It´s moon o’clock – time to chime with the moon

Tags

Clever Homeopathy, cycle, full moon, Health, homeopathic remedy, Luna, moon, new moon, phases

 

 

It has been known since ancient times that nature has its own laws and rhythms. Most prevalent to us ‘modern’ people are undoubtedly the change of season and the turn from day to night, and night to day. Yet in the days of old, our ancestors abode to many more such laws of nature. They were knowledgeable of the wisdom within an array of most essential rhythms that governed their every doing. The application of these laws permitted them to optimize what was given and available, what they needed to grow and form to benefit their lives needs.

 

By observation, interpretation and inherited awareness our forefathers and foremothers learnt to apply natures laws to their cycles of planting and sowing seeds, to the growing and care of crops and life-stock, to the foraging and storing of food, to the maintenance of health and the resolution of sickness.

 

Nowadays science and technology are used to optimize such aspects of human existence. Yet nothing in nature is pure coincidence, nature had, has and will always have its own irrefutable laws that provide a clear rhythm and schedule for all processes that occur.

 

We ‘modern’ folk have lost much of the sensitivity for, and the ability to, interpret and apply these laws. One such rhythm of nature is the cycle of the moon. The way it exposes its face in the night sky impacts the tides, the weather, the growth on earthen soil, and all organic existence.

 

‘La Luna’ governs our emotions and schedules the female cycle.  She is not a source of light herself, only reflects the shine from the sun. She lightens darkness, and her shine has a veil of mysticism, a hue of secrecy, for us. In her shade grow plants of poisonous character, the deadly nightshades. Already in the altered exposure of the moon, to the rays of the sun, lie strong forces that have the power to build and grow, to heal and strengthen. Hence, if we step back and pay attention to the neglected, if not forgotten forces of the moon, we can learn and subsequently adapt our actions and direct our focus, to become harmoniously in tune with the rhythms of nature, to benefit from what these laws can give, promote and enhance.

 

 

The moon travels along her periodic path, recurring in the same rhythm, completing the same cycle over and over again. She steps in and out of the shade, from new moon to new moon, travelling her cycle over 28 days. During this journey she always shows the same side towards the earth, always stable on its own axis, never rotating.

 

 

The meaning of the moon phases

New moon/Full moon: The new moon, the time when the moon is exactly between the earth and the sun, marks the starting point of the moons repetitive cycle. At this position, the moon is dark in the sky. No light is reflected from its surface, as the earth-facing side is receiving no light from the sun.

 

At this point the moon begins its cycle. Over the course of the coming 14 nights the surface of the moon increasingly becomes visible from earth. Gradually more sun light reaches the moon and we perceive the moon becoming bigger and rounder. This phase of the moon cycle is described as the ‘waxing moon’. La Luna reaches the half-way mark of its cycle during the 14^th night. At this location, its earth-facing surface is fully enlightened by the suns light and we, on earth see the ‘full’ moon.

 

After the full moon, the enlightened area of the moon reduces. Over the coming 14 days, the moon is in its ‘waning’ phase. The dark area of the moon becomes bigger, the enlightened area smaller, until the moon becomes entirely dark again and the phenomenon of the new moon reoccurs. The moon-cycle has reached its end point which is also the starting point of a new cycle.

 

 

For all life on earth, for our human development and existence, this cycle plays a greater role than we now-a-days anticipate or acknowledge. As such there are energetic influences that impact us, our bodily functions and systems, and our doing.

 

 

 

 

At new moon: the body has the greatest capacity to detox. This is a time for cleansing, for chucking out the old and welcoming the new. For endeavors, ventures and quests this is the most positive starting point of the moon cycle.

 

The waxing moon: is the most beneficial time for regeneration, for recovery and recuperation. It is a time of uptake / intake, of soaring energy and of gaining strength and power.

 

The full moon: then is a time of impaired and slowed healing. Wounds bleed more at this time. On this day our emotions are most volatile.

 

The waning moon: is a time of release. It is a phase of increased activity, of greatest power.

 

 

In the old days, much attention was paid to the position of the moon as it provided the schedule for the sowing of seeds, for generating the best crops and growing the strongest plants. The cutting of trees is not recommended on days of a certain position of the moon, as the ‘wounds’ will not heal well and the tree loses much of its life-juice. Similarly, in human health care, surgery is not recommended on some days, in particular at the full moon, as there will be increased hemorrhage and bad wound healing.

 

Only infrequently, if at all, do we nowadays relate any occurrences or incidences to the phases of the moon. The moon hardly plays a role in our schedules, and our hectic lifestyle has no space for the finely tuned sensitivity needed to perceive, or the wisdom to recognize the subtle forces of our celestial luminary. We commonly register the immense impact, without relating it to the moon. Yet, paying attention to those seemingly imperceptible influencing factors, may permit living a more balanced and harmonious existence. Such fluctuations of the rhythms of nature can be very valuable and may have a truly positive and beneficial impact on many aspects of our life [1, 2].

 

 

There is a homeopathic remedy derived from the moons light, ‘Luna’. It is indicated, amongst others, for the following symptoms [3]:

 

Irritability. Sadness, depression. Headache. Weakness of eyes, feeling of sand in eye. Sensation of stinging, smarting in the eyes. Feeling of coldness in head. Bitter taste on the left side of the tongue and increased salivation. Soreness of throat. Sour eructation. Flatulency in stomach with burning. Abdominal colic. Feeling of faintness in stomach with distension. Profuse urination. Immediate desire to pass stool after flatus. Menses returns after two days, after cessation. Sharp pain on left side of vagina. Suffocation sensation around the heart. Rapid pulse. Severe pain in sacral region. Rheumatic pains in left shoulder. Tendency to oedema.

