Understanding Aphorism 78

Another way to confirm that you are dealing with a true chronic disease is that the disease does not respond to changes in lifestyle, diet nor removal of maintaining causes.

The true chronic disease continues to progress and gets worse, no matter what modifications the patient makes. A palliative remedy could help for a while, but those problems would then recur. Only a truly anti-miasmatic or constitutional remedy would make any alterations in the progress and presentations of true chronic disease.

What comes to mind are the numerous instances when we think, as homeopaths, we have given a good remedy to cure. But unless we have been rigorous in analyzing remedy response in light of the direction of cure, in effect we may have only palliated for a while. We may find over a period of time that we have not been successful in stemming the progress of miasmatic expression and evolution of disease. My personal experience was that I had failed to recognize what is truly miasmatic in disease that required treatment in the early years of my practice.

Today people have the impression that homeopathy is placebo treatment or only a treatment for simple problems. For serious problems, modern medicine alone is seen to be valid. This has happened because a majority of us have not learnt to perceive chronic disease and its manifestations and have a lack of understanding and training of well established, classical homeopathic anti-miasmatic therapeutics in such situations. Hopefully in the future, this will change.

Hahnemann repeats his observations about the effect of miasms, the scourges of the human race. This is because neither the gift of being born with a strong constitution (as those in the prime of their youth and functioning at full physical or mental potential) or those who try all their lives to live a healthy lifestyle, regular exercise, balanced diet, etc can escape from a fundamental miasm within that begins to get active. Once the person moves towards old age, past the prime of youth, the vital force’s attempts to eradicate the damaging influence of fundamental miasm are inadequate. Disease had continued to progress undetected. When people reach the period of live when symptoms of “aging” set in, the fundamental miasm begins to manifest; for some with psoric background at a slower rate and for those with syphilitic taints, at an alarmingly progressive rate. Hahnemann explains this phenomenon in the footnote to the aphorism.

Understanding miasmatic influence in children, observing their expression and truly treating it with wise antimiasamtic medication to correct this, can produce individuals and adults with truly strong and robust constitutions living long and healthy lives. Such is the power of homeopathy practiced according to its highest principles. Our children have hope yet!