Allergien Anhängsel 2

https://www.henriettes-herb.com/articles/allergies.html

[Atul Rajgurav]

Discussion of the concept of allergy in homoeopathy as it relates to individual sensitivity and miasmatic influences.

Allergy is an allopathic description of a condition attributed to various causes not identifiable. The Homoeopath understands “allergy” as a morbid susceptibility of the deranged Vital Force, just like any other condition ailment. The allergy is caused in the individual mainly by two types of allergens, exogenous and endogenous.

Exogenous allergens are again of four varieties viz, Inhalants, Ingestants, Injectants and Contactants. In the Homoeopathic parlance, according to Hahnemann, these

are termed the inimical, dynamic influence. As the name itself implies, they are dynamic and inimical to health. The inimical dynamic influences are atmospheric, thermic, telluric, and geographic 116 : “Some symptoms are produced by the medicines more frequently – that is to say, in many individuals, other more rarely or in persons, some only in very few healthy bodies.”

According to Hahnemann, individuals are susceptible to diseases because of “Idiosyncrasies”. In aphorism § 117 Hahnemann states that, “To the latter category belong the

so called idiosyncrasies by which are meant peculiar corporeal constitutions which, although otherwise healthy, possess a disposition to be brought into a more or less morbid state by certain things which seem to produce no impression and no change in many other individuals. But this inability to make an impression on everyone is only apparent. For two things are required for the production of these as well as all other morbid alterations in the health of man ‑ to wit, the inherent power of the influencing substance,

and the capability of the vital force that animates the organism to be influenced by it – the obvious derangements of health in the so called idiosyncrasies cannot be laid to

the account of these peculiar constitutions alone, but they must also be ascribed to these things that produce them, in which must lie the power of making the same impressions on all human bodies, yet in such a manner that but a small number of healthy constitutions have tendency to allow themselves to be brought into such an obvious morbid condition by them. That these agents do actually make this, impression on every healthy body is shown by this, that when employed as remedies they render effectual homeopathic service to all sick persons for morbid symptoms similar to those they seem to be only capable of producing in so called idiosyncratic individuals.”

Kent: states, IDIOSYNCRASIES are over sensitiveness to one thing or a few things. There may be a chronic idiosyncrasy from a chronic miasm and an acute idiosyncrasy from an acute miasm. This over sensibility is very important and it explains in a measure the susceptibility to the remedy that will cure. If an idiosyncrasy to the remedy is

not present, the patient will not be susceptible enough to be cured.

There are persons who are sensitive, not merely to one or a few things; but to all things; oversensitive to the high potencies, oversensitive in taste, oversensitive to light, and

a great many other things. This is a constitutional state; the patient is born with it. There are persons on whom you will see the sensitiveness only when you go away from

the plane of nutrition into the plane of dynamics.

The Hahnemannian Theory of the Miasms: It is a well-known fact that the Master, after erecting the doctrinal monument of homoeopathy together with its corresponding curative technique, observed in his own practice (which followed the principles of his methods) that the results, while relatively satisfactory and clearly preferable and

superior to those of old-school medicines, still left a large question mark with respect to relapses or the emergence of new diseased states in the apparently cured patient.

That is, the later persisted in a condition of relatively good health but had a tendency to manifest periodic or successive syndromes or pathological states with a certain similarity or relationship with one another. In other words, the really sick patients were seen to pass through periodic or states of illness which appeared distinct to the superficial observer but in which careful examination disclosed a nexus of identity, a characteristic connecting link, thus, the apparently different illnesses presented by

the same sick persons, as judged by his bio-pathology, were in fact linked by a background which constituted a predisposition to a characteristic form in respect to both dysfunctions and to the legions themselves. This predisposition, whether constitutional or merely a constant aspect of organic man which persists in the form of its expression was called by Hahnemann:

MIASM or CHRONIC DISEASE.

Hahnemann: ‘I observed that the non venereal chronic disease even after having been repeatedly and successfully removed by the then known homoeopathic remedies, continually reappeared in a more or less modified form, and with a yearly increase of disagreeable symptoms. This proved to me the fact that the phenomenon which appeared to constitute the ostensible disease was a mere fragment of a much more deep seated, primitive evil, the great extent of which might be inferred from the new symptoms which continued to appear from time to time. This showed me that the homoeopathic practitioner ought not to treat diseases of this kind as separate and completely developed maladies.

‘I became convinced that the first condition of finding out one or more homoeopathic medicines which should cover all the symptoms characterizing the whole disturbance was to discover all the aliments and symptoms inherent in the unknown primitive malady’.

‘This primitive disease evidently owed its existence to SOME CHRONIC MIASM. For as soon as it had reached a certain height, it never yielded to the simple acting of robust constitution, or to the best regulated diet or mode of life; on the contrary, it grew worse form year to year, to the end of life, gradually assuming different and more dangerous symptoms. This is the case with every chronic miasmatic disease.

This internal enemy I shall designate by the general term psora (Hahnemann 2000)

In most of the patients observed, Hahnemann verified a past history of psora. Psora, he says, is the common well spring of many chronic diseases which seem to differ in essence but ultimately are one and the same. ‘In Europe, as well as in the other continents, we have been able to discover but three chronic miasms which cause diseases manifesting themselves by local symptoms, and in which most chronic ailments originate. These miasms are syphilis (which I have also termed the veneral chancre,) Sycosis, and then Psora, which forms the basis of the itch’

‘Though this psora is the oldest, most universal, and most pernicious chronic miasmatic disease, yet it has been misapprehended more than another. For thousands of years it has disfigured and tortured mankind; and during the last centuries it has become the cause of those thousands of incredibly different, acute as well as chronic, non venereal diseases with which the civilized portion of mankind becomes more and more infected upon the whole inhabited globe psora is just as tedious as syphilis and Sycosis…unless it is thoroughly cured, it lasts until the last breath of the longest life, not even the robustness constitution, but its own unaided efforts, is able to annihilate and to extinguish psora.

