Divina,

Please don't make the mistake in thinking that treating viruses is the same as suppressing them.

Complex viruses (and possibly bacteria and prions too)survive in the body by taking over a cell, whereupon they interfere with that cell's metabolic function, which is the production of chemicals and proteins. As these virally impaired cells cannot function adequately, this leads to the production of chemical imbalances in the body. Some homeopaths have often referred to disease causing toxins in the body and I think these toxins are nothing more than virally induced chemical imbalances.

So far, the medical profession has tried to correct these chemical imbalances artificially. For example, insomnia, especially in old age, is caused by a shortfall of melatonin. The medical responce is to prescribe melatonin tablets, thereby artificially raising the level of melatonin in the body. It is my thinking that this artificial manipulation of the body's chemistry actually ends up aggravating the virus. If the medication prescribed is strong enough, it is possible that it will cause the virus to mutate, which is why diseases become more complex and deep-seated. This mutation process has been going on for a long time with bacteria, as a result of the wide-spread use of anti-biotics. It is possible that the same thing has been occurring with viruses, which is why homeopaths refer to disease being "suppressed".

If homeopathic medications are able to treat complex viruses, as I have come to suspect they are, then this will have a completely different effect. By treating and removing the virus, homeopathic medications actually will be removing the cause of disease, which is not the same as suppressing it. Once the virus is removed, the cells in the body will be able to function unhindered, which means they will no longer produce further chemical imbalances. As a result, patients will no longer experience the symptoms listed in the homeopathic repertories. As these chemical imbalances are often the precursor to more serious diseases (such as heart disease), hopefully we will start to be able to prevent these serious diseases from developing.

The major gap in my explanation is that medical science has not yet attributed the cause of the chemical imbalances to viruses (or bacteria for that matter), but there is some evidence around to suggest that this is the case - see www.ccid.org for more information on complex viruses.

I hope this has helped to clarify why this approach will not result in disease suppression. I am aware of the notion of a "life force", as described as Hahnemann, but I do not accept that such a "force" can manifest itself in the body out of nowhere. There has got to be a biological cause for these diseases and I have come to suspect that that cause lies in viruses and bacteria.

In his work, Hahnemann did refer to disease as a "living" organism and this does not rule out the possibility of disease being caused by microbiological organisms. There are many parallels between the behaviour of viruses and the behaviour of disease that Hahnemann described and I suspect that the "life-force" of disease that Hahnemann referred to is nothing more than the survival behaviour of complex viruses and bacteria. We now know that bacteria and viruses mutate, but I don't think that was common knowledge in Hahnemann's day, which is possibly why he did not make the connection between them. In fact, given the rudimentary knowledge and facilities he had available to him, I am continuously amazed at the astuteness and accuracy of Hahnemann's observations. I hope that one day his genius will be more widely recognised than it is today.

I hope this has helped to clarify some of the points you raised.

Thanks and best wishes
Nuno