I have a good friend who is a homeopath. He is quite tall, a "big" man who has always considered himself "overweight". In reality, he is over 6'3" in height, and a little stocky. He has had difficulty with respiration for many, many years.

Doctors and naturopaths have always told him that one of the main reasons for his difficulty breathing is his "excess" weight, and they have promoted dietary changes and weight loss as part of his treatment. He has tried desperately to shed pounds for years, but he has lately been in a state where his energy level has plummetted. He has difficulty concentrating on anything, and his joints have become painful and difficult to work effectively. He has even begun a regime to exercise away the excess weight, as he has been advised he needs to address his lack of energy this way. But nothing was changing.

So, he decided to take part in a "sleep" study conducted by the local university in the hospital where he works. During the study, it was found that on average he "stops breathing" (apnea) over 200 times per night, and that he can spend up to a minute or so unable to breathe during his sleep. Often he wakes himself up to breathe, so his "rest" and sleep are constantly interrupted. He has figured out that this must be the reason he is so tired and unfocused...and also the impetus behind his need to eat more food, which then gets stored as excess fat and weight.

My question: is he tubercular, or sycotic?
In North America, "overweight" people like my friend are often hounded into losing weight, because doctors tell them that they will become apnic if they don't take measures (among other scary outcomes). But in this case, no one is sure whether the fat came after the apnea, or vice versa. My friend is convinced it is the "vice versa", since he has suffered from the asthma since childhood, but has only added on the weight over the last few years. Also, how does one miasm "feed" into the other? What kind of difference would this make in remedy selection now?

Just wondering...
Divina

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...and deliverance has many faces<br />but grace<br />is an aquaintance of mine

Hello Divina,
I very strongly feel that the low energy levels of ur friend r due to his sleep apnoeas. The people suffering from this problem very commonly have day time drowsiness and low energy levels. Didn't the study people tell him the cause and management of that??
U have not mentioned enough to deduce the miasm of this person in totality. But childhood Asthma is primarily sycotic. And his tendency to stop breathing at night is also very much sycotic, but can be Psoric too depending upon the cause.
It seems very likely that this man needs a constitutional which covers his symptoms too. And knowing the miasm will definately help in that.
U need to elaborate as to what u mean by one miasm feeding into another?

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Yes, he was well apprised by his colleagues and those doing the study (he is a respiratory technician in a hospital in Toronto).

I used the term "feed" to mean that one situation basically seems to create, and recreate, the other; so that it seems that the miasms actually progress and evolve into each other. I wondered whether this was a good example of something that was a little more than just sycotic, and little more than just psoric; to me it seems like this cyclical pattern of apnea/low-energy/weight gain is more like an endless struggle--like what Sankaran describes as the "ringworm" miasm. It seems to be more than just the underfunctioning of psora, and the avoidance/overfunctioning of sycosis.

My friend has been under constitutional treatment for a number of years, but he is certain that these new findings will lead his homeopath to reconsider his remedy. What do you think...about the idea of a "ringworm" miasm at all, to begin with?

Divina

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...and deliverance has many faces<br />but grace<br />is an aquaintance of mine

Divina, so far i have not been able to ascribe to this idea of ring-worm miasm. My experience still says that what they call this ring-worm miasm, is nothing but a variant(infact, a subgp) of sycosis. And also the disease ringworm by itself is also considered a sycotic manifestation.

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Dr. B<br /><br /><a href="http://www.doctorbhatia.com" target="_blank">www.DoctorBhatia.com</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.hpathy.com" target="_blank">www.Hpathy.com</a><br />Homeopathy for Everyone

Yes, that makes sense, too. Is there any value to understanding the "subgroups" in the miasms, or could we just understand them as different aspects of the disease?

Divina

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...and deliverance has many faces<br />but grace<br />is an aquaintance of mine

As a theoritical exercise one can definetly go thru these so called sub-gbs given by so-called path-finders. If nothing else, it gives one an insight as to how easy it is in homeopathy to propound an idea as a discovery. Without any support of logical reasoning. With no symptom classification available to deduce these sub-gps, I am not very sure of their clinical utility.

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Dr. B<br /><br /><a href="http://www.doctorbhatia.com" target="_blank">www.DoctorBhatia.com</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.hpathy.com" target="_blank">www.Hpathy.com</a><br />Homeopathy for Everyone

i would even go one step further and say that at the bottom, what is called Sycosis and Syphilitc in a homeophatic sense nowadays, lies Psora and keeps firing the whole process. Syphilis and sycosis, if uncomplicated are pretty strate to treat, whereas if complicated with Psora the whole thing becomes rather complicated.
Hahnemann advices here to start with an antipsoric and then use an antisyphilitic/antisycotic whenever the symptoms call for it.
greetings from Irland, Hans

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Hi Hans,
I have very limited knowledge of homeopathy and have been under the impression that psora is the main (original) miasm and that the others can't exist if psora is not present first.

In other words, have I been misguided in thinking that sycosis and syhilis are always complicated by psora?

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Organon of Medicine, Par 80, 'The Psora is the only real fundamental cause and producer of almost all the other innumerable forms of disease that figure in systematic works on pathology as peculiar, independent diseases.'

Hahnemann's Chronic Diseases, Page 23, '...at least 7/8 of all the chronic maladies speing from it (Psora) as their only source, while the remaining 1/8 springs from Syphilis and Sycosis, or from a complication of two of theses three miasmatic chronic diseases, or, which is rare, from a complication of all three of them.'

I also thought that Psora was underlying ALL chronic diseases, but in reading the above, it sounds like there are a few cases where it doesn't.

Shirley Reischman

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Shirley Reischman

Psora is the foundation of all the other miasms.

Syph & syco cannot exist without the Psora.
Psora has to be there.

That is the final statement from Hahnemann & confirmed by his followers.

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Dr. Shashi Roy
"Sarve Santoo NirAamyah"<br />"Sarve Bhavantoo Sukhinaam"<br /><br />Best Regards<br /><br />Shashi Roy