 

 

 

 

References:

[1] Lichtenfels von, L. (2016) Mondkalender 2017, Rottenburg: Kopp Verlag

[2] Paungger, J. & Poppe, T. (1993) Aus eigener Kraft, München: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag

[3] Clarke, J.H. (n.d) Luna, A dictionary of practical Materia Medica [online] available at: http://www.homeoint.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What is your worth?

Tags

charges, clients, clinic, costs, expenses, fees, homeopathy, income, prices

As a practitioner, providing a healthcare service, we homeopaths, like any other professional of a service discipline, have to set a price for our treatments. This sounds simple, but is it really? I would claim that this is a bit of a tricky issue, as there are many questions involved in choosing an appropriate price.
We seek to have a busy practice that will allow us to make a comfortable living! What do we need for this? Clients! How many, and how much must we earn from them?

Chances are that if we are too expensive, clients will stay away, and if we are too cheap, they will not even consider us as their therapists. So, what is too much, what is too little? How do we set our price? What are we worth?

We practitioners are facing a bit of a dilemma when it comes to our pricing schemes. We want to generate a clientele and believe our prices have to be low, to attract more people. Yet, this may suggest to potential clients that we are incompetent, because if we were competent we’d have more than enough clients and would definitely charge a higher price; our clients would surely be prepared to pay more in order to benefit from being treated by us.

So then, if we set a high price, what might clients make of that? Clients may argue that we are too expensive. But how can they judge, without having experienced our services? How can we estimate what a client is prepared to pay for our services?

It all comes down to evaluating what we are worth! So, how do we determine our value? Let’s break this down:

• We have to take a closer look at what we are offering and what we are, in the end, delivering. We have acquired a skill; have studied for many years to become experts in our field of practice. As such we are offering a therapeutic intervention within which we seek to alleviate patients from their presenting ailments. We will therefore provide an environment in which we analyse a patients’ state of health, and seek to determine a course of treatment.

Our studies were costly.The time we spend with our patient in the therapeutic space is quite extensive, compared to that of, for example, conv.med. practitioners, and despite the remedy being rather inexpensive, compared to conventional drugs, we usually provide this at no cost to the patient.

• In order to set up in practice we have expenses. We need to rent consultation space in order to open our own clinic. This may include the need of furniture, perhaps a client management program, case-taking tools, but also advertising material, informative leaflets etc..
• ‘External’ factors also influence the finding of a pricing scheme. Are we the only representative of our discipline on an ‘isolated island’? That would make us unique; hence that location is probably a raising factor of our value. But this is closely coupled to whether or not there is a demand for our services in that region or locality, and of course we must consider potential clients’ affordability of the services that we provide. Are clients able to pay for our service, what is the local income structure in the area?

• We must take into consideration what we must earn, in order to make a living. This is probably the most essential question! What must we have in order to survive? This determines how much effort we must make in order to acquire clients. Our standard of living, how much of it are we prepared to give up, or how much of it do we seek to gain, these aspects also affect what fees we can or must charge our patients.

If we are living in a locality that already has practitioners of your discipline established in practice, their fees and charges may be an indicator of a potential price range that we can use for our services. Yet, if we are the sole practitioner of our discipline on said island, this indicator is absent and we must consider the above mentioned aspects in calculating our ‘worth’. The mentioned aspects though, do not easily translate into monetary figures, and there are many variables remaining, making this calculation quite difficult. Our overall expenses (electricity, water, heating, taxes, insurances etc. of home, clinic, car…), living costs, the financial gain we seek to make, are all figures that need to flow into this calculation… That´s one for the mathematicians! For the rest of us, probably grateful for not living on an ‘isolated’ island, it’s a big thank you for fellow colleagues! Most of us can and probably do resort to taking another practitioners price margins as guidance values. Phew!

In the long run though, what will determine the number of clients we will have, and ultimately our income, is decided by the name that we make of ourselves. At the start, this question is difficult to incorporate as we have not yet been able to build a reputation, in the later course though, this does influence what we are worth to our paying clients. The quality of services we deliver, the competence we exude, and ultimately the success we have in providing a beneficial treatment to our clients, determine what we can charge for a consultation. The better we get, the greater the word of mouth, the lesser the marketing efforts we have to make, and the higher the income we are able to charge for our services.

So, what is your worth? Sometimes, for a client successfully relieved from a dilapidating state of health, the worth of his practitioner is beyond what money can pay; and in other times, the successfully treated patients gratitude and happiness over his recovery from illness, is of a value greater than what money can buy.

What ever our charge, we are worth the effort that we make, and if we make an effort, patients will treasure what we do.

“Because we are worth it!”

Tags

Boundaries, Discount, Friends, Homeopathic practice, Price, Quality, respect, therapeutic relationship

I came across an interesting article on the www the other day, and I wanted to make a point of this topic. It relates to homeopathic practice, and I recommend you read the article if you have the time!

Why friends don’t pay and clients can’t be “friends”

For free… really?

The article title already gives it away, one issue that we all, as practitioners, have or have had sometime in our career. I mean, how often have you given an advice or a recommendation for a prescription to a friend or acquaintance? Be honest! I confess, I did, frequently! I figured for a long time that sharing such ‘tiny tips’ would demonstrate to the other person my competence, my willingness to help, and would as a consequence potentially yield me with a future client. It never did! But, I was often told “Gosh, how can you give your gained knowledge and experience away like this, for free?”. Good question?

