The Minimum Dose

Larry Malaria explains why using less is better in homeopathy

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Hi, I'm Dr. Larry Malerba, and this is All Things Homeopathy. In the last episode, we discussed one of the two main pillars of homeopathy the principle of similars. Today I will be talking about the second pillar the minimum dose.

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When Dr. Hahneman began to investigate potential homeopathic medicines, he was naturally concerned about their safety. So he reduced their dosages in order to minimize the possibility of toxicity. Much to his surprise, while the lower doses made his medicine safer, it did not diminish their homeopathic effects.

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For example, it was Hahneman who first used the Ipeca plant as a medicinal substance. Until recently, syrup of Ipecac was still used by mainstream medicine in cases of accidental poisoning. Its ability to induce nausea and vomiting came in handy when there was an urgent need to empty the contents of the stomach.

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But Hahneman used Ipecac for the opposite reason. While Western medicine used Ipecac to cause nausea and vomiting. Hahnemann used it to treat the very same symptoms. He found that by giving very small doses, he was able to avoid Ipecac's unpleasant effects while maintaining its homeopathic power.

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As Hahnemann had discovered, the paradoxical effect of homeopathic Ipecac, also known as Ipecacuaha, is completely dependent upon the dosage used. Hahnemann, in fact, lowered the dosages to such an extreme that his contemporaries began to doubt his methods.

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They believed the doses were far too small to be able to produce either toxic or therapeutic effects. Although his detractors based their skepticism on conjecture, Hahnemann's personal experiences repeatedly confirmed his original hypothesis.

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Very small doses of substances capable of causing symptoms similar to an illness had the paradoxical ability to heal that illness. Thus, we arrive at the two foundational pillars of homeopathy. The most effective medicine is the similar medicine administered in the minimum dose necessary to achieve its purpose.

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To this day, uninformed skeptics rail against homeopathy, claiming that homeopathic medicines are nothing more than placebos. From my own experience, I can tell you that no system of placebo medicine could possibly achieve the results that my patients and I have witnessed in my many years of practice.

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I'll be discussing this controversy and the deliberate misinformation campaigns waged by closed skeptics against homeopathy in a future episode. But let's return now to the idea of the minimum dose. Dr.

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Hahnemann called his method of preparing medicines potentization. It consisted of a repetitive process of dilution and section. Section simply means vigorous. For example, in order to make a homeopathic preparation of mercury, the homeopathic pharmacist takes one part mercury and dilutes it in nine or 99 parts solvent, depending upon the potency scale being used.

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The resulting solution is then shaken vigorously. One part of that solution is then further diluted in another nine or 99 parts solvent it. The resulting solution is succused again. This process is repeated until the desired potency is reached.

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In order to create higher potencies, this process of serial dilution and section is performed many times, sometimes hundreds of times. The extreme dilution of a homeopathic preparation of mercury renders it harmless.

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Although there is no possibility of toxicity, the final potentized homeopathic product mysteriously retained its ability to treat illnesses that display symptoms similar to the symptoms that can be caused by crude, undiluted mercury.

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In addition to preparing his medicines, Dr. Hahnemann had to develop a method by which to study them. There are those who correctly credit him with having invented the very first scientific protocols to study the effects of medicinal substances.

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Hahnemann called them provings. A proving involved giving repeated doses of a homeopathic dilution to volunteer test subjects who were not told what they were receiving. The test subjects recorded the details of their responses to the medicine and the information was collated and studied by Hahnemann.

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In this way, a symptomatic profile of each remedy was established. With subsequent clinical use of these medicines, their profiles were further rounded out and developed collectively. The body of information regarding the various remedies in the homeopathic pharmacy is referred to as the Materia Medica.

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Hahnemann was a medical giant, a pioneer who put into practice principles that were only discussed in theory by his historical predecessors, among whom were Hippocrates and Paraceltus. He had established beyond a shadow of a doubt that an illness could be successfully treated with very small, and therefore very safe doses of medicines capable of of mimicking the symptoms of that illness.

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I hope that I've shed some light on the often misunderstood art and science of homeopathic medicine. It's not an easy topic to understand, so I hope that you will join me again for the next episode of all things Homeopathy.