Homeopathy: Application of homeopathy for treatment of acute and chronic diseases

1. Homeopathy:Application of homeopathy for treatment of acute and chronic diseases Dr. Sharum Sharif, N.D.

2. Overview of the talk: • Acknowledgments • Who are NDs? • Dr. Sharif’s biography • Why homeopathy? • History • Credentials of practitioners that prescribe homeopathic remedies • What is the “constitutional” homeopathic remedy? • What are “polycrests” (or polycrest remedies)? • Fundamentals of homeopathy- how it works. • First aid use • Chronic conditions • Homeopathy for children • Homeopathy in epidemics

3. Acknowledgements: • I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Richard Mann, ND, chair of the homeopathy department at Bastyr University, and a good friend who played a key role in encouraging me to pursue homeopathy with two of the main homeopathic figures in the world, Ms. Henny Heuden-Mast (the Belgian master homeopath) and Dr. Paul Herscu, ND (one of the foremost figures in homeopathy in the world, the creator of the “cycles and segments” approach to homeopathy, and one of the founders of the New England School of Homeopathy). • I am honored to have graduated from New England School of Homeopathy, and learned from Dr. Paul Herscu, ND, and his wife, Dr. Amy Rothenberg, ND. Going through this program has been absolutely critical in my success as a homeopath. I am forever indebted to these wonderful teachers.

4. Acknowledgements: • I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Robert Ullman, ND, & Dr. Judyth Ullman, ND, for the wonderful book they have written, titled “Homeopathic Self-Care”. I have used some of the information in this book for the preparation of my presentation. • I would like to thank all my patients who have so willingly shared their deepest feelings and emotions with me in order to help me find their “constitutional” homeopathic remedy. I would not ever truly learn homeopathy without them. • I would also like to thank all my other wonderful teachers (and who isn’t a teacher to us?) throughout my life that have helped increase my awareness of the universe as it is through increased awareness and consciousness that you can practice homeopathy successfully.

5. Who are NDs (Naturopathic Doctors)? 1) Licensed PCPs (primary care physicians) who almost exclusively use natural medicines instead of pharmaceutical drugs. 2) Specialize in finding and treating the root cause of disease, going beyond symptom alleviation (using drugs or herbs). 3) Provide health optimization, as opposed to treating disease.

6. What types of therapies do NDs usually prescribe? NDs (naturopathic doctors) prescribe a large variety of natural “supplements”. Most commonly, they prescribe: • Nutritional supplementations (such as vitamins and minerals) • Herbs Most NDs do NOT typically utilize single homeopathic remedies in their practice.

7. Which practitioners use homeopathy in their practice? • Homeopaths • NDs (naturopathic doctors) • DCs (doctors of chiropractic) • MDs (medical doctors) • Dos (doctors of osteopathy) • PAs (Physicians assistants) • L.Ac’s (Licensed acupuncturists) • NPs (nurse practitioners) • Vets • Nurses • Dentists Lay people can use it for first aid situations, but for chronic disease, you need to refer to a practitioner with professional training in homeopathy.

8. Credentials of the practitioner are important… Since you can practice homeopathy with just about any license (even if you are not trained in homeopathy), patients need to be careful about the credentials of the professional they are seeking advice from. Licensed homeopaths and NDs are the only two professionals from the previous list who actually have professional training in homeopathy as a part of their regular curriculum. Even NDs are not required to have extensive training in homeopathy to practice it. Therefore, always seek out either a homeopath or a naturopath who has had additional training in homeopathy. It takes years of additional training to become adept in homeopathy. A weekend seminar or two does not suffice.

9. Dr. Sharif’s Biography: • Received doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University in 2003. • Graduated from the New England School of Homeopathy in 2007. (This was a two year course.) • Has been practicing in Kent since 2003. • Received bachelor’s in EE (electrical engineering) from U.W. in 1992. Specialized in Bio-medical instrumentation. Prior to pursuing medicine, worked as an engineer for Microsoft.