I have worked hard to acquire my knowledge, it was a costly time of study, why should I give my information away for free? Especially if there is no gain from it …There is a fundamental problem with this… Agreed?

Stingy is in!

In todays time, with the flooding of the market with cheap goods, and cheap copies of quality products, imported via the Asian economies, our society has changed. We have become ‘stingy’, … but did this pay off? OK, hands up, who has not fallen for the super duper bargain in the ‘cheap-deal’ shops or the ‘SALE’ stores? I have, but in all honesty, I never really made a bargain. Frequently the object purchased at such stores, had only a very narrow life-span, and was of a bad quality. In the end I paid more, to buy a new one, of a better quality. Am I the only one with this experience?… What has this taught us? That what is cheap, is often of a lesser quality, requires earlier replacement, and as a consequence costs us more. Coined to our homeopathic practice, giving advice for free or cheaply, reduces the perceived value and quality of what we do, subconsciously. People expect a lesser quality if the payment for a service is cheap or at no charge. The service we offer is not appreciated as much, and its value not recognized.

Why can we & must we charge our price?

Because we are worth it! Our education was costly, we practice continued professional development, we spend a lot of time in the therapeutic relationship with our patients, therefore our services can be paid for appropriately! But what about those small tips and recommendations to friends? Charge friends? I would say, keep the distance, don’t treat friends, and that for various reasons. This strategy is difficult to maintain, I know, I’ve been there! For the same reasons that clients cannot be our friends. There is a boundary issue! Friends know so much more about us than we should ever be inclined to share with our clients. This is not what you want in the therapeutic relationship! Patients come and see us for their health troubles, they want to share their pains, ills, vulnerabilities. We are the ‘healthy’ practitioner that can ‘handle’ their issues! We do not have these ‘weaknesses’, and if we do, they do not want to know about it! On the other hand, if friends do know, how does it fit in if they ask us, “why did this not work for you?”, or “Great advice, why are you not keeping to it?”. There is also less of a distance between us and our patient within which we, as the practitioner, can be empathic, unprejudiced and nonjudgmental!

To discount or not to discount

Even if it feels awkward to charge friends, we should do so if we cannot decline treating them. Yet, what about a discount? Friends may expect to be treated, at least, at a discount? And for other clients, should we not offer incentives, such as discounts, to attract new clients? From my experience with a different professional hat on, in the tourism industry, I would say: Do never give a discount! Have your pricing scheme and stick to it! Giving a discount makes people think you desperately need their money, and this changes the dynamic. People start disrespecting boundaries, because they think you need them and their money. Giving a discount signals that you want to keep the client, this equates for many, that you are ‘needing‘ them as client. It’s very simple: We are offering a service for which we should get paid our fixed prices. Full-stop!.

Keep it in the treatment room

Finally, what should we do when bumping into a patient on the school run, or at the grocers, and they start talking ‘case’? We gave this patient an appointment and they received their treatment, we got paid. We are not indebted to this patient… just because they paid once. Keep those boundaries! Tell them to call during working hours, or, if need be, to schedule an appointment… and… charge for it!; … maybe not if the question is minor, like “what time to best take the remedy” or another ‘generalized’ question, but certainly for questions that require you to get your notes and consult the books!

On another note

‘Boundaries’ is also why I am not too keen to be working in my home! That environment is not neutral. I have in the past found this to disturb the patient/practitioner dynamic. The patients see how I live, question things they may see, and ‘know’ things about my environment and consequently about me. At one time, before my homeopathic career, a person being round to the house had seen a foreign bank-note pinned to a board in the entrance. I had at the time received this for a friends currency collector son, from a far travelled friend. Not worth more than a few pennies… but the ‘talk across town‘, by the next morning, was that I must be rich as ****, because in my place the walls were ‘wallpapered’ with bank-notes. What shall I say… I’d like to avoid situations that potentially could arouse misunderstandings with patients, and definitely such misapprehensions that have nothing to do with my work!

I agree with the above mentioned article Why friends don’t pay and clients can’t be “friends” We are service providers! There is a distance, has to be a distance, between us and our clients! I know that in practice this is at times very difficult to exercise. Maintaining a distance while being in a therapeutic relationship is not easy, and boundaries can occasionally get blurred. Yet, cases need to be managed, and patients need to get managed! Successful management keeps us and our practice healthy! Mutual respect and boundaries are key elements, and the maintenance of a payment scheme, and sticking to it, can help build a clientele, and a striving homeopathic practice! It is our quality that attracts clients, not the discount! Stick to it!

Patient recovery or monetary revenue?

Tags

Allopathy, Conventional medicine, Healthcare, informed patient, monetary revenue, recovery, respect

It is not seldom that when hearing patient stories that I am told about their previous experiences within the realm of conventional medicine. Quite shockingly, these explanations frequently disclose a therapeutic relationship that makes me shudder. It seems that doctors and health care providers are increasingly focusing, not, on the aim of providing speedy patient recovery, but are seeking opportunities for the application of costly treatments and medicinal regimens. This is a somewhat worrisome development in orthodox healthcare. Where are we at if patient illness is viewed as a means of increasing monetary revenue, rather than a state of suffering that needs to be relieved? What are the consequences of such comportment? Must we as patients fear to receive unnecessary therapeutic procedures to create an income for a hospital or clinic? Are we guinea-pigs for regimens that ensure the greatest monetary support for an individual practice or an institution?

The following excerpts of patients experiential reports of the comportment of medical staff towards them in their care, have unveiled some disturbing conduct that clearly has not the patients well-being prioritized. These cases painfully highlight that something is not right in the healthcare sector.

