Mrs. G
Let’s take a break from basic homeopathy education to consider a little case that illustrates some concepts I have been observing and contemplating for some time, yet that I haven’t found formally discussed anywhere.
[If you are new to Homeopathy Rising, you can find the full archive here. These posts are building a foundation from the beginning, so feel free to go back and review. At this point everything is open and free to all. Though, I, of course, very much appreciate the support of my paying subscribers!]
When I read books by James Compton Burnett (love him!) and Dorothy Shepherd (love her!)— to name a couple of the well-known homeopaths who were publishing from the mid-1800s to around the mid-1900s— I am struck by their methods of using a few doses of one remedy in, say, 6X, or treating an acute war injury with Arnica 30C, or the occasional ‘high potency’ 200 administered just one time, and the successes they had. (Dorothy Shepherd occasionally used one dose as high as 10M, but only one dose.)
They were primarily following Samuel Hahnemann’s original principles of one remedy at a time and the law of the minimum dose. (Though Burnett did often give a long string of consecutive remedies, particularly in complex cases, he was rarely giving more than one at the same time.)
Now flash forward to the 2000s, and to the Banerji Protocols, which treat people with repeated doses, often including 200 potencies twice a day over many months, or in some cases years, also with great success.
Note: Many consider 200C to be high potency, but in my schooling 200 is only a medium potency. And in my practice, I agree. I think it was ONCE UPON A TIME a higher potency than it is today. More on that below.
When I began using homeopathy, I followed methods that would be considered pretty ‘classical’, and also in line with the Burnett/Shepherd methods, though I really didn’t know that at the time. I was just feeling my way through it.
It was very time consuming to try to fit everything a person (or animal) was having trouble with into one remedy. (Which, I might add, is not even an approach promoted by Burnett or Shepherd— nor Hahnemann even—but became a very popular idea in the evolution of popular homeopathy. To find the ‘one ring to rule them all’, so to speak,… or the one remedy to cure it all!)
After I had fumbled through the Materia Medica and Repertory for a while, I made my remedy choice. I would then give a dose of say a 30C, once a day, for maybe three days, after which point I would often start to feel worried that I was going to overdo it somehow. It was painstaking and stressful.
(Although I did, incredibly, see some results— enough to keep me on this path!— I now know what REALLY is possible without all the fear and myths and false restrictions.)
Note: It can be helpful to sometimes revisit just how ultra-dilute homeopathic medicines are. People get all worried like they are administering chemotherapy drugs, when in fact we are giving the most gently nudging remedies, never a toxic blast of anything. It can also help to remember that there has never been a reported death from homeopathy. And it can help to remember that IF there is an aggravation or proving, you just STOP the medicines. IF the medicine was the cause (not always the case, plenty of times people worry it is, but it is coincidence), then the issue will go away. If the issue doesn’t go away after stopping then we must look at other causes, or consider it’s just another symptom in what is likely a long string of them.
But then I found the Banerji Protocols, and that began to give my confidence and success rate a boost. These remedies and potencies had already been clinically tested, on real patients thousands of times, and, at minimum, gave me a good starting place, if not the results I was looking for.
The repeated doses seemed to work, really well. Though at that time I still did not have confidence in how long one could stay on the protocols. I was usually ready to jump ship after a few weeks, or at most a couple of months.
(In hindsight, my old beloved cat should have been on heart remedies for the rest of his life— which was about a year from when I began helping him with homeopathy— not the couple of weeks here and there that I imagined was acceptable based on internet searches and the general ideas that still abound in homeopathic circles.)
Recently, as I was reflecting on some of these concepts, I realized that one of my very first clients demonstrates beautifully a lot of what I have come to understand about the different approaches to homeopathy. Including the differences between what was working for people a couple of centuries ago versus what is often required now.
This client, whom I will call ‘Mrs. G’, is one of those rare people who has not been ‘tampered’ with much. Certainly not by modern standards.
She was born at home with no interventions. She never received a vaccination (not in her whole life).
She was raised, and still is, vegetarian. (Say what you will— I know in some circles that’s a bad word— but her hippy-leaning family raised her to be aware of eating naturally and much cleaner than the average American diet, and she still eats plenty of animal fat and a wide variety of foods. She is a very robust person.)
She never took birth control or other hormones.
If she ever used antibiotics at all, it was occasional, and it was after she became an adult.
She has no children, so never underwent any birth procedures.
She takes no medications and rarely has. At most she has used over-the-counter painkillers (ie. Tylenol) for menstrual cramps and some corticosteroid-type creams for a long-term mystery rash on her skin. But they were doing that sort of thing a couple of centuries ago too. (Back in the 1800s they were slathering various concoctions on skin problems, and cauterizing off unwanted ulcers or growths.)
