Different Approaches to Homeopathy, Part 1: Multiple Remedies vs. One Remedy at a Time

Have you ever been in a situation where you need to solve a problem, and you can’t decide which path to take?  So you decide to do more than one thing at once, just to cover all your bases.

The result of this approach is often confusion.  What is helping?  What might be causing more problems?

A simple example can be seen in cooking. Let’s say you make a big pot of soup.  It doesn’t taste quite as flavorful as it could.  One approach might be to add some more salt, a bit at a time, tasting between each addition. If that doesn’t do it without getting over salty, add some herbs, again, tasting and testing between each new herb. Then maybe some spices like pepper or garlic.

Another approach would be to add them all at one time; that is, a couple teaspoons of Salt, a handful of chopped fresh herbs and some pepper and garlic.  What happens if you do this and it all turns out okay.  Nothing.  All is good.  But what if it too much salt?  What if the combination of everything you added makes the soup worse instead of better?  How would you know what to avoid next time?  Do you end up having to throw it all out?

What Does This Have To Do With Homeopathy?

There seems to be a trend towards people taking more than one homeopathic remedy at a time these days. This might appear as a bottle of many remedies.  Or it could also show up as people not being able to decide what they want to take so they take five or six remedies.  Kind of like adding a bunch of extra ingredients without taste testing between each addition.

I’ve never been a fan of this practice, and there are multiple reasons why.

Remedies go through provings.  In this process, we come to understand the particulars about what remedy treats what symptoms, and a bigger, more holistic picture of the remedy in general.  Green snot versus yellow snot versus clear in finding an acute remedy for a sinus infection.  And what about body temperature and mood?  All of these things go into making a decision.  If you are a taking several different remedies, do any of them really work?  Do they interfere with each other?  What about new symptoms that appear?  We don’t study remedies this way at all, so no one really knows.

I referred someone in a Facebook group to a previous blog post I had written about Kidney stones when her husband was suffering. Later I asked what happened.  It worked!  She was grateful.  I asked which remedy worked.  She said, “I don’t know.  I went and bought as many as I could find and gave him all of them!  YIKES!

First of all, it would have been cheaper to call me, ask for help with choosing a remedy and buying only one remedy. I’m sure she spent at least $50 on the remedies.  Also, any interactions and cancellations would be avoided.

Secondly, what if the one he needed wasn’t available in the store?  Then nothing would have helped and he may have gotten worse from being aggravated by all those other remedies. The result can be having to wait until the new symptoms disappear to see where to go next, thereby delaying healing.

Your Body Ignores The Remedies You Don’t Need

There is a rationale given by manufacturers and practitioners who give multiple remedies at a time.  The claim is that the body ignores what remedies you don’t need.  This may be true for some people, but it is definitely NOT true for others.  Homeopaths conduct what are called provings.  They are used to determine what symptoms a new remedy will help heal.  Healthy people take the new remedy and report of symptoms they experience.  Homeopaths then use those new symptoms to determine who amongst unhealthy clients can benefit from the new remedy.

Some people will prove one of the multiple remedies that they take, potentially making them feel worse, and creating new, temporary symptoms.  There is really no evidence that this concept that the body ignores what it can’t use is true.  And we most definitely don’t know for whom it may or may not be true.  No way to predict this at all.  It isn’t harmful, but it is uncomfortable.

In fact, I had a client who was feeling a bit impatient one day.  (That was part of the symptom picture of the remedy she needed.)  She had called when I was with another client.  I called her back.  She wanted to get the remedy NOW!  She had a few free minutes so she had gone over a nearby store where combination remedies are sold.  She took one for her cold.  She got worse.

When I talked to her about it, I found out what remedies were in the combination.  Turns out, she was proving one of the remedies in the combination bottle.  Fortunately, she still remembered what her original symptoms were so I was able to recommend the correct remedy for her.

Confusion Reigns

I was talking to a clerk who was checking out my purchases at a local store.  She knows I am a homeopath. She commented that she was working with someone who uses multiple remedies.  Has been for awhile.  “I think I’m getting better.”  (If you can’t tell, you aren’t. See my previous blog post on this topic.) I suggested she check out what I do, because I use one remedy at a time. I check to make sure you are doing better. She replied, “Maybe I should.  When I take a new remedy from my current practitioner, my emotions and feelings get all jumbled up.”  That is what happens when you take multiple remedies at a time. There is no way to assess what’s better and what isn’t better and, frankly, whether there have been improvements at all.

Taking one remedy at a time is Classical Homeopathy.  Taking multiple remedies is Complex Homeopathy. Based on provings and philosophy of homeopathy, one remedy at a time is what works and lasts. Stick to what you can tell is working.

If you want to know what One Remedy can help you, schedule an Initial Consult.  Let’s get started!!

 

 

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