Shifting of Disease
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2003 Jul / Aug VOL V NO 4.
Dr V P Bansal
Shifting of disease
Kent has given us twelve observations which are very useful
for second prescription. His each observation is based on the effect brought
about in a patient after giving the first prescription. In my 27 years of
clinical experience, I have derived 3 useful observations.
A) Palliation: Means temporary cure or partial relief.
Palliation can be done by 132 pathies available in this world.
Example:
1) Cough And cold
Acupuncture and Acupressure: Pressure points.
Allopathy : Antihistamines, Decongestants
Ayurvedic : Chariyta, Maha-laxmi-vilas-ras
Homoeopathy: Aconite, Belladonna, Bryonia, Arsenic etc.
Unani : Gul-banaksha
2) Bronchial asthma
Acupuncture and acupressure: Pressure points
Allopathy: Bronchial-dilators, steroid
Ayurvedic: Swanskuthar-ras
Homoeopathy: Ipecac, Ars-alb, Calc-carb, etc.
Thus any mode of treatment can be followed used/adapted for
giving palliation. The only difference is there may be side effect of few drugs
in other modes of therapy.
B) Discharges And cure:
Discharges are always considered to be good in Homoeopathy.
They are said to be a sign of cure, if a diseased person after giving well
selected Homoeopathic medicine produces discharges from any orifice of the body.
It only means that by this way the body is throwing toxic products outside
leading to cure. And if this cure follows Hering’s Law of cure then only we
say ideal cure has been achieved.
Hering’s Law:
The direction for cure of disease is from:
1 Reverse order of appearance of the symptom
2 Above downward
3 More vital organ to less vital organ
4 Centre to periphery
- Brain
- Heart
- Endocrine
- Liver
- Lungs
- Kidney
- Bones
- Skin
C) Shifting of the disease:
The third important observation - "Shifting of the
disease".
After my 27 yrs of experience, I came to the above
conclusion.
There are enough data and facts available to me to prove this
observation. In my practice, I have observed that if a patient gets relieved of
one disease, after some time the disease may shift to more vital organ. Thus the
cure given to the patient was not an ideal cure as it did not follow the
"Hering’s Law of cure".
We could understand the phenomenon of shifting only after
understanding the 12 energy channels of acupuncture. In our body there are about
12 channels through which energy flows and this flow of energy through different
channels is different at different times of the day. As long as the energy
flowing through different channels remains in balance, person is healthy and if
channels gets blocked or disturbed the person becomes diseased.
This disturbance can be measured with the help of an
instrument named "Bio-feed back matter". I am giving my few cases to
prove this:
1) A 55 years old female MS from Indore came to me for severe
osteo-arthritis.
Her X-rays showed diminished joint space. The space between
tibia and femur was almost nil. The joints were extremely swollen. The patient
could walk only with support. The patient was treated with indicated
Homoeopathic Rx. She was there with me for six months. Then, the patient
disappeared for three months, again came to me after three months but this time,
she narrated that her osteo-arthritis is much better and she has developed
leucoderma.
So, this is a very beautiful example explaining the shifting
of disease.
His chest was full of rhonchi. One dose of Ipecac 30 was given. After three days patient was much better. After about one month, he came back with severe itching. On the basis of symptom totality Sulphur 200, one dose was given. Itching was better and he again developed asthma and this time attack was so severe that he did not respond to any other prescription.
He did not even respond to bronchodilators and other allopathic medication; ultimately patient was put on steroids and was relieved.
This is an example showing the centripetal action of Sulphur. Thus, it is not always necessary that Homoeopathic drugs act centrifugally. If prescription is selected on the basis of symptoms the drugs can also show its centripetal action, which is very harmful and the cases suppressed in this way, hardly respond to any other drug and the disease becomes incurable. Thus, a physician must be very cautious before prescribing any drug.
This example is just to make us aware that a single wrong prescription can produce serious and life long damage to the patient.
3) A 50 years old patient suffering from Deviated Nasal
Septum with the complaints of repeated cough and cold was operated and was
partially relieved. When he came to us, Kali-bich 30 was given on the
basis of symptom. After 3 months, he developed Acid-peptic disorder, Again
symptom totality was taken and Nux-vomica was prescribed. Patient
responded nicely to the treatment and was better for 6 months. The drug was
repeated as and when necessary.
After a few months patient came with burning micturition, Cantharis
followed by Medorrhinum was given. Patient improved and then developed
tremors.
In this case, I have learned, how the disease is shifting from periphery to
centre, that is against Herings law of cure.
Conclusion
My experience has taught me that if well indicated
prescription is not given, even though the patient feels better or relieved
after some period of time, he would again come to you with new set of symptoms.
But now, the disease would be shifted to more vital organ. That means you have
not cured the patient, you have just given the patient relief of his symptom,
and his disease is shifted to a deeper level. And then he will visit to the
physician with new set of symptom (disease).
Thus unless and until your treatment is following Herings
law, it is an ideal cure, but, if it does not follow Hering’s Law it can never
be the ideal cure, in fact it is not a cure at all. You are just suppressing or
palliating the disease.
Thus, whenever a homoeopath is prescribing a drug, he must be
very cautious in the follow-up whether his treatment is following Herings law or
not. He has to be a keen observer. Here, I would like to remind you all, about
the aphorism where Dr Hahnemann has explained the importance of being a keen
observer. A Homoeopath should always watch with his keen microscopic eyes.
Another aphorism where Dr Hahnemann talks about unprejudiced
observer again holds true here. A physician must not be over-whelmed by seeing
that the patient is relieved. He must try to see that whether the cure is
talking place in right direction or not.
Thus again, I would like you to observe carefully whether
your treatment is following Herings law or not. Then and only then you can be a
true Homoeopathic physician to treat the patient and can fulfill all the
criteria of an ideal cure.
Nowadays polypharmacy and combinations are producing centripetal shifting of
disease and increasing the suffering of patient at a deeper level.
