The Center for Disease Prevention & Reversal Blog

I don't write very often about homeopathy, mostly due to the misinformation regarding it and the difficulty in understanding the mechanism of action. I will attempt to make the mechanism of action understandable While highlighting a very interesting case.

This fall, a lovely grown woman presented in my office for an appointment after finding me on line and reading my blog. I noticed her head and hand trembled as she shook my hand.

Her chief complaints were painful urethral spasms. She had a long history of seizure disorders and had trembled for years. Her OB-GYN was pressing her for a sling procedure for her bladder and was recommending a hysterectomy.

Her history was significant for suppressed anger, psychological trauma and social phobia. Her seizure disorders had begun several decades prior after being placed in an institution for her "rage". Her parents placed her in an institution when they couldn't deal with her during a time it was still possible to "put away" just about any teen that was seen as a "behavior problem".

Over the years, she developed a life for herself, playing music, marrying and having children but her seizures never abated. She had been on seizure medications for "atypical" seizures as well as Pettit Mal. Her shaking had developed over the last several years as well as her painful urethral spasms.

She was socially phobic and aside from her family, did not socialize or like to go out.

She had a very sweet and pleasant nature and was very likable.

All of the above; the spastic nature of the complaints, the sweet disposition, the social avoidance all led me to the homeopathic remedy Cicuta Virosa.

I treated her with Cicuta and used my RITM SCENAR device on her in the office. The SCENAR device helped calm down the autonomic nervous system right away and by the time the treatment was over, her shaking had stopped.

At her two week follow up, no seizures, no urethral spasms. She had some pelvic discomfort and came in for another treatment.

At the next two week follow up, she had no pain, no spasms, no seizures, no shaking and felt great. We devised a plan to take her off her seizure medications and I sent her to Pilates for pelvic floor strengthening.

Her surgeries are no longer necessary and neither are her medications.

While it's difficult to fathom the mechanism of action in homeopathic remedies, imagine this: charcoal and diamonds are chemically identical, they are both made up of the element carbon. Man-made diamonds are produced by introducing hydrogen molecules to a carbon source (typically methane) and placed under extremely high pressure. The result is diamond, all carbon but impossible to produce without the addition of hydrogen.
While there is not any measurable hydrogen in the diamond, it is impossible to produce the diamond without the hydrogen in the mix. Thus, the hydrogen is imparting some structural information to the carbon molecule. This process is called epitaxy.

While homeopathic remedies in their higher potencies do not contain the chemical constituent for which they are named, they do contain vital information imparted from the active ingredients from the "mother tincture".

Many of my patients complain of having "no interest". While a small percentage of the population identify as "asexual", the majority of us do not and losing one's sex drive altogether can be disquieting. Sex drive often wanes as we age but it should not disappear completely.

There are physical and psychological reasons for a diminished sex drive and or response.
Among the physical contributors are chronic inflammation, not enough exercise, excessive exercise, prescriptions medications, poor dietary patterns, and fatigue. These contributing factors can all be easily reversed.

Low cholesterol can lead to a decrease in DHEA and sex hormones, especially testosterone as cholesterol is necessary for the production of stress and sex hormones. Chronic stress can also lead to low DHEA and sex hormones as stress utilizes all the precursor hormone (pregnanolone) made from cholesterol to produce the stress hormones. DHEA or pregnanolone supplementation can be helpful but so is turning off the stress response. Reflex biofeedback can do this almost immediately.

Psychological factors that contribute to diminished libido include anxiety, chronic stress, depression, guilt, grief and shock. While therapy is helpful and often necessary, it may not restore libido if the autonomic nervous system is stuck with high sympathetic (fight and flight) tone. Sometimes people find themselves not being able to "turn of" and reflex biofeedback is a very quick way of bringing up the parasympathetic (rest and relaxation) arm of the autonomic nervous system. Other treatments that work are acupuncture, homeopathy, breath work, yoga, meditation, massage and so on. I have found that the RITM SCENAR, a reflex biofeedback device, works the quickest and has the longest lasting results.

A combination of exercise, eating a non-inflammatory diet, adequate sleep and meditation can achieve the balance desired for a healthy libido and sexual response. Sexual response is two-fold and involves both arms of the autonomic system; the parasympathetic system controls the arousal phase and the sympathetic controls the orgasmic phase.

I recommend staying "active" as it helps with balancing the autonomic nervous system. Whether my patients are in a relationship or not, I might recommend equipment. Just like having special equipment in order to enhance one's experience cooking in the kitchen, or in a sport, equipment in the bedroom can enhance the experience whether one is alone or partnered in the endeavor. For incredibly engineered and designed equipment, I recommend shopping at Lelo.com. Lelo is a swedish company (how surprising) that takes its' products seriously and has some the best designed products on the market.

It seems that over the years, I see more and more children in my Chicago area office who have been placed on psychotropic (behavioral) medications such as antidepressants, anti-anxiety, stimulants, mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics for their ADD, ADHD and "mood disorders".

When I trained in pediatrics in the late eighties and early nineties, the percentage of children on these medications was small but over the years, the percentage has risen to an unbelievably high number.

Often, parents consult me about their child because the child isn't any better on drugs or they feel their child has lost much of their personality. In many cases, the drugs have sparked new problems that are just as bad or worse than the original ones that prompted the medications in the first place.

After a careful 2 hour interview and observation of the child, I often order a neurotransmitter metabolite test to see the ratio of stimulatory to inhibitory neurotransmitters.

I assess the diet, the household environmental issues and the family dynamics, occasionally requiring the interview of both parents.

It is far and few between that I need to keep children on psych meds to deal with ADD or ADHD. In fact, many patients fair better off the medications and on specific amino acids to help support identified neurotransmitters.

Altering the diet is often helpful as well. There can be specific foods such as gluten or additives such as MSG which alter brain chemistry in ways detrimental to the patient.

And, finally, the tools of Scenar and Homeopathy are amazing when trying to make shifts in the nervous system. Sometimes a minor shift away from sympathetic (fright and flight) dominance is all that is necessary to reduce the anxiety that is underlying the behavior problem.

For a review of trials using homeopathy for ADD and ADHD click on this link to read the article by Dana Ullman in the Huffington Post citing a few clinical trials.