I recently listened to a fascinating talk by botanist and homeopath Michal Yakir about the plants used in homeopathy today. She recently published a magnificent book titled Wondrous Order.
Her thesis is that plant families (known as Orders) have meaning in mankind’s evolution and the application of homeopathic medicine.
More than 50% of homeopathic medicines are of plant origin. Most of the rest originate from minerals or elements.
Over millions of years new Orders of plant life have evolved, from simple plants like mosses and ferns, to ever more complex flowering plants.
Michal perceives that each “Order” represents a theme in our development from infant to adult. These correlate with our psychological maturity. This is somewhat age independent. Maturity doesn’t always come with age!
Similarly within each Order sub-classes have evolved. Here Michal perceives stages of emotional and physical development. In contrast, this is generally age dependent.
A a homeopath she finds that these patterns can help her to find the best medicines for her clients.
In a similar manner another well established Dutch homeopath Jan Scholten has found symmetry in the elements of the Periodic Table. These elements are the basis of the second largest class of homeopathic remedies, the minerals. He too has studied the plant kingdom https://janscholten.com/
Extraodinary work by two great minds.
Let’s take a couple of examples:
Calendula (Marigold), belongs to the Aster family. It has healing properties and as a herbal product it can be used as a mild antiseptic cream to heal small wounds.
However, homeopathy considers not just the physical but also the emotional / mental. The wound doesn’t have to be physical, so (to quote Michal) a person could be “as if of a wounded person”; “don’t touch me!”
Symphytum from the Borage family, is better known to gardeners as Comfrey, and in olden times as “bone-set” because of its use in helping broken bones to heal.
Both the above plants are in the same plant Order (Asterideæ). In both there is a theme of avoidance of touch, of being hurt – obvious with a wound or broken bone, perhaps less so in the emotional sense. Such emotional oversensitivity might suggest an impediment to inner growth
Over the last century or so, the objectivity of science – for all its benefits – has set humankind apart from nature, rather than being a part of nature. This is unfortunate as we are subjects not simply objective observers in the story as Michal and Jan both suggest.
Environmental crisis, forest fires and a pandemic, should be timely reminders of our true origins. But re-discovering our roots is a challenge be it at the personal or collective level.
All a little complicated? But is it so surprising that our story depends on the plants we eat, and the minerals from which they grow. They tell our story…
If you are old enough to recall TV from the 1990s, you doubtless remember Noel Edmonds and the pink character with yellow spots called Mr Blobby which he introduced to viewers. Clearly, Mr Blobby still has his fans as you can see from this website https://www.mrblobbycollection.com/.
Mr Blobby even has a Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Blobby Here is the image from that page:
Suffice to say, I do not seek to extol the virtues or otherwise of this icon of 90’s British humour, but would simply like to suggest that the human being is more “blobby” than perhaps you might think.
Don’t worry, this is not going to be a blog on the matter of expanding waistlines, rather it is about our true nature.
You see, our bodies appear solid, but this is somewhat an illusion as water makes up about 60% of our weight. Hydrogen and Oxygen are the elements of water (H2O), and these together with Carbon, Nitrogen, Calcium and Phosphorus add up to 99% of human body, the remainder being trace elements.
The human body comprises some 75 trillion cells apparently (who counted?) each of which doing what it needs to do: building; replicating; communicating; dying etc. Some cells last for just a few hours others for years, but no typical cell lives as long as a typical person. Unbeknown to us, our body is continually being replaced. It is estimated that it takes around 7 to 10 years to complete the make-over. Amazing!
So in fact we are more fluid than solid. Which is what brought the “blobby” term to mind.
The question is what happens when we get sick? Dr James Tyler Kent was a notable American homeopath working in the early years of the twentieth century, and his “Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy” remain important to this day. In the first lecture he considers the “The Sick”. He notes that medicine is mostly concerned “with the ultimates”, that is to say the visible results of disease which, he argues, is only a part of the story.
It is “the real nature of man” that must also be considered, says Dr Kent. But what is this “real nature”?
Kent suggests that Man (in the generic sense) is “will and understanding” and the physical body is just the house in which he or she lives. Our “real nature” then is much more than the physical body, indeed our “will and understanding” may be what first and foremost needs attention before physical healing can take place.
Since Kent’s time science and technology has advanced our understanding of body biochemistry and delivered many new therapeutics. Yet the concept of “will and understanding” remains somewhat unexplored in mainstream medicine. How a person sees, feels and interacts with their world remains at the core of homeopathic practice, which is why it is termed holistic medicine.
