Biological Medicine
Achieving Optimal Health
Since the last decade of the twentieth century, we are witnessing a revolution in medicine and healthcare. Central to this transformation is the growing recognition that society needs to decrease its’ dependency on pharmaceuticals and surgery as the primary means of therapeutic intervention and include nutritional/biological modalities, as well as bio-energetic systems, such as acupuncture and homeopathic medicine.
There is a trend for a more holistic healthcare system that bridges the gap between “conventional” and “alternative” medicine, with emphasis to reduce the risk of disease and financial exorbitance. The highest levels of government and industry (including statements made by the U.S. Surgeon-General) recognize we can no longer afford to wait for disease to strike, but must work to prevent as much disease as possible by changing our national, and personal, behaviors and attitudes.
In addition to advocating better nutrition, regular exercise, and belief systems that encourage health and longevity, we are becoming increasingly aware of how environmental pollution and hereditary susceptibility effect our health. These factors need to be considered for everyone if we are to establish a truly comprehensive therapeutic and preventative medical program for the twenty-first century.
The Bio Electronic view of Disease
At the heart of this expanded view of treatment and preventative medicine is the application of post-Einsteinian concepts of modern physics to medicine. Whereas surgery intervenes at the level of structural anatomy and pharmaceutical medicine at the level of cellular biochemistry, the Einsteinian model moves us away from the older Newtonian mechanistic worldview to one that looks upon matter as particularized energy, vibrational in nature, and the human body as a multidimensional energy field. (See Vibrational Medicine by Richard Gerber, M.D. for a comprehensive view of this subject.)
When we begin to realize that illness often begins with subtle imbalances in the human energy field (undetectable through conventional technologies), we can understand why pharmaceuticals and surgical procedures need to be complemented with ‘bio-energetic medical interventions’ for the most comprehensive patient care. This is in addition to nutritional/biological and psychological support.
There are diagnostic and therapeutic applications for Einsteinian concepts in modern medicine. On the diagnostic side, many innovative physicians and clinical researchers are experimenting with advanced technologies such as electro-diagnostic/biofeedback instruments. When these instruments are applied to topical acupuncture points, they can detect subtle bio- electrical energy imbalances. The information serves to elucidate the cause(s) of the bio-energetic disturbance.
Such instruments are a synthesis of advanced technology and the ancient concepts of Chinese medicine. Known as chi in traditional Chinese medicine, this bio-electric energy flows through a series of circuits called meridians which can be affected by stimulating the topical acupressure points of the body.
Although the theory of chi as life-energy (called the Vital Force in European natural medicine) may seem very abstract to western thinking, European researchers have validated the existence of these acupuncture points by electrical conductivity readings. These topical points have a lower electrical resistance compared with other areas on the skin, so their conductivity, as measured by changes in galvanic skin resistance, is higher. This characteristic is the basis for our ability to electrically read the energy field of the corresponding organs and tissues.
Information received in this manner can suggest the status of various organs of the body, the possible presence of an environmental irritant, a viral or bacterial infection, and even an allergic hypersensitivity state. With such pre-diagnostic screening information, complemented by appropriate conventional diagnostic procedures, a clinician can gain greater insight into the nature of the patient’s condition and construct an effective treatment plan.
On the therapeutic side, electro diagnostic/biofeedback technology can also help us to determine which nutritional/biological and homeopathic formulations may best correct the bio-energetic dysfunction. In this way, we are better able to prevent the later manifestation of a more serious disease and to expedite the return to health.
The Miracle of the Potentised Micro Dose
While more and more physicians are beginning to accept the role of clinical nutrition, biological medicine, and the influence of the mind on health and healing, the value of modern homeopathic remedies has only recently been rediscovered.
Homeopathic medicine was established about two hundred years ago by German physician and chemist Samuel Christian Hahnemann. Even today it is still considered ahead of its time. Hahnemann authored one of the most respected chemistry textbooks of his time and served as the personal physician to several members of the German royal family. He gradually became disillusioned with the conventional medical practices. Hahnemann stopped administering medicine made from powerful toxic substances because he found the medicine was often worse for the patient than their illness. He persisted in his lifelong goal to discover “if God had not indeed given some law whereby the diseases of mankind would be cured”.
His devotion to truth and a strong commitment to benefit mankind, Hahnemann experimented on himself and a growing list of friends and followers. He discovered a fundamental law (which had actually been alluded to by historical predecessors, such as Hippocrates and Paracelsus) referred to as the Law of Similars. He would administer treatment based upon matching the characteristics of a particular medicine would have in common with the symptoms and personality of the person being treated.
From a homeopathic perspective, all disease is an external manifestation of an internal physiological and bio-energetic disorder unique to that individual. As such, no single part of the body can be ill without affecting the whole. Hahnemann assumed all symptoms reflect nature’s effort to heal. Therefore, everything must be taken into account to select the homeopathic formulations best suited to strengthen the person’s defense and healing mechanisms.
