KNOW Homoeopathy Journal
Volume-1 | Issue-1 | October-2021
Title: Prophylaxis and Homoeopathy
BHMS, MD, PhD. (Scholar), Assistant Professor (FMT), Chandola Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Rudrapur, Uttrakhand, India
Cite this Article as:
Dr. Mansi Srivastava, Prophylaxis and Homoeopathy, Vol.1 & Issue 1, KNOW Homoeopathy Journal, Pages 7 to 11 ( 19 October 2021), available at https://www.knowhomoeopathyjournal.com/2021/10/prophylaxis-and-homoeopathy.htmlCLICK HERE TO SEE - PUBLISHER DETAILS
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KNOW Homoeopathy Journal
Volume-1 | Issue-1 | October-2021
ABSTRACT:
There is an old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Prevention is also known as prophylaxis. Any rational medical system attempts to prevent disease before it occurs. Homoeopathy is one of them. In fact, Hahnemann is regarded as one of the first medical pioneers who advocated for preventative measures.
KEYWORDS:
Prophylaxis, Genus Epidemicus, Homoeopathy, Nosodes
INTRODUCTION:
The aim of prophylaxis [1] is to prevent disease and improve the quality of life and well-being of individuals and communities. In order to achieve this aim, the following objectives might be created:
1. Improving the nutritional status of individuals and communities.
2. Maintaining and training in personal and social hygiene.
3. Keeping ecological balance while maintaining a clean and sanitary environment.
4. Educating the public on issues such as infectious diseases and their routes of transmission, health maintenance, and awareness and treatment of genetically transmitted diseases.
5. Educating the general population about workplace ailments, carcinogenic substances, allergic symptoms, and allergens.
ALLOPATHIC APPROACH TO PROPHYLAXIS:
The ancient school of medicine employed prophylaxis as a means of disease prevention. In allopathy, there are four degrees of prophylaxis[2]:
1. Primary: preventative efforts to lower future health risks and avoid the occurrence of situations that are known to increase disease risk.
2. Primary: efforts to reduce the chance of certain disorders developing.
• Population-mass approach • High-risk strategy
3. Secondary: Methods for recognizing and treating pre-existing sickness before it worsens and causes significant morbidity.
4. Tertiary: Techniques for reducing the negative impacts of an existing illness by restoring function and reducing disease-related complications.
HOMOEOPATHIC APPROACH TO PROPHYLAXIS:
As articulated in Aphorism 4 of the Organon of Medicine, Hahnemann, the inventor of homoeopathy, dreamed of the scope of prevention[3] long before contemporary medical research. –
“He is likewise
a preserver of health if he knows the things that deranges health and cause
disease, and how to remove them from persons in health.”
This paragraph echoes the modern-day prophylactic appeal. As a consequence of his outstanding efforts on the spread of epidemics and measures to avoid them, this becomes increasingly clear to us. Hahnemann produced two volumes of his famed book, 'The Friend of Health,' between 1772 and 1795.
In Aphorism 77 [4] Hahnemann states, “Those diseases are inappropriately named chronic, which persons incur who expose themselves continually to avoidable noxious influences, who are in the habit of indulging in injurious liquors or aliments, are addicted to dissipation of many kinds which undermine the health, who undergo prolonged abstinence from things that are necessary for the support of life, who reside in unhealthy localities, especially marshy districts, who are housed in cellars or other confined dwellings, who are deprived of exercise or of open air, who ruin their health by overexertion of body or mind, who live in a constant state of worry, etc. These states of ill-health, which persons bring upon themselves, disappear spontaneously, provided no chronic miasm lurks in the body, under an improved mode of living, and they cannot be called chronic diseases.” This shows how following good hygiene standards might avoid pseudo-chronic illnesses caused by violations of hygienic regulations. There is no objection with allopathic science on this subject.
PROPHYLAXIS AND HOMOEOPATHIC STALWARTS:
• • Samuel Hahnemann won international renown in 1799, three years after the "birth" of homoeopathy, for his surprisingly effective treatment of a Scarlet fever epidemic in Konigslutter. Belladonna, Hahnemann's first preventive, was shown to be beneficial in the prevention of Scarlet Fever.[5] Hahnemann published this article, "Cure and Prevention of Scarlet Fever," in 1801.
• • Hahnemann discovered a prophylactic for Asiatic cholera, which was a deadly pandemic that spread quickly. At the height of the outbreak, Cuprum 30 was recommended once a week. Later, Veratrum and Cuprum alternate every week or so for the same reason.
· • In 1849, Boenninghausen[6] successfully treated a cholera epidemic using Camphor, Veratrum album, and Cuprum mettalicum. According to Boenninghausen, variolinum and Thuja were equally efficient in preventing smallpox.
