ABSTRACT: Since 1984 our Homoeopathic Centre has treated 155 cases of respiratory allergy with very encouraging results. We did not consider asthma separately from rhinitis because often both pathologies are found in the same patient.

(Papers of the Transnational Conference: "THE HOMOEOPATIC REMEDY-NON-MEDICINE. A PROPOSAL FOR RECOGNITION" - Rome 12th and 13th december 1988).

Allergic patients are nearer than others to Homoeopathy because they sometimes present intolerance towards drugs of common use (antibiotics, antipyretics, antalgics), for them it is therefore necessary to individuate another therapeutic methodology with which to face any acute or chronic condition.

Homoeopathy seldom is the result of a search for an olistic medicine or dictated by the knowledge of what it really is. In fact, most of the time it is one of the many attempts to solve health problems too often deluded by traditional medicine.

As you all know, the homoeopathic doctor examines the individual as a whole in his psycho-physic unity stopping on the symptoms as well as on the disease from which the patient wishes to recover (in fact he does an objective traditional examination and turns to modern diagnostic tests...) and especially on the way of being (who is the patient, what is his health history, how does he live his suffering, what peculiar reactions does he have as regard the environment...).

Only after an exhaustive investigation on the psycho-physic totality of the patient, does the homoeopathic doctor find himself in the condition to prescribe the unique Remedy, the simillimum, apt to stimulate the vital energy towards an equilibrium of health.

Therefore there is not one Remedy for each disease of symptom, but one Remedy for each sick person.

In traditional medicine, for instance, and as regards allergic diseases, all those youngsters who suffer from allergic asthma will be cured in the same way, in the Western world, in respect to the most recent pharmacologic discoveries: H1 antagonists, bronchodilaters, hyposensibilizing therapies if the allergene has been spotted out and, as a last resort, corticosteroids, everyone the same massifying therapy even if each is different from the other having in common only asthma.

In Homoeopathy instead, the doctor will prescribe a different Remedy to each one in spite of the symptomatology they may have in common. In fact, the concept of disease, which is by all means a dynamic condition of the individual and which represents an attempt to reestablish the balance of well-being and which does not always require a doctor to intervene, cannot be disjoined from the concept of unicity of the individual: each of us is unique and unrepeatable and lives the disease in a way at all particular. Each of us has a family and personal anamnesis different and individual as is the evolution of each one of us and our attitude towards the environment.

The Unique Remedy, the simillimum, will "in a natural way" help to restore the vital energy of the patient towards an equilibrium and the ensuing recovery will be lasting and will not only concern the diseased organ, but the patient as a whole and often retrace the stages of suffering previously experienced, suppressed and thus not solved.

In our Rome Homoeopathic Centre whose activity regards the treatment of the diseased as well as research and an adequate training of homoeopathic doctors, many allergic patients have been treated - their disorders were at respiratory level (bronchial and nasal) with asthma, rhinitis and also at skin level with dermatitis, urticaria, eczema.

In three years 155 allergic patients with respiratory disorders and 35 with skin disorders have been treated.

Each treatment was carried out following the Hahnemann methodology; the collection of data and then the prescription of the Unique Remedy resembling the diseased as far as possible and respecting the subsequent manifestation and/or the return of old symptoms. What does all this mean?

In Homoeopathy there is a law, Hering's law of recovery, of which you will hear in a further report, which provides for the transfer of suffering on the path to the solution of the case, from organs and appratuses deeper and more vital to the more superficial and less important such as the skin and the mucous menbranes, a manifestation of the disease which always precedes the achievement of health.

It is particularly easy and frequent to prove the validity of the law of recovery in the very cases of allergic patients in whom we know of three degrees of manifestation: the deeper and more vital one: the bronchial mucous with asthma, an intermediate degree: the mucous of the nose and of the conjunctiva with oculorhinitis, a more superficial affection: the skin with dermatitis, urticaria and eczema....

In all the cases solved the following took place: the atopy or allergy (excess of seric IgE) first localized in the bronchial area in asthmatics and then moved to the mucous of the nose and later to the skin. This causes youngsters with a prevalently asthmatic symptomatology to become rhinitic patients for some time and then come out with skin pathologies with dermatitis and eczemas which last only a short time.

In Homoeopathy recovery does not concern only the diseased organ for which we turn to the traditional procedures such as laboratory tests and the direct testimony of the diseased, butit regards the person as a whole in his psycho-physic unity.

Many asthmatic children, thanks to the Homoeopathic treatment, have solved other side problems such as the tendency to hyperchetonaemia or night eneuresis or constipation and have improved their behaviour as regards their environment!

