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Mixing Other Therapies with Homeopathy

by Tim Shannon, ND
Reprinted by permission.

I'm trying to answer your question in the bigger sense - not limiting my answer to your specific situation. My concern with multiple therapies is not about whether or not therapies would interfere- there is no question that many therapies can work well together - or at least co-exist. The issue is really about knowing what is doing what or knowing WHEN to mix therapies.

It can become very complex to assess the progress of the case and therefore direct dosing when there are multiple therapies in place. I say this because there some assumptions, such as: "if one therapy helps, then two or more will help... more." Or another assumption: " if the patient is doing better, what difference does it make which treatments are helping the most?" There are many such assumptions. But in practice, things don't always play out as our assumptions would have us believe.

There are multiple scenarios where adding treatments can cloud the ability of the homeopath to assess the action of the Rx. In my case, I expect the Rx to do the lion's share of the work - because that is what I see in practice on a consistent basis. So I put special emphasis on observing and assessing the case to insure that the progress is meeting all my criteria. I want the case to meet my criteria because I don't just assume that my prescription is correct - I need to see clear improvements to be convinced. That is why assessment is so crucial.

Since I don't use other therapies, I don't know what to expect from them. Every practitioner wants to believe the benefits are coming from their treatments, while the adverse effects are coming from the other treatment. The best way to know this is to be careful and only mix powerful treatments when needed and in a timely manner.

For example, some years back I had a patient come to me with anxiety attacks, and profound insecurity about being a mother. She was very skeptical that homeopathy could help her problem. She felt her anxiety was simply too big and profound for some little pellets or liquid to really effect. She thought she needed something "powerful" like drugs.

She never brought up her skepticism in my presence - I only found out about it later. In the interview, she was very pleasant. She was highly referred by a family member who was one of my successful patients. I took her case and tried to start her on her Rx, but very early on she dropped out of communication and didn't take the Rx.

About six moths later she called again. She had been on anxiety drugs for about 6 weeks, but they were not working. She was desperate, as her husband had been called away to active duty. She was alone with her kids and really very afraid that she couldn't handle it. Her anxiety attacks had become daily.

I advised her that she should discontinue the anxiety drug and then we'd start the homeopathic. My advice was due to the concern that I was afraid she might attribute the improvements to the drugs, and not the homeopathy. But she refused as she was quite desparate. Even though the anxiety drugs hadn't helped, she couldn't let them go. Out of sympathy, I gave her the Rx (Cimicifuga 200c) in a single dose dry. I told her she should expect to feel better in a week to 10 days at the most (a typical response time for someone in her state). She reported that she did in fact feel better within three or four days. But she couldn't bring herself to believe it was due to the Rx. She decided it was the anxiety drug kicking in. I didn't find out about this til later when she decided to discontinue treatment. About six months later I found out from a family member that her anxiety was better, but that improvement had reached a plateau - her deep seated insecurity was still firmly in place. All she ever got was the cimicifuga 200c once. It was enough to get her some improvement, but she needed further dosing to complete the cure. I've seen many similar cases of complications in case management due to patients allegiance to a belief, theory, or something - but their allegiance was clearly NOT with what was happening.

I know the above example doesn't really match the population of parents reading @ this site - mostly because the patient was simply too blinded by her skepticism. But patients don't need to be skeptical to make poor choices and get confused as to what therapies are efficacious.

In my understanding, it is beliefs and theories that DO confuse us.
It may seem remarkable, but patients/parents will sometimes cling to their beliefs/theories even in spite of the evidence. Parents can get so convinced that there child is needing this or that treatment, that it becomes quite easy to loose site of what is really helping. That is my major concern, taking things step by step and knowing what is happening.

Not by beliefs (mine or the parents), but by observation. The best way to do that is to baseline each treatment separately so we can know as conclusively as possible what effects are due to what.

It is vital to know what is doing what because many treatments either don't have any discernible effect, their effects are very short acting , or they require the patient to be dependent on the treatment for long periods. These things are not all bad, but given that homeopathy can and will often resolve ALL the major issues AND become self sustaining, it is the ball that I need to keep my eye on.
You mention that HBOT can grow neurons. That may or may not be the case - I have no idea. But I would recommend some discernment. There is no dependable way to measure neuronal growth that I'm aware of.
Therefore, the only thing you can measure progress with is objective, i.e symptoms, behavior, learning deficits, etc. If the homeopathic Rx is accurate, those issues will resolve - they all will. If all the issues resolve, then who's to say what is going on in the brain? It's is not possible to know. I don't know if HBOT will have the same effect - perhaps it can, I just don't know. But I would choose one or the other and watch what the OBSERVABLE results are. Judge the treatment and the need for it by its EFFECTS, not by a theory that can't be substantiated.

Additionally, It is not the idea of whether it is okay to mix therapies, it is really more about WHEN it is or whether it is NECESSARY. For instance, in an ideal situation, the homeopath would have enough time to thoroughly assess that the Rx is precise and will go all the way. Six months or so should be sufficient, then it might advisable to add a single therapy and carefully watch it's contribution.

I've counseled many parents to hold off on this or that therapy, because homeopathy will handle the concern. Eventually they forget about the therapy they were thinking of because their child is doing better than they could have expected with the homeopathy alone. But if an additional therapy is warranted, it is best to add them one at a time with many months in between.
I know that when it comes to our kids, we don't want to spare one minute, we want them on everything that will help right away. That's okay, people must follow their instincts. I'm only stating my preference as a homeopath. In my experience, healing is a simpler affair. Ideas like "less is more" and "results happen the fastest by going slowly"come to mind. I think sometimes we become so afraid and convinced of the depth and difficulty of autism, that we don't allow the therapies to do their work. It's almost like if we just use one powerful treatment, and it doesn't work, we can't bare it. So we add more and more against the very intimidating "monster" that autism has become. I would gently recommend moving forward with certainty and out of a perspective of carefully watching what treatments contribute - not motivated by fear or despair. Again, this is just my perspective, certainly not the gospel.

When we add too much into the pot, we begin to loose a very important tool - knowing what is happening. Without knowing what is happening, it can become difficult to direct the course of treatment. I know I've run on a bit, but I hope something in what I've written has some merit to some of the parents out there.

HSNC does NOT provide any form of treatments. HSNC offers educational information and resources to parents on classical homeopathy.
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