deeply rooted chronic disease. With a little experience starting on the 30th, 200th or even higher potency one can see what he is more comfortable than he can be if a low potency is used. (That is why Hahnemann went on experimenting and derived the 50ML potencies which can be repeated daily for months if needed in chronic cases: .KV)
In a paper titled "Ways of giving potency" Dr Wilbur K Bond observes as under;
In diseases of great pathology of with more end results present or in the aged where vitality is sadly weakened, one should favour the low potencies, perhaps given a little more often, while in early functional states with less pathology and in the young with great vitality, higher and higher potencies can be nicely tolerated. So if you think you have the right remedy and nothing happens, do not despair; you may not have the right potency.
I had cases, which failed to respond to the CM but falling back to 30, I got beautiful results. Evidently I was in the wrong vibration frequency. There is not such thing like ideal potency for all. I have seen CM work wonders so also the tincture up to 3rd; straight tincture as in one case of angina pectoris with typical iron band constriction, and earlier Cactus 200 and 1M did not relieve. Ornith Q in water succeeded when Lyco in all potencies failed, though the case of Ca of stomach presented typical Lyco symptoms.
Give the patient the benefit of all they can get out of each potency, if it is acting well. One such case of cancer of left breast with intolerable pain, did not respond well with 200 of Lach and up to DM. Finally Lachesis 1M dissolved in 8 teaspoonfuls of water and one teaspoon given hourly relieved her and she was well for 6 months without pain and the lesion was healing. In another case of pain in stomach ulcer was relieved by Ars-alb 50M in water the same way.
If your case is desperate and each minute count, choose your remedy well and dissolve in 3 teaspoonfuls of water and one teaspoon to be taken once in 2 hours. (In Aphorism 272, Hahnemann points out that a globule of potentised medicine placed dry on the tongue- only few nerves are touched, whereas if crushed with sugar of milk and dissolved in good deal of water and stirred well before every administration will produce a far more powerful medicine for the use for several days. Every dose, no matter how minute, touches many nerves. Thus Hahnemann has specifically advocated a liquid medium for dispensation of the remedy to the patient-KV)