10. Biography, continued: • An Affiliate Clinical Faculty at Bastyr University, mentoring numerous students at my clinic. • Teaches a class on “Biotherapeutic Drainage” at Bastyr University. (Drainage is based on homeopathy.) • Main two therapeutic modalities used in his practice: Classical Homeopathy and Biotherapeutic Drainage (or detoxification). • Area of interest: “complex” conditions of various kinds, including autoimmune disease and cancer.

11. Comparing conventional allopathic medicine with homeopathy? This would be like comparing apples with oranges. I believe that all systems of medicine have their place. Clearly, conventional (allopathic) medicine helps numerous people, and saves numerous lives on a daily basis. Therefore, allopathic medicine has its rightful place in the world of medicine. However, with the same token, homeopathy clearly has its place for treatment of numerous conditions that allopathic medicine does not have an answer for, or may not have the most effective therapy for (even if there was a drug to be offered). And, in many cases, even if there was a drug to be offered, the list of long-term side effects are often too long.

12. Drugs should be alternatives! Ideally, drugs should be considered only if natural medicines (which are almost always safer) do not prove to be effective. Unfortunately, in our society, we use drug therapy first, and then utilize alternative medicines as a last resort.

13. Example #1 to illustrate the difference between conventional medicine and homeopathy: • For example, in conventional medicine, acne requires long-term management with drugs, and warts are typically treated with very harsh therapies such as the freeze and burn method. • However, homeopathy can very effectively treat acne and/or warts with one single remedy that you take one time, NOT daily. In this example, homeopathy is clearly the solution because it is more convenient (you take the medicine only one time), it is more cost effective ($10-15 for the treatment), and more therapeutically effective (the acne or warts will probably disappear completely in a few weeks after the therapy, and will probably not return for months to years, if ever). • There are numerous other examples to illustrate the effectiveness of homeopathy in certain cases where there really aren’t any other effective therapies being offered for, including other natural ones.

14. Example #2: Take sore throat as an example. • The MD is more interested in which organism is causing the sore throat in order to select an antibiotic to kill it. • The homeopath is looking for the substance in nature which can stimulate the person to heal himself.

15. Example #3: • A patient with complaints of headache, water retention, high blood pressure, constipation, and acne might theoretically end up on 5 different drugs for each complaint. However, one single (constitutional) homeopathic remedy can theoretically address and (in many cases) successfully treat all of these complaints at the same time. Note that it might take a few weeks to a few months (or longer in some cases) for all these conditions to be alleviated, however. Therefore, in some cases where there is urgency to alleviate a symptom (for example in the case of extremely high blood pressure), it might be advisable to take a drug to control a symptom while the homeopathic remedy is working on addressing the underlying imbalance (s) that has (have) caused elevation in the person’s blood pressure.

16. A proposed solution to the dilemma of referrals… • I hope someday our medical colleagues (MDs) become familiar enough with homeopathy and other alternatives therapeutics to the extent that they can simply refer patients to the appropriate alternative professionals as the need arises. For example, a family physician should immediately refer a case of warts to a homeopath, not a dermatologist. Conversely, all doctors should, obviously, refer a case of a stage 3 burn patient to a dermatologist for surgery. These would be appropriate referrals. In the present health care system, all skin conditions are referred to a dermatologist, and perhaps only a few MDs in the country might know enough about homeopathy to refer a warts case to a homeopath instead of to a dermatologist. • With more proper referral systems in place, many less people would suffer from ailments that are easily treatable with the appropriate tool (and that tool may sometimes be pharmaceutical drugs).

17. When should NDs refer to homeopaths? There are conditions and diseases that don’t respond very well to naturopathic medicine. These conditions should be referred to a homeopath. Examples of such conditions would be: Severe depression and anxiety, deep fatigue that is not responding to nutritional supplementation and cleansing protocols, extremely high pulse, uncontrolled hypertension, and chronic conditions of various types that are either not responding to herbs and nutritional supplementations or are responding very poorly. If neither homeopathy nor naturopathic medicine is able to help a patient, then the patient should definitely be referred to MDs as quickly as possible. Example: A case of chronic diarrhea (lasting for more than a few months) should be referred to a gastroenterologist for a workup.

