Homeopathic Provings

Real life examples to help demystify provings in homeopathy

Provings may be one of the most interesting— and most confusing— aspects of the practice of homeopathy.

I’d like to dive into some real-world examples of provings today, to help clarify what a proving is and what to look for.

First, there are two ways the word ‘proving’ is used in homeopathy (these are similar, but have important distinctions):

Homeopathic Provings— This is the SYSTEM by which we discover what our medicines will do. Healthy people (in a placebo controlled, double-blind ‘trial’) are given a substance over time and systematically report what symptoms arise. 

The original homeopathic proving was completed when Samuel Hahnemann set out to discover the reason that cinchona bark cured malaria. (He did this to dispel the various theories of the day that he strongly, and correctly, suspected were not accurate.)

Hahnemann, as a healthy person without malaria, began to take the cinchona bark daily. And as the days progressed he noted his symptoms, which very closely tracked the symptoms that a person with malaria would experience. And voila!, the beginning of homeopathy, the healing system where like cures like.

At that time he used the gross form of the substance. But later he developed the methods of dilution and potentization by which he could give smaller and smaller doses, thus improving the rate of cure and decreasing any negative effects of the original gross-form substance.

[By the way, homeopaths started the first double blind, placebo-controlled experiments some 40 years before the allopaths caught on.]

‘I proved that remedy.’—The second way we use the word proving in homeopathy, is when we are taking a homeopathic medicine for a condition and begin to develop different and new symptoms that the medicine would cause in a healthy person. It’s the same thing essentially as above, but comes about after taking the medicine for a condition.

When I was starting out with homeopathy I had no idea what a proving was. All I knew was that everything I read instilled a fear of ‘going too far’ with a remedy’, and so I was ultra-cautious and fearful of these incredible remedies.

Now that I have experienced multiple ‘provings’ personally, and helped many a client manage provings (or not, as is often the case, more on that later), I have come to see that provings in homeopathy are an INCREDIBLE GIFT.

What other system of medicine clearly lets you know when you are taking the wrong medicine or have taken it long enough? (Homeopathy is the only one I know of!)

In the allopathic system ‘side effects’ are the norm. Only if they are terrible is the drug changed out for another— which also will come with (expected, and often hidden) side effects. 

On the other end of the spectrum are herbs and vitamins and supplements, which you might take for a very long time with no clear idea whether they are helping or not.

So here we have a system of medicine (homeopathy) that politely corrects conditions and also TELLS you when something is off, without any damage done. You won’t end up with permanent sexual dysfunction, liver failure, decreased brain mass, or any of the many common ‘side effects’ of pharmaceuticals.

In addition, if you stop taking a pharmaceutical drug, there’s no guarantee you’ll get back to normal. With homeopathy, the ‘proving’ is not a real disease, and it doesn’t last. Remove the stimulus (stop taking the homeopathic medicine) and things will right themselves in no time.

In fact, there are those who have made it part of their mission to do homeopathic provings on themselves. Such as Hahnemann and the other early homeopaths HAD to do to in order to add to their homeopathic medicine chest.

These provings are done to increase the knowledge for all of us and to add to the Materia Medica books (both new medicines and expanding upon existing ones). People who do provings on purpose report that, although the process isn’t fun (getting temporarily sick in order to report the effects of the substance), in the long run they are stronger and healthier for it.

And I can attest to the fact that experiencing a proving is a great learning experience, and I have never been harmed in the process.

How to manage a proving when you are taking homeopathic medicines:

So, let’s say some new symptom pops up and you wonder if the homeopathy you are taking is causing it.

First off, you can just stop taking the remedy temporarily. If the symptom(s) goes away (how long that takes will vary depending on what the symptom is, but generally 1-2 days), then it likely was the remedy. 

However, if this new symptom you were worrying about remains after stopping the homeopathy, then you must look to another cause, including the natural progression of an existing condition.

Again, a proving is basically a fake disease. As soon as the stimulus of the medicine is removed, it will go away.

If the symptom is very undesirable, you can stop the action quite quickly and don’t have to wait for it to dissipate naturally. We do this by taking a dose of Camphora 200, which is considered the universal antidote.

[Camphora only stops the action right now. It doesn’t undo any good that has been done. And when you resume taking homeopathy the action starts right back up again.]