1. During an incident at a hospital, an entire team surrounding a surgeon exerted immense pressure on the patient to immediately undergo an emergency surgery. When demanded an explanation of the situation at hand, its urgency and insistence, the surgeon denied the details requiring such emergency handling. He responded with the words: “No! I don´t have to! I will not tell you because you will not understand!”. Somewhat baffled at this exclamation, the interrogation was continued. Yet, the response always remained the same: “I will not, and must not, because you will not understand!”.

Following such irritation, the patient asked to view test results and exam data, but was denied these on the same account that they simply would not be understood. Only long discourse, arguing and true battling for access to exam images and laboratory print-outs, finally gave access to these, albeit only under severe protest. During this time, the heating in the room, where the patient was resting, was increased. The patient and his family began sweating and were increasingly becoming very uncomfortable. When asking for the temperature to be turned down, this request was briskly and quite harshly denied. It was even warned to keep all doors closed and to not permit ventilation. Nobody did quite understand this. A short while later a nurse came to take the patients temperature. This was now elevated by about half a degree as opposed to earlier measurements. Now, once again the entire team of doctor and medical personnel pressurized the patient with the insistence that he now was in an inflammatory, an emergency state (due to the elevated body temperature) and would now have to undergo surgery imminently. Ehh? What? What bogus behaviour from persons that stand in the service of patients and their health care! They turned up the heating to increase the body temperature such that this would suggest an inflammation, so that they would get their way of conducting a surgical intervention??

The situation was resolved by the family’s decision to leave this hospital immediately. The surgeon pretended to be in utter shock and questioned how one could possibly dare to take such an irresponsible step. Once the decision was made, the entire team, doctor, nurses and carers, stopped assisting or tending to the patient. Nobody was there for the patient in his acute state anymore.

The patients’ family took him out of this hospital, and straight into the next hospital, where the doctor at the emergency room frowned: “We know that doctor, he likes to do surgeries”. The patient eventually got sent home with some painkillers (!). Surgery was declared as not imminently essential, but could potentially be considered in the event of a recurrence of symptoms, which may or may not happen.

Was patient health, in this case, really the prime focus of doctors doing, or were there economic factors dictating behaviour? Remember that patient healthcare, is to be paramount to conventional practitioners, and they swear to honour it in their Hippocratic Oath?! How on earth could a practitioner not disclose patient data, test results, exam images, and exert pressure to convince a patient to undergo surgery?

2. Another patient shared the following story, which permits a similar trail of questions. This patient had been admitted to hospital. The one doctor visiting in the morning interpreted the patient data as such that he found surgery to be absolutely unavoidable. He scheduled the surgery for the following day. The visiting doctor in the evening stressed that the patient was improving and surgery was absolutely not necessary. How can a patient make an informed decision from such statements? Which doctor can be believed; whose statement is correct? How can a patient decide for himself, what the best healthcare decision is in his state, if one doctor says we do surgery now and the other says no way?

There is a discrepancy here!

3. The following case emphasizes why one must always be critical! A patient, a middle aged man, slightly corpulent, but not excessively overweight, sought help from a cardiologist for symptoms of angina pectoris. The doctor, an internationally known expert in the field of cardiology, looked at the patient, told him that he was too fat, prescribed Statins and concluded with the words: “If you do not take these you will die!”. The patient objected, as he did not quite understand why he should be taking Statins, as there were no clinical indications of them being necessary. Test results had shown no arterial deposits or elevated cholesterol levels. Somewhat shocked by the ‘impending death unless…’, the patient stated that he was also concerned about the potential side-effects of Statins. The cardiologist belittled the patients concerns, stating that the patient should not believe the media reports on such adverse-effects. He insisted that the efficacy of Statins was long proven, and that the patient could safely trust his prescription.

Ehhh? How safe is a prescription when there is no true indication for it? And have not just recently Statins been slammed for their adverse effects and not so beneficial impacts? What has the employment of fear to do with ethical comportment? Has it become a tool in the medical industry? It appears that monetary factors are increasingly becoming the prime importance over patient healthcare, and the fight for patients is evolving to somewhat of a dirty business. This is indecent and irresponsible, and reflects the attempt to make the patient submissive to the will of an industry!

But, what is happening out there? The doctors are the helpers in need, the sick patients hope for recovery, and here they are exerting pressure, keeping information from the patient, and threatening him or her with death if their will is not complied with.

Sadly, doctors are still frequently seen as ‘Gods in white’, and their recommendations and suggestions are all too often accepted as best of choices, and most competently made decisions. Hardly ever are doctors orders questioned or analyzed for their appropriateness. Most patients rely on, and trust what their general practitioner says. Most believe that their doctor knows best, mainly because they themselves are not knowledgeable in the specific field. Therefore, they trust the assumed competence and integrity of the medical professional to make the best choices for them, and to suggest the most appropriate treatment protocol. But, the above cases have illustrated that the patient must not be submissive to doctors orders unless they are convinced of what has been suggested as best for their cure and well-being. It is necessary for patients to critically question what their Conv.med. Practitioner recommends!

The above mentioned examples are hopefully only isolated cases of prejudice in the patient / orthodox practitioner interaction! But, they are scary descriptions of ‘how-not-to’ comportment in the so-called trusted union of patient and medic.

I have huge respect for the work that allopathic doctors are conducting. They have much responsibility resting on their shoulders when patients are placed into their care. But, as a patient, I wish to be respected, be informed, listened to, and treated by the best possible therapeutic regimen that has the greatest potential to reinstate my health in the fastest and least invasive way! I do not wish to be rendered ‘under-age’, minor, or deprived of the ability to maintain responsibility for my own healthcare, of making my own informed decisions.