THERE ARE 2 APPROACHES FOR HOMOEOPROPHYLAXIS:
Homoeopathy provides a lot of potential for illness prevention using homoeopathic drugs. Some stalwarts have urged particular preventive drugs for certain ailments, while others have suggested medicines to enhance a person's overall health as a general prophylaxis. In homoeopathy, prophylaxis is offered by two methods:
1. General
Prophylaxis
a. Anti-miasmatic
b. Constitutional
remedy
2. Specific
Prophylaxis
a. Specific
medicines for Specific diseases
b. Genus
Epidemicus
GENERAL PROPHYLAXIS:
It is a method of avoiding the onset of a variety of illnesses by enhancing a person's overall health. The remedy is chosen after a thorough examination of each patient. Hahnemann explains it in aphorisms 83-104. There are two types:
a. ANTI-MIASMATIC GENERAL PROPHYLAXIS: According to Dr. Winter and Dr. Gastier, anti-miasmatic medicines may help people avoid chronic illnesses in their later years. Sulphur, Sepia, Carbo veg, Arsenicum, Belladonna, Lachesis, Nitric acid, Silicea, Thuja, Lycopodium, Graphites, Calcarea, Phosphorus, Silicea, Thuja, Lycopodium, Graphites, Calcarea, Phosphorus, Silicea, Thuja, Lycopodium, Graphites, Calcarea, Phosphorus, Phosphorus Every fifth day, one globule of 30th potency of the above-mentioned drug is given to the infant. If skin eruptions arise, the treatment must be discontinued immediately. Every year, the same course will be given. This method was condemned by R.E. Dudgeon as an unwelcome repeat of dynamised cures.
b. b. CONSTITUTIONAL REMEDY:
Dr. Fearson believes that giving a suitable constitutional treatment to a newborn or even a pregnant woman might help avoid hereditary disorders. In homoeopathy, this is used as a general prophylactic. The most appropriate treatment is to treat the foetus via the pregnant woman, since this improves the health of both the kid and the mother.
Constitutional remedies are fairly universal in their applicability and unequalled in their wide range of prophylactic capabilities. Constitutional therapy, when paired with adequate hygiene, diet, and stress management programs, is the first defense against all types of infectious illness.
SPECIFIC PROPHYLAXIS: In this particular disease condition is prevented by usage of specific medicines.
a. SPECIFIC
MEDICINES FOR SPECIFIC DISEASES: Hahnemann discussed it in aphorisms 100-103. The prophylactic is chosen based on symptom similarities. Many diseased conditions, according to Dr. Hering, may be avoided by making intelligent use of the same morbid discharge of illness, i.e. Nosodes. Following are a few examples:
b. GENUS EPIDEMICUS: Certain miasms produce diseases that have "one and same cause" and may have a fixed nature, as Hahnemann explains in his "Medicine of Experience[1] (1806). Because they are based on the same contagious principles, this is the fact.
Genus Epidemicus is a treatment that is similar to the totality of symptoms found in the majority of patients suffering from an epidemic disease, and which may both cure and prevent the disease in healthy individuals (GE). In other words, it is a treatment that is identical to the totality of the epidemic.
Though "specific" remedies, nosodes, and other remedies, such as those indicated above, may be effective in prophylaxis, it is believed that GE gives a considerably better level of efficiency, both in prophylaxis and early case treatment. In the footnote to aphorism 73, there are several examples of GE:
I. Hahnemann used Belladonna as genus epidemicus for epidemic diseases called Scarlet fever in year 1801.
II. A kind of Purpura miliaris which came from the west was also successfully controlled by use of aconite. This was the genus epidemic of that particular epidemic.
CONCLUSION: Although controlled research and statistical records have not shown the effectiveness of homoeopathic preventive medicines for specific ailments, homoeopaths have utilized these remedies to prevent these disorders and claim to have done so effectively.
Reference:
1. Babu
G. Nagendra, Comprehensive Study of Organon-An Attempt To Understand The
Organon Of Medicine As A Scientific Treatise,4th Edition, B. Jain
Publishers (P) Ltd.,2014, p 471,472, 473, 474, 475, 476
2. Whitlock
Jennifer, Types of Prophylaxis in Medicine, ( January 2020) (internet)
Available from: https://www.verywellhealth.com
3. Mondal
Tapan Chandra, Spirit of the Organon, 1ST
Edition, B. Jain Publishers (P) Ltd.,2001, p
104, 105, 106, 107,108
4. Das
Ashok Kumar, A Treatise on Organon of Medicine –Part 3, 2nd Edition
–Reprint, Souvik Homoeo Publications, 2007, p 94, 95, 96, 97,98, 99, 100, 101
5. The
spirit of homoeopathy and biographical sketch of Hahnemann, Reprint Edition, B.
Jain Publishers (P) Ltd.,2002, p 32, 33, 34
6. Bradford
Thomas Lindsley, The Lesser Writing of CMF Von Boenninghausen, Reprint Edition,
B. Jain Publishers (P) Ltd.,2005, p 3, 4, 299, 300, 301
KNOW Homoeopathy Journal
Volume-1 | Issue-1 | October-2021