You may also choose to stop the medicine that is causing a proving and take a different and more correct remedy. The correct remedy will set things right quickly as well.

CASES OF REAL LIFE PROVINGS

Now, how about a bunch of examples to give you a practical peek into actual homeopathic provings?

The following are provings that I have experienced or helped people with.

In NO WAY are these to make you afraid of homeopathic medicines. In fact, the opposite is my goal. As you will see, all these cases of provings were resolved easily.

Hepar Sulph

The ‘worst’ proving I have experienced personally was when I developed a boil near my tailbone.

I had been taking the Banerji Protocol for acne and eczema for many, many months (basically the same medicines are in Line 1 for acne and eczema, both of which I was experiencing). The primary remedy is Hepar Sulph 200 taken every other day. 

[Find the complete Banerji Protocol Index here.]

As an aside, I don’t know how to explain this exactly, but when I do experience a proving, I almost always have the sense that it is just that. Not everyone does, but I can feel that it’s not ‘real’ in a sense. So as the boil got sore, and came to my attention, I immediately suspected that it wasn’t ‘mine’.

And knowing my homeopathic medicines, I suspected Hepar right away. (I’d been taking it a long time, the conditions were improved, and it’s a top medicine for boils— what it causes is what it treats)— but I still double-checked the Hepar Sulph entry in the Materia Medica to confirm, and then I stopped taking it. 

(I was taking many more remedies than just this protocol. So this is where it can get confusing if you don’t know your remedies. But with practice, and study, it becomes pretty simple— usually—  to pinpoint the problem.)

The boil was the longest resolution of a proving I have experienced. Which makes sense as it was a very structural/physical manifestation (versus a headache or palpitations, for example, which can pass quickly). It took about a week for the boil to resolve. I didn’t take Camphora or do anything. It just went away when the stimulus of the Hepar Sulph was removed.

Then what? I reassessed and changed medicines. In a case like this you might move to Line 2 of the protocol, if the condition isn’t very much better yet. Or, when you reassess, based on the CURRENT PICTURE (not what was, but what is happening now—  very important!) you may decide to take a different approach with the remedy selection altogether.

Rhus Tox

Another personal proving: I had been taking Rhus Tox 30 twice a day for many months for joints and skin. This was in addition to multiple other remedies on a daily basis.

About the time that I added Mercurius Solubilis (aka Merc Sol) to my daily schedule, I started to get an extremely sore spot under my tongue. 

After a couple of days of the pain increasing, I looked closely and saw a white canker sore under the side of my tongue. I had never experienced even one canker sore before, so I immediately was suspicious that it was the homeopathy.

I didn’t suspect Merc Sol was proving (even though it is a top canker sore medicine), because it was such a new addition to my daily schedule, and it was also a ‘10 legged stool’— meaning it was a very good fit for me at the time.

I recall looking up a few of the remedies I was taking in the Materia Medica, and pretty quickly decided that Rhus Tox was the likely culprit. I stopped taking it and within a day I felt the deep soreness fade. And within a couple of days I had almost forgotten all about it.

This was an interesting example to me at the time, because when I added the Merc Sol I found I was able to remove a handful of remedies from my plan. It was a better fit and made some of the others naturally fall away.

Note: One way to tell that it might be a proving is that the intensity of the new symptom increases until you stop taking it.

You may wonder if proving a homeopathic medicine means you can never use it again. Not at all! I particularly like Rhus Tox 1M when I have overdone it and have sore or painful muscles and joints. I was just done with it AT THAT TIME.

Ipecac

Around the same time, I tried taking Ipecac for a couple of days. This was because one of the reasons I had started taking the Merc Sol 6C twice a day was for food intolerances.

Merc Sol + Ipecac is an alternate protocol for food intolerances. Often the person who needs this will have sort of chronic dysentery symptoms, or colitis with bloody stool, that sort of thing. I did not have those symptoms. However, as mentioned above, Merc Sol ‘fit’ me with many keynotes in the Materia Medica, in addition to being a Banerji Protocol for food intolerances. And I had already tried many of the other first line food intolerance protocols without success (Bovista, LycoArs etc).

Because the Merc Sol + Ipecac was a Banerji Protocol I decided to add the Ipecac just to test it on myself and see. There are plenty of times that a protocol remedy will not seem to fit when you read it in the Materia Medica, yet it will act.

