Evaluating Your Homeopathic Treatment

Inorder to change the image of homeopathy the thing that works best is SPEED of treating it. I am always excited to mark my patients SOS means report if problem -treatment is DONE.The lesser the time taken the happier I feel. But not my patients-they have been tuned and serviced to keep on taking homeopathic medicines for months if not years.So when I say that "you dont need to report next week(i call my patients on a weekly basis)" I always get the same response-surprise,shock,not-ready,pl may I continue so much so that on occasional moments I have relented.

I personally feel a doctor who keeps his patients with him too long also is a case of "attachment".Fix an objective for each patient, acheive it as fast as possible, make them SOS and let them go.Give them self-help kits, medicines, your site link and you are ready for NEXT patient.

What happens in practice is that there is a nice system of follow-up on a weekly basis that gets so set in the routine (of both) that its easy and smooth.Also other complications can happen like doctor becomes your friend , confidant, agony aunt,advisor, family so you want to be with him/her.Senior citizens often come because its something to do in the evening in this busy-city-routine.This is the reason that many times people say homeopathy means "placebo-effect" simply because in all the history-taking your doc becomes your friend and you are better just because you make a good friend.

It is therefore very important to evaluate homeopathic treatment and their results.We can evalute it at various levels depending upon your objectives, the nature of disease etc.Most of this applies to classical homeopathy since for chronic diseases thats the best form of homeopathy but one can use it for others as well.
Results should be considered for evaluation only if
--one has taken medicines at least for 3months in most cases and more for advanced or grave cases
--the homeopath is professional -so that we are sure that the disease has been understood properly

For evaluating lets first see the broad type of diseases as classified by homeopath
1)Completely treatable ex acidity,colds, coughs -complete cure is possible and must happen.There can be different causes which individualises the case but in most cases fully cured or at least 80% better

2)Complex but treatable:Like psoriasis, eczema, PCOD,kidney stone. If the psoriatic patches are large then it takes lot of time but cure is still possible.In 3months you must definately see the signs of improvement.People should begin to comment or spouses/partners should be able to see the change.Diagnostic tests can also help.Lowering in increased values, changes in blood tests, or change in size(say of cyst) on sonography.

3)Palliative treatment in cases like advanced cancers, degenerative changes like OA(osteoarthritis) etc.Means the pain is better, burning is better but the disease process is not reversible or treatable to that extent.Overall patient Iis happy of the relief that homeopathy has to offer.

While evaluating always compare with before treatment scenario-pain, frequency,intensity,trigger factors,blood reports, sonography, Xray reports,MRIs, Scans all help to get a picture.Sometimes one is not sure and in such cases treatment should continue and that it has not deteriorated is a good indicator to go by.It also helps to have other involved people to opine-a nurse will tell you better how much the patient can now walk compared to a cribber-patient who does not want to get better.

Except for a few complaints like colds, some skin pigmentations and others nothing really gets better on its own. If so it would not have happened  in the first place.Secondly even a simple thing like regular walks can increase the immunity and clear certain problems.At times homeopathy also has effect long after you stop it -since latest reasearch says that the action of homeopathy is through purines and pyrimides structures which take time to stimulate our bodies.

If you are better then its only a matter of time that cure will happen-some more time -say 3months more or 6 months maximum.Keep at it.However, if not you need to tell your homeopath that you are really not better and she will change the dosage/drug/potency to get it right.Also do check out if similar cases have been handled by your doctor.Only if your doc is not listening you need to change. Other therapy like allopathy should be sought only if it offers a better solution.Better does not mean dependent-so an allopathic pump/inhaler is not a good solution for asthmatics, or insulin shots for diabetics.Interesting would be to ask why your case is taking time-bad family history(fathers/mothers/aunts/grandparents-hypertentions,DM,cancers) is like a speed breaker in treatment.

If you still have doubts comment or opine and I will get back....