I very much hope that the above incidents are only extreme snippets and do not represent a trend in the medical industry. Albeit the fact that money has become a primary factor in healthcare I do hope the Hippocratic Oath does not lose its premise and remains a commitment to the representatives of the medical profession. It is a question of integrity and respect, to act responsibly for someone ill and vulnerable, who has entrusted his recovery and healthcare to someone competent in his stead.

This should not be forgotten!

The importance of being an informed patient

Tags

data, Doctor, general practitioner, informed choice, informed patient, knowledgeable, package insert

When seeing a healthcare provider most of us are assuming a position that appears somewhat inferior to that of the doctor or general practitioner. This is somewhat natural as we are usually seeking assistance from these professions because we have fallen ill and are as a consequence not feeling strong, vitalized, but weak and vulnerable.

We are, by seeking help from another usually not knowledgeable in the field of their practice, and may therefore feel unable to make decisions on the matter at hand that are in our best interest considering our presenting state. Thus we are seeking the experts educated and speciality informed skill to aid in our relief. This too is natural. But should we therefore blindly trust anothers’ decision-making, should we assume a passive role and wholly hand the responsibility for our recovery to the skilled healthcare professional?

NO!

We cannot, should not, and must not, rely on others to take the correct actions and make the appropriate decisions on our behalf! We must master our own healthcare and must be knowledgeable of all issues pertaining to it, from cause to cure, via intervention, treatment and medication. At all stages must we be informed of what is presenting, what may have caused it, what can be done, what is necessary, useful, and effective in our recovery, what promotes our health, with the least possible of negative impact…

By the above statement though, it appears like we, as patients, should be educated in depth on all issues of illness, disease and healthcare that we could possibly ever be inflicted by. But that is not what it is meant to say! It simply means that we have to be attentive, to our own state of being, but also to what the doctor or general practitioner suggests, intends and does.

It means that we have to be curious. We have to investigate and demand to be correctly informed. We should never, not dare to ask what the GP means if he uses vocabulary that we do not know! Every health practitioner and healthcare provider is doing a customer service; he or she is there for us, the patient, thus we can and must ask about what we don´t know, but what pertains to our case. He or she must provide an appropriate and correct answer, or, where he or she is not capable of delivering such information, he or she must recommend another appropriate source we can resort to for finding the answer.

The above statement also means that we as patients have to be observant! To be watchful, means to be sensitive and aware of what happens, when it happens and how it happens, what changes, what improves and what aggravates. These, sometimes very subtle details can be decisive indicators for a GP to base treatment plans and procedures on.

The below embedded video shows, in a humorous, yet sincere way, how important it is to be an informed patient!

Own your body’s data:

(Source origin: https://www.ted.com/talks/talithia_williams_own_your_body_s_data)

(Found at: http://alternativendhealth.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/who-is-responsible-for-your-healthcare/)

What should we, as patients, know and share when in need of seeing a healthcare provider?

– We should be able to give information relevant to the condition we are presenting with, how we are feeling different now to before we got sick. We should be able to describe the symptoms that we are expressing in some detail.

– We should know our own medical history, surgeries we have had, vaccinations we have received, allergies that have been identified and of course what medications we are currently taking (prescription and non-prescription drugs, as well as supplements). We should know of adverse effects that we have experienced while taking medication, and should always mention suspected side-effects.

– We should know details of the main family medical history. What conditions have close relatives had (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer etc)…

– Treatments, by other healthcare providers should be mentioned, in order to avoid adverse interactions of therapies and medication.

To be an informed patient aids in the provision of the best possible treatment for the presenting condition!

What can we do to become best informed, and to take on the responsibility for our health?

– We must inform ourselves, become informed and be informed… and if in any doubt… we must get a second opinion…

Inform ourselves: Scout the internet for information on our condition, the possible treatments and therapies. But be aware that not all sources of information on the web are credible sources. Seek to search verified sources and double check information obtained. A recommended treatment for acid reflux of a friend, prescribed by a GP, upon research on the www, brought to light that the drug had never been trialed scientifically, and in fact contained an industrial substance that was wholly inadequate for ingestion! Sadly, this drug had obviously passed clearance by the medical and pharmaceutical boards.

Become informed: Ask our healthcare provider and the pharmacist about treatments and medications we are asked to take. A relative was prescribed a drug albeit having informed the practitioner of a secondary condition that with the administration of said prescribed drug could have caused a severe complication with potential lethal consequence. The pharmacist noticed this. The patient had believed the doctor to pay attention to his case-history and consider this in his prescribing. He had not!

Be informed: Read the package insert and ask doctors, pharmacists or medical personnel about interactions with other drugs we are taking, allergies we have or adverse reactions we fear we may get. Also, be aware that the potential interaction of medications, may require other drugs we are taking to be increased or reduced. The last line of the small print package insert of a medication prescribed for a patient,  described a contra-indication, a serious adverse reaction, if a patient had previously been taking another certain type of drug. This patient had not read the insert, and needed to be hospitalized due to the effects from this prescription.

It is equally important to be aware that changes in daily routine, working schedules, diet and even relocation to another place may impact on the medication we may need. A friend, following a heart attack had relocated from cooler climes to a region of warmer climate. Still on the same medication as in the hometown he began having severe complications and increasingly felt seriously ill. It turned out that the medication for his heart was inadequate for the warmer climate. His hometown GP had not been aware of this, a local cardiologist changed the medication and stressed that a few weeks later, still on that same medication, the patient would  have been at risk of suffering another heart attack or a stroke. The medication had not been working properly and had in the different temperature, a critical ancillary effect to the intended one.

