Breast cancer is the most-frequently diagnosed, life-threatening cancer in women and the leading cause of cancer death among women. In 2008, the American Cancer Society estimated around 1.4 million new cases worldwide. Despite breast cancer’s prevalence, conventional, or allopathic, medicine has been unable to discover the cause of the majority of cases. Numerous theories abound, including genetic mutations, environmental exposure, and inherited tendencies, but none have been proven. Homeopathic medicine takes a different approach to the problem, focusing on the patient’s emotional and mental health as both cause and potential cure for cancer.

Every woman is at risk for developing breast cancer, but conventional medicine has attempted to predict its emergence by identifying numerous risk factors. The risk factors for premenopausal women include early menarche, nulliparity, and late menopause. Those for postmenopausal women include obesity and hormone replacement therapy. However, approximately 70 to 80 percent of breast cancer cases occur in women with no obvious risk factors. Conventional medicine has no explanation for these cases. By contrast, homeopathy does not look at cancer as the result of risk factors but as a consequence of the mind-body connection. .

The Allopathic Approach

A breast cancer diagnosis is made using a wide range of screening tests. These include breast self-examination, physical examination by a GP or specialist, ultrasound, and mammogram. Once the breast cancer or mass has been detected and is suspicious of being malignant, further investigation is necessary. The next step involves diagnosis by Fine-Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAP) and/or a core biopsy (which is a bigger sample and more accurate).

Further studies include estrogen and progesterone receptor tests to determine if the cancer is hormone-receptor positive or negative. Additionally, genetic studies are also sometimes performed in order to determine whether or not the rest of the family is at high risk. For conventional medicine, the choice of treatment, prognosis, and predicted chance of recurrence are based on the results of this arsenal of screening tests.

After diagnosis, treatment is then recommended, which could include anything from chemotherapy, to lumpectomy, to radical mastectomy, or any combination of these or other invasive treatments.

The Homeopathic Approach

By contrast, homeopathic medicine bases its diagnoses and treatments mainly on the patient’s symptoms, personal history, and family history. But, most of all, any patient’s diagnosis and treatment depends upon his or her emotional and mental state of being at the moment of the consultation. A homeopathic doctor asks for a great deal of detail in this regard, while an allopathic doctor is highly unlikely to show any interest in this aspect of the patient’s health, even for the sake of trying to show the patient a little sympathy.

Case study

A 28-year-old lady came to my practice after being diagnosed with a malignant breast cancer on the right breast. She was devastated by the news—crying, inconsolable, and very frightened about her future. I reassured her that everything was going to be okay. By this time, she had already had the lumpectomy surgery, but she came to my office to see if there was any way I could help her during the next stage of treatment, which included chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and hormonal therapy.

At this point, there was no reason to treat the tumor, since it had already been surgically removed, so I thought it was better to prepare her internal environment for the coming aggression of chemotherapy. We agreed to use homeopathy in order to avoid, as much as possible, the side effects of the chemotherapy. I began treatment by giving her a constitutional remedy in order to make her stronger. The medication prescribed was Ignatia 0/6 every three hours, the first day, and every six hours, the second day.

During the session, I also took notes that detailed her state of being. The main symptoms considered were:

• Ailments after bad news
• Mortification
• Disappointment
• Grief

During chemotherapy, the patient suffered from the classic symptoms of nausea, tiredness, weakness, vomiting, etc. However, these symptoms were greatly improved with homeopathic medication on low doses, which I prescribed in order to avoid using up all of the patient’s energy. At this point, the patient was very grateful because during the time that she was receiving chemo, she was feeling stronger and stronger each session. Compared with the other patients, she was more energetic and more able to tolerate the treatment.

Finally, once the six sessions of chemotherapy were finished, we started treating her for the real cause of her cancer.

The real cause of cancer

As mentioned above, conventional medicine, or allopathy, still does not profess to know the cause of cancer. Instead, scientists present a long list of risk factors, which they attempt to apply to each patient’s case, even though, in most of the cases, these risk factors do not correlate to the patient’s specific cancer.

