Rheumatism is an old term used in medical practice for medical problems affecting joints and connective tissues. A person can experience pains, stiffness & soreness in specific parts,in joints or there can be generalized feeling of fatigue with aches and pains.
It is all about how it started initially and how it progressed. With experience of pain anywhere in the body the concern is why is it paining? Pain is body’s way of telling you that something is wrong and needs correction but with daily chores it gets neglected and other things get prioritized. The situation is generally managed by popping a pain killer if it’s impacting day to day life. This leads to further progression of the underlying disease phenomena.
Pain ,Aches, Stiffness the basic symptoms in most of the rheumatic conditions are prone to get worsened by changes in barometric pressure, undue bodily exertion, post trauma, accidents or other diseases where body has tried to express the disturbance within but was handled with suppressive measures like self-medication, undue antibiotic use, use of corticosteroids etc. This diverts the disease process inside, eventually to reach the very bones, joints, or the immune system which reacts to body’s own proteins considering them foreign as happens in autoimmune diseases like Rheumatoid arthritis,Systemic Lupus Erythematous, Ankylosing spondylitis, Psoriatic arthritis etc.
Considering the beginning and the course of illness, disease gets expressed in the body as array of symptoms that directs homoeopath to find the remedy considering this disordered pattern.
“Individualization” i.e. the uniqueness is an important aspect of dealing in homoeopathy .Tracing the phenomena and mechanism of handling the same by the person becomes crucial for selecting the remedy. The tendencies of a person towards particular external factors influences the state of aches and pains. External influences can be in the form of heavy stress related to Career, Relationships, Financial insecurities, job related stress, performance anxiety, related to responsibilities, aging & dependency, loss of near and dear ones, etc. This starts impacting the person, these emotions if mishandled or suppressed leads to specific pattern of outlook, towards life. This sets a number of chemical reactions in mind, its vibrations are transmitted to body. These bodily sensations are experienced at deeper levels as per the sensitivity of that person. This is where the concept of wholism comes into play where the person as a whole perceives and reacts. Thus the movement of dis-ease begins and over a course of time it progresses.
The immunity gradually gets hit and it expresses through a state where a person becomes more and more receptive to impressions of the things happening in life, depending on specific sensitivity of a particular person. It is the inside phenomena which is modulated by external influences, like sensitivity to certain kind of emotions, to weather changes, to specific food items, where adaptation to change seems difficult.
Health is there when adaptation is flowing as easily as taking breath. Healthy emotional life reflects itself in graceful, easy movement. We adapt to life, to our surroundings, to climatic conditions, to society, culture, tradition, social values, political system as per our DNA. Certain things are inherited and certain things are learnt as we go through life with our experience which has memory in every cell. This cellular memory in future decides the way the individual perceives the situation and reacts to it.This is very unique and that is studied in detail while treating a person with Homoeopathy.
In manifestation of inflammatory rheumatic conditions there is chronic inflammation of a particular joint as seen in osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and in various other types of arthritis. Body forbids to yield to specific treatment of relieving localized pain. Osteoarthritis or generalized inflammatory disease like rheumatoid arthritis is the result of chronic inflammatory disease beneath. Thus, studying these accessory factors we address the beginning and not the result.
As and when patients comes for consultation, knowledge of past illness, any acute infectious diseases, any medications being taken for long time is helpful to direct the selection of remedy. Factors that worsen a particular state in a person can be diverse. How the individual dealt and what was the experience are of utmost importance for this can be very unique. This gives a clue for remedy selection and differentiation. In chronic disease like arthritis, heredity predisposition is understood considering the major illness in immediate family members. With the objective that disease is the holistic phenomena and not of individual parts, a detailed history is taken. Medicines are selected as per the pattern of illness of a particular person.
If patient presents with acute manifestation like sudden pains, redness of joints, with intensification of symptoms by least movement along with high grade fever, remedies from Solanaceae plant family can be helpful. Rannunculaceae family, has accompanying fear of disease.
