The Law of Similars

Watch Larry on YouTube outlining the meaning of the most fundamental principle in homeopathy.

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Thanks for listening. Hi, I'm Dr. Larry Malerba, and welcome to All Things Homeopathy. In the first episode, I gave a brief explanation of homeopathy and its founding principle. The law of similars an illness can be treated by administering very small doses of a substance capable of mimicking the symptoms of that illness.

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This paradoxical principle seems, at first glance, to defy common sense. It's the opposite of what we're used to. It's the opposite approach taken by conventional medicine, which seeks to suppress symptoms with drugs that oppose those symptoms.

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Homeopathic practitioners view symptoms as the body's best attempt to heal itself. Its common wisdom, for example, even in conventional medical circles, that a fever represents the body's efforts to fight infection.

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And yet most doctors still prescribe antipyretic drugs to lower fever. The homeopath, on the other hand, prescribes medicines designed to work with illness rather than resisting it. Homeopathic medicines are intended to accentuate the healing efforts of the life force instead of fighting against it, although it's usually not consciously acknowledged as such.

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This paradoxical principle is sometimes even used in allopathic medicine. Vaccines to prevent illness and stimulant drugs like Adderall to treat hyperactivity are two such examples. However, these example differ from homeopathy in some very significant ways.

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The doses given are far greater than homeopathic doses, and there is no individualization of treatment, which is to say that most everyone receives the same vaccine or the same stimulant drug. By contrast, homeopathy uses minuscule doses of medicines specifically chosen to match each and every individual case of attention deficit disorder or whatever problems being treated.

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Ten different cases of a disease may need ten different homeopathic medicines. Now, this paradoxical homeopathic theory sounds great, but the proof is in the pudding. In the end, results are what count most, and satisfied patients are all that matter.

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Now, I will describe some concrete examples to illustrate this mysterious homeopathic principle of similars. Let's start with one that's easy to imagine. Think for a moment about the poison ivy plant.

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What symptoms is poison ivy capable of causing? Symptoms that should quickly come to mind are itching, blistering, and oozing? Now think about what medical conditions involve those same symptoms. Of course, a case of poison ivy itself is a prime example.

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And it's true, sometimes homeopathic poison ivy, also known as Rhus tox, may be the indicated remedy for poison ivy. With that said, let's recall for a moment the foundational principle of homeopathy, the law of similars.

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Although treating poison ivy with homeopathic doses of poison ivy may sometimes work, it's not an example of a similar as much as it is an identical. So let's think again about illnesses that have symptoms similar to poison ivy.

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How about chickenpox? What about herpes or shingles? Even some cases of a dermatitis involve itching. And blistering it turns out that Rhus tox is the most commonly indicated homeopathic medicine for chickenpox.

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Whiteboard summary in a video.

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And it has also been successfully used to treat herpes, shingles and dermatitis too. So the remedy used does not have to be identical. In fact, homeopathy actually seems to work better when the relationship between symptoms and remedy are based upon similarity.

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Let's try another example. Think for a moment about the symptoms that an angry honeybee can cause. No doubt you thought of redness, swelling, heat, inflammation, burning and stinging. When we think homeopathically, we know that the remedy made from the honeybee, Apis melifica, will be useful in treating conditions that exhibit similar symptom profiles.

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Apis, therefore, has a reputation as an effective medicine for cases of hives, allergic reactions, not just bee stings, but insect stings of many types, and even conjunctivitis and tonsillitis, as long as the symptoms involved are similar to those produced by the honeybee.

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Now, the really interesting thing is that the principle of similars can also be used to treat emotional symptoms and behavioral problems. Not only that, but sometimes a physical symptom can provide the clue that helps find a remedy to solve a person's emotional problem.

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And sometimes an emotional symptom can serve as a clue that leads to the solution for a physical problem. I'll be talking more about Homeopathy's powerful use of this mind body connection. In a future episode, I hope that I've piqued your interest.

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I've only begun to scratch the surface of Homeopathy's tremendous healing potential. There's much more to come, so I urge you to tune in to the next episode of All Things Homeopathy. See you next time.