Get a second opinion and always take someone along!

A second opinion frequently opens doors to other treatment options and offers one more environment to ask questions and receive information on our condition and possible treatments.

Four ears hear more than two and, four eyes see more than two! As a vulnerable patient, being anxious, feeling unwell, we may overhear, forget to mention or ask something. Therefore, taking someone with us may be helpful in getting the best out of a consultation.

It is crucial to always be aware and critical when handling our own healthcare! We wish to get the best possible treatment and there is a lot we can do to assure that we indeed get it! Therefore it is very important to be an informed patient!

The implausibility of the Vital Force in the existent medical paradigm

Tags

dynamis, Hahnemann, Health, life energy, paradigm, scientificity, Vital force, vital principle

 

“Science has brought great advancements, yet all research has not brought us one step closer, in the question of the origin of life” – Prof. Rouviere, as quoted in Kent (page 89 – (1))

For homeopathy and many of the traditional and alternative health practices (2, 3) it is accepted without question, that for a material organism to come to life it needs an elemental principle that permeates and enlivenes the organism (1).

Hahnemann terms this anima or archeus, dynamis or vital force. This life-giving principle he describes as the source of all functional ability of the organism. Without it no physical action, emotional expression or perception, not even sustenance of life is possible (Aph.10 – (4)).

Therefore, according to Hahnemann, if man is ill, it is the omnipresent spirit-like vital force in the body that is ailing. Such inharmonious state, causes the adverse perception that is known as disease (Aph.10.11 – (4)).

Kent (1) interprets these statements of Hahnemann, stressing that it is the subjective and objective symptoms thanks to which it is possible to recognize a state of illness. Disease is the disruption of order, a disequilibrium in the functions of the organism. Therefore, a state of illness, much like one of health, spreads to the entire organism by way of the immaterial life – principle (1). Disease is thus a disturbance of the Vital Force (1, 3).

Conventional medicine understands illness and disease as “pathological cellular biochemistry” (page 2 – (6)); caused by influences produced by the infliction with bacteria, viruses or an inert hereditary dysfunction(5, 6). Therefore, an illness is to allopathic medicine, a material emergence, an alteration of body tissue and fluid. Furthermore, conventional medicine insists on healing being a consequence of drug intake. In homeopathy and other alternative and traditional therapies, healing occurs by the “reactive and curative power of the organism” (page 41 – (3)), of the inherent vital force, that in its progression leads to recovery (2).

The Vital Force does not belong to the belief-system of Science (5). Conventional medicine boasts with seemingly strictest scientificity, and the principle of scientificity insists that cases of sickness, their medicines and all issues pertaining to healing and treatment have to be testable according to the framework of research, that is strictly compliant with the principles of Science. Only if such investigation, according to this predominant paradigm, identifies a causal influence creating disease, and proposes an effective curative, is a therapeutic approach considered a scientifically acceptable treatment (5).

Within this pledge lies the crux to the acceptance and acknowledgement of the homeopathic treatment approach. According to conventional medicine “the Vital Force is not ascertainable” (page 3 – (6)) and thus homeopathy is denied scientificity. The Vital Force as causal principle is not measurable within the current conventional means of research, thus homeopathy is non-compliant with the structures of the existent paradigm and is termed as unscientific and is as such rejected (5, 6).

Yet, life itself, the origin of it, has not been made perceptible despite the vast methods of investigation that are available today (5). What research has and is documenting, are merely the life-concomitant chemical and physical processes and changes, but not life itself. It is difficult to accept and acknowledge that an immensely complicated and complex structure as the human organism, with its expansive number of cells, molecules, atoms, and theirmanifold interactions, does not involve a system or higher order that has constructed this material complex. A coincidential accumulation of this intelligent construction is hardly plausible (5). Therefore there must, behind this complex material organism, lie an entire energetic sphere of unimaginable complication, that has created, is maintaining and operating this material structure (5).

The human being has no sensory organ that can surpass the material, and is able to reach into the energetic sphere. Yet, taking into consideration that energies exist, magnetism, or gravitation, for example, that are not palpable, or perceivable by the human senses, emphasizes and supports the existence of such a sphere (5). As such, the actual cause of health and disease lies in this realm that has not been investigated and is yet unknown to us (5). Therefore, what instigates life in the material body, the source of all life-cycles of the human being, has yet to be determined (5). For homeopathy, and many traditional and alternative practices, the spark of life is ignited by an energetic principle; for homeopathy this is the Vital Force (2).

Science has led to extensive advancement where material events are concerned. Yet only, where the material sphere of the material organism is concerned. The actual cause for illness or health it has not identified yet (5).

Why and how the Vital Force or a causal energetic principle, got obsolete in medical thinking, considering it’s widespread and long-lasting belief in the traditional healing systems (2), is unclear, but it’s rejection has given rise to fundamental questions potentially influential on the understanding of all vital themes of life in general, as well as the comprehension of health, disease and cure. Until evidence for the existence of this energetic sphere is found, the implausability of the Vital Force, for conventional medicine, will remain and homeopathic effectivity will continue to be questioned.

References:

[1] Kent, J. (1981). Zur Theorie der Homöopathie (2. Auflage) Leer: Verlag Grundlagen und Praxis.

[2] Stux, G. (1996). Akupunktur – Grundlagen, Techniken, Anwendungsgebiete München: C.H. Beck

[3] Jackson, R. (2001). Vis Mediatrix Naturae, vital Force to innate intelligence and concepts for 2000 Journal of Chiropractic HumanitiesVol.10, 41-47 [online] last accessed October 2012, available at URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1556-3499(13)60132-1

[4] Hahnemann, S. (1974). Organon der Heilkunst (2.Auflage) 6B Heidelberg:Karl F. Haug Verlag.