(When I read Ipecac in the Materia Medica at that time, it was basically a zero-legged stool for me, meaning no legs to stand on, so I watched closely after adding it.)

Sure enough within a day I started to feel a low grade nausea come on. (Ipecac is a great nausea medicine— what it causes it can cure.) So I stopped taking it and kept on with just the Merc Sol, which has been an excellent remedy for me long term.

And, yes, I have used Ipecac at other points when needed. When I did have a case of terrible dysentery, Merc Sol + Ipecac was the only remedy that acted for me. 

[The Banerji Protocol for generalized mucous stool, dysentery/blood dysentery is Ipecacuanha 30C + Merc Sol 6C (mixed or taken together at the same time).]

Arnica

After my husband severely injured his ankle— and once we got through the extreme acute phase with homeopathy— he continued on with his daily remedies (baselines such as Symphytum 200 + Calc Phos 6C, Bryonia 200, Rhus Tox 200 and others) and he also continued to take Arnica 10M + Hypericum 10M twice a day for the pain and healing. 

He made rapid improvements day by day, until day 13 when I felt he was very much better and considered stopping the 10Ms. 

However, because it’s my husband, I decided to test how long he could take the 10Ms (considered high potency) before proving the remedies.

The next day (day 14) he came home complaining of very sore calves. I knew it was the Arnica so we stopped the Arnica + Hypericum 10M. (We stopped the Hypericum as well since he was so much better). Within a day his calves were totally fine.

In the future we used Arnica again many times. (He’s very active and gets injured doing sports and working.) Much later on, after using Arnica in various potencies over the years, he would pretty quickly prove the Arnica when given in a high potency (1M or higher). 

He came to know that sore calves were the sign. When it started to happen rather regularly, I switched him over Bellis Perrenis, which acts well for him as a replacement. (If you read up on it in the Materia Medica, Bellis is very closely related and can be considered as an alternate to Arnica.)

Also, it’s important to note that high potencies (1M and above) are likely to prove much more quickly. In the above example, he was able to take the Arnica 10M twice a day for two weeks because the injury to his ankle had been so severe. If you just have a mild pain and take Arnica 10M, you may prove it in short order. Whereas a 3C, 6C, 30C or 200C may be taken for a long time— in many cases twice a day for 6 months or a year, or even longer— for a chronic condition.

Sepia

One friend of mine started taking Sepia for infertility issues. After maybe 8 weeks on it (and other remedies for her particular case) we were messaging back and forth and she was expressing some pretty intense emotions, sounding quite depressed, and was deeply doubting her marriage. As I was listening it occurred to me that it was a very ‘Sepia’ picture. 

A major keynote of Sepia is lack of interest in (or even disgust for) one’s children or husband, home life, wanting to abandon the family, etc.

I encouraged her to stop the Sepia and in a few days everything lightened considerably. Her life problems weren’t gone, of course, but it didn’t look nearly as bad as it had to her.

These types of provings, that involve emotions, do require a certain level of self awareness, or else someone to help observe.

It’s all too common (and I see this in my psychotherapy practice all the time) that when someone experiences low feelings, they take it seriously and don’t question WHY they are feeling that way. If taking homeopathy (or pharmaceuticals for that matter), definitely consider that THAT might be the cause; particularly, if it is not a usual state of being for you. 

[I will add that whenever we are feeling low, it’s an opportunity to look at why. Often we need to make some shifts— that is commonly what emotions are telling us. Don’t buy the chemical imbalance story. That’s to sell you things like antidepressants. Depression is a response, a natural response, to an unhappy life experience and our thoughts about that experience. Feelings provide information for us; they are a simple feedback mechanism. Like when you touch a hot stove and get burned. Ow! Don’t do that! Then it’s up to each of us to find the courage to step into the life we do want, making changes as needed, and not collapse into stuckness.]

Aconitum

A teenager was brought to me by her mom for intense irritability. In addition, the girl wanted to get off of the antidepressant she’d been on since the age of 8.

To put it mildly, she was super bitchy! She had also thrown terrible tantrums as a child (thus the antidepressant at such a young age), and her father had died very suddenly when she was young— a shock which affected the whole family considerably. She also had moments of intense anxiety and overwhelm.