This young lady was a good example of this type of case: she possessed no risk factor at all. Her age was far younger than 50, the average age for the onset of cancer; there was no family history of breast cancer; and she had never been exposed to hormones such as contraceptive pills. Her menarche was present at an average age, she was not a smoker, did not consume alcohol, and she had always eaten a healthy diet. A screening test did not even show her as testing positive for any genetic predisposition to cancer. Her specialist simply explained it away by saying, “these things happen.”

What an incredible explanation!

A homeopath considers the cause of the illness, in cases such as these, to be emotional or mental. When the patient has an emotional imbalance, and her body is not able to cure this by itself—through a process known as “vis medicatrix natura”— then it starts creating physical symptoms in order to make it more evident that something is wrong and must be addressed.

In this particular case, my patient was suffering from a vast number of emotional conflicts. She had always suffered from problems within her family. Certain family members used to minimize her, most prominently her mother. This mother attempted to make the patient, as well as her sisters, be submissive to the whims of her father and brothers. The emotional disturbance caused by this family dynamic caused the patient to grow up with a lot of resentment toward many members of her family, but especially her mother. Aside from her cancer diagnosis, the patient was also depressive, disappointed, and suffering from lack of confidence.

The medication prescribed was Natrum mur MC. Since she began homeopathic treatment, her symptoms and feelings of resentment have been improving.

Conclusion

When we talk about treating cancer, the first thing to think about is the emotional background that could be the real cause of the problem. When we address feelings such as fear, morbid thoughts, and low self-esteem, the probability of the cancer recurring is very low, because we are getting rid of the only true cause of the illness. In treating the core emotional problems, we are able to have an impact upon any other disease, such as cancer, that has originated because of the original conflict. With this treatment in place, the probability of a patient suffering from metastasis or recurrence is quite a bit lower than it would otherwise have been.

Biography

• Bartel H.  1987 “Synthetic Repertory” Vol I, Ed. B. Jain Publishers (P) Ltd.

• Bailey PM. 1995 “Homeopathic Psychology: Personality Profile of the Major Constitutional Remedies” Ed. North Atlantic Books.
• Kent JT. 1999 “Lecciones de Materia Medica Homeopática” Ed. B.Jain Publishers LTD.

• Hahnemann S. 1982 “Organon of Medicine” 6th ed, Los Angeles: JP Tarcher, Inc.
• Proceso S. Ortega. 1997 “Introducción a la medicina homeopática teoría y técnica” 2nd ed.

It was sometime around the year 1841 when the Earl of Shrewsbury felt the need for a physician. But where was a nineteenth century aristocrat to turn, when all the doctors in town utilized bloodletting with leeches, purgatives, emetics, and other invasive, painful, and downright dangerous procedures in their “healing” practices? He asked around, locked into the extensive aristocrat and royal grapevine, so to speak, and ended up with a personal physician recommended by Dr. Hahnemann, the German originator of homeopathy. Thus was homeopathy brought to England, and thus was it spread throughout the upper classes of Europe. Then, as now, when one wanted a good doctor, one asked friends for recommendations.

Homeopathy is a medical system that uses a completely different treatment and diagnostic model than traditional allopathy or “western” medicine. Western medicine focusses on diagnosing an ailment, then providing a drug to either cure the problem or alleviate its symptoms. These drugs override the body’s natural immune responses. Homeopathic doctors believe that the body knows the right way to heal itself, and that a patient’s symptoms are merely the body’s way of dealing with imbalances. Homeopathic medicines do not fight the body’s symptoms, but assist the body in coming into balance more quickly. These remedies are extremely dilute amounts of substances that would, at full strength, actually cause the same symptoms that the remedy hopes to alleviate.