[5] Voegeli, A. (1980) Warum so krank? Rheine: Verlag Volksheilkunde

[6] Milgrom, L. (2009) Is a unified theory of homeopathy and conventional medicine possible? Hpathy,[online] last accessed January 2014, available at URL: http://hpathy.com/scientific-research/is-a-unified-theory-of-homeopathy-and-conventional-medicine-possible/

 

 

 

The vital force – a concept lost?

Tags

dynamis, Hahnemann, Kundalini, life energy, Qi, Vital force, vital principle

 

The vital force as a fundamental principle of the homeopathic treatment approach describes a life-inducing, spirit-like power that is inherent to all living things, human, animal, insect, plant.

Termed by Hahnemann as the “dynamis” it enlivens the material organism [1]. Without this vital energy the material body is unable to function, to conduct physical exertion, process or express emotional perception. All expression of life is impossible, not even the preservation of the self. This force is instinctive and without intellect. Its sole purpose is to maintain a harmonious equilibrium within the healthy organism. The dynamis has no curative ability [1].

This concept is not alien to medical thinking or the healing practices. In particular the traditional and alternative treatment approaches see a vital principle as foundational element of their healthcare philosophies.

At the root of the traditional Chinese belief system on the nature of the existence of life, and basic to the traditional medical thinking, is a universal life-force or life-energy termed “Qi”. Qi is the inherent source of all life, the life-force of nature [2]. All organ function finds its provoking force in Qi. Qi flows in the organism enlivening it. Although Qi is built from different Qi-energy forms on different levels within the body, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, its immaterial existence is what breathes life into an otherwise lifeless material organism [2].

In the Ayurveda, the universal life-force that instigates all function of the living body, is known as Prana or Kundalini [2].

In about 97 cultures and throughout all time, a vital energy bringing the body to life is a manifest concept of the philosophies of life. It explains and nurtures the understanding of illness and cure [2]. Yet toward the beginning of the 20th century this principle was abandoned in the western oriented conception of medicine and has since not found its way back into what was then born as the new conventional medical approach.

Where and why was this fundamental element lost? It always was and still is an established, accepted and valued component of the traditional and alternative practices. The dismissal of this property has undoubtedly impacted the development of conventional medicine, and the research that strived and still strives to be found scientific as per the standards of this allopathic approach. It has in the past been extremely difficult to provide evidence of effectiveness of the alternative practices as they are without exception required to be trialed using the standards of conventional medical testing. Yet these trial methodologies breech the most basic principle of traditional and alternative medicine. According to these requirements, investigations into the traditional and alternative approaches have been and are bound to be only inconclusively and unsatisfactorily appraisable.

What if the consequences of the rejection of a vital principle biased the medical concept of allopathy at the very root? What if the ignorance of a vital essence or life-energy has flawed and is corrupting all research and has mislead and is misleading all knowledge derived from it? What is the extent of impact on conventional medical thinking and on the scientific endeavours of finding and explaining disease, treatment and cure? Where would medicine and its research stand today had this principle been considered and had it been thoroughly investigated?

What held true for many thousand of years and within multiple health concepts and practices was suddenly found to be…wrong, impractical, useless ?? Why? Who decided to abandon a ‘natural law’ only as recently as about 100 years ago? How could the then new and modern concept of healing become as dominant over the traditional practices and as ignorant of this particular traditional principle?

The vital force is by all means not the only principle of the traditional practices that finds no consideration in conventional medical thinking, but in the practice of homeopathy for example, it constitutes the most fundamental element that is of great value in the understanding of disease and healing.

What was true and accepted for so long and had significant impact on diverse ancient and traditional health-care systems could, so one may be lead to think, be considered trialled and proven. One can only imagine where conventional medicine would stand today if its treatment, testing tools and scientific framework had taken the vital force into consideration in its creation.

[1] Hahnemann, S. (1974). Organon der Heilkunst (2.Auflage) 6B Heidelberg:Karl F. Haug Verlag.

[2] Stux, G. (1996) Akupunktur – Grundlagen, Techniken, Anwendungsgebiete München: C.H. Beck

 

The so-called emancipation of women – a detriment to children’s health?

Tags

caring responsibilities, child obesity, children's health, health care, household, maternal employment, nutrition, working mums

With the emancipation of women, the classic image of a family, with defined roles for mother and father has undergone a structural change [1]. The allocation of mothers as carer of children and household, and fathers as the sole moneymaker has become outdated. What in its time was hailed the greatest achievement for women has drawn shadows and has not only affected families but also the community and society at large. The economy has adapted to an extra work force and what once was a yearned for freedom of choice has become an indispensable necessity. Dual incomes have become essential for families to attain and maintain a family lifestyle. Maternal employment has therefore morphed from a pursuit of own developmental goals, with by all means positive implications for mothers, such as personal satisfaction, rewards and income, to an imperative with challenges and a double burden [1]. One salary nowadays largely fails to accommodate for the needs of a family [1, 2, 3]. The daily demands of the working mum are a source of pressure and stress, and the price paid may come at an unwanted expense [2]. The reduced time available for spending with the family or engaged at home may have serious implications on the health of the family, in particular on that of children.

