Mastering Homeopathy 3 - Obstacles to Cure: Toxicity, Deficiency and Infection

Review

This book review is reprinted from Volume 25, Number 1 , Year 2012 edition of the Homoeopathic Links - International Journal for Classical Homeopathy

Reviewed by Prem Bharati Ankalgi Devkota, USA

The challenges for 21st century homeopaths are very different from those of around two hundred years ago. This book raises many questions in our minds. How are the quality of today's air, water and food - essential for every human being - different from two centuries ago? Are the results of homeopathic treatment as successful in developed countries as in developing countries? From my own experience (coming from Nepal, now living in the USA) I know the challenges in developed countries and developing countries are very different. There are many environmental factors coming into play with the development of societies that can be obstacles to cure. The author shares his experience on how to deal with obstacles like diet, lifestyle and environment with homeopathy.

The book starts by explaining the underpinning cause of disease. It has been divided into three parts. The first part is about deficiencies, including nutritional deficiencies, as in iodine, iron, magnesium, zinc, selenium, calcium and copper. It covers deficiency symptoms, causes of deficiency, ways of detecting deficiency, daily requirements of these nutrients for all age groups and its conventional as well as homeopathic treatment. Cases with graphs are presented for more clarity.

The second part is on Infections and discusses streptococcus, deep gum infection, post-viral: Epstein Barr, cytomegalovirus and herpes zoster, mosquito-borne disease, Candida, intestinal parasites, mental illness and infection and Lyme disease. The author shares his clinical experience in the use of homeopathic remedies in these conditions. This chapter has a table featuring a disease and organism treatment guide with information on symptoms presentation.

The third part of the book is on toxicity, an everyday challenge for homeopaths, and includes separate chapters on chemicals, iatrogenic diseases and electromagnetic radiation with successful cases. Heavy metal toxicity of cadmium, copper, lead and mercury are discussed in detail. Sources of toxins, their effects, provings and ways to remove them from the body - conventionally as well as homeopathically - are covered. In the Iatrogenic section the effects of oral contraceptive pills, hormone replacement therapy, paracetamol, antibiotics and vaccinosis are presented with a homeopathic treatment approach. In the chapter on radiation due to cell phones, TV, etc., preventive measures and homeopathic approaches are discussed.

Test options and treatment protocols illustrated by cases make this a very practical book, which I therefore highly recommend to every student and practitioner of homeopathy. Knowing how to deal with the obstacles to cure in the 21st century is essential to make classical homeopathy as effective as it can be.

Reviewed by Jenni Tree

Aphorisms 3, 4 and 5 are the area of Jon Gamble’s work in this book ~ recognizing what is to be cured, removing the obstacles to recovery, and determining the aetiology. The obstacles to cure, in this book, he classes as Deficiency, as in nutritional deficiencies such as lack of iron, iodine, magnesium, zinc, selenium, calcium and copper; Infections – including bacterial, parasitic, and fungal, with chapters on Candida, Lyme, and mosquito- borne diseases; and Toxicity as caused by heavy metal accumulation of copper, lead, cadmium and mercury. He includes chapters on chemicals; iatrogenic diseases and new treatment possibilities.

There are four chapters devoted to case studies, as well as illustrative cases scattered throughout the text. I love cases, finding that they speak to me more than lists of repertory rubrics or symptoms. Cases connect a lot of disparate information for me into a recognizable pattern.

We are persuaded to understand ‘what’ we are treating before ‘who’; and if we work from this perspective, to keep the diagnosis, with the individual particulars and generals, in the analysis, rather than to discard them as common. Treatment approaches included nutritional supplementation, tautopathic medicines in the form of potentized allopathic drugs; industrial and household chemicals, and isopathy – as well as the application of the similimum. Posology suggestions are included. I found the repetition of high (200c) potencies on alternate days surprising, yet recall similar cases of my own when I have had to prescribe one potency over a long time to rid the body of, in one case, the effects of the Polio vaccine.