Without giving you the whole case and all the details, I will outline the homeopathic medicines she took with basic notes on why:

Twice a day: Aconitum Napelles 200 + Chamomilla 200 (trauma, shock, irritability, anxiety and panic)

Twice a day: Stramonium 6C (tantrums, fears)

As the months went by, she improved remarkably. Her mother would report that she was much calmer and easier to be around, even when aggravated by her younger brother. After about three months on the homeopathy they started to wean her off the antidepressant. (They did this by incrementally decreasing the dose over about three months, while taking the homeopathy at the same time.)

Once the transition off the pharmaceuticals was complete, I would occasionally remind the mom that homeopathy was not to be taken forever. However, she seemed to want to keep her daughter on the homeopathic medicines as long as possible. So I just made sure to explain what a proving was and what to watch out for. 

Right around the 8 month mark, the mom messaged me to say that her daughter had been feeling very anxious and had been having nightmares.

I had been waiting for this time to come. We stopped all of the remedies— the proving could have been the Aconitum and/or the Stramonium, but it didn’t really matter because she was already very much better— and she was done.

The girl has continued well to this day, with the occasional normal teenage moods, but nothing so over the top as before.

So that’s one way to do it when you are unsure how long to take a homeopathic medicine. You can take it until it gives you the signal that you are done.

Conium

A friend and client of mine with tinnitus (ringing in the ears) wanted to try the Banerji Protocol for it. Conium Maculatum 3C (or 6C) is the primary remedy. She started it twice a day, and within about a week developed pretty intense vertigo.

She messaged me rather worried; but we just stopped the Conium, she took some Camphora 200, and all settled right back down in short order.

Conium is also a top remedy for vertigo. (What it can create it can uproot.)

The Banerji Protocol for ‘Diseases of the Inner Ear, Sensory Hearing Loss, Tinnitus, Vertigo, Meniere’s Syndrome’ (see pg 67 of the Banerji Protocols book) includes vertigo AND tinnitus.

But in her case Conium wasn’t the right medicine for her tinnitus, and so she developed a totally new symptom (for her) that Conium can create.

We would say she ‘proved it’.

Ammonium Carbonicum

Lastly, this was one of the most sudden and intense provings that I’m aware of:

I recommended Ammonium Carbonicum 200 once a week to a client as part of a complete schedule for various conditions. On paper it was a good fit, but the day she took her FIRST weekly dose, and within hours, she began to feel an intense depression coming on. Not like anything she had ever felt before. As the day continued, her mood got blacker and blacker, and she got very concerned.

But once we realized that this had followed the dose of the new remedy, she took Camphora 200 and it calmed right down. (And the Ammonium Carb was immediately removed from her plan.)

You might ask if that could be considered an ‘aggravation’. In my experience, what I would call an aggravation is when an existing condition gets worse (or aggravated) when starting a homeopathic medicine. 

As this was a completely new state for her (and it nearly scared her off homeopathy), I wouldn’t categorize it as an aggravation. It wasn’t like she already suffered from depression and taking the remedy made it feel worse. In this case, she went from feeling fine to deeply depressed, out of the blue, and very quickly. 

Do note that there are plenty of times that attempting to define exactly what is occurring is challenging. But the definition is not the important point. If a person is suffering from a remedy, we stop it (or modify it).

In my world, I do not expect people to get worse before getting better. The Banerji Protocols rarely cause aggravations (partly because the remedies are repeated regularly, and partly because they have been tested so thoroughly in the clinics).

[I was originally going to include aggravations and suppressions in this article too— but instead of writing a book right now, I will save those for the next time.]

Biggest Mistakes 

The biggest mistakes people make with regards to homeopathy and provings (in my opinion) are:

1. Being afraid of provings. Fear around homeopathy probably is the biggest thing that prevents good results. If the remedies are generally well-selected (and don’t forget to use the Banerji Protocols to help with this!), I regularly see people taking remedies twice a day for 8 months, 14 months, or even longer, until a condition is resolved and WITHOUT any provings. If you live in fear of them, you will practically be guaranteed to abandon good medicines too soon. I, for one, have not been afraid to push the limits, because I know and trust that provings are not a big deal. The only real ‘problem’ enters if someone just keeps taking the remedies despite new and uncomfortable symptoms. 