It has become evident that when women enter the workforce they have less time to devote to household, cooking, caring for their children or for leisurely pursuits; and as the household tasks and chores still largely fall to the woman in a family, it is the woman who is burdened by ‘extra’ work when she takes on an employment [2]. Therefore, because “jobs are usually designed as if workers have no caring responsibilities” [3 p.1525], working moms have to juggle household, work and childcare by themselves, or they have to rely on the help of others to accomplish all those tasks. Where families can afford to hire personnel to tend to household chores and supervise children, or have relatives available and willing to tend to their children in their absence, the challenges and pressures on parents and family are not as marked. But in the majority of families such services are unaffordable as even the incomes from two working parents frequently do not suffice to pay for such personnel [4]. This gives rise to questions. What happens if moms work odd hours and are not at home when their children come home from school? What do children do with their time? What do children eat when mum does not supply a meal at lunch or/and dinner? Do the consequences of maternal employment leave their marks on children’s health?

Research has shown that parental absence at home supports the acquisition of habits and behaviors in children that can be viewed as unhealthy [5, 6]. It has been found that children that lack supervision have inadequate nutritional food intake and practice a largely sedentary lifestyle. Where regular meal preparation is difficult because of parents working schedule, the likelihood is great that children will resort to meals outside of home. Yet even where family meals would permit the monitoring of nutritional intake, working mothers may resort to convenient foods in order to cut down time spent with the preparation of food [3]. This may in the long run impact health.

Physical inactivity and unhealthy dietary habits have been found to be principal causes of child obesity [5, 7]. The impact of such habits in child age can be the cause of poor health in later life [8]. Therefore, while a working mother may be a role model for a child’s development; maternal employment may diminish parental involvement with a child and may have lasting negative effects on his or her health [9].

Meaningful research into this topic is not exhaustive and comes to mixed conclusions. Such appraisal is difficult as the measures and parameters influential on children’s health are extensive [8]. Many questions related to the emancipation of women and its impact on family health have not yet been investigated. For example, no research was found that investigated whether working mothers resort to increased medicinal treatment in the event of a child being ill, in order to attempt to speed up the recovery to health. This may be a means mothers may resort to, as every day a mother has to stay away from work to tend to an ill child, may be a day without income. Such treatment practice potentially has a negative impact on the health development of a child.

Family stresses are another factor that can influence children’s health. The double burden and associated challenges can be cause of marital conflict [3], may create guilt and blame [3, 4], and may subsequently also instigate stresses in the parent-child relationship [4]. This raises the question if not parents seek to compensate their lack of time for their children bymeans that support health impairment, for example providing them with favourite foods albeit health concerns, or promoting an unhealthy lifestyle by permitting leisure activities that children like but that impact health negatively.

While a working mum can contribute to an improvement of the economic status of a family, it does not necessarily come at a benefit to children [4, 8]. Not only the provision of healthy meals and the monitoring of activities of children may become difficult in the absence of mum from home, but these may be crucial to children’s health. Current research has provided important insights, but has also exposed limitations [2, 6, 10], and the entire breadth of impact of maternal employment on children’s health has not yet been determined.

The economy nowadays expects women and moms to be part of the workforce. It has adapted to the emancipation of women, has created the extra jobs required [3]. Yet this has come with odd working hours, workload, frequently long travels to and from work, on top of the household and running errands, leaving little time for spending with the family. Health may therefore be one factor burdened by the lack of family friendliness in our economy. The availability of an extra income, cannot correct the damages to health in later years, that found their origin in youth due to the lack of a healthy diet and physical activity [8]. It is a vicious circle. Health needs to be cared for, and Mum plays a leading role in this accomplishment.

References:

[1] Rosenfeld, J. (1995) Impact of Maternal Employment on the health of the family [online] Current problems in pediatrics; Article retrieved September 14, 2013 at URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com

[2] Johnson, R., Crouter, A., & Smiciklas-Wright, H. (1993) Effects of maternal employment on family food consumption patterns and children’s diets [online] Journal of nutrition education 25(3); Article retrieved September 07, 2013 at URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com

[3] Strazdins, L., Korda, R., Lim, L., Broom, D., & D’Souza, R. (2004) Around the clock: parent work schedules and children’s well-being in a 24-h economy [online] Social Science & Medicine 59, pp.1517-1527; doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.01.022

[4] Ritchie, J. (1982) Child-rearing practices and attitudes of working and full-time mothers [online] Women’s Studies Int. Forum 5 (5), pp. 419-425; Article retrieved September 07, 2013 at URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com

[5] Vazquez-Nava, F., Trevino-Garcia-Manzo, N., Vazquez-Rodriguez, C. & Vazquez-Rodriguez, E. (2013) Association between family structure, maternal education level, and maternal employment with sedentary lifestyle in primary school-age children [online] Jornal de pediatria 89 (2), pp.145-150. Article retrieved September 24, 2013 at URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jped.2013.03.010

[6] Morrill, M. (2011) The effects of maternal employment on the health of school-age children[online] Journal of health economics 30, pp. 240-257.Article retrieved September 07, 2013 at URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com

[7] Anderson, P. (2012) Parental employment, family routines and childhood obesity [online] Economics and human biology 10, pp.340-351. Article retrieved September 07, 2013 at URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com

[8] Wolfe, B. & van der Gaag, J. (1982) What influences children’s health? [online] Children and youth services review 4, pp. 194-208. Article retrieved September 07, 2013 at URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com

[9] Aughinbaugh, A. & Gittleman, M. (2004) Maternal employment and adolescent risky behavior [online] Journal of health economics 23, pp. 815-838. Article retrieved September 14, 2013 at URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com

[10] Ruhm, C. (2008) Maternal emplyment and adolescent development [online] Labour Economics 15, pp.958-983. Article retrieved September 14, 2013 at URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com