Review of characteristics of miasm:

Psoric Miasm

Primary Psora:

Primary Psora expresses itself in locations like skin, mucus membrane and mind. It throws up characteristic, classical eruptions and discharges.

Secondary Psora:

When peripheral expression of primary Psora is blocked through suppressive measure, there is internalization of trouble with increasing involvement of more vital organs in secondary Psora:

Locations in secondary Psora are:

Metabolism and nutrition

Glands

Reticuloendothelial System

Cardio Vascular System and Central Nervous System

Cardinal Features of Psora:

“HYPERSENSITIVITY”

“HYPERREACTIVITY”

There are mainly FUNCTIONAL changes with minimal structural changes

There is NO IRREVERSIBLE structural alteration

Activity runs at high pitch at all levels

Psycho Neuro-Endocrine mechanisms are alert, active and responsive to challenges.

There is quick response at all levels, which are acute, sharp intense and changeable.

There is increased sensitivity to pain3

Simple inflammatory processes resolve rapidly without suppuration and residue.

Qualitative alteration of susceptibility is evidenced by:

Defective recognition which leads to auto immune and collagen disease

Non recognition of self and non – self leads to proliferation of tumour cells

Sympathetic system is Hyperactive and hence endocrines are activated.

Example: Thyrotoxicosis without goitre

Labile hypertension under stress etc.

Sycotic Miasm:

An over stimulated, hypersensitive and responsive system (in Psora) under continuous bombardment of adverse environmental input is driven into disorientation. Since activity has failed to arrest the disturbance, the biological intelligence tries to swing in the opposite direction. This leads to inactivity which further leads to inappropriate, inefficient, aberrant immune response.

Cardinal Feature of Sycosis:

Anaemia: Severe refractory to hematinic

Weakness: Disproportional to cause < Suppression of discharge.

Fatigue: Slowness and dullness

Dullness of perception, slow registration of input.

Physical level

Chronic inflammation at local and remote area (example: Non specific chronic, urethritis)

Local inflammation à Suppuration à Scarring which leads to sterility in the female.

Remote inflammatory response

Rheumatic Fever

Glomerulonephritis

Rheumatoid arthritis

Increased parasympathetic activity leads to decreased endocrine function, which then leads to obesity and thickening of skin.

Hypertrophy of tissue and organ

Accumulation of oxalate, phosphates, calcium à stone formation and gouty condition.

Deposition of cholesterol in blood vessels

Hypertension from damaged blood vessels in kidneys.

Vascular damage leading to Ischemic Heart Disease.

Loss of fibro muscular tone à displacement of organs, prolapse, varicose veins etc.

Spasms

Tubercular Miasm (Pseudo – Psora):

An indolent system with its aberrant, allergic, hypertrophy and spasmodic response makes a last ditch effort to survive and return to normalcy in the presence of continued adverse factors in the environment.

Increased activity at all levels

Mental and physical debility at all levels leads to “Heightened Psora”

Cardinal Feature of Tubercular Miasm:

Hyper dynamic

Changeable

Alternating

Changes at physical level include over stimulation of sympathetic system which leads to increased catabolism and decreased anabolism resulting in poor assimilation

Emaciation with ravenous appetite

Cracks, Ulcerations and fissures

Premature graying of hair

Tardy convalescences and protracted recovery from acute and chronic infection

Easy suppuration and delayed healing

Healing through fibrosis and scarring

Decreased Resistance to tubercular infection

Syphilitic Miasm:

Destruction all over and at all levels is the hallmark of the syphilitic miasm.

Predisposition

The following data in the past history or family history is suggestive of Syphilis:

Past history of clinical syphilis

Repeated abortions / Miscarriage

Stillbirth, neonatal death.

Foetal malformation

Placenta previa

Vesicular mole

Toxemia of pregnancy

Cancer

Ectopic organs or tissue.

The over stimulated and exhausted system under continued adverse environmental inputs leads to total loss of control.

[Dr. Atul Rajgurav]

The concept of allergy in homoeopathy as it relates to individual sensitivity and miasmatic influences.

Allergy is an allopathic description of a condition attributed to various causes not identifiable. The Homoeopath understands “allergy” as a morbid susceptibility of the deranged Vital Force, just like any other condition ailment. The allergy is caused in the individual mainly by two types of allergens, exogenous and endogenous. Exogenous allergens are again of four varieties viz, Inhalants, Ingestants, Injectants and Contactants. In the Homoeopathic parlance, according to Hahnemann, these are termed the inimical, dynamic influence. As the name itself implies, they are dynamic and inimical to health. The inimical dynamic influences are atmospheric, thermic, telluric, and geographic

116 : “Some symptoms are produced by the medicines more frequently – that is to say, in many individuals, other more rarely or in persons, some only in very few healthy bodies.”

