Today I again need this forum.

In homeopathy, could we prescribe any remedy in order to palliate the patient and not for cure?

Hope to get some info / response

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<b>Love rules without rules.<br />Love rules his kingdom without a sword.<br />Love is like scarlet fever -- one has to go through it and get it over. <br />Where there is love, there is peace. <br />Love is not obedience </b>

Dear jshah,

When we give a remedy, it's with the hope that we're curing--we may find out later that we only palliated because the person did not improve in general, just locally.

But we look at what's the worst thing--what's the most limiting thing for the person; where is all the patient's time, energy and attention going? If he's consumed with the pain in his shoulder, then we have to prescribe for that, and not worry so much about his personality and such.

Zanna's topic, about her grandmother with nerve pain is an example of this, of what has to be treated; we can worry later about what kind of person she is.

Other times people will come in and say that their chief complaint is their warts--because they're on the surface and so ugly; but after talking at length to them, we may see that this is the least of their problems, that their most limiting problem is on the mental/emotional plane and we tell them that when we give the remedy, the warts will be the last to go.

We have this prevailing idea in homeopathy that everything, no matter what it is, can be cured by prescribing for the mentals. Sometimes this is true, and it may even turn out to be true for Zanna's grand mother; but sometimes the person really does have a physical problem with no mentals, such as the gum abscess I just treated myself for-- with Silica, which is now completely healed, and there are some who would say, "Oh, you only palliated, you didn't treat the whole person; well, this was a physical problem with nothing on the mental plane. If you had taken a full case, you might have prescribed Causticum or Carcinosin or Pulsatilla for me and failed! The key to this case was in the Mouth chapter of the Repertory.

I hope this may have helped you,

Snoopy

Palliation is something you get when you fail to cure, but have had sucess removing the symptoms but leaving the disease behind. Palliation MAY be all you can do when someone is extraorindarily ill or close to death, or if the case has been hopelessly complicated by other treatments (including homoeopathy).

It should never be your goal - there is a fine line between palliation and suppression, and if you are aiming for the first, you run a serious risk of ending up with the second. I think that palliation and suppression are just degrees. Patients who are palliated are strong, or do not have a deep miasmatic state, or have few obstacles to cure. Those who are suppressed cannot resist the advance of the illness into new area.

It has something to do with the seriousness of the illness - if the body does not need to move it to a new part of the body to survive, then it won't. It will allow the symptoms to be removed. If the body needs the illness, then the symptoms will reappear at a deeper level.

There are lots of variables - who knows when a patients disease will be suppressed instead of palliated? The closer the remedy to the state, the more likely it will be palliated, the closer the remedy matches the pathology, the more likely it will simply suppress the illness.

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David Kempson.<br />Dip.Homoeopathic Medicine.<br />Lecturer Australian College of Natural Therapies (Brisbane Campus)<br />Member AHA, AROH, HMA<br />Member Australian Homoeopathic Association. Member#0442.

Hi jshah,

James Kent offered this advice on the use of Kali carb in high potency in respect to 'gouty patients'.

The reference is found in his lecture on Kali carb, page 636, in Lectures on Homeopathic Materia Medica.
"I want to warn you in one respect concerning Kali carb. It is a very dangerous medicine in gout...But these gouty patients are often incurable, and, if so, to undertake to cure them would be a dreadful calamity, because the aggravations will be serious and prolonged, but the 30th may be of great service. Kali iod., when it is indicated in the gouty state, acts as a soothing and palliative remedy. But Kali carb. seems to be a dreadful medicine to handle, it is a sharp and a two-edged sword. Do not undertake to give medicine with a view to curing these old cases of gout when the nodosities are numerous. Do not give that constitutional medicine that should have been administered to these patients twenty years ago, because there is not reaction enough in the life of the patient to turn him into order, and he will be destroyed. It seems paradoxical to say it, but to cure him is to kill him. The vital action that is necessary to restore him to health would practically tear his framework to pieces. You need not believe these things, you are not obliged to. But think about them, and some day after practising awhile and making numerous mistakes in attempting to cure incurables you will admit the awful power of homoeopathic medicines. They are simply dreadful. In old gouty cases, in old cases of Bright's disease, in advanced cases of phthisis where there are many tubercles, beware of Kali carb. given too high."

Jshah, (Good Question)

We will always prescribe remedy for cure and not for palliation. But the patient will always get palliation first and then cure.

Actually, Palliation leads to cure.

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Hafeez
Forum Pk

Actually, it doesn't. Palliation resembles cure, in so much as the symptoms vanish, but palliation requires repeated dosing, whereas cure holds. It is possible to palliate a case for long periods, and the patient continues to need treatment, but this is not cure. Cure leads to a strengthening of the organism, independence from continuous treatment, and marked improvement on all levels for the person. Palliation tends to be a simple removal of symptoms, which can make the person appear much better, but does not create strength and resistance in the person.

Orthodox medicine frequently palliates cases, but this rarely leads to cure. Homoeopaths sometimes palliate cases too, by accident or design, and this does not lead to cure either. A person who has been palliated will need to come back for similar conditions or new conditions of similar power and seriousness.

Cure will include removal of the symptoms, but Direction of Cure should indicate the depth at which the remedy has affected the person. Old symptoms will return, current symptoms will aggravate, symptoms will move from more important organs to less important ones, the person will change at a deep level - will gain insight into their behaviour, will become better people. Palliation will do none of these things - the symptoms will just go away, to return sooner or later.

Palliation may be all you can do in a particular case, but it should not be mistaken for Cure. That is the mistake that Allopathy makes, to the detriment of all Humankind.

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David Kempson.<br />Dip.Homoeopathic Medicine.<br />Lecturer Australian College of Natural Therapies (Brisbane Campus)<br />Member AHA, AROH, HMA<br />Member Australian Homoeopathic Association. Member#0442.

Very good question.
What we all would like to know is that:

Under the remedy-influence a Symptom disappears.
How do we know that the Symptom was cured ??

Palliation as such is suppression and not cure.

Hans Weitbrecht
Cure by symptom similarity!

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cure by symptom similarity!<br /><a href="http://www.Boger-Boenninghausen.com/" target="_blank">www.Boger-Boenninghausen.com/</a>

DavidJK,

Could we prescribe any remedy just for palliation and not for cure?

If so, then may we call that remedy similimum?

Hans,

I have given the answer on my thread there is no rule ..... in homeopathy

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Hafeez
Forum Pk

Hallo Dr. Mass
Is this your answer?

Cure= Although I have already given the answer and only one member understood. Why I did not clarify. Just for suspense. So that you may think all the time. What will be the answer of Dr. MAS.


Sir, Think, Think and Think Again

Sir, Wait and seeeeeeeeeee watch and waiiiiiit

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Then ask yourself again.
Are you a Homeopath?


hans Weitbrecht
cure by symptom similarity!

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cure by symptom similarity!<br /><a href="http://www.Boger-Boenninghausen.com/" target="_blank">www.Boger-Boenninghausen.com/</a>

HHansWeitbrecht,

Sir, I seen the answer on drmas other post