18. When should homeopaths refer to other doctors (NDs, MDs, etc.)? • There are technical tasks that homeopaths are not licensed to perform. These are more conventional tasks such as ordering blood tests and diagnostic imaging studies. • Additionally, there are a number of conditions that homeopaths do not have any therapies for. In these cases, the homeopath should refer to a ND or a MD. Examples of conditions that a homeopath may not be able to treat would be a serious life-threatening infection where the most powerful antibiotics are indicated. (Although even in such a situation, homeopathy would be a great adjunctive therapy to boost the person’s vitality and immune system which will, in turn, combat the infection and actually help the antibiotic drug along.)

19. Why homeopathy?Benefits of homeopathy, in general: 1) In many cases, homeopathy can be more effective than most other systems of medicine, including other natural medicines (such as herbs) and/or drugs. 2) Homeopathic medicines are non toxic (Most of the time, they have no side effects at all). Homeopathic medicines do not contain any chemicals (they are purely energetic), and therefore, unlike pharmaceutical drugs or even herbs and nutritional supplementation, they are not a “load” on the detoxification pathways of the body (namely liver and kidneys). 3) More friendly towards the body (They don’t powerfully suppress or stimulate various biochemical reactions in the body like drugs do.)

20. Why homeopathy? 4) The pills taste good (pills are usually sugar coated), and thus higher compliance especially for children 5) Often, the remedies can provide relief in a very short period of time, ranging from minutes to hours, even in chronic illnesses. 6) The results can be astoundingly effective and rapid in some cases 7) Extremely inexpensive

21. Why is homeopathy so inexpensive? • One dose of a “constitutional” remedy can be obtained from your doctor’s office for typically $10-15, and the effect of this one dose can last for a few months- You do not typically take your “constitutional” homeopathic remedy daily, unlike herbs or drugs. • Even if you had to take your homeopathic remedy daily (say a 12c or 30c potency), it is still so extremely inexpensive that it simply does not compare to drugs or even herbs for that matter.

22. History of Homeopathy • The 200th birthday of homeopathy was in 1996. • Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, MD, is known to be the founder of homeopathy. • In the U.S., by 1900, there were more than 100 homeopathic hospitals and over 20 homeopathic medical schools. • Political opposition from conventional physicians in the early 1900s, however, led to eventual closing of all of the homeopathic medical schools and nearly led to the demise of homeopathy in the U.S.

23. Definition of various types of medical conditions: • First Aid: Emergency situations such as injuries, burns, insect bites, and sunstroke. (self care is OK.) • Acute: Self-limiting conditions such as colds, flu, acute bladder infection, earaches, headaches, and anxiety. (Self care is OK.) • Chronic: Long-standing conditions such as allergies, asthma, headaches, eczema, and depression. (Seek professional advice.) • Chronic diseases that are potentially life-threatening or very dangerous definitely lend themselves to homeopathy as well. Examples, suicidal tendencies, glaucoma, uncontrolled hypertension, etc.

24. Homeopathic self care? Homeopathic “self care” is for first aid and acute diseases, not for chronic diseases:

25. Should you or can you treat chronic conditions homeopathically yourself? • It takes a significant amount of professional training in homeopathy to be able to treat chronic cases. Therefore, I would not recommend that you treat your own chronic condition (s). • You typically can’t treat deep-seated chronic conditions with OTC (over-the-counter) potencies (12 or 30C). The OTC potencies are, generally speaking, too weak to effectively treat most deep-seated, chronic conditions. • Even if you had the higher non-OTC potencies (200C or stronger), you could cause undesirable side effects if you give a person the wrong remedy at a higher potency.

26. “Constitutional” Remedy (200C or above): • Each person has a “constitutional” homeopathic remedy which can ultimately help them more than any other natural medicine known, including herbs and nutritional supplementation. • The constitutional remedy can be referred to as a person’s “celestial signature”. It is a perfect fit to the person like a lock and a key. It can help a person on the physical as well as mental/emotional levels. • A person’s constitutional remedy is often ultimately required for curing their chronic disease (s). • Constitutional remedies are typically prescribed in 200C or higher potencies that can only be obtained with a prescription from a natural medicine practitioner.