According to Hahnemann, individuals are susceptible to diseases because of “Idiosyncrasies”. In aphorism § 117 Hahnemann states that, “To the latter category belong the so called idiosyncrasies by which are meant peculiar corporeal constitutions which, although otherwise healthy, possess a disposition to be brought into a more or less morbid state by certain things which seem to produce no impression and no change in many other individuals. But this inability to make an impression on everyone is only apparent. For two things are required for the production of these as well as all other morbid alterations in the health of man‑ to wit, the inherent power of the influencing substance, and the capability of the vital force that animates the organism to be influenced by it – the obvious derangements of health in the so called idiosyncrasies cannot be laid to the account of these peculiar constitutions alone, but they must also be ascribed to these things that produce them, in which must lie the power of making the same impressions on all human bodies, yet in such a manner that but a small number of healthy constitutions have tendency to allow themselves to be brought into such an obvious morbid condition by them. That these agents do actually make this, impression on every healthy body is shown by this, that when employed as remedies they render effectual homeopathic service to all sick persons for morbid symptoms similar to those they seem to be only capable of producing in so called idiosyncratic individuals.”

Kent in his lecture states, IDIOSYNCRASIES are over sensitiveness to one thing or a few things. There may be a chronic idiosyncrasy from a chronic miasm and an acute idiosyncrasy from an acute miasm. This over sensibility is very important and it explains in a measure the susceptibility to the remedy that will cure. If an idiosyncrasy to the remedy is not present, the patient will not be susceptible enough to be cured.

There are persons who are sensitive, not merely to one or a few things; but to all things; oversensitive to the high potencies, oversensitive in taste, oversensitive to light, and a great many other things. This is a constitutional state; the patient is born with it. There are persons on whom you will see the sensitiveness only when you go away from the plane of nutrition into the plane of dynamics.

The Hahnemannian Theory of the Miasms: It is a well-known fact that the Master, after erecting the doctrinal monument of homoeopathy together with its corresponding curative technique, observed in his own practice (which surely followed the principles of his methods) that the results, while relatively satisfactory and clearly preferable and superior to those of old-school medicines, still left a large question mark with respect to relapses or the emergence of new diseased states in the apparently cured patient. That is, the later persisted in a condition of relatively good health but had a tendency to manifest periodic or successive syndromes or pathological states with a certain similarity or relationship with one another. In other words, the really sick patients were seen to pass through periodic or states of illness which appeared distinct to the superficial observer but in which careful examination disclosed a nexus of identity, a characteristic connecting link, thus, the apparently different illnesses presented by the same sick persons, as judged by his bio-pathology, were in fact linked by a background which constituted a predisposition to a characteristic form in respect to both dysfunctions and to the legions themselves. This predisposition, whether constitutional or merely a constant aspect of organic man which persists in the form of its expression was called by Hahnemann: MIASM OR CHRONIC DISEASE.

Hahnemann wrote ‘I observed that the non venereal chronic disease even after having been repeatedly and successfully removed by the then known homoeopathic remedies, continually reappeared in a more or less modified form, and with a yearly increase of disagreeable symptoms. This proved to me the fact that the phenomenon which appeared to constitute the ostensible disease was a mere fragment of a much more deep seated, primitive evil, the great extent of which might be inferred from the new symptoms which continued to appear from time to time. This showed me that the homoeopathic practitioner ought not to treat diseases of this kind as separate and completely developed maladies.

‘I became convinced that the first condition of finding out one or more homoeopathic medicines which should cover all the symptoms characterizing the whole disturbance was to discover all the aliments and symptoms inherent in the unknown primitive malady’.

‘This primitive disease evidently owed its existence to SOME CHRONIC MIASM. For as soon as it had reached a certain height, it never yielded to the simple acting of robust constitution, or to the best regulated diet or mode of life; on the contrary, it grew worse form year to year, to the end of life, gradually assuming different and more dangerous symptoms. This is the case with every chronic miasmatic disease.

This internal enemy I shall designate by the general term psora (Hahnemann 2000)

In most of the patients observed, Hahnemann verified a past history of psora. Psora, he says, is the common well spring of many chronic diseases which seem to differ in essence but ultimately are one and the same. ‘In Europe, as well as in the other continents, we have been able to discover but three chronic miasms which cause diseases manifesting themselves by local symptoms, and in which most chronic ailments originate. These miasms are syphilis (which I have also termed the veneral chancre,) Sycosis, and then Psora, which forms the basis of the itch’

‘Though this psora is the oldest, most universal, and most pernicious chronic miasmatic disease, yet it has been misapprehended more than another. For thousands of years it has disfigured and tortured mankind; and during the last centuries it has become the cause of those thousands of incredibly different, acute as well as chronic, non venereal diseases with which the civilized portion of mankind becomes more and more infected upon the whole inhabited globe psora is just as tedious as syphilis and Sycosis…unless it is thoroughly cured, it lasts until the last breath of the longest life, not even the robustness constitution, but its own unaided efforts, is able to annihilate and to extinguish psora.

Review of characteristics of miasm:

Psoric Miasm

Primary Psora:

Primary Psora expresses itself in locations like skin, mucus membrane and mind. It throws up characteristic, classical eruptions and discharges.

Secondary Psora:

When peripheral expression of primary Psora is blocked through suppressive measure, there is internalization of trouble with increasing involvement of more vital organs in secondary Psora:

Locations in secondary Psora are:

Metabolism and nutrition

Glands

Reticuloendothelial System

Cardio Vascular System and Central Nervous System

Cardinal Features of Psora:

“HYPERSENSITIVITY”

“HYPERREACTIVITY”

There are mainly FUNCTIONAL changes with minimal structural changes

There is NO IRREVERSIBLE structural alteration

Activity runs at high pitch at all levels

Psycho Neuro-Endocrine mechanisms are alert, active and responsive to challenges.

There is quick response at all levels, which are acute, sharp intense and changeable.

There is increased sensitivity to pain3

Simple inflammatory processes resolve rapidly without suppuration and residue.

