Dealing With Cancer Through Homeopathy

INTRODUCTION:

Cancer has reached almost every household in today’s era of lack of exercise, healthy food habits, addictions, stress and moral famine. The overall treatment options available in the medical ‘market’ outside provide pain more than the relief. Various kinds of surgeries, radiations and newer chemotherapy drugs are posing threat to the ‘quality of life’ of an individual, in their own ways and methods. Apart from the treatment options, the patient is getting bogged down by the battery of investigations and imaging requisitions, often without assessing the case clinically. The pain of cancer has thus extended, from mere physical or emotional sphere, to moral and financial downfall. The patient is getting exhausted and emptied in all sense, and what s/he gets in return? Nothing but a different form of suffering. Is there anything that we as homeopaths can offer?

Most of the patients we meet at our clinics are already in an advanced stage of cancer, or have already undergone a couple of cycles of chemotherapy for the respective malignancy. They pose three significant questions to a homeopath:

1. Do you offer anything for cancer, and if yes, what is its scope?

2. Is it safe to take homeopathy simultaneously with chemotherapy? Won’t that affect the efficacy of either of them?

3. Can you prescribe anything on the preventive basis for the patient to avoid the recurrence or to the rest of the family?

We will try to discuss all such issues…

I have heard a lot of claims by the eminent homeopaths of my city to CURE the cancer, but I think let’s not cheat patients and homeopathy. I do not doubt the efficacy of homeopathy, but if we make such claims without statistically and objectively proving it, the medical faculty will obviously accuse us for mis-guiding the patients, in turn diluting the faith of the public towards our system.

Apart from its effect against the malignant growth, I have seen homeopathy doing wonders by -

1. Dealing with the mental trauma that the cancer diagnosis causes, with further depression and hopeless mental state.

2. Reducing the side-effects of chemotherapy, especially in cases of CINV (chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting).

3. Relieving the pains in the terminal cancer cases.

The shock and the aftermath:

It is very common to have a patient in a mental state of shock and its aftereffects after being diagnosed of a cancer. There is a strong sense of approaching death leading to a mixed feeling state of fear, despair, hopelessness and sadness. Within no time, you suddenly shift to a permanently unhealthy state never to return back to your original health. The strong feeling of ‘why me?’ haunts the patient day and night, leading to a sense of guilt within.

ARNICA is the best remedy for such a mental shock, and I have used it often to relieve the state of sudden blow, when the patient least expected the diagnosis. There is a strong sense of being good for nothing in such patient, with a morose and hopeless feeling along with great apathy.

An ARSENIC ALB patient will be in a state of anguish with marked restlessness with fear of approaching death. The restlessness gets aggravated at night keeping the patient awake. Oversensitive mind with great melancholy and despair of recovery. Gets irritated at trifles, especially over untidiness around.

A patient needing ACID PHOS would be sitting quiet, with unwillingness to talk or discuss his health status. There is a strong apathy and indifference with strong reluctance to answer the questions. Hopeless state with a dread of anticipated crisis or death. There is a weeping mood at least stimuli.

ACONITE will be called in if the patient is in agonizing frightful anxious state with strong sense of death. He screams with fear and is afraid to get out of the house. It is a situation of emergency due to the state of panic and terror. There is a strong nervous state with typical prediction of death.

I have also seen remedies like SEPIA and AURUM MET working excellent to lift the mood of the patient from the sad and indifferent state. I also use certain Bach flower remedies like Aspen, Rock Rose, Wild Rose, Gorse, White Chestnut, or Rescue Remedy to relieve the acute panic and hopelessness.

CHEMOTHERAPY INDUCED NAUSEA AND VOMITING:

Chemotherapy-induced nausea vomiting can negatively affect the quality of life, making it hard for the patient to function in a normal manner on daily chores, often making him to consider stopping the chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment cycles. Almost 50-60% of the patient experience severe nausea and vomiting and rank it as the most disturbing side effect of the cancer therapy.

Along with remedial measures, the patient should follow a pattern of small and frequent meals. A dry toast or crackers can relieve the nausea. One should drink plenty of fluids throughout the day and avoid eating spicy and oily stuff.

