World Health Organization celebrates ‘World Health Day’ April 7th every year

The World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates ‘World Health Day’ every April 7th to raise awareness on health, disease, and cure. I want to share awareness of health, disease, and cure, from a homeopathic point of view because the practice of Homeopathy is based on a philosophical approach to health, disease, and cure. This philosophy is what guides us in practice and the reason for homeopathy’s survival and popularity all around the world.

The following article is by Dr. Nancy Malik, a prolific writer about health, disease, and cure, from a homeopathic point of view. Quotes and references are from The Organon of Rational Art of Healing, the philosophical and practical guide for homeopathic practice.

World Health Day on 7th April

by Dr. Nancy Malik BHMS

INTRODUCTION

‘World Health Organisation celebrates 7th April every year as ‘World Health Day’ to raise awareness on health, disease, and cure. Let us review each of them.

HEALTH

Health is not just merely an absence of disease but a dynamic entity where a state of equilibrium keeps the constitution of an individual whole in harmony [1] . Constitution means a person’s state of health, including their temperament and any inherited and acquired characteristics. The genetic code genome is responsible for what’s going to constitute the makeup of a resulting individual.

Health is also defined as freedom from pain on the physical plane, confusion on the mental plane (mental clarity), and passion on the emotional plane (emotional calm) [2]. Signs of good health, apart from others, are mental clarity, emotional calm, and refreshing sleep.

DISEASE

The disease is a dynamic disposition in the harmony of constitution due to either non-maintenance of equilibrium or physio-chemical alteration of tissues. Symptoms are the language of a disease. The genetic code map is responsible for physical, mental, and emotional symptoms, which are a result of both functional disorders and structural changes in the body. Environment (stress, shock, traumas producing changes in glands) modifies the constitution.

Diseases that when untreated or maltreated, lead to chronic disease syndromes related to the natural progression of the disease or lead to an increase in susceptibility to other diseases when immunity is low.

CURE

The single purpose and highest ideal of medicine is the cure. The cure is “the rapid, gentle, and permanent restoration of health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way, based on easily comprehensible principles” [3]. Cure means the recovery of the state of stability of physiological norms [4].

The Physician’s high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed

— Samuel Hahnemann, Aphorism 1, Organon der Rationelien Heilkunden (Organon of Rational Art of Healing), 1819

If all biochemical reactions in the human body are balanced and not independent of each other, this balance is called homeostasis. The disturbance in the above balance is due to mal-synthesis, the introduction of protein in humans such as insect bites, bacterial toxins, toxins from killed bacteria after antibiotics, etc. Disturbed homeostasis impairs immunity and results in physical and mental symptoms.

The direction of cure was first mentioned [5] by Hippocrates. In the 49th of his aphorisms, he writes, “In a person suffering from angina pectoris the appearance of swelling and erythema on the chest is a good sign, for it shows that the disease is moving towards the circumference”. And in aphorism 26 of section 6, he writes, “If erysipelas moves from the outside to the inside, it is a bad sign, but if the opposite happens it is a good sign.”

The progress of cure in chronic diseases was mentioned [6] by Dr. Hahnemann where he stated that during the course of treatment the cure progresses from above (top of the body) downwards (head to chest to abdomen to legs), from within (inside of the body) outwards (exterior, often as skin eruptions), center to the periphery, from more important organ to less vital one (brain followed by heart, liver, kidney, and lungs followed by muscle and skin), in reverse order of coming of the symptoms (presenting symptoms disappear in the reverse order of their appearance i.e. first in last out, so old symptoms might resurface).

“The blood-brain barrier provides both anatomical and physiological protection for the central nervous system, strictly regulating the entry of many substances and bloodborne cells into the nervous tissue” [7]. This indicates how the body is designed to actively protect the systems that are most vital to survival.

MEDICINE

Albrecht von Haller had postulated as early as 1771 that the effect of a drug ought to be tested on healthy persons before it was given to the sick but it was Hahnemann who in 1790 first tested the effect of the drug (Cinchona) on healthy human beings [8] and published [9] the results in 1796.

The goal of the medicine is to stimulate the body’s defense system to assist itself to encourage its natural healing process and clear itself of any expressions of imbalance.

DIET AND HYGIENE

1792: Dr. Hahnemann advocated healthy accommodation for the sick, before anyone else

1795: He advocated improvements in public hygiene measures, before anyone else

1841: He had identified the need for healthy diet, including avoidance of excess use of sugar and salt, before anyone else.

POLL

Poll: Which system of medicine would you prefer to use?

CONCLUSION

A real and fundamental improvements in health care management with patient’s health in focus should be the central theme.

REFERENCES

[1] Nancy Malik, Basic Principles of Homeopathy Explained, Version 25. Science-based Homeopathy. 2016 Jan 6.

[2] George Vithoulkas. The Science of Homeopathy. The Three Levels of the Human Being: The Definition and Measure of Health. page. 40.

[3] Samuel Hahnemann. Organon da arte de curar. 6th edition. São Paulo: Robe; 1996.

[4] Vitalism and vital normativeness, Denise Scofano,Madel T Luz
Reference Link

[5] George Vithoulkas. Homeopathic Medicine for the new millennium

[6] Samuel Hahnemann. The Chronic Diseases: their nature and homoeopathic treatment, 1stedition, page 135, 1828

[7] Pachter JS, de Vries HE, Fabry Z, “The blood-brain barrier and its role in immune privilege in the central nervous system”, J Neuropathol Exp Neurol, 2003; 62(6): pp. 593–604

[8] B.K. Sarkar. History of Medicine with special reference to Homoeopathy, Sept. 1949, Essays on Homoeopathy, Hahnemann Publishing Company Pvt. Ltd, Calcutta, India, 1968. FULLTEXT
Reference Link

[9] Samuel Hahnemann, “Experiments concerning a new principle for the discovery of the healing forces of drug substances besides a short review of what is known so far”, Zeitschrift für Praktischen Medizin (Journal of Practical Medicine), Vol.1, Issue 1, 1796.