Bowel Nosodes in Homeopathy are serial ultra-dilutions of bowel flora. They have a wide range of uses and not just in bowel related problems. Though almost consigned to history, modern orthodox medicine is slowly coming to the conclusion that the bio-chemistry of our guts may have wider implications. You may have heard about the microbiome?
“So far as orthodox medicine is concerned relatively few of the treatments that were in vogue before about 1950 have much importance today. The medicine of the 19th and even the first half of the 20th century, though no doubt fascinating from a historical point of view, has been almost entirely superseded by later developments; few books go out of date as medical texts“
Quote from “The Two Faces of Homeopathy” by Anthony Campbell
This comes from a book published in 1984. Given the speed of progress, today we can say that anything much before the year 2000 is medical history.
Over the last months I have watched many well qualified doctors and scientists on YouTube speaking about the Sars-Cov-2 virus and its treatment. Few scientific papers quoted date before the turn of the millenia.
Of course, it was barely a decade earlier that the information age began when British Scientist Tim Berners-Lee conceived the world-wide web in 1989. Since then, more than medical texts have gone out of date. Almost everything seems history!
Perhaps there is a hazard here? One problem is that for anything to be valid in medicine today it has to be supported by peer reviewed evidence and so forth. This tends to invalidate past wisdom, unless it is studied and rediscovered anew according to current standards. At face value, this is all well and good, but alas outcomes and conclusions are influenced despite claims of rigor and impartiality.
I truly recommend Dr Malcolm Kendrick’s book “Doctoring Data” https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/ if you wish to understand the use of data in medicine today. His blogs are excellent also.
Since writing this blog I have penned another, which you may care to read, explaining how what we now call othodox medicine came to dominate titled the History of Homeopathic Medicine.
Last month I shared with you a rather long YouTube video by Dr Zach Bush. From the same source I have now found a shorter piece (and nicely illustrated) titled Chemical Farming and the Loss of Human Health, where he reminds us of our past. Zachary draws our attention to our hubris and the short sightedness of our actions. In short, we have bought into a narrative over the last century that ignores the wisdom of past millenia.
Looking down the microsope has taught mankind many things, but however well meaning, we have – alas – lost sight of the bigger picture. This bigger picture is one of connectivity between all things in the natural world; every action has a reaction. Everything has a purpose.
Dr Bush teaches us that the quality of the soil in our fields matters. So too the soil – or le terrain (sounds classier in French!) of our gut. Both are teeming with viruses and bacteria, all of which have a purpose. In balance health results; with imbalance illness.
Dr Edward Bach (1886-1936), was a bacteriologist working just before the First World War at University College Hospital London.
He observed a connection between gut bacteria and health. At the time he studied the use of bacteria in vaccine form to treat patients suffering from chronic (long term) disease.
Later when continuing his work at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital he found that homeopathic preparations were as effective as the vaccine form. Known as the bowel nosodes they continue to be a useful tools in the medicine chest of the homeopath.
In the late 1920s Dr Bach moved on to work on the flower essences, and the Bach Rescue Remedy mixture may be familiar to you (you can buy it still at many high steet pharmacies).
The work on the bowel nosodes passed to a husband and wife team, Dr John and Elizabeth Paterson at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, who by all accounts undertook meticulous research adding to the knowledge base begun by Dr Bach, up until the 1950s. Their work was then eclipsed by the advances in antibiotics.
Is it not interesting how quickly we forget?
I am watching an interesting YouTube clip by Dr Zach Bush https://youtu.be/f6zb5rXgRvs. I say ‘am’ because it is quite long and I am taking it in bite size chunks. Quoting from an online version of the Oxford Dictionary he observes that the definition there in of ‘nature’ is the natural world around us; something rather apart from man. Dr Bush draws our attention to the fact that man is actually fully part of nature not ‘apart’ from it. We have long tried to control the natural world, but current crises from pandemic to environmental, suggest a need to better understand our limitations. He is all for science, but points out that science is not a fixed body of knowledge. It is an ongoing endeavour.
Isle of Wight from Lepe
I took the above photo on a blowy day about a month ago. It is hard to say what early man made of such a scene, and science brings its explanation of light reflected and refracted through water droplets. Nonetheless a rainbow still makes you stop a while and watch. The scientific analysis is good but I bet many at Lepe that felt the colours a omen for better times after a tough year.
A relatively recent scientific endeavour is the micribiome. That is to say, the gut. Dr Bush tells us that our guts are full of viruses and bacteria; many billions of them in fact. The same is true of the soil, the sea and the whole of the natural world. The living world adapts to viruses and bacteria; it has done so from the beginning of time. You might wonder then about our strategies concerning SARS-Cov-2; certainly Dr Bush does.
