HOMOTOXICOLOGY

Homotoxicology uses combinations of Homeopathic remedies or complexes to stimulate the bodies purification processes. The elimination of toxins (homotoxins) produced in the body and its cells by infection, lifestyle, environment, medical or surgical treatment is facilitated by the use of Homotoxicogological remedies.

Homotoxicology means the study of the effects of toxic substances on human beings.  Homotoxicology is a way of understanding the origins of disease and cure.  It was formulated by a German doctor, Dr Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg in 1955 as a unifying approach, based on the principles and philosophy of homeopathy.  According to Dr. Reckeweg,   “diseases” are expressions of the battle of the organism against toxins, in its attempt to counteract and expel them. When the body can no longer expel them, for whatever reason, the organism tries through increased pathological means to make up for the damage already sustained. This process goes in six distinct phases:

1. Excretion phase or the expulsion of toxins through body orifices, e.g. diarrhea, vomiting;

2. Reaction phase - where toxins are removed by the body reacting against them, e.g. fever, inflammation and mobilization of white blood cells to consume the toxins;

3. Deposition phase - storage followed by deactivation of the toxins in connective and fat tissue and in the vascular system;

The above phases are naturally "reversible". The following phases become more and more difficult to deal with as in these processes damage occurs to the organs themselves

4. Impregnation phase - severe disease occurs in a "locus minoris resistentiae", the body's weakest organ;

5. Degeneration phase - the organ is increasingly and irreversibly damaged, with alteration of the cellular enzymes and in the organic structure;

6. Neoplasm or Cancer phase- the cell genes are damaged.

In brief, when the body can't excrete toxins, acids, it creates inflammation (or other processes) to try to get rid of them. If this can't do, it has to deposit those toxins somewhere in the body where they will be out of the picture, so to speak, walled off and isolated from the rest of the body.

Dr Reckeweg defined ‘Homotoxins’ as substances that were harmful to the human body.  ‘Homotoxones’ are substances within the body that bind with and neutralize homotoxins, preparing them for elimination from the body.  This was very prescient of the different forms of toxin conjugation that have now been described in the second phase of what is called the cytochrome P450 pathway.

Examples of homotoxins include toxic mercury amalgam fillings in the teeth associated with electric currents and voltages, dysbiosis (unhealthy micro-organisms in the gut often due to an unhealthy diet, hormone replacement therapy, and antibiotics), chronic yeast infections (Candida), gas, diesel and petrol fume intolerance, exposure to unhealthy electro-magnetic fields, pesticides, and undiagnosed bacterial (Salmonella paratyphi), or protozoon (Giardia and Amoeba) infections in the gut, possibly picked up on holiday abroad. Many people are intolerant to certain foods and feel better for having them identified, so that they can make appropriate healthy adjustments to their diets. If cutting out the foods is impractical, the problem can still generally be helped with the use of handpicked digestive enzymes.

In Homotoxicology, virtually all symptoms of illness are regarded as a manifestation of the body’s attempts to rid itself of Homotoxins.  In minor, self-limiting disorders, the body does this unaided.  In more serious situations, treatment is needed.  If the treatment used eliminates the homotoxins, then real healing results. Dr. Reckeweg called this phenomenon ‘regressive vicariation’.  If the treatment suppresses the homotoxins, however, (antibiotics, steroids, and indeed, most drugs do this) then they go deeper into the tissues and manifest after a latent period as a more destructive disease.  This is called ‘progressive vicariation’, and leads to chronic degenerative disease and, ultimately, to cancer.  With increasing use of pharmaceuticals and chemicals that we have experienced in recent years, Dr. Reckeweg would not be surprised by the increasing incidence of degenerative disease and cancer that we see today.

Dr. Reckeweg developed a range of complex homoeopathic medicines to enhance homotoxone production and resolve symptoms by eliminating toxins.  These medicines also activate what Dr. Reckeweg called the ‘greater defense system’, a concerted neurological, endocrine, immunological, metabolic and connective tissue response that gives rise to symptoms but has an enormous capacity to neutralize and excrete Homotoxins.  It has great healing power.