nux vom

They would differ to some degree because the medicines are made quite differently. However, it is often difficult to tell exactly how a particular patient will react until after you have given them the remedy.

You would, however, be using LMs for specific reasons I imagine, so using a C potency instead may actually create the problem you are trying to avoid.

No this is not correct at all. Different potencies have different effects, and affect different symptoms. It is quite possible for a patient to have no result from one potency of a remedy, while being completely cured by another potency, with various reactions in-between. A low level potency of Nux-v might be more suitable to various physical manifestations of the remedy, a medium level potency to the emotional, while a high level might suit specific and unusual thoughts and delusions unique to the remedy. Low potencies also tend to suit much more general Nux-like symptoms, and would affect a wider variety of patients in a mild way, but high potencies would affect very specialised Nux-vomica symptoms in a much smaller group of patients.

You see this clearly in the provings, where different potencies actually produce different kinds of symptoms.

Potency selection is actually not all that easy, although it can be worked through by careful experimentation and observation. Each individual case has to be examined to see which potency might suit best, and where you start can be quite important in terms of what kind of reaction the patient has.

Without knowing what kind of case you are talking about, it is pretty hard to give any guidelines. There are reasons low potencies like 6c would be good, and reasons why it would be bad. The same for LMs.
[message edited by Evocationer on Mon, 07 Apr 2014 06:47:05 BST]

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[message deleted by kohler on Mon, 07 Apr 2014 10:26:17 BST]

Well this is a fairly big question really. I will try to cover the important issues.

When we select potency we are looking at several things:

1. How much vital energy does a patient appear to have? Low vitality patients can be severely harmed by high potencies. High vitality patients will often not respond to low potencies with more than aggravation that doesn't create much improvement, if they respond at all.

2. How much tissue change has occurred in the body. Tissue change in a patient tends to mean more likelihood of aggravation, and a greater intensity of aggravation which can be dangerous. LMs or lower potencies tend to reduce the risk of uncontrolled aggravation.

3. Where exactly is that tissue change (eg. which organs). Pathology in organs tends to produce much more serious aggravation, and can be very dangerous depending on what it is. Again LMs or low potencies reduce the risk to such patients.

4. How much medical suppression of symptoms has occurred in the history of the patient, and how much of that continues at time of prescription. Suppression often means the patient will quickly throw up old suppressed symptoms as part of their healing process, so you may want to start low or even use LMs to avoid this being too difficult for the patient to handle.

5. What aspect or level of the person is being affected by the disease. Low level potencies tend to be more useful for resolving symptoms which are at a more gross physical level, while higher level potencies tend to be more effective on thought processes and beliefs that are in disorder. This is a very general rule though, and one has to look at where the disease is most active. Aim the potency at the wrong level and you can get no reaction, an aggravation or an overreaction. This means too low as well as too high.

6. What symptoms are you using to prescribe the remedy - the more peculiar the higher the potency as a general rule. The less peculiar the lower the potency. This is why many over-the-counter products that use our medicines tend to include low potencies, as these will have a more general effect on more people. This also means that they tend not to cure the patient's whole disease but only small parts of it, if they cure anything at all.

Peculiarity is difficult to explain in homoeopathic terms though. They are symptoms that are unusual for the situation, unexpected. For example, a patient with diabetes who is thirstless would be very peculiar, whereas being very thirsty would be expected.

7. How sensitive is the patient generally. The mores sensitive patients tend to have very extreme reactions to the remedy, and may overreact to high potencies, or low potencies, depending on where their sensitivity is located.
[message edited by Evocationer on Tue, 08 Apr 2014 02:00:24 BST]

As you can see, one of the jobs of a homoeopath is to decide which potency is best for the patient, based on their individual circumstances. Even in first aid situations this is will be true.

I would say that generally speaking, people who do not have any training in homoeopathy should try to use no potency over 30c, should never use more than one remedy at a time (and not change remedies back and forth), and should not take remedies for longer than several days at a time.