Qualitative alteration of susceptibility is evidenced by:

Defective recognition which leads to auto immune and collagen disease

Non recognition of self and non – self leads to proliferation of tumour cells

Sympathetic system is Hyperactive and hence endocrines are activated.

Example: Thyrotoxicosis without goitre

Labile hypertension under stress etc.

Sycotic Miasm:

An over stimulated, hypersensitive and responsive system (in Psora) under continuous bombardment of adverse environmental input is driven into disorientation. Since activity has failed to arrest the disturbance, the biological intelligence tries to swing in the opposite direction. This leads to inactivity which further leads to inappropriate, inefficient, aberrant immune response.

Cardinal Feature of Sycosis:

Anaemia: Severe refractory to hematinic

Weakness: Disproportional to cause < Suppression of discharge.

Fatigue: Slowness and dullness

Dullness of perception, slow registration of input.

Physical level

<3 Suppression of eruption and discharges ↓

Chronic inflammation at local and remote area (example: Non specific chronic, urethritis)

Local inflammation à Suppuration à Scarring which leads to sterility in the female.

Remote inflammatory response

Rheumatic Fever

Glomerulonephritis

Rheumatoid arthritis

Increased parasympathetic activity leads to decreased endocrine function, which then leads to obesity and thickening of skin.

Hypertrophy of tissue and organ

Accumulation of oxalate, phosphates, calcium à stone formation and gouty condition.

Deposition of cholesterol in blood vessels

Hypertension from damaged blood vessels in kidneys.

Vascular damage leading to Ischemic Heart Disease.

Loss of fibro muscular tone à displacement of organs, prolapse, varicose veins etc.

Spasms

Tubercular Miasm (Pseudo – Psora):

An indolent system with its aberrant, allergic, hypertrophy and spasmodic response makes a last ditch effort to survive and return to normalcy in the presence of continued adverse factors in the environment.

Increased activity at all levels

Mental and physical debility at all levels leads to “Heightened Psora”

Cardinal Feature of Tubercular Miasm:

Hyper dynamic

Changeable

Alternating

Changes at physical level include over stimulation of sympathetic system which leads to increased catabolism and decreased anabolism resulting in poor assimilation

Emaciation with ravenous appetite

Cracks, Ulcerations and fissures

Premature graying of hair

Tardy convalescences and protracted recovery from acute and chronic infection

Easy suppuration and delayed healing

Healing through fibrosis and scarring

Decreased Resistance to tubercular infection

Syphilitic Miasm:

Destruction all over and at all levels is the hallmark of the syphilitic miasm.

Predisposition

The following data in the past history or family history is suggestive of Syphilis:

Past history of clinical syphilis

Repeated abortions / Miscarriage

Stillbirth, neonatal death.

Fetal malformation

Placenta previa

Vesicular mole

Toxemia of pregnancy

Cancer

Ectopic organs or tissue.

The over stimulated and exhausted system under continued adverse environmental inputs leads to total loss of control.

↓ Inadequacy of functioning at all levels

Cardinal Feature of Syphilis:

Violent response which is disproportionate and progresses relentlessly towards destruction both mentally and physically.

Violence and destruction at physical levels expressed in all tissues

Skin: Pustules, cracks and fissure with bloody foul discharge

Deformed Nails

Alopecia

Easily graying of hair

Caries of mastoid

Gangrene and ulcer formation with acute sudden onset with marked toxemia and malignant spread

Deformity of joints – Osteoarthritis

Dental caries even before teeth erupt.

Bone pains < Night; > Cold/Movement;

Ulcer heal by fibrosis leading to puckered scar

Corneal opacities

Degeneration and atrophy of tissue due to

Direct Cellular damage

Vascular obliteration leads to Ischemia infarct which leads to Infarct

Degeneration and atrophy of neuronal cells

Premature degeneration and senility

Neoplasia

In addition to these miasms, some circumstantial factors may also tend to produce or maintain or to aggravate the disease, especially the chronic ones. The question of susceptible constitutions (diathesis) and miasms is of great importance in chronic cases.

This study will help in understanding which are the common clinical presentations to look out for in a case of allergy. It also helps understand the disease process with respect to its evolution in a person and how miasm plays a role in the process and the clinical symptoms.

Inadequacy of functioning at all levels

Cardinal Feature of Syphilis:

Violent response which is disproportionate and progresses relentlessly towards destruction both mentally and physically.

Violence and destruction at physical levels expressed in all tissues

Skin: Pustules, cracks and fissure with bloody foul discharge

Deformed Nails

Alopecia

Easily graying of hair

Caries of mastoid

Gangrene and ulcer formation with acute sudden onset with marked toxemia and malignant spread

Deformity of joints – Osteoarthritis

Dental caries even before teeth erupt.

Bone pains < Night; >: Cold/Movement;

Ulcer heal by fibrosis leading to puckered scar

Corneal opacities

Degeneration and atrophy of tissue due to

Direct Cellular damage

Vascular obliteration leads to Ischemia infarct which leads to Infarct

Degeneration and atrophy of neuronal cells

Premature degeneration and senility

Neoplasia

In addition to these miasms, some circumstantial factors may also tend to produce or maintain or to aggravate the disease, especially the chronic ones. The question of susceptible constitutions (diathesis) and miasms is of great importance in chronic cases.

This study will help in understanding which are the common clinical presentations to look out for in a case of allergy. It also helps understand the disease process with respect to its evolution in a person and how miasm plays a role in the process and the clinical symptoms.

[Ira Cantor]

‡ Folgendes hat anthroposofische Einschlüße ‡

The threefold nature

1. of the neurosensory system as the basis for perception, the forming of ideas and coping with stimuli

2. the system of limbs and metabolism as the basis for exerting the will and the metabolic function are in opposition. The astral body and I organization enter deeply into limbs and metabolism, withdrawing away from conscious awareness, as it were. In the neurosensory system, they are essentially acting freely.