Among the top-rated remedies for CINV, I have used – IPECAC, ARSENIC ALB, VERATRUM ALBUM, RADIUM BROM and COLCHICUM.

In case of colchicum, I have often found patient craving for aerated drinks [pepsi or coke] and alcohol [which obviously should not be provided]. There is a strong nauseating feeling on slightest smell of food. Patient craves a specific food but when offered, the smell gives rise to nausea, preventing him to enjoy or relish that.

The RADIUM BROM patient shows a strong feeling of nausea that is better by eating, just like in case of SEPIA; while the patient who needs VERAT ALB would complain of a strong nauseating feeling that is triggered by starting to eat, along with marked prostration.

THE PAIN RELIEF:

I often get patients that are in advanced or terminal stages, referred for the pain relief, especially due to the bone metastases. There is a severe bone pain that is relieved by nothing in particular. No specific position can relieve the pain and it gives rise to intense physical restlessness.

I had used various remedies for this bone pain – including ARNICA, RUTA, EUPATORIUM and RHUS TOX; but the most significant relief has been achieved with the administration of SYMPHYTUM in a mother tincture form.

Conclusion:

Homeopathy has much to offer in cases of cancer, apart from treating the malignant growth. A patient or his family would often enquire about the role we as homeopaths can play in the overall treatment process; and we need to be clear within ourselves about our scope.

Don't you have any pain-killers in Homeopathy?

Acute pain is one of the leading ailment for which a patient presents as an emergency in a private practice. The pain can arise from multiple organs and locations ranging from ear, teeth, and head up to abdomen and spine. The type of pain also can be varied - from colic to neuralgias. In such situation of acute pain, patients always necessarily need a remedy that can give them immediate relief from the painful crisis. To obtain it, they usually opt for allopathic analgesics, but always with a caution since they are known to cause some adverse effects. This gives rise to a pertinent question from patients visiting homeopaths, "doctor, don't you have any pain-killers in homeopathy?"

The answer is yes, we do have. In this article, we will discuss the approach to select an appropriate remedy for acute pain.

Generally the acute painful situation is seen in patients suffering with some underlying chronic ailment that is characterized by acute exacerbations, such as sciatica, renal calculi, cholecystitis or cholelithiasis, angina, dental caries, chronic otitis media, migraine, prolapsed inter-vetebral disc, gout or pelvic inflammatory disease. Prescribing a suitable homeopathic remedy for these acute exacerbations is difficult unless we explore the individual symptomatology comprehensively. Homeopathic practice that rests on the philosophical platform of individualistic remedy selection does not allow a general remedy for all patients, even if they suffer with the same ailment. This is because each and every patient is unique in presentation of the ailment with respect to the cause, manifestations and conditions of aggravation or amelioration. A single remedy cannot cure everybody. Considering this, we usually face two kinds of situations in case of patients presenting with an acute pain.

1. Patient visiting your clinic for the first time - directly in an acute pain situation

In such patients, one needs to take a quick history comprising of the location, sensation, modalities and concomitants, if any. The advantage of this situation is easy to get the entire symptomatology, since the patient in pain is available in front of you, detailing all the symptoms as well as for the observations that are key indicators towards certain remedies. For example, a patient who needs chamomilla for acute pain often presents with uneven congestion on face with one cheek red & hot while the other pale. Belladonna patients often show marked congestion on face, earlobes and eyes. Since patient is in pain, we can ask the patient about various kinds of modalities. If patient has not observed them, you can ask him to check it by actually trying various postures or conditions.

2. Patient presenting with a chronic ailment that pose a risk of developing an acute exacerbation

In this case, the patient is not in pain, but poses a risk of acute pain, or might have experienced it in past. History taking in these patients should ascertain the dispositional features as well as an acute totality that is based on the presenting symptomatology recollected by the patient from his past experience. While we prescribe a deep-acting constitutional remedy, we can also give a set of corresponding acute remedies to keep in stock. By doing this, we can even manage acute pain situation on phone, by selecting an appropriate remedy from this stock, based on the situational manifestations.

Thus, although homeopathy bases its prescription on individual basis, it is not difficult to relieve a patient in an acute painful situation.