The new edition of SPECTRUM deals with a contemporary issue that is being felt around the world and which will cause sometimes serious health problems for millions of people: long covid – a complex and often hard to differentiate illness in which, along with various physical complaints, there may also be psychological difficulties reflecting the inner conflicts and suppressed feelings after months enduring a state of exception. The psychological effects of the pandemic will be covered in an edition later this year “Plague and Psyche – the Trauma of the Pandemic”.
The physical symptoms of the “lockdown of the life force” includes in most cases a drop in energy that can go on for months or even years, accompanied by pain, exhaustion and recurrent infections, making normal life and work impossible. Similar to chronic fatigue syndrome, the individual illnesses in combination with the often very unspecific symptoms present a novel challenge to homeopaths. In our extract, the South African homeopath Natalya Dinat from Johannesburg presents a very interesting approach to the differential diagnostic view of the illness process. She clearly distinguishes between long covid and post-covid syndrome, the effects of allopathic medication and vaccination, as well as the reactivation of chronic fatigue and subsequent infections by new viral mutations.
When coping with the long-term effects of the pandemic, the individualised homeopathic approach seems to shine most strongly. Our international authors describe multifarious treatment approaches which give fresh meaning to the principles of individual illness pictures and individualised treatment. They describe very personal experiences with the range of homeopathic concepts and remedies needed to deal with the current situation. We thereby encounter genus epidemicus remedies such as Camphora and Radium bromatum that helped in the acute infectious disease and can still bring relief. But there are also helpful nosodes such as Tuberculinum aviare, Bacillinum or Influenzinum, which have long had their place in the treatment of postviral syndrome. The fungi remedy group has repeatedly been mentioned in discussions of the genus epidemicus. Anne Schadde and Olga Fatula present two newly proved fungi remedies that have been successfully used to treat certain forms of Long COVID: reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) and velvet roll-rim (Tapinella atrotomentosa). Franz Swoboda contends that Acidum picrinicum fulfils all the criteria of an epidemic remedy for acute as well as chronic disease. The Covid-19 nosode is also often a valuable supplement for chronic cases. Chetna Shukla has conducted her own remedy proving on this nosode and successfully used it in her practice in addition to individual treatment for post-covid pulmon[i]ary fibrosis. She and her Indian colleague Ajit Kulkarni give us valuable insights into the homeopathic treatment of serious chronic illness following intensive care.
Wiet van Helmond recognises in the illness itself as well as how it is experienced and in the reactions of his patients some major themes of contemporary society. How is it possible to reconcile a society that has been divided and what is Hahnemann’s “that which is to be healed” for each individual? Declan Hammond sees in our grappling with the virus and its effects an evolutionary chance for deep healing, recommending a range of supplementary healing themes such as self-acceptance and self-care, conscious cultivation of loving relationships and dealing with our negative projections. This issue of SPECTRUM is a contribution by homeopaths from around the world to the question of how we can sustainably and holistically emerge from the covid crisis and the lockdown of the life force.
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Léon Scheepers
1 month ago