Thanks to the Earl of Shrewsbury’s work in bringing homeopathy to England, this revolutionary healing method thrived among queens, kings, dukes, duchesses, and innumerable other royals and noblemen. As a result, nineteenth and twentieth century Europe saw the science and art of homeopathy thrive. Royal patronage was one of the primary forces that enabled homeopathic physicians to continue to develop the preparations we still use today. Wealthy and educated patrons such as the Dukes of Beaufort and Cambridge; the Marquesses of Anglesey; the Earls of Essex, Donoughmore, Kintore, and Kinnaird; King Edward VII; and King George V helped to promote the benefits of homeopathy simply by employing homeopathic doctors and talking enthusiastically about their successful, and painless, healing experiences.

Today’s Prince Charles, Queen Mother, and the Queen of England herself still continue the traditional allegiance of British royalty with homeopathy that, for centuries, England’s royals sponsored. This support, over generations, is what truly enabled the founders of homeopathy to develop the healing philosophies, homeopathic preparations, and intake techniques they use today.

When homeopathy originated, in the fifteen hundreds, it became immediately popular with royal and aristocratic families. Unlike peasants, these classes of people had enough free time to be able to sit for an hour with a homeopathic physician, discussing their symptoms. They also appreciated the fact that one physician could address issues ranging from colds and flu to menstrual irregularities to anxiety attacks to migraine headaches. Because homeopathic remedies do treat the whole person, no additional trips to specialists is considered necessary.

Today, we often think of the old-world existence of royalty as a “life of leisure,” but in truth, without any modern appliances or conveniences, and with states and principalities to manage, these nobles were busy individuals. A more realistic assessment of their lives would be to say that in terms of free time and income, they compared to the lives of the middle class today. Although we do all different kinds of work now, it is not usually the sun-up to sun-down toil that characterized the days of the peasants, so many of us, like the royals and aristocrats of old, have a lifestyle that is also conducive to reaping the benefits of homeopathy.

Now everyone can enjoy the benefits of homeopathy. In many cities, there is even an extensive selection of doctors to choose from. This healing modality’s belief in treating the whole person has survived over the centuries, where other medical theories have gone by the wayside. Homeopathic practitioners and patients have the aristocratic and royal families of old to thank for remaining faithful to this highly effective, but often misunderstood, healing practice, and for supporting its early founders in their never ending experiments that resulted in so many thousands of homeopathic preparations existing for our use today.

www.backonyourfeet.com.au

Osvaldo will take you through his case study on how Ovarian cysts were treated successfully with homeopathy

Ovarian Cysts

On this occasion I am going to talk about a young woman. She was 25 years old when she first came to see me, single woman without children and living with her parents. Her first visit was due to various physical symptoms, she complained of recurrent sore throat with anginas inflammation, which often made it difficult for her to swallow saliva. Her anginas were always inflamed and red, and covered the whole throat. At least once a month she suffered from very intense fevers which put her in bed for the whole day, accompanied by intense headaches.

Talking to her, I came to know she suffered from menstrual pains with generally late, heavy, and irregular periods with abdominal distension. During her menstruations she was very sensitive to smells and noises.

Regarding the mental aspects, the patient said she was very irritable, even about the most insignificant things; if she was contradicted, she reacted violently and experienced the desire of throwing things whenever she got angry. She was always in a very bad temper since the beginning of the day. She was very anxious when it came to her work and said she was a perfectionist; she was not satisfied until her current project was finished. She was very tired physically because she was not sleeping well. Whenever she went to bed, she kept thinking about all the things she had done during the day and this kept her from falling asleep.

During her visit, she refused to talk about her family, saying that everything was just fine and that nothing bothered her about them.

Symptoms:

Anger, ailments after anger

Anger, violent

Morose

Sleeplessness, mental strain

I took the case and, according to her symptoms, I decided to give her 200 c Nux vomica in one dose.

A week after her first visit, the patient called me, saying she was worried because she had intermenstrual flow, which she had never had before; the discharge was coffee-coloured, thick and had bad smell; it wasn’t accompanied by blood or any other symptom, like inflammation or pain. She said her mood had improved, she was not so irritable, and that week, for the first time in months, she had been able to sleep through the night without problems, so I decided to maintain the same instructions and ordered an ultrasound.