27. How many remedies are there in Homeopathy? There are over 2000 homeopathic remedies, and new ones are continuously coming out. These medicines are made from plant, animal, and the mineral kingdoms. Of these, close to 100 or so are considered “polycrests”. These are the most common ones. Most people, in most situations, can benefit from the polycrests. Most first aid kits have 30-50 of these most common remedies.

28. Homeopathic “Polycrest” remedies… Polycrest remedies in homeopathy are those that are most commonly prescribed. A person’s “constitutional” remedy is typically one of these “polycrests”. Since there are less than 50 polycrest remedies, finding a person’s constitutional homeopathic remedy is pretty much limited to one of these 50 remedies unless the person is very unique on all levels (emotionally, mentally, and physically) in which case the homeopath has to look at other remedies that are not in this group. If the person is not a “polycrest”, it is typically much more difficult to find their constitutional remedy since there are hundreds of homeopathic remedies available to choose from.

29. Homeopathic medicines are highly diluted… • A very highly diluted, especially prepared medicine is made from the original (parent) substance, which stimulates the body to heal itself. • The diluted nature of the medicines is typically counter intuitive to most people- The more dilute a homeopathic remedy is, the more powerful its action in the body!

30. A foundational concept in homeopathy… A homeopathic medicine can treat what its parent substance causes! (Read on…)

31. A foundational concept in homeopathy… • Any substance in nature can be made into a homeopathic medicine and, depending on which symptoms it causes in a healthy person, can be of great benefit in relieving similar symptoms in a person who is ill. • In other words, the symptoms a substance can CAUSE are the same symptoms it will CURE when it is made into a homeopathic medicine (by the process of dilution).

32. How they came up with homeopathic Materia Medicas? Materia Medicas (and there are numerous ones available) are a compilation of research studies on numerous homeopathic remedies. The description for each (diluted) homeopathic remedy explains what symptoms can show up in a healthy person when they take a small amount of the (undiluted) parent substance in nature. This process is called “proving”. The “proving” process is extremely meticulous and scientific. Due to the vast body of “proving” studies, one can argue that homeopathy is perhaps the most scientifically sound branch of medicine, including conventional as well as natural medicine.

33. How can you use the homeopathic Materia Medica to select a remedy for a person? If a person happens to have the symptoms listed under a remedy in the Materia Medica, and you give them this remedy, then, over time, you can theoretically reverse (or at least help) most (if not all) of these symptoms. This is the foundation of how homeopathy works.

34. Example: Apis for bee-like people • Each substance in nature possesses its own unique traits. Examples, • The remedy “Apis mellifica” is made from honeybee. You know that bees are busy and they don’t like to be crossed. So, it will not be too surprising that people who need the homeopathic remedy Apis can demonstrate all of these same traits as bees!

35. Example: Ferrum for iron-like people • Ferrum metallicum is the homeopathic medicine prepared from iron. So, just as iron has the property of being strong and unbending, of being used to make prisons and armor, people needing the medicine Ferrum tend to be red-faced, irritable, and strong willed and tend to engage in battles with other people.

36. One homeopathic remedy for numerous ailments? • In conventional, Western medicine and even in herbal medicine, there is typically one medicine for one or two complaints. For example, Tylenol is for pain and fever. Or, in herbal medicine, the herb echinacea is for combating the common cold. However, in homeopathy, one remedy can literally affect numerous symptoms in a person. This concept is so foreign to most people, and unless you have experienced the effect of a “constitutional” homeopathic remedy on yourself, you will likely not be able to appreciate the beauty of homeopathy. • This fact can help illustrate the wholistic nature of homeopathy- How homeopathic remedies are for the WHOLE person, and not for treating a person’s ONE or TWO diseases.

37. Are there problems and limitations in homeopathy? • Yes, but they mostly apply to constitutional homeopathy, not to first aid situations. (Read on…)

38. Problems and limitations in constitutional homeopathy… • First, sometimes, it is extremely difficult to find a person’s constitutional remedy, and thus years of professional experience is needed in such cases. Finding a person’s “constitutional remedy” is much more an art than science! • Second, sometimes, it can be very time consuming to find the “right” constitutional homeopathic remedy for the patient. Average office visit is 1-2 hours, and sometimes return visits are required for further investigation.