According to the guidelines given above, 6c would be useful for

- patients with low vitality, exhausted by disease or some other ongoing traumatic experience, who do not react with any vigour or strength to various therapies

- patients with a fair amount of physical pathology, some of which may be dangerous if stirred up too much

- patients who have been on a lot of medication which has successfully suppressed their symptoms for a long time

- patients who tend to express their disease in a purely physical way ie. heartburn, constipation, headaches etc

- patients whose symptoms aren't particularly unusual and are fairly general ie. those symptoms mentioned in previous point

- patients who are very sensitive and tend to overreact to other kinds of medication

If you are looking for guidelines for self-prescribing, I have to warn you that using homoeopathy without guidance from a trained homoeopath it can be very tricky. There are lots of events and changes that will moderate and alter the treatment plan. Often taking one remedy brings up the need to use a new remedy, which may happen several times, or there may be a need to alternate remedies.

'Can you take a 6c on a daily basis for a long time.'

I would not do this unless under strict supervision by a qualified homoeopath. Long term use of a remedy runs a risk of side effects, which can become permanent.

I have seen people create quite serious problems for themselves this way. In fact, there are people who post on this very forum with long term effects of our medicines, which have been grafted on to their other symptoms.

'Tell me about combination remedies and tissue salt remedies as they look like you can take them on a daily basis. How do they differ and are they safe because they are a lower dose. Some prescribe 6x which they say is safe to take on a long term basis daily. '

You should not take them on a daily basis without supervision. Supervision means someone is assessing your reactions and the changes and considering any alterations to treatment that need to be made. Without proper supervision it is definitely not safe. Whether or not any particular person is going to be harmed by using our medicines this way is hard to say, but the sensitive ones will almost certainly end up in a bad way.

The laws of nature are not suspended just because of how a medicine is made. Taking anything for long periods of time is risky, whether it is herbs, tissue salts, bach flowers, potentized medicines, or orthodox drugs. Daily dosing must be supervised properly, and with our medicines unless you have a good understanding of how they work and what they do, it is hard to be able to judge what to do when things are not going according to plan.

Lower doses are not necessarily safer. Potentized medicines certainly are less toxic, but they are also more dynamic and can actually affect parts of you that raw substance have trouble getting to.

A healthy person will naturally lose any unhealthy weight providing they are also eating and exercising appropriately. Homoeopathy cannot be used to just trigger weight loss though, and we cannot aim our remedies at specific things (not safely anyway). We look at the whole case, try to understand how the person's ill health is affecting them on each and every level, and then prescribe a single medicine. What often happens is that all problems begin to change. I have noticed with many of my clients that they can drop a few kilos without much effort once the simillimum has been found (the ideal remedy for them) but it doesn't go much further than that without a lot of work and effort on their part to actively reduce their weight.

Well it seems you have a number of health issues that would form the basis of a treatment plan in homoeopathy. If it is true that you cannot lose weight no matter what you do, then improving your health should change that issue as well.

That kind of change would take time though, depending on a number of factors (length of time the problem has existed coupled with your age as the two primary ones).

I can try to find a remedy for you if you like, if you are willing to fill out the questionnaire that helps me the most to make a prescription.

It is a long one and will take some time to do, but it usually provides me with the kind of information I need.

http://abchomeopathy.com/forum2.php/420128/

That's fine take your time. Better to do it properly than rush through it.

I am in Australia (you can click on my name to get information about me).

I will print it out and have a look over it and let you know what I think.

Thank you for taking the time to do it.

I am currently reading through the answers you sent me. There are a few problems with it, as some of the answers are not really giving me any information.

Under Mind, the question about issues that bother you, you have stated Bloating - which is not a mental or emotional issue. The bloating is an issue of course, but I am looking to understand the issues you have that are not related to your physical body.

You have not really answered much of this section at all, and it is the most important for choosing a remedy.

Could you go back over the Mind section and attempt to answer each question there. It does not have to relate to your specific physical problem.

Make sure you make the answers detailed, trying to answer each one as fully as you can. My ability to make a successful prescription is based on the amount of information you provide.

Alright I want you to get hold of Columba palumbus 200c. You should be able to get this from the Helios pharmacy in London. Get the Oral Liquid preferably. Let me know when you have it and I will instruct you on dosage.