She is overweight and drinks quite a bit of alcohol, but people were doing that centuries ago too!
Note: Arguably, one thing that has improved over the centuries is diet, in terms of the ACCESS we have to good nutrition at least. If you read someone like David Thoreau, who lived and died young in the 1800s, his diet was horribly lacking in nutrition and he suffered from poor health and died of TB. This type of thing was much more common then, and most of us have seen charts that demonstrate the rapid decline in infectious diseases with improved nutrition and sanitation, even prior to the advent of modern day medicine.
So, in short, Mrs. G is about as close as we have to an ‘old-fashioned’ patient that Dr. Compton or Ms. Shepherd might have come across in their day.
Which is all quite unheard of in my modern day homeopathy practice:
TODAY most of my clients began with a not-so-natural childbirth.
Then depending on when they were born they received at least a handful of vaccines— or a great many more than that.
They typically were started on rounds of antibiotics as a child, for things like ear infections, often repeatedly and frequently.
Many received steroids of various types over the years, topically and/or injected.
Often various parts of their bodies have been removed (tonsils, appendixes, teeth) or cut off (moles, warts, other growths).
Some even have had parts added, like breast implants and knee replacements.
Frequently the females started on birth control for ‘convenience’ at a young age, or, even worse, took the Depo-Provera shot.
They generally took whatever their doctors offered them, without much thought for so-called side effects or suppressions, including antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs.
Most forget to even mention to me medications they are taking such as birth control, and those for heartburn and allergies and cholesterol, which seemingly everyone takes these days without a second thought. (People don’t even seem to consider them drugs anymore. And generally they have no idea the potential long term problems.)
UNTIL at some point these people are so unhealthy, with more and more new ailments each year, that they start to research ‘alternatives’.
And after (usually many) years of different diets, and supplement regimes, and naturopath visits, and diagnoses of candida and toxicity and so on, they end up at the door of homeopathy with;
Asthma, chronic allergies, digestive problems, food intolerances, endometriosis or PCOS, infertility, depression, fatigue, blood sugar problems, hypothyroid, weight gain, chronic skin conditions, chronic pain, panic attacks, and insomnia… to name just a handful of the most common ailments I see. (And that’s all happening in one person!)
So, nowadays, I often begin with multiple homeopathic protocols, and the person takes them daily for many weeks or months. I do not expect to find one remedy for all the different diseases in that one person. (Though it’s nice when there’s some overlap.) Each disease is considered separately, and then as a part of the whole picture.
I often find that we now need an orchestra, no longer a single instrument.
And sometimes we have to increase the potencies, particularly for chronic pain where 30C or even 200C just isn’t going to cut it for the majority of people.
And after 6, 9, 12 months of gradual healing we begin to see complete resolution of chronic ailments.
Which is wonderful… it just looks so different than the old-school homeopaths.
If the above sounds like you, DO NOT DEPAIR. In fact, this is to give you hope, to understand why what you have been doing may not be enough, and to understand the difference between what the books say and real world life in the 2020s. It’s not that homeopathy ‘doesn’t work’ for you. We just have to adapt to the times. It may require more doses, more medicines and more time, that’s all. (And the protocols are so helpful here!)
So PATIENCE, please, if you have a lot going on, and consider that the old way might not fit anymore.
Also, ZERO judgement about what you did or did not do in the past. I have been there myself. (More on that in some future post.) Self-judgement does no good now. Take what you can learn, implement it, and move forward with these incredible medicines that you have now discovered. With homeopathy it is never hopeless.
Now back to Mrs. G. Let’s take a look at how it went with her…
I have been helping Mrs. G off and on for years, though very infrequently nowadays.
At the beginning of working with her I had not yet heard of the Banerji Protocols. (And even once I did get the book, I didn’t FULLY grasp how to use the protocols until I did the Academy of Practical Homeopathy.)
At the beginning of working with Mrs. G, I was under the impression you could only give one remedy at a time, and only for a limited time. (And I was still focused on finding the ONE remedy to address everything going on with her.)
At the beginning I only knew about dry dosing, but later we used wet dosing with the same effectiveness.
So, in retrospect, this client demonstrates a rather scientific before and after picture. Including before the Banerji protocols and after, and before wet dosing and after.
[If you are new to the Banerji Protocols, click here and here. The point of this post is not so much to illustrate how to use the Banerji Protocols, or what I would do now. Plenty on that in the future.]
Mrs. G has always responded quickly to the remedies. In many ways she was a perfect first client— we often got very fast results, and so it was very encouraging for us both. But do not expect this. It is my belief that the reason she responded (and still responds) so quickly is that she has been tinkered with so little in comparison to the ‘average’ person.
If YOU are facing any of the issues that Mrs. G dealt with, I would recommend starting with the Banerji Protocols. See additional notes on this at the end of this article below.
