Diet and regimen in acute and chronic diseases

Dr Sneha

ABSTRACT
Homoeopathy is safe and natural form of medicine , based on the principle of “Similia Similibus Curentur”. It means “like is cured by like” i.e. a disease may be cured by something that can cause similar symptoms. Homoeopathy is concerned with treating the whole person rather than the illness alone. The homoeopathic remedy selected will be based on all the symptoms of the patient including physical, mental and emotional states as well as past history, family history and intrauterine history of the patient. Homoeopathic remedies stimulate the body’s own immune system & offer a long lasting cure rather than giving temporary relief. On the other hand, the action of the homoeopathic remedy becomes complete when proper guidance regarding instructions about diet and regimen mentioned by Dr. Hahnemann & other stalwarts of homoeopathy are followed. The objective of the present article is to discuss about diet and regimen in chronic as well as acute cases for successful treatment of a disease. Finally, combination of medicine, food (nutrition) and regimen are important for the successful treatment of various diseases.

KEY WORDS : Homoeopathy, Organon of Medicine, Diet and Regimen, Acute and Chronic, Homoeopathic diet, Obstacles to recovery

INTRODUCTION
Proper hygienic and dietetic measures must be taken recourse to before administration of remedial drugs which are used as specific stimuli to rouse the vital force to react against the morbific agents and overcome their noxious influences.

The most important broad principle to be observed in this connection is that during the treatment everything must be removed from the diet and regimen which can have any medicinal action , in other that the small dose of the medicine may not be overwhelmed and extinguished or disturbed by any foreign medicinal irritant.

In Chronic Cases

We have got to be more careful in dietetic and hygienic matters as they may easily upset the patient in a surreptitious manner. The following things are to be avoided :

• Coffee; fine Chinese and other herb teas; beer prepared with medicinal substances; liquors; all kinds of punch; spiced chocolate; odorous waters and perfumes of many kinds; strong-scented flowers in the room; both powders and essences etc.; highly spiced dishes and sauces; spiced cakes and ices; crude medicinal vegetables for soups; dishes of herbs, roots and stalks of plants possessing medicinal properties; asparagus and all vegetables possessing medicinal qualities, celery, onions; old cheese, and meats in a state of decomposition, etc.
• Excesses in food and in the use of sugar and salt and spirituous drinks :
• Heated rooms, woolen clothing next the skin.
• A sedentary life in closed apartments or frequent indulgence in passive exercise (such as riding, driving or swinging), prolonged suckling, taking a long sleep in a recumbent posture in bed, sitting up long at night.
• Uncleanliness, unnatural debauchery enervation by reading obscene books, reading while lying down.
• Onanism or imperfect or suppressed intercourse in order to prevent conception.
• Subjects of anger, grief or vexation , a passion for play, over-exertion of mind or body, especially after meals.
• Dwelling in marshy districts, damp rooms, poor living etc.

1. B. Even during Hahnemann’s time his followers wanted to out do him in their strictness in dietetic and hygienic matters to which he wrote : “some of my disciples seem needlessly to increase the difficulties of the patient’s dietary by forbidding the use of many more, tolerably indifferent things which is not to be commended.”

The most suitable regimen during the treatment of chronic diseases consists in :

• Removal of the above-mentioned obstacles to recovery
• Supplying where necessary the reverse
• Innocent moral and intellectual recreation
• Acute exercise in the open air in almost all kinds of weather; e.g., daily walks, slight physical labour etc.
• Suitable, nutritious, unmedicinal food and drinks etc.

In Acute Cases

• The instinctive desires of the body with regard to food and drinks should be allowed to be satisfied by the physician and the patient’s attendants.

These bodily instincts crave chiefly for things that would give palliative relief.

Even if the satisfaction of the desires seem to interfere with the cure of the disease, it is more than made up by the refreshment that follows such satisfactions and by the superior curative efficacy of the drug homoeopathically chosen for the case.

• The temperature of the room and the heat or coolness of the bedcoverings must also be adjusted according to the patient’s wish and comfort.
• All over-exertion of mind and exciting emotions are to be strictly avoided.

A Note On Boenninghausen’s Instruction Regarding Homoeopathic Diet.

Dr. Boenninghausen made a further study of dietary which a patient should observe while undergoing a homoeopathic treatment and published a brochure on that for the lay public in 1833. The relevant portions of that valuable paper are extracted and quoted below :

Every article of food ought to be free from medicinal virtue, since this causes variations in his condition, and thus must make healthy men more or less ill, even if this should be only transitory. The long continued use of many medicinal substances in many cases dulls the susceptibility for them, so that the vital force eventually is no more affected thereby. But experience has proved that dynamisation of drugs have so much increased the intensity (doubtless immaterial ) of the medicinal virtue that all grossly material influences can affect it but little or not at all. So, some amount of laxity in dietary may be allowed now. In chronic cases patients are forbidden besides the actual medicines of all kinds, only coffee and strong tea, heating drinks, spices and strong odours, especially camphor.

References :

• Hahnemann S. Organon of Medicine.With an introduction and commentary on the text by B.K Sarkar. Publishers : M. Bhattacharya & Co.(P) Ltd. Homoeopathic chemists & pharmacists 73, Netaji subhash road Calcutta-1.(438-440).
• Hahnemann S. The chronic diseases, their peculiar nature and their homoeopathic cure (translated from the 2^nd enlarged german edition by prof. H. Tafel Louis). New delhi -110055:published by jain Publishing co.
• Importance of diet/nutrition and regimen in Homoeopathic Treatment.
• Link:https://jddtonline.info/index.php/jddt/article/view/2801.

Dr Sneha
PG Scholar, Department Of Organon Of Medicine & Homoeopathic Philosophy,
SGND Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana (panjab).