39. Problems and limitations in constitutional homeopathy… • Third, for some conditions, homeopathy may simply not be sufficient by itself. An example might be diabetes- Diabetics might need to take their drugs even if their constitutional homeopathic remedy might be helping them in many other areas of their health such as mood, energy, and headaches.

40. Homeopathy for First Aid? • Homeopathy is extremely effective for most first-aid situations and many acute illnesses. For these purposes, you do not need to be very experienced and skillful. Any literate person should be able to utilize a first-aid book on homeopathy, and have a fairly good chance of finding the right “acute” remedy for someone in need. • Warning: Having said that, first aid conditions can sometimes be very dangerous. Therefore, you should not try to use homeopathy to treat these conditions unless you feel comfortable to do so. This would take some basic education in homeopathy.

41. Homeopathy for First Aid? • Since homeopathy is based on your ability to observe the patient, anyone can practice it. You do not need any equipments or labs to decide what medicine to give. • The practitioner (or the lay person who is practicing homeopathy on their own) asks a number of questions from the patient, makes some observations, refers to their homeopathic self-care book, and tries to find a remedy that best matches the person’s symptoms.

42. Book Recommendations: • Homeopathic Self-Care by Dr. Robert Ullman, ND, & Dr. Judyth Ullman, ND. • The Homeopathic Emergency Guide by Dr. Thomas Kruzel, ND.

43. You need 1) A homeopathic first aid book These books contain charts for each condition. These charts list the most useful medicines for treating the problem, their key indicating symptoms, and other symptoms that can help you decide which medicine to give.

44. You need 2) A homeopathic medicine kit • A basic homeopathic medicine kit can be obtained from “natural” pharmacies. • A medicine kit should contain at least 30-50 remedies in it. (Refer to Dr. Ullman’s book.)

45. Potencies available OTC (over-the-counter): • 12C OTC or Over-the-counter • 30C OTC • 200C By prescription only • 1 M By prescription only • 10M By prescription only • 50M By prescription only • 100M By prescription only

46. 1, 2, 3 of homeopathic case taking:LOOK, LISTEN AND ASK • What does “case taking” mean? “Case taking” is a process that a person (a lay person or a practitioner) utilizes in order to find out in what way the person they are treating is sick. • The “1, 2, 3 method” of case taking can be used in helping someone with an acute or chronic condition. • The idea of “looking, listening and asking” is one that all homeopaths utilize in order to find the appropriate remedy for a person. However, the phrasing of the expression “1, 2, 3, of the Homeopathic case taking: Look, Listen, and Ask” is one that I have borrowed from the book called “Homeopathic Self-Care” by Dr. Robert Ullman, ND, & Dr. Judyth Ullman, ND.

47. 1, 2, 3 of homeopathic case taking:LOOK, LISTEN AND ASK Here is what you need to do: • Look for everything about the person that has changed since the acute illness symptoms began to develop. • Listen to what the person says to you about their illness. • Ask the right questions to get the information you need to discover the correct medicine.

48. “Look, listen and ask” in taking the case of an acutely (versus chronically) ill person: • You look for everything about the person that has changed since the acute illness symptoms began to develop. (These changes are what make up the symptom picture of the illness.) • You will then match this “symptom picture” to descriptions of various homeopathic medicines. • Give the remedy that best matches the person’s symptom picture. If that does not work, then try the next best match. If you can’t find the match, you will need professional assistance.

49. Familiarity with common conditions is very helpful… • To use homeopathy in first aid or acute situations, you do not need extensive knowledge of various conditions, but you do need to be somewhat familiar with some common conditions. Some of the conditions are obvious such as headache, but some are less obvious such as tendonitis. So, in order to decide how to help a person with, say their hand pain, you will need to know if the person has tendonitis or if they simply bruised it. Depending on the answer, you end up with two different classes of medicines (in two different sections of the book “Homeopathic Self-Care”).

50. Uniqueness of the symptoms matter… • MDs and even NDs look for commonality of symptoms in a particular condition • Homeopaths look for uniqueness of the individual’s symptoms. Why? The individual’s particular way of being sick is the disease to be treated, NOT the common symptoms that are similar to everyone else who would be given the same diagnosis by a conventional doctor. • Example on next page