Symptoms as Defenses III
As mentioned in previous posts of Symptoms as Defenses, the immune system is quite a tricky thing. That is why anyone who has gone to a homeopathic practitioner knows that the homeopath asks many questions about the person’s chief complaint, minor complaints, and various other physical and psychological symptoms. Homeopaths take pride in their serious interest in and use of the idiosyncratic characteristics of each per son. The questions that homeopaths commonly ask include: Is there a time of the day that you feel best or worst or that any specific symptom occurs? How does weather affect you? How do you feel at the seashore or in the mountains? Are there any foods that you crave or to which you feel averse?
Skeptics tend to describe the homeopath’s interest in the unique symptoms of the person as evidence that this system is quirky and illogical. And yet, once again, it is now readily accepted in modern science that virtually every organ and enzyme of the body has its own daily rhythm and time of day when it becomes particularly active or inactive. It is now known that geothermal changes can affect brain chemistry and affect physical and psychological states. It is now understood that there are in creased negative ions at seashores and mountains that can affect states of health. And it is now recognized that food cravings or aversions may signal certain metabolic states.
Obviously, homeopathy is not a quirky system. It is a highly sophisticated method of individualizing small doses of medicines for a specific person.
The sensitivity of an organism to small doses of certain sub stances is evident throughout nature. Science has recently discovered the existence of pheromones, substances secreted like an odor outside of the body by an individual and perceived by a second individual of the same species. Members of other species do not seem to sense these pheromones.
We will continue our journey with Symptoms as Defenses IV.
Beste Gesundheit,
Werner