Homeopathy is kind and gentle, and you should generally feel nothing in particular— except noticing the improvement of conditions over time— with a return to your healthy and whole self. We do not muscle our way through with homeopathy, like you might put up with side effects of traditional drugs. My rule with homeopathy is no suffering!

2. Thinking everything is a proving. I would say 80-90% of the things people come to me worried about (thinking it’s a proving) do not turn out to be so. VERY often it’s a coincidence. (Such as, one day there’s a headache or a heart palpitation and the first thought is the remedies are causing it. But after stopping the remedies, and the headache is gone, the remedies are restarted and all is well.)

Plenty of times we will stop a medicine just to be sure and then resume the medicine with no problems.

As far as I know, homeopathy has never caused a lasting condition.

What I have seen is homeopathy peel back layers, particularly suppressed conditions, that then come to the surface as we heal. Usually these will be found to be old issues being revisited— with an opportunity to heal them properly this time around. If there IS a new condition, use that information to assess the picture and choose new remedies.

Also, take note that many conditions are incredibly common in the Materia Medica. For instance, diarrhea is a symptom of just about every other remedy. Just because you have diarrhea one day doesn’t mean it’s a remedy causing it. Jumping ship at every little thing will make the process much harder.

This is not to say soldier on blindly as a new condition persists. Yes, when in doubt, just stop the medicines for a day or two. That is the surest way to set your mind at ease— and in the scheme of things an occasional day or two without the medicines won’t really hurt your progress. 

However, if you are worried all the time, it might serve you to get some help from an expert friend or a professional.

ALL of us who use homeopathy are faced with the question, at some point, as to whether or not something is a proving or not. It is wise to consider all the options, and provings DO happen. 

But, as an example, just a couple of weeks ago I woke up with very sore, stiff and slightly swollen fingers. I wondered if a remedy I was taking might be causing what felt like new, moderate intensity arthritis.

Then a little later in the day I remembered that I had done a class with yogic planks— on my fingertips!— the day before (well sort of… I tried, but they are very hard!). No wonder my hands were sore! So, instead of stopping remedies, I actually added a few for the arthritic feeling in my fingers, and within a couple of days all was well again.

I have also seen cases where something new came up and the person got terrified that it was a proving. So they abandoned the remedies. The issue did not go away. In fact a year later it was worse (the natural progression of the disease), at which time they resumed the remedies and then started to see improvements. 

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Lastly, I haven’t talked much about this yet, but it is ALWAYS wise to keep notes.

Write down what you are taking, always noting modifications to the plan and the date you made them, then add anything important as you go (blood sugar readings, emotional changes, menstrual improvements, and so on). Before and after pictures of things like skin conditions can be super helpful as well.

Also, be sure to note INTENSITY— such as rating pain on a scale from 1-10, or itch from 1-10. This is very valuable later on when the person claims to be no better and you can see the pain was an 8 and now it’s a 2. (That is MUCH better and you wouldn’t want to abandon whatever has done that!)

You can also add notes regarding remedies to consider, such as those you come across in your research that you want to remember for the future.

I keep a physical file for everyone I help in any capacity. I also use the Notes app on my Mac. And I use sticky notes constantly. As I research for one person, I often come across something that might help another. So I often jot it down on a sticky note, then every few days I go through and organize those.

YOU must find what works for you and then be consistent. I know it can seem in the moment like you’ll remember the details, but very quickly they fade. It is SUPER helpful to be able to go back and find that remedy that worked so well for your child before, or to track how long your mother has been on a remedy, and to use the notes you’ve made when assessing your plan and progress. 

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I think that about wraps it up for provings today! Watch for aggravations and suppressions in upcoming articles.

Until next time— be confident, use common sense, and practice, practice, practice!

PS. If you are a paid subscriber you are welcome to share and to ask questions about provings (or homeopathy in general) in the comments section below!

PPS. Also, I’ve been posting daily to X. I link to research articles related to homeopathy—  scientific proof of efficacy. I’ve always wanted a place to aggregate the homeopathy research I find, and this seems like a good way to do it. I also post short tips that don’t really need a full article, like this recent one about making your own homeopathic allergy mix. 

PPPS. If you are new to homeopathy, or to the Homeopathy Rising Substack, you can find the full archive of posts here.