A month later, I saw her again. She told me the menstrual flow had lasted 4 days and that this time her menstruation was on time, not as heavy as other times, and that she hadn’t been too bloated. She felt sad and anxious because her ultrasound showed a cyst of approximately 10 cm in her right ovary. Scared about this result, she had visited her Ob/Gyn, who told her she would need surgery to remove the ovary, due to her symptoms and to the cyst’s size; she told her to wait around 3 months to see how it developed.

On this occasion, she decided to talk about her family, especially her mother. She said her mother had always been very cold towards her, never encouraged her to do anything but criticized her constantly and embarrassed her in front of other people. She told me this with tears in her eyes, but she refused to cry openly; she told me she did not want to cry in front of others because she did not want them to feel sorry for her. With her father and brothers she had no problems. When I asked her if she had ever tried to talk with her Mom about how she felt, her reply was, “What for? She never listens.” During the whole visit she continued blaming her mother for everything that was happening to her.

After checking her, I decided to administer Natrum muriaticum 0/6 in water once a day for three days.

The following month I saw her again; her mood was much better. She wasn’t irritated. She still resented her mother, but she was not as bitter; in fact, she said she had tried to solve things with her Mom, but that she was very difficult. Her ovary was still a sensitive subject, and she told me she had cried a lot during the past month and that crying had relieved her a lot. I asked her if she cried when she was alone, and she said she had cried in front of her boyfriend and brothers, and that this was comforting and didn’t bother her as before.

This time I gave her only one dose of Pulsatilla 0/6.

The visits continued and I could see a great improvement in her mood. Three months after her ovarian cyst was detected, she had another ultrasound. The cyst was still approximately 9.5cm big, so her Ob/Gyn told her that since it had not become smaller, he would have to operate, even though her symptoms were much better: her menstruations had been regular during the past three months, they were not as heavy or painful and she didn’t present abdominal distension anymore.

She decided not to undergo surgery and continued visiting me. I maintained the Natrum muriaticum 0/7 in only one dose per month, and for two months she didn’t need any other medication. Six months later I ordered another ultrasound: her cyst had reduced from 10 cm to just 2 cm.

Ovarian cyst

An ovarian cyst is any collection of fluid, surrounded by a very thin wall, within an ovary. Any ovarian follicle that is larger than about two centimeters is termed an ovarian cyst. An ovarian cyst can be as small as a pea, or larger than an orange.

Most ovarian cysts are functional in nature, and harmless (benign). In the US, ovarian cysts are found in nearly all premenopausal women, and in up to 14.8% of postmenopausal women.

Ovarian cysts affect women of all ages. They occur most often, however, during a woman’s childbearing years.

Some ovarian cysts cause problems, such as bleeding and pain. Surgery may be required to remove cysts larger than 5 centimeters in diameter.

What I have learned from this case is how the supression of emotions can also lead to the supression of other symptoms. This young woman had decided to suppress her feelings towards her mother, she didn’t talk about it and kept all her feelings to herself. This made her ovary to also keep fluids instead of draining them. A dosis of Nux vomica drained the fluids and the emotions also started to come out. Both body and emotions behaved in the same way the whole time, and started healing from the inside out, according to Hering’s law. Once the emotional aspect was better, by improving her relationship and communication with her mother and learning to forgive, her body was capable of letting go of the physical pathology.

According to medical literature, ovarian cysts are benign and many times do not require treatment, but in this case surgery was required, due to the cyst’s size and show evolution; this could have been devastating for a 25 years old patient with no children.

This case proves once again that not everything can be solved using a scalpel; as Hahnemann suggested, there is always a gentler, faster and more subtle way of curing diseases. A patient is much more than a diagnosis. Each patient must be taken as a whole, and one cannot dismiss emotions and mental symptoms, even in acute cases. One must allow the body the time to respond by itself and apply the healing law; in some cases, one must be prepared for the medication to worsen the symptoms initially, be patient and observe the patient’s evolution instead of immediately changing the medication.

Homeopathy Sydney with Osvaldo

References:

“Ovarian Cysts Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment”. eMedicineHealth.com. http://www.emedicinehealth.com/ovarian_cysts/article_em.htm.