Hahnemann concluded there was a balancing mechanism, or vital force, that would continually strive to keep a person in optimum health regardless of a negative influence (biological, environmental, or psychological) they had been exposed to. But if the stress were too great or prolonged, or a person’s defenses were too weak, then signs and symptoms unique to the individual would follow. The theory was that the appropriate homeopathic remedy would strengthen the vital force, which would dramatically support the natural process of healing, and health would be restored quickly and naturally.
One problem that confronted Hahnemann in his early work was the issue of toxicity. Utilizing the Law of Similars, he had obtained very impressive clinical results. However, he noticed times when there was a great aggravation of symptoms before improvement occurred. In an effort to correct this, Hahnemann experimented with the size of the dose to see how little of the medicine he would need to administer and still create a sustained healing response. After years of effort, he discovered a method to refine and purify the original natural substance (from the plant, mineral, or animal kingdoms) from which the homeopathic remedy was derived. These purified essences were entirely free from the toxicity that had previously bothered him and exhibited enhanced biological activity. This process, called potentisation, places homeopathic medicine at the leading edge of the energy medicines in the twenty-first century.
Potentisation consists of successive serial dilutions and vigorous shaking, or grinding, of the original natural ingredient. The most common strengths of potentised remedies are those that have been diluted as much as 6, 30, 200, 1000, 10,000, 50,000, and even 100,000 times or more. This process of potentisation is quite different, when one considers the energy released, from simple dilution. Neither diluting nor shaking (grinding) alone will work. It is a particular combination of both processes which potentises the remedy that makes it effective and non-toxic.
To produce outstanding results with these minute doses, without the risk of toxicity, he astonished his peers in the medical profession. The clinical results were indisputable. Many prestigious physicians, originally called upon to discredit and expose homeopathic medicine, became outspoken advocates for his system.
A Valid Medical System depending on a Bio-Energetic Interaction
If it is difficult for our present scientific community to appreciate a valid medical system that depends primarily upon a bio-energetic interaction and a person’s inner resources for self-healing, instead of a biochemical reaction with a part of the body, imagine what the situation looked like two hundred years ago?
In the pre-Einsteinian era, referred to as the “heroic era” in medical history, nothing was known of energy fields or electromagnetic waves. Physicians regularly employed crude methods as burning, purging, bleeding, and the dosing of their patients with toxic substances containing mercury and arsenic. It is easier for today’s physicists to understand the concept of acupuncture and homeopathic medicine than for medical practitioners who are locked into a departmentalized and materialistic view of health and disease based on a somewhat outdated orthodox training.
Apart from bio-energetic considerations, the knowledge that very small amounts of a substance can be responsible for significant physiological effects is not unheard of in medical science. Dana Ullman, M.P.H., stated in his book Everybody’s Guide to Homeopathic Medicines (Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1984 pp. 15-16):
“A milligram of acetylcholine dissolved in 500,000 gallons of blood has long been known to lower the blood pressure of a cat, and even smaller amounts affect the beat of a frog’s heart. Florey, the co-discoverer of penicillin, reported in 1943 that pure penicillin can inhibit the development of sensitive microorganisms in the laboratory at dilutions of 1:50,000,000 to 1:100,000,000.
“The human body manufactures on 50 to 100 millionths of a gram of thyroid hormone per day, and the concentration of free thyroid hormone in normal blood is just 1 part per 10,000 million part of blood plasma. Yet this hormone is a powerful regulator of metabolic rate.
“There have been numerous other experiments in the fields of botany, zoology, bacteriology, and physics that attest to the power of micro doses, including homeopathic potencies more dilute than 12c.
Double blind clinical and laboratory studies have provided evidence that the medicines act even though infinitesimal dosages. One study in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology showed the effectiveness of homeopathic medicine treatments for people with rheumatoid arthritis.
For more information on research regarding this subject, the reader is referred to the Foundation for Homeopathic Education and Research 5916 Chabot Crest Oakland, CA 94618 – (415) 420-8791. In the UK, the reader is referred to the Hahnemann Society Avenue Lodge, Bounds Green Road, London N22 4EV – 081 889 1595.
In some ways, the potentization of medicines is both the most exciting and the most controversial part of the homeopathic system. It is believed that the energized homeopathic remedy works on a fundamental bio-energetic vibrational level rather than on a chemical level, and can therefore affect the “whole person” by balancing subtle energy disturbances which contribute to or cause the disease condition.
Practicing clinicians use homeopathic remedies because they work and because they are safe. From the patient’s point of view, that is all that matters. We await further research into the vibratory nature of homeopathic remedies for a deeper explanation of their exact mechanism of action. In the meantime, homeopathic remedies are available and can be readily used along with other nutritional and biological modalities for the benefit of the people for a wide range of acute and chronic disease.
What is generally not known by our contemporary society and modern medical profession is that in 1900, 20-24% of all medical physicians in American cities identified themselves as homeopathic. There were over one hundred homeopathic hospitals in America and twenty-two homeopathic medical schools.