3. The rhythmic organization (heart and respiration) as the vehicle for the emotional life acts as a mediator between the opposites.

An atopic constitution exists when the neurosensory system is overstressed or hyperactive with a relative weakness of the system of limbs and metabolism.

In many schools of natural medicine atopic conditions are considered to be due to metabolic weakness and treatment is via the metabolism. This would explain why these conditions are mainly seen in people who do mental work. (in Switzerland the incidence of hayfever is 1% among rural workers and 20% among intellectuals).

General dietary advice: a balanced wholefood diet with little animal protein. Milk products only when tolerated. Sugar consumption is reduced, and synthetic food additives (preservatives/colorants etc.

are best avoided). A reduction in sensory stimulation is favorable and important for the above reasons (TV./videos/cassettes/computer/electronic games), with children encouraged in creative play (as in Waldorf education). Art work/art therapies/eurythmy therapy strengthen the rhythmic organization and help create a better balance between neurosensory system and system of limbs and metabolism.

Neurodermatitis in children is generally treated without corticosteroids. Ointments with various plant extracts [Equisetum 10% oily extract/Dulc./Lysi. (Dermatodoron Ungt.)]. Oral medication serves to strengthen metabolism (Cich./Gent-l./Taraxacum stanno cult.) or counteract the chronic inflammatory process in the skin (Quartz/Thuj.).

Sometimes Bryophyllum 50% trit. or Urtica dioica ferro cults w . Elimination diets for a week or two followed by exhibition to specific foods can assist in formulating an individual diet plan if the history suggests food allergy.

Calcium quercus = Quercus e cortice cum Calcio carbonico wa

Enthält: Quercus robur/petraea e cortice cum Calcio carbonico

Leitgedanke: Calcium Quercus ist ein Präparat aus gerbstoffreichem Eichen-rindenauszug und kalziumreicher Eichenrindenasche. Es verstärkt die grenz-

bildende Wirkung der Ich-Organisation im Blut und im Stoffwechsel-Glied-maßensystem und begrenzt dadurch Übererregungszustände der Empfindungsorganisation in der Peripherie.

Akut-allergische, exkudative Reaktionen an Haut und Schleimhaut: Akut exazerbierender, v.a. nässender Neurodermitis.

Akut allergischen Reaktionen, z.B. bei Allergenkontakt, Insektenstichen,

Medikamentenunverträglichkeit: Urtikaria, Quincke-Ödem.

Akuten allergischen Kontaktekzemen.

Beginnendem Stevens-Johnson-Syndrom.

Allergische bronchiale Hyperreagibilität, Asthma bronchiale

Ängste (lähmend/während der Geburt), Schwäche, Zittrigkeit

Bemerkungen: Hilft vor allem bei fülligen und zur exsudativen Konstitution neigenden Frauen.

DD.: Bei mager-nervös ängstlichen, häufig dunkelhaarigen Patientinnen kommt alternativ Ars.

Restless-Legs-Syndrom

DD.: Rhus-t. Zinc-v.

Asthma: may involve life-threatening episodes. The domain of conventional medicine.

Longterm treatment. Evaluation is distinctly less good with symptomatic treatment using beta2-agonists and corticosteroids. Sodium cromoglycate derived from Amm-v. Clinical use of the potential offered by anthroposophical medicine has, in our experience, given considerable improvement, making it possible to discontinue both corticosteroids and beta2-agonists. It was interesting to note that some patients did better on purely anthroposophical treatment than with conventional treatment.

Home-made oak bark tea in the mornings, Vero-o. (= speedwell) tea at night as basic medication (tannins and bitters as active principles). Cupr-acet. D 4 and Tab. D 6 orally (by obstruction). Other possibilities are Levico (D 3 ampules), Gencydo® (0.1 - 7% ampules) and Quartz D 20 inhalation, chest packs (lavender oil, lemon, ginger or mustard) depending on the psychic constitution, warmth metabolism and individual tolerance.

Art therapy and educational psychotherapeutic guidance help the child to harmonize the breathing process by influencing the life of feeling. Objective monitoring of evolution is by means of peak flow determinations.

Childhood:

hayfever: Gencydo® (eye drops/nose drops)/tannins/bitters/quartz.

Cystic fibrosis: to strengthen the lung organization and counteract the slowly progressive fibrosis, which is a form of premature involution. Prun. Ferr-met. Phos. Marked improvement in quality of life and survival are seen with conventional treatment (antibiotics, enzyme substitution/physiotherapy). Warning explicitly against treating manifest pneumonia in cystic fibrosis patients with natural medicine only, without antibiotics.

Endocrinology: Rosemary baths are given in cases of diabetes mellitus; oral medication may include bitters (Abs.) and Phos. (D 6), to strengthen an I organization that is not sufficiently controlling sugar metabolism.

Neonatology: A valuable addition that infants evidently find agreeable is gentle, whole-body massage with a mixture of almond oil, a drop of rose oil, Blackthorn Flower Skin Oil wa or Wild Rose Oil w. Child with birth trauma is given Arn. (D 6) by mouth, and in case of infections adjuvant Arg-met. D 30/Echi. D 6 and Carb-v. D 30.

Oncology: Visc.