Jon relies on Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA), blood, stool and urine tests to provide him with required verification of that altered patterns in the mother during pregnancy are in fact the energetic expression of the medicine state of the child. Hence in very young children with few or no verbal skills, eliciting changed patterns in the mother -whether dreams or fears or cravings, will add vital information to the selection of the homoeopathic medicine. This is a book that significantly advances a homoeopath’s ability to tackle children’s cases and I highly recommend it.

Toxicity,diagnosis, and in an appendix explains where to get the tests done, how to read the results, and what action to take. The book is aimed at the Australian market, but my guess is that it would not be difficult to set up these testing systems in other countries.

This approach to homoeopathy requires a very thorough casetaking, giving due time to the history not only of disease but also of the drugs used. It requires a particular way of thinking and an amount of medical, nutritional, toxicological and naturopathic knowledge certainly not available to anyone trained solely in a new method such as Sensation. Jon trained in Naturopathy, Osteopathy as well as Arts and Law. I see that he has a wide-ranging, enquiring mind, which he brings into full use in his books – this is one of a series that includes The Homeopathic Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I found it an absolute mine of useful, interesting and at times frightening information. To quote §4: The physician is likewise a preserver of health if he knows the things that disturb it, that cause and sustain illness, and if he knows how to remove them from healthy people.

This book review is reprinted with the permission from the Spring 2011 Edition of The Homeopath.

Reviewed by Margot Maidment
I have not yet read volumes 1 and 2 in this series but, after reviewing this volume and based on its quality, I certainly intend to. We have all been confronted or at least heard about the difficulty of addressing 'stuck' or difficult cases and probably reflected on what may be preventing the case from progressing. Is our failure a result of not understanding or penetrating to the depth of the case? Worse, is it somehow the patient's 'fault' for not co-operating? (It is easy to stray into this dubious territory of blaming the patient if we don't guard against it.)

Gamble's work provides us with a much more satisfactory way of approaching the cases which 'challenge the efficacy of traditional homeopathic methodology'. He claims, based on his clinical experience, that we need to pay more attention to obstacles to cure. These may range from nutritional deficiency to iatrogenic causes. Having been already alerted to this possibility by my forays into nutritional therapy, I am delighted to find such a well-researched and comprehensive addition to my knowledge of this field.

This area of disease causation is not something that the average medical practitioner will have been trained for, nor what most homeopaths feel their initial training has prepared them well for, even if they are well aware of maintaining causes and the underpinning causes of disease. Gamble does not offer easy solutions and some of his protocols may be specific to his native Australia and more difficult to access here. However, he provides detail and clarity in both casetaking and analysis when explaining the history of his cases and their resolution is outlined with clear attention to why he adopts his strategies. These range from single high potency prescribing, to applications of tautopathy and isopathy in cases of chemical sensitivity.

This is a very persuasive thesis and offers a range of tools with which to address the varied presentations different patients may confront us with. Gamble suggests that we are being faced with 'a growing accumulation of toxic, infective and chemical agents which we have not evolved to deal with that need to be removed or excluded from the patient's environment before they can recover'. He points out that today's petro-chemical based substances did not exist in the 18th century and that there are 80,000 synthetic chemicals in daily use.

He explains some of his diagnostic toots as well as justifying his approach by reference to paragraphs in the Organon. From a business point of view, he says that as a result of the changes to his approach his practice has never been more exciting and his patients have never been better.

This is a slim volume but packed with references and supporting information as well as detailed case histories. It could revolutionise the practice of homeopaths in this country if we have sufficient open-mindedness, additional training and access to resources to support our approaches and it may well justify the extra efforts involved if we have the best interests of our patients at heart It will not make our practices easier in the sense of the work involved and Gamble's assiduous approach is very evident in the cases he describes, but it may well make us more satisfied with the results we get from the work and time that we put in.