The list of supporters included such prominent people as Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Daniel Webster, William Seward, William Lloyd Garrison, Louise May Alcott, Samuel F.B. Morse, William James, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. William Cullen Bryant, a noted poet and journalist of his time, was President of the Homeopathic Medical Society of New York City. Charles Frederick Menninger, the founder of the Menninger clinic, was a homeopathic physician and the head of his local homeopathic medical society. He was so confident in the power of homeopathic medicines that he once said, “Homeopathy is wholly capable of satisfying the therapeutic demands of this age better than any other system or school of medicine.”
The decline of homeopathic medicine in America is a complicated story which involve political, social, and economic influences. In general, the decline was caused by the emergence of powerful pharmaceutical medicines which seemed to bring more rapid results by quickly controlling symptoms. The slower working, but truly healing, natural medicines appeared to be old-fashioned. However, with the passage of time we have seen not only the benefits of pharmaceutical drugs, but also their limitations. The nature of these adverse side effects has once again created an interest in natural therapeutics and preventative medicine.
Though undergoing a renaissance in the United States, homeopathic medicine has always remained popular in other nations around the world. Today, Queen Elizabeth II is the patron of the famed Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. Her mother was the Royal patron of the British Homeopathic Association. The physicians to the British Royal Family are homeopaths (as has been the case since the 1830’s). Prince Charles is known to carry homeopathic medicines whenever he travels. In France, over 18,000 pharmacies sell homeopathic medicines, and over 60,000 physicians actively practice the homeopathic system. There are over 70,000 registered homeopathic practitioners in India. Mahatma Gandhi had stated Homeopathic Medicine “cures a larger percentage of cases than any other method of treatment and it is beyond all doubt safer and more economical and the most complete medical science.” Mother Teresa’s support for homeopathic medicine was also well-known.
Classical and Modern Homeopathic Medicine
The classical practice of homeopathic medicine relies primarily upon the patient interview. The information elicited becomes the basis for the selection of an individual potentised remedy, according to the Law of Similars. The homeopathic remedy chosen, which in physiological doses of healthy people, produces a symptom pattern closely resembling that of the sick patient.
With a modern, or progressive, homeopathic practice, the determination of a medicine is based on vibrational resonance. Vibrational resonance is defined by a balancing of an energy field located at topical acupuncture points. The potential for self-healing under the influence of a potentised homeopathic medicine is greatly and profoundly enhanced.
There is a unifying principle behind the classical and modern homeopathic practice. This can be understood, or at least conceptualized, in terms of bio-energetic resonance. Fundamentally speaking, disturbances within the energy field (chi or vital force) generate the compensatory energetic and physiological mechanisms which represent the system’s best effort to heal itself. These adaptive mechanisms are experienced as “symptoms” by the patient and observed as “signs” by the physician.
In the classical approach, the vital force is “telling us”, through the unique and characteristic symptoms, what remedy it needs to resonate with the bio-energetic system. The clinician then compares the symptom’s picture of the person with the toxicological data. Data is obtained through the proving of individual medicines compiled in the homeopathic Materia Medica. The classical prescriber chooses the single remedy which he/she feels is most similar to the symptom picture presented by his/her patient.
With the advent of computerized electro diagnosis, the disturbed field is measured directly to determine which homeopathic remedy or combination of remedies is needed to achieve the proper bio-energetic resonance. The clinician, who uses electro diagnosis, is not limited to single remedies. She can surmise from the bio-energetic technology what combinations would be best to achieve the desired balance.
Electro diagnosis can also be utilized to provide pre-diagnostic screening information regarding chemical or environmental irritants. The irritants can then be cleared at the beginning of a homeopathic medical program which will allow the deeper acting constitutional remedies to be more effective. In the next five to ten years, we are bound to see many applications that combine the classical and modern homeopathic practice into a unified healthcare system, along with the integration og bio-energetic perspectives with biological/nutritional and behavioral modalities.
Conclusion:
“We are truly on the verge of a unique time in human history. In every area of human endeavor, and no less so in health and medicine, a revolution in thinking and behavior is taking place. While not everyone can appreciate these changing patterns and the new opportunities that are available to us, in the next twenty years, we may witness an unprecedented renaissance for the advancement of mankind.
On every level, we are witnessing the blending, integration and synthesis of many concepts, methods, philosophies, and cultures of health and medicine. They share a common goal, the solution of human illness and disease.
As we being the twenty first century, we foresee the roles of modern transportation and communications. They are to help bring our world closer together to learn from one another, share insights and discoveries, and uplift the quality of life for humankind.
A synthesis is taking place. Eastern and Western medicine, the modern with the traditional, the conventional, and all that are new and innovative are coming together. In this context, there is a realization for the need of metaphysical and spiritual concepts to complement material technology, for the psychological aspect to be unified with the physiological, and for new concepts of health, illness and cures to be developed.
A new era of worldwide co-operation in the research of the cause, treatment and prevention of illness is emerging, and we are truly on the verge of a new higher-dimensional level of human existence. We can all join in the process; human history is waiting.”
-William Leslie Bergman, M.D., Medical Directory, Hahnemann Health Association