It has been found that one cannot, as a rule, do without surgical interventions, chemotherapy and radiotherapy that are likely to be effective. Anthroposophical medicine does, however, represent a definite addition to the armamentarium. The aim of using it in adjuvant and follow-up treatment is to reduce the tendency to tumor development in the organism, support affected organ functions, and reduce the often severe side effects of conventional treatment. It is evident that children are subjectively better with this kind of adjuvant treatment, showing better tolerance of a course of chemotherapy (comparison made also in the same patient), and that appetite, autonomic rhythms and powers of resistance show a more rapid return to normal. In some cases (brain tumor) where no further conventional treatment is available, purely anthroposophical treatment has resulted in remarkable remissions.

Sleep disorders (with no appreciable organic cause)

These are not infrequent in infants and young children, and can be a major challenge to parents and pediatrician. A child lives wholly in his environment with soul and spirit, sharing in the soul quality of the environment. In anthroposophically-extended pediatrics we therefore consider it most important to include this environment in looking for the causes.

The body is regenerated in sleep. The powers of conscious awareness, which are active during waking hours, have a destructive effect, and this causes tiredness. Young children need more sleep than adults because they use up more of their constructive powers in growth. We see a greater incidence of sleep disorders when young children are exposed to too many stimuli (travel/movies/media) or a tense atmosphere (parental strife) or have too much attention focused on them. The mother's intense feeling that the child ought to be asleep will prevent sleep just as adults who have problems going to sleep must not try to force it but "let go".

Night-time rituals that make a child dependent on its parents can also contribute to sleeping-through problems (giving a bottle/a dummy/always letting the child go to sleep at the breast/taking him from his cot and carrying him about for long periods). If we see sleep as a condition in which the child returns to the world of the spirit where he had been before he was form, we can create a special mood before the child goes to sleep to mark the transition (saying a night-time prayer by candle light/singing a song/older child a story).

In many cases, treatment consiSTed mainly in creating more distance between parents and child, helping parents to feel confident that the child can go to sleep on his own, to show oneself when he cries at night, comfort him, give a brief caress but not take him out of his cot. Medication may give support but should not be the only solution to the problem.

Avena sativa comp. dil. w, Avena comp. (Wala) and Bryophyllum 50% (trit.) Bryophyllum argento cult. w.

Enuresis nocturna

After exclusion of purely organic causes or the delayed maturation which is hereditary in some families, emotional causes of bedwetting have to be considered. R.S.: symptom of childhood hysteria, a form of emotional hypersensitivity that leads to anxieties and depressive moods. R.S. suggested Hyper. D2 and Hypericum oil (25% Oleum) applied to the bladder region and thighs. This herbal antidepressant was known long before imipramine hydrochloride was introduced as a conventional antidepressant for the treatment of enuresis.

Apart from working through any conflicts that may exist between the parents or with parents and child, in family therapy and simple behavioral measures such as waking the child at night to go to the toilet and morning rituals such as painting a sun if he has been dry and rain if wet, offering a small reward if there are a sufficient number of suns, eurythmy therapy proves successful in many cases. ‡

‡ Allergies arise because foreign processes are not properly perceived. Food allergies often in conjunction with intestinal mycosis. The intolerance often only shows itself with a careful elimination and re-exposition diet. The human being is not able to register the foreign nature of the food nor the foreign fungal flora.

Cand.: allergic to milk protein, hen's egg white, almond and soya tend to attract Cand. rather than other yeasts. These are often people with an overweening immoderate metabolism/more inclined towards hysterical disorders.

Aspergillus: People in whose stools Aspergillus is been detected will often show a neurasthenic wyw component and have cereal grain allergies. ‡

[Philip Incao]

Q. Having just been through a severe allergic reaction (hives covering my body) I would very much be interested in an article on allergies from a spiritual scientific viewpoint. Why do apparent runaway histamine reactions occur?

A: Your question is a wonderful opportunity to compare two different approaches to seeking answers to nature's puzzles.

Today mainstream science uses the reductionist approach. Reductionism seeks to explain a puzzling phenomenon such as allergic hives by reducing it to its smaller active parts, much as you would explain how a T.V. set works by taking it apart and examining what the essential parts do and how they work together. Reductionism has led us to discover histamine, a chemical substance in our body which causes hives, swellings and asthma when injected into mice. Thus, from the reductionistic viewpoint the cause of allergies is the making of too much histamine by the body. Apparently this solution to the allergy puzzle doesn't entirely satisfy you, even though you may appreciate feeling less itchy after taking an anti-histamine pill. "But why did my body produce excess histamine?" you ask. Most of us doctors don't like such questions. We would prefer that you gratefully accept your antihistamine prescription and go quietly.

This column, however, encourages and applauds bold questions. We go by Einstein's wonderful maxim: "the important thing is not to stop questioning." Rudolf Steiner even asserted that if we have the will to pursue a thought to its ultimate conclusion, through unbiased and logical questioning, we are led to a spiritual scientific outlook. Such an outlook always seems to call for greater moral responsibility on our part, which is probably why most people do not pursue thoughts to their ultimate conclusions. If it means I have to change myself, then maybe I'll just take that antihistamine pill after all.

Spiritual science takes a phenomenological approach in seeking answers to nature's riddles, but we also entirely validate the reductionistic approach which has led to the discovery of lifesaving medicines like the adrenal hormones adrenalin (epinephrine) and cortisol (usually prescribed as prednisone) for the treatment of allergic reactions.

Phenomenology bids us take the phenomena at face value. In Goethe's words, "Do not ... look for anything behind phenomena. They are themselves their own lesson." Thus the investigator begins by looking, long and hard, and with marvel and wonder, at the allergic phenomena: the swelling, sneezing, itching, the hives, the watery eyes and nose of the allergic subject. We carefully observe the phenomena in great detail, but also we immerse ourselves in them and experience these symptoms as if they were part of us. This wondering observation and immersion repeated persistently and with loving interest, can lead to special insight. We learn to intuitively "read" the phenomena, in this case, the allergic symptoms. This process should be quite simple, natural and un-selfconscious. Many mothers in my practice are good phenomenological investigators of their childrens' illnesses. Through their loving interest and keen observation they can often read correctly what is happening in their children.