Cucurbitaceae family can help a chronic ailing joint, with swelling due to accumulation of fluid inside with the experience of stitching, needle like pains worse by slightest movement. The state of mind beneath this cause of stress felt is financial losses and struggle to make over the same , struggle to come out of the critical condition is depicted. In this struggle to deal with situation, certain body tissues are compromised, especially the synovial joints.
Gouty conditions with defect in purine metabolism leading to uric acid crystal deposition in joints can be remedied with active principal colchicine, which was used traditionally to treat gout. It can be used in infinitesimal dosage for rapidly shifting areas of pain, in depressed, irritable, sensitive temperamental people where every little hurt pains terribly, with sensitivity to odors which nauseates.
Wandering rheumatism especially before the storm, showing influence of atmospheric changes in worsening the painful condition of joints can be helped too.
Homoeopathy also helps children especially in the period of growth spurts. Strength of bones is reflected by the presence of minerals like calcium &Phosphorus. Strong bones is the sign of health but in some children calcium metabolism is impaired leading to softening of bones clinically seen as rickets and osteomalacia in adults. Brittleness of bones in aged where bones almost become porous due to aging phenomena or consequence of impaired estrogen especially post-menopausal leading to constant pain in body can also be remedied .Difficulty in daily activities, proness to falls and easy fractures can be helped by stimulating the calcium metabolism by remedies like Calcarea Phos, Calcarea Flour, Magnesium Phosphate, Silica etc. The osteophytes formed compresses the neighboringsoft tissues leading to pain, if it happens in spinal areas the pains descend along the course of nerves, making life really difficult. Supplementation with calcium and vitamin D is helpful in such cases along with indicated homoeopathic medicine.
Contracted tendons commonly seen secondary to paralytic affections post brain hemorrhage can be remedied.
Rheumatism in chronic state can affect vital organs like heart, kidneys, lungs, eyes, and skin too. Naja a remedy prepared from poison of Indian cobra is indicated for valvular complaints of heart due to suppressed rheumatism. Mitral valve affection seen as a sequel of rheumatic fever can be helped by homoeopathic remedy Naja with angina like pains, threatened paralysis, body cold with slow pulse. A very peculiar state of mind is depicted in this state with conflict related to duty on one side and reacting to sensation of being offended on the other.
Burning stinging pains, with swelling of parts, sensitive to touch and intolerance of heat in any form as happens in gouty attacks, can be managed with a remedy prepared from poison of honey bee. The peculiarity in this personality is being constantly busy, restless, hurried, industrious with burning urination.
Strong family history of rheumatic conditions or in conditions where Penicillin was given as a treatment option in past can be cured too.
Homoeopathy can take care of varied presentations of Rheumatic conditions both localized like bursitis leading to knee pains, tendonitis as seen in carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, Achilles tendon due to prolonged stress on particular group of muscles.Osteoarthritis due to wear and tear of the cartilage which cushions the bone surfaces,Ankylosing spondylitis, Lumbar and Cervical Spondylitis which results in wrong postures, and difficulty in movement are well taken care with homoeopathic medicines.
Homoeopathic medicines relieves the person by nullifying the strain on the skeletal system and thus release the muscle tension.Ease is experienced as healing occurs.Medicines are given taking various factors in consideration along with the diagnosis as per the homoeopathic principle of symptom similarity. Infinitesimal dilutions are given where healing properties of the particular medicinal substance are aroused by the process of preparing medicines with friction at molecular level.This triggers the healing mechanism within…The prana-The healer within..
Rigidity is disease and flexibility is health. As Jackie Chan has mentioned in his interview, “In my kind of cinema, fighting simply flows, there are no bruises. I want to show fighting like dancing-This depicts ease. In fact, the way we move in life not only reflects the way we feel, it can determine the way we feel…