So now that you have some of my ideas, I’ll share this relatively simple case. I think it reads a lot like a Dr. Burnett book…
Mrs. G — Homeopathy Case #1
One evening at a dinner party, after having had a few drinks, Mrs. G took me aside and nearly whispered, with tears in her eyes, her recent diagnosis of ovarian cysts and the pain and suffering she’d been going through every month as the cysts painfully ‘popped’ and bled. The doctors had gone in to surgically ‘pop’ them for her, but that was about all they had to offer.
I was relatively new to homeopathy, having only been practicing on my family, but I offered to help. To my surprise she agreed.
So we set up a time for me to take her case.
Case summary—
Middle-aged woman, overweight, but strong, energetic and generally in good health. Drinks alcohol every night. Vegetarian since birth. Few medical interventions in her lifetime. Never vaxxed. Never taken hormones (birth control etc). Not willing to change diet or lifestyle. (In theory she would like to lose weight, but in practice she is not willing to make lasting modifications to diet and exercise, and in particular heavy alcohol consumption: Which I share with you because the Banerjis never addressed diet and got excellent results.) No prior beliefs or knowledge about homeopathy. Willing to try it though!
Side note: One benefit, in my opinion, of repeated (daily) dosing of the remedies is that it fits the modern pharmaceutical mindset that the average person has. People who won’t make lifestyle changes or consider anything too ‘alternative’ or ‘hard to do’ often will take these little pills without batting an eye.
Primary complaints—
•Ovarian cysts— which would ‘pop’ monthly with pain and bleeding, feeling scary and stressful. Doctors offer no cure.
•Insomnia— for over a year, much worse with anxiety (worrying about people, feeling over-responsible).
•Long-time skin rash (approx 20 years)— at sides of breasts and armpits. Itchy at times. Many diagnoses over the years (including cancer at one point, which it wasn’t). Nothing ever really helped it, and it remained about the same.
•Constipation— particularly while traveling. No urge to go, accompanied by increasing bloating. She had waited up to 10 days without a bowel movement in the past.
•‘Dyshidrotic Eczema, aka ‘wet eczema’— on the bottoms of her feet, normally not very bothersome, but got terrible in hot weather.
•Dry skin in the winter— painful deep cracks in heels that could bleed.
•Big toe— nail fungus— comes and goes, but always a little bit there.
I ‘repertorized’ her case and came up with a list of remedies for her to buy to have on hand. (More on using the repertory in the future.)
In the middle of summer we began with Carcinosin 30 once a day.
In a matter of days (!) she was sleeping through the night, very happy and relieved.
Over the course of the next 6 weeks or so she didn’t have any ovarian cyst episodes. (Which had been occurring monthly.)
Then she was off for a trip to Europe and so we stopped the Carcinosin (since I still believed only one thing at a time) and I sent her with Lycopodium 200 for the constipation while traveling.
I recall that she took it once a day from the start of her trip and had ZERO issues with constipation during their travels. In addition, she told me her feet were much improved from the wet eczema, which normally would have been horrible wearing Tevas in the tropics. She stopped the Lyco after the trip.
Some months later, now nearing the Christmas holiday, we tried Sulphur 30 and Arsenicum Album 30 twice a day for the rash under her arms. (Using two remedies was a first here!)
When I saw her around Christmastime she showed me her cracking and bleeding heels, so we stopped the Sulph+Ars (which wasn’t showing any improvement for the rash) and I started her on Petroleum 200 twice a day right away.
Within weeks her heels remained a little rough but were no longer splitting open, so we stopped the Petroleum, with the caveat that she could resume if it came back.
In the Spring she got sick so I helped her with a cold.
Now I was really starting to use the Banerji Protocols, so we started her on Antimonium Crudum 200 + Arsenicum Album 200 for the armpit skin rash. I also included the Petroleum 200 because it had been so helpful for her and there was a slight return of dry cracking skin (though nothing like before). She took the dry pills at the same twice a day.
In about a month, the underarm rash— which she’d had for approximately 20 years— was nearly healed. And in about 6 weeks it was gone. We stopped the remedies and it has not returned!
Approximately five months later, which was about 13 months since we began, she felt like an ovarian cyst might be coming on, but it never materialized.
Then three months later we started her on Graphites 30 twice a day for toenail fungus. Generally nail fungus can be very slow to treat, but in about a month there were noticeable improvements.
About one month after that she contacted me with an ovarian cyst that was popping acutely. So we started her back on the Carcinosin 30, now twice a day. And this time (the first acute painful cyst we’d been through together), I had her get out the Belladonna 30 and instructed her on how to use it for acutes. She only had to take one dose and the pain was completely gone!
She stayed on the Carcinosin for less than a month and stopped when all appeared to be stable once more.