If you had to choose one phrase that best describes your recent acute allergic reaction, my guess is it would be something like "maddening irritation" or “itching both inside and out" or "jumping out of my skin." It seems fairly self- evident that with allergies we are dealing with something foreign, like cat dander or pollens or peanuts, that irritates us severely. But why does the exposure of the human being to cat dander result in allergic symptoms only in some people and not in others? How can we use our rational imagination to live into and understand the separate realities of the allergic person with itchy, watery eyes and nose and the totally unaffected non-allergic person as they encounter the same cloud of pollen? Pursuing both questions with a fundamental attitude of wonder and respect for the phenomena we are observing might lead us to some simple general truths.

We human beings are placed within a natural environment which supports us with its warmth, air, water and food and which also threatens us with elements, plants and animals which may be harmful or poisonous to us. Anything in the environment that comes into our body through eating, inhaling or through our skin can either support us or stress us, depending on what it is and how much of it there is. The warmth of the sun can sustain us and also kill us if it is too extreme. Each individual has their own particular limits of tolerance, their own individual coping ability, for each of the many stressors in our environment.

From this viewpoint, an allergic reaction is what happens in our body when we encounter an outer stress which exceeds our capacity to process it, to digest it and to neutralize it. We can say that episodes of indigestion, vomiting or diarrhea, coughing, sneezing and hives are all different ways that our body is saying it is not able to easily adapt to the outer foreign presence which has come into us. Our coping forces are stretched beyond their normal limits and the body in its wisdom calls upon its reserve forces. When our reserve forces become active, then we may experience hives, or the other symptoms mentioned above.

If we examine these symptoms, we might discover that they represent various ways that our body tries to digest, destroy and expel the foreign presence that is stressing us. It takes considerable focused energy to process stress in this way. Being healthy today is in large part determined by how well we develop the skills and capacities to maintain ourselves against the various stressors from our environment that would tip us off balance. We can talk about these skills and capacities in future columns, if our readers are interested.

You didn't say what kind of exposure might have triggered your hives. In some cases there is no obvious exposure to anything.

Our environment comes into us in the food we eat and the air we breathe, and this environment is alive. But God designed our body to house only one living individual (us!) and not any of the other various life forms in our environment. Foreign life is poisonous to us, with the exception of our symbiotic and commensal bacteria. Therefore our body digests and destroys any foreign life coming into it. Every bite of food is thoroughly destroyed deep in our interior by our digestive system. Foreign particles that enter into us through our breathing and skin are destroyed by our immune system. When this inner destruction proceeds normally, we have little or no perception of it. When the outer life which has entered into us proves difficult to destroy, either because it is too strong or there is too much of it or because our forces to destroy it are too weak, then our body must make a special effort and must intensify the destructive power of our digestive and/or immune systems. When this happens we notice it, we feel sick and have various symptoms of illness. This intense activity of our digestive and immune systems is what is usually called a detox reaction or a healing crisis.

An allergic reaction like hives is thus a kind of detox reaction, in which the cells of our immune system feverishly releasing histamine and chemicals called cytokines, (interferon, interleukin and others) which cause all the familiar symptoms of inflammation: swelling, redness, pain, fever. Rarely, in severe cases, a serious drop in blood pressure (shock), multiple organ failure and even death can result when there is a massive release of cytokines into our bloodstream. We usually think of our immune system as our defender against illness and death, but an acute overreacting immune system can kill us. In a very allergic, hypersensitive person an acute anaphylactic reaction upon exposure to peanuts or a bee sting can be fatal. A toxic person who develops Sepsis. or toxic shock syndrome can also die, in spite of antibiotics. In the past we considered deaths from sepsis to be caused by overwhelming bacterial infection. Now the evidence shows that these deaths are caused mainly by an over-reacting immune system pouring too many cytokines into our circulation! This fairly recent change in our mainstream medical understanding of severe "infection" has very far-reaching implications, but these have not yet filtered down to practicing doctors, nor to the general public. I look forward to the day when they do!

[Ira Cantor]

Digestion is a parallel process to inflammation. With an inflammatory process the organism confronts something foreign: a virus, bacteria, or splinter, and reacts, saying "Nothing foreign is allowed to come inside my special domain. I will remove the foreignness from whatever it is I am confronting, break it

down (digest it) and then find a way to assimilate it." Both processes, digestion and inflammation, can range from very subtle to gross. For example, as you read this article you will try to digest the thoughts, taking some and rejecting others. Eventually you might assimilate their essence; then they become a part

of who you are. This is an example of digestion on a subtle, spiritual/mental realm.

Probably the most material level of digestion is digestion itself, which comes in contact with a foreign substance—food. The mystery of the digestive tract

is that it is not really us—it is part of the outside world, as though invaginated in our center. An indigestible object could pass right through us from mouth to anus and never affect our organism at all.

The digestive tract is also filled with things that are not us, other organisms, yeasts, sometimes even parasites.

In a healthy state we live in symbiosis or balance between this inner foreignness and ourselves. In unhealthy states there is reaction, often producing clinical problems.

The purpose of our digestive tract is to meet food and to break it down until it attains a somewhat neutral quality. Certain foods must break down vastly more than others. It is most important to break down proteins and peptides, since incomplete transformation of these substances is often the basis of allergic reactions. Fats don't have to be broken down as much at all.