Complementary medicine has long taken and interest in diet and hence the gut, and on that I will say a little more next time.
“Due to overconsumption of de-natured food, and a lack of exercise and fresh air, many people, especially in the second half of their lives, often become caricatures of themselves … Nowadays we rarely see a really beautiful and healthy looking person … we are either too far or too thin .. or legs are swollen, our feet flat, our backs, bent, our necks stiff. We lose our hair, suffer from dental decay, headaches, flatulence, constipation and depression; we tire quickly and worst of all, many of us no longer enjoy life. Many people never feel really well“. Naturopath, Jan de Vries, from 10 Golden Rules For Good Health (2nd edition 2008)
Not a very welcome message, perhaps, but a well meaning one from one of the most notable Naturopaths in the UK and beyond in recent years.
Alas, he is no longer with us, but for many decades Jan de Vries had a clinic in Troon, Ayrshire and people sought his advice from near and far.
He even had a slot on Gloria Hunniford’s BBC Radio show. He worked a 90 hour week which included writing many books!
I once had a consultation and his busy clinic was like a hospital out patient dept. He was much loved and is sadly missed.
The Naturopathic approach to health is focuses on the basics, recognising that the self regulating nature of the human organism works best when treated with respect. His five pillars to good health were nutrition, digestion, elimination, circulation and relaxation.
The 10 Golden Rules expand on the five pillars to include such as sleep, and mental health and mental attitude. Top of the list, always, comes nutrition. He tells us that the diets of western industrialised countries – especially the USA and Europe – have changed more in the last 100-150 years, than across millennia before.
Processed foods, sugar, excess alcohol, industrial farming and so on, are not what the body needs. Instead seventy percent of our diets should be of plant origin, and raw fruits and vegetables should be an important part of daily nutrition. Medical science has also come to appreciate the relationship between a healthy immune system and a healthy gut.
Obesity seems to have become rather an epidemic these days. In the past the poor were thin, as is still the case in the developing countries but the opposite seems to be the picture in the western world. And it is the western world that has suffered the most in this Covid-19 pandemic. Food for thought?
Flu medicine in homeopathy – they were once in common use. Pandemics of the respiratory sort are not new, there were at least three in the twentieth century (1918, 1957, 1968). The good news is that they did not last very long (but I imagine – as now – that it seemed so at the time). Even the infamous 1918/19 epidemic passed into history after a year.
I was born in Glasgow and my paternal grandfather was a victim of that pandemic. Here is a nice article from the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh which you might care to read. https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/college/journal/exploring-scotlands-influenza-pandemic-1918-19-lest-we-forget
Compared with medical knowledge today, facilities were modest; in 1918/19 there was no NHS, and many doctors were on active service overseas. Yet the basics of good health were known: nutrition, fresh air, rest, good habits were and still are fundamentals. Fundamentals that we forget amongst our busy lives.
My maternal grandmother also caught the misnamed 1918 ‘Spanish flu’ but survived thanks to good nursing at home. Fundamentals make a difference.
Dr Dorothy Shepherd 1885-1952 was in practice in London back then, and her little book on epidemics, which is still available, makes interesting reading. It is not a scientific text but contains some sound advice that is pertinent today:
‘It is the fashion to call every slight feverish chill influenza; but if after the temperature has come down, the depression, exhaustion and weariness is such that it is too much effort to do anything, that life is really not worth living, you know you will have had influenza; after a mere feverish chill you will feel as well on getting up as you did before the attack. Unfortunately many people take no notice of the danger signals of weakness and prostration, and insist on getting up, even returning to work before they are fit, thus laying themselves open to broncho-pneumonia…‘
‘During the feverish period the patient should be allowed nothing but raw fruit and fruit juices, and not synthetic bottled juices. Fresh oranges, lemon juice, apple drinks, grapefruit drinks at frequent intervals will cleans the system and prevent any undue strain being thrown on the gastric organs. No meat juices, no milk, are permissible. After the temperature is down, the diet may be increased and may include vegetable broth, Yeastrel drinks (Marmite?); wholemeal toast; gradually other foods may be added…’
Dr Shepherd was a medical doctor and homeopath, but foremost she recognised the importance of good self-nursing care.
The benefits of homeopathy are increasingly forgotten as I explain further in this related blog
Disclaimer: I am a qualified professional homeopath and not a medical doctor. The NHS has many resources, and seeking the opinion of your GP is always of value.
Dibden Purlieu, Southampton