Many youngsters and adults have improved their way of being and are themselves and more equilibrated!

In fact, inner development cannot be disjointed from the improvement of physical conditions.

Since 1984 our Homoeopathic Centre has treated 155 cases of respiratory allergy with a very encouraging outcome. We did not consider asthma separately from rhinitis because often both pathologies are found in the same patient.

RESPIRATORY ALLERGY 1

Cases treated 155

Recovery or marked improvement 63

Improvement 36

No variation 27

Alternating results 19

Worse 1

The value of the above data cannot be statistic but aims at transmitting our experience as well as our engagement and our enthusiasm.

On 155 patients 99 improved considerably, many of which may be fregarded as recovered.

RESPIRATORY ALLERGY 2

Cases treated 155

Cases previously 102 hyposensitive

treated with 148 anthistaminic vaccines

traditional therapies

46 corticosteroids

Cases treated only

with Homoeopathy 7

Only 7 patients out of the total consulted a homoeopathic doctor in the first instance and the outcome was good in all cases; 148 came from allopathic treatments and 46 of these were already on cortisone and 102 were being treated with hyposensitive vaccines or H1 antihistamines, antagonists....

RESPIRATORY ALLERGY 3

Total cases treated 155

102 vaccines/antihistamines

Cases already treated

with traditional therapies 148

46 corticosteroids

31 scarce/no improvement

Cases treated only with 4 marked improvement/recovery

homoeopathy 7

3 improvement

Unfortunately the highest percentage of insuccess is found among those patients who had used cortisone drugs the powerful anti-inflammatory and hyatrogenous effects affected the patients capacity to recover. In fact on 46 diseased who had followed corticosteroid therapies, 31 gained no benefit from the Homoeopathic treatment on a total of 47 unsuccessful cases.

The cases treated only with Homoeopathy all had a positive outcome.

As regards skin allergies, the 7 patients who had no advantage from the therapy had been on cortisone pills for a long time. Among the cases treated successfully (28 on 35) those who were treated only with Homoeopathy (5) recovered very rapidly.

SKIN ALLERGY 1

Cases treated 35

Recovery or marked improvement 22

Improvement 6

No variation 3

Alternated results 2

Worse 2

SKIN ALLERGY 2

Cases treated 35

Cases treated before 19 antihistamines

with traditional therapy 30

11 corticosteroid pills

7 scarce/no improvement

Cases treated only with

homoeopathy 5 recovery

One of the most important things to be underlined is that there is no one Remedy which prevails, statistically, on the others. That is, each case was treated with the simillimum regardless of the acute mutual symptomatology and this confirms that there is no specific Remedy for asthma, for rhinitis or for eczema, but an individualized Remedy for the asthmatic, the rhinitis and the eczema patient.

How long did the patients take to recover or improve?

The treatment lasted less than a year and a half. Very few medical examinations were necessary and there were very few changes in the Remedy and thus the cost of treatment was very low.

Average length of treatment 16 months

Annual average of medical exams 3

Average cost of each therapy £ 22.000 each

Average annual cost of therapy £ 66.000 each

This shows that it is not true that Homoeopathic treatments are long because the time each patient requires to recover is related to his reactive capacity. It is a matter of biologic time, not chronologic.

To prove the importance of Hering's law, which underlined how the organism tends to show its imbalances on unimportant organs with skin or mucous pathologies which, if suppressed or treated in a unnatural manner spread to the more vital apparatuses, we have the results of another survey carried out in a big school district of Rome on 150 children between 7 and 11 all suffering from ascertained allergic asthma and all treated in a traditional manner.

In the anamnesis of the near totality (134 on 150) an allopathic suppression of allergic skin disorders had always been present in the first years of life. Mostly atopic dermatitis and in 65% (98 on 150) of these children, after the apparent disappearance of the dermatitis and before the establishment of the asthmatic symptomatology, there had been a form of oculorhinitis allopathically suppressed.

Suppressed dermatitis Suppressed oculorhinitis

134 96

7-11 year old allergic asthmatic children

150

All this should make us reflect on the fact that recovery never corresponds to the disappearance or the suppression of symptoms, that a bad sanitary education is making us take drugs at the first symptom of disease just to be efficient and productive; this leads us to an illusion of cure and will take us far away from recovery which for the homoeopathic doctor consists in re-establishing the psycho-psychic balance and not in the absence of symptoms.

Recovery is a path which requires a great devotion on the part of the doctor and the patient's active participation.