Next, these digested substances pass through the barrier of the intestinal wall into the blood stream, and a large proportion enters the liver via the portal vein. Much can go wrong along this whole process, and does go wrong because of the way we live. For example, everyone knows that antibiotics can cause diarrhea or have a disordering effect on our digestion. And we know everyone gets antibiotics, because they are contained in many foods. Other disordering aspects that can affect the digestion are stress and the speed of life.

The mystery of the digestive tract is that it is not really us—it is part of the outside world

The allergic diseases I see in my practice such as chronic inflammatory illnesses, childhood eczemas or dermatitis often have their root causes in something that is foreign to us. It has been documented that 30% of children with chronic severe dermatitis have food allergies. If we can find the food causing the reaction, the eczema clears up dramatically, although not many dermatologists work along that route. A food foreign to a child can cause an inflammatory reaction, which in turn affects intestinal permeability. Then the abnormal particle of food reaches the portal vein and, still as a foreign body, enters the blood stream, causing a reaction, which is exactly what the organism is meant to do. The external manifestation of this reaction, or attempt at expulsion, is eczema

or chronic dermatitis.

Many upper respiratory allergies are reactions to something within the digestive tract. If we can identify the food, we find that the nasal symptoms improve.

The way I understand the process of digestion anthroposophically is that when we first take food into our digestive system, there is an inflammatory process directed at the food, breaking it down, digesting it. This involves the higher members of the human being, specifically the ego and astral body. The organs such as pancreas and spleen are manifestations of these higher members at work. Beyond the intestinal wall ties the etheric, or upbuilding, inner realm. Many things can damage this intestinal barrier, starting with anti-inflammatory medicines.

Now the food enters the liver which has two main functions among its many tasks. One is continuing digestion not completed before, and the other is upbuilding processes. If there are too many substances that must be taken into the process we call detoxification (a kind of digestion, but basically still dealing with the foreign irritative nature of what was ingested), the liver is overtaxed. In fact, a great percentage of our body's energy and liver function goes towards detoxification. If we are constantly bombarded by toxic substances we experience fatigue, because the liver is forced to work at garbage removal rather than using its energy for the upbuilding process. Thus it is a kind of sensitive switch-point, connected with etheric upbuilding, energy producing processes.

A "liver problem" is often not that at all, but a bombardment from elsewhere, and at a certain point it can't do its work adequately. When I treat a patient that fits into a typical liver constitutional picture,

I have to look at the entire digestive system to see why the liver is stressed. Lab tests are often helpful. Frequently I will prescribe an elimination diet.

What I often tell my patients, though, is finding food allergens is just a first step. The goal is not just to avoid wheat or dairy for the rest of our lives, it is to find out what disorder we contain in our constitution. Once we investigate, we can begin to correct and heal abnormalities, and then people are again able to tolerate foods they could not deal with before.

[NaturalNews]

The Amish, it seems, place themselves at risk every day of their lives. They refuse to vaccinate their children, exposing themselves to disease. They drink raw cow's milk, exposing themselves to salmonella and Tuberkelbacillen. They even -and this is really disturbing- favor natural food, exposing themselves to tomatoes that contain cracks. Given these eccentric practices, isn't it inevitable that their communities become breeding grounds for allergies and asthma? Not according to Dr. Mark Holbreich, an allergist who has been treating Amish families in Indiana for over 20 years.

Holbreich was inspired to investigate the allergy rates among Amish children when he began researching the so-called 'farm effect' (the notion that children raised on farms demonstrate lower allergy and asthma rates than their urban counterparts) in central Europe. Keen to investigate whether the farm effect also manifested itself in the United States, Holbreich assembled a team of German researchers to compare farming and non-farming children in Switzerland with Amish children of Swiss descent in Indiana.

Altogether, Holbreich's team assessed the health of 157 Amish children, approximately 3.000 Swiss farming children, and almost 11.000 Swiss non-farming children between the ages of six and 12.

Holbreich found that a mere 5% of the Amish children were diagnosed with asthma, versus 6,8% of the Swiss farming children and 11.2% of the Swiss non-farming children. Moreover, only seven% of the Amish children tested positive for predispositions towards allergies, versus 25% of the Swiss farming children and a whopping 44% of the Swiss non-farming children.

While Holbreich did not investigate why children raised on farms were healthier than non-farming children, he has his suspicions:

"This [study] would suggest that if you have early life exposure [to allergens], then somehow it drives the immune system away from developing allergies," said Holbreich. "Large animals are part of it, and the straw bedding animals sleep on. [Also] what [the Amish children] eat and the fact that their mothers are in the barn when they are pregnant."

Holbreich's study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Natural lifestyle, natural health

Holbreich's study provides an interesting but somewhat predictable conclusion. The Amish lifestyle, while imperfect, does offer children one significant benefit that is denied to most non-Amish children: It forces them to live in the real world. From a very young age, Amish children are taught essential life skills such as gardening and farming, sewing and knitting, making natural remedies, carpentry, and construction. These skills, aside from ensuring their continued self-reliance and independence from the state, foster an environment that is conducive to superior health. The children are physically active, routinely exposed to dirt and grime, hardened by the elements, and shielded from allopathic poisons. These facts, coupled with their avoidance of vaccinations, explain why the Amish are putting many of us to shame in the health department.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.reuters.com

http://abcnews.go.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/027930_Amish_health.html

About the author:

Michael Ravensthorpe is an independent writer whose research interests include nutrition, alternative medicine, and bushcraft. He is the creator of the website, Spiritfoods, through which he promotes the world's healthiest foods.

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