It wasn’t for another year that we had to deal with anything again:
She contacted me after a couple of days of ovarian cyst pain, and I reminded her of the Belladonna 30. This time I had her make up a wet dose bottle (since I was doing this with everyone by now). Even though the pain was intense, and had been going on for days, she took only two doses, about 20 minutes apart, and the pain was totally gone again.
Following that, about two months later, she called me up because she had been spotting for about 10 days since her last period and it was getting very annoying.
I had her make up a wet dose bottle with Carcinosin 30— because this had been so helpful for her before, and a quick look at the Materia Medica told me it fit here too— and also Calcarea Carbonica 30 which is a Banerji Protocol for normalizing errant menstrual cycles. I suggested we start with twice a a day and I’d check in with her after a few days to see how it was going.
She contacted me the next day to say that after just two doses the spotting stopped. (And she had taken a third dose just to be sure.)
We stopped the remedies and said we’d monitor it. The following month her cycle was normal.
That was last year and she hasn’t needed anything since.
It’s possible we’ll do another round at some point. But what this illustrates is the normal ‘dance’ of homeopathy. Though in this case please consider that you could be reading about someone from past centuries, from a Dr. Burnett or Dorothy Shepherd book.
As you’ll discover in future cases it is definitely not always that easy. And I am writing this article to point that out. IF you expect the above, you may end up thinking that homeopathy ‘doesn’t work’.
You’ll likely be amazed at the number of remedies some of my clients take at the same time— because of how many problematic conditions they have. So please don’t expect it to be like Mrs. G for you. Do not expect pain to resolve in one dose. It may (and often does require) multiple doses taken regularly over days, getting a bit better each day.
Note: Very often acute pain (and other issues) require multiple doses, even every 5 or 15 minutes to start, and spreading out the doses over the hours and even days that follow. It is a mistake to think that one dose is the test. No, 5-6 doses is what we use as a rule. If after 5-6 doses there is ZERO improvement, then we look for another remedy. If there is some clear improvement (though not necessarily total amelioration), we continue with the remedy as far as it will take us, using it less frequently as we get better; say every 1 hour, every 2 hours, every 3, to twice a day, then none. The intensity dictates the frequency. The more painful, the more often we take it.
I really want you to understand this. If you take nothing else from this article, remember that slow progress, repeated doses, possibly higher potencies, and multiple remedies does not mean you are ‘doing it wrong’. You are not. We are living in a different time that requires some adaptation, that’s all. (And homeopathy is SO adaptable!)
This doesn’t mean we don’t ever get those one-dose miracles. It IS possible to take a dose of something and have the issue disappear. But don’t expect it or you will stop taking good remedies too soon and possibly miss out on the healing effects that could have been.
In summary, I now believe that the fact that the modern human body has been so interfered with, by suppressions and injections and medications and daily onslaughts of chemicals and toxins, has made it so that utilizing homeopathic medicines in higher potencies, repeated more often, is often necessary to get results. And when I say results, I mean uprooting these conditions for good.
If you are dealing with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), take a look at pg. 100 of the Banerji Protocol book.
There you’ll find three lines of protocols. We always start with line one, and typically give it a minimum of 8 weeks before assessing progress. (Unless of course you are like Mrs. G and respond amazingly quickly.)
When assessing, try to take the big picture view, versus the minute-by-minute roller coaster ride perspective. We are looking for SOME improvement, in the right direction, over time, not a complete cure right out of the gate. Most commonly it will take many months of two steps forward and one step back. As long as you are still moving in the right direction, then continue with what you are using.
Of course, if you have a really complex case, and are new to this, you may need help. That’s not to say it’s required, or to scare anyone into needing an ‘expert’, only that if you get discouraged, don’t give up. It’s often much easier to help others than ourselves. Here is one place to look for help.
One final note: I am so grateful to have Homeopathic Materia Medica resources that include provings going back hundreds of years. I fear that provings done today on the modern population will have less than pure results. Most people today could (and can) take a great variety of homeopathic medicines for some time without proving them— and even the ‘wrong’ remedy may actually help them, due to all the pre-existing and underlying conditions that are present in the modern population. The number of people with chronic disease today is so staggering I fear it would be hard to find a true control group of any meaningful size, apart from a group like the Amish. (Maybe that’s by design?)
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Disclaimer: Emily is not a physician and the relationship between Emily and her clients is not of prescriber and patient, but rather of educator and client. It is fully the client's choice whether or not to take advantage of the information Emily presents. Homeopathy doesn't "treat" an illness; it addresses the entire person as a matter of wholeness that is an educational process, not a medical one. In order to be treated or diagnosed, Emily believes that the advice of a holistic physician is in order. Claims are based on traditional homeopathic practice, not accepted medical evidence. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.