Dr LR Nandha Subbian
ABSTRACT
Autoimmune diseases are those in which our body’s own defense mechanism acts against our own body because immune cells are not able to differentiate between normal body cells and foreign cells. As there is an increasing number of autoimmune cases understanding about the disease and approach is important. As there is autoimmunity at the physical level, it can be preceded by autoimmunity at the level of mind also. If the autoimmunity at the level of mind is understood, the homoeopathic treatment can be made in ease. Here an attempt is made to list and explain a few important autoimmune rubrics that are placed in “mind” chapter of some modern repertories, which can be used as the entry point in the selection of similimum in treatment of autoimmune cases.
KEY WORDS: Autoimmunity, Autoimmune Rubrics, Homoeopathy , Murphy Repertory.
INTRODUCTION
Autoimmunity is the system of immune responses of an organism against its own healthy cells, tissues and other body normal constituents. Any disease that results from such an aberrant immune response is termed an “autoimmune” disease. Prevalence rates range from less than 5 per 100,000 (e.g. chronic active hepatitis, uveitis) to more than 500 per 100,000 (Grave disease, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis).
An autoimmune disease is a condition in which our immune system mistakes our body cells to be foreign bodies. The immune system is normally designed to guard our body against germs like bacteria and viruses. When it senses these foreign invaders, it sends out an army of fighter cells (T cells and B cells and phagocytes) to attack them.
Normally, the immune system attacks only the foreign cells and can distinguish between foreign cells and our own cells. But in an autoimmune disease, the immune system mistakes some of our body’s normal cells as foreign cells (joint or skin or an organ). It releases proteins called auto-antibodies that attack healthy cells, resulting in auto immune diseases.
Some autoimmune diseases target only one organ. Example- Type 1 diabetes damages the pancreas. Other diseases, like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), affect the whole body.
Common auto immune diseases seen in our regular practice are:
- Addison’s Disease,
- Alopecia Aereata
- Ankylosing Spondylitis
- Auto Immune Hepatitis
- Celiac Disease
- Crohn’s Disease
- Endometriosis
- Fibromyalgia
- Glomerulo Nephritis
- Grave’s Disease
- Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
- Hemolytic Anemia
- Juvenile Diabetes
- Lichen Planus
- Meniere’s Disease
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Myasthenia Gravis
- Pemphigus
- Psoriasis
- Rheumatoid Arthriris
- Scleroderma
- Sjogrens Syndrome
- Type 1 Diabetes
- Ulcerative Colitis
- Vasculitis
The early symptoms of many autoimmune diseases are very similar:
- fatigue
- achy muscles
- swelling and redness
- low-grade fever
- trouble in concentrating
- numbness and tingling in the hands and feet
- hair loss
- skin rashes
Along with the other symptoms of the particular disease condition and part involved
IDENTIFICATION OF AUTOIMMUNITY:
No single test can diagnose most autoimmune diseases. The antinuclear antibody test (ANA) is often one of the first tests that suggest an autoimmune disease. A positive test means you may have one of these diseases, but it won’t confirm exactly the diagnosis. The other test being C reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) which helps in identifying the auto immune disease
Other tests include auto antibodies produced in certain autoimmune diseases like Anti Thyroid per Oxidase (ATPO) or Anti microsomal antibodies (AMA) to diagnose auto immune thyroid disorders.
In case of prognosis, reduction in antinuclear antibodies is considered as first criteria.
Treatment
The main treatment for autoimmune diseases is with the use of medications that bring down inflammation and calm the overactive immune response. But these in turn weakens the immune system and makes way for other possible infections.
Autoimmune response at the level of mind before the disease onset+ mental state after the disease onset + some characteristic symptoms of the patient = similimum for auto immune disease treatment.
In case of a congenital auto immune disease condition ,the pregnancy history and the maternal stress and auto immune response at the level of mind, during the time of pregnancy helps in finding out the similimum along with some characteristic symptoms of the patient.
Prognosis should be assessed based on Hering’s law of cure as in any other cases. The direction of cure should be
- From above downwards
- From within outwards
- From more vital organ to less vital organ
- In reverse order of appearance of symptom
Here an attempt is made to explain some of the auto immune rubrics present in mind chapter of Murphy’s Repertory:
Anger himself with
Feeling strongly that you had done something or had not done something and you are unhappy with oneself
Antagonism with herself
Antagonism is hostility that results in active resistance, opposition, or contentiousness, a kind of struggle against oneself. It is like a state of confusion between two wills – I am supposed to do and what I actually want to do.
Aversion himself
A strong feeling of not liking himself
Blames himself
Patient feels that he or she is responsible for something bad that has happened
Censorious oneself to
Being very critical of oneself
Contemptuous oneself of
Lack of admiration of one self, or a state of putting oneself down
Delusion neglected duty his
Patient feels that he has not done his duty
Delusion wrong done
Patient feels he has done something wrong which he is not supposed to do, though he has not done anything like that
Discontented himself with
Patient feels dissatisfied especially with one’s circumstances
Mutilating his body
Inflicting a violent and disfiguring injury on his /her own body
Death desire
Patient feels dying is better than living like the present life
Hard hearted himself
Not being sympathetic to one self or being in a state of unfeeling
Hurting himself
Causing pain or injury to self
Indifference himself to
Being unconcerned about him / her self
Injuring himself
Causing physical harm or damage to one self mentally or physically
Kill desire to, herself; sudden impulse to
An urge to kill or take away the life of him/her self
Masochism
Derivation of sexual gratification from being subjected to physical pain or humiliation by one self or another person
Neglecting himself
Failing to care oneself properly
Loathing himself
A feeling of intense dislikes or disguised to one self
Reproaching himself
Expression of disappointment or disapproval about self in their actions
Remorse
A feeling of sadness because you have done something wrong
Suicidal thoughts
Thinking about, considering, or planning to suicide
Suicidal disposition
An increased tendency to end their own life with multiple history of unsuccessful attempts.
Self-destructive
Thoughts of self destructive behavior that causes self harm
Self deception
An act of lying to oneself or of making oneself believe something that isn’t really true
Self abuse
Self injuring or self harming intentionally or direct injuring of one’s own body
Self accusation
The action of accusing oneself, causing from the felling of guilt
Self assertion want of
The person lacks the act of asserting oneself or one’s own rights or claims or opinions
Self blame
Patient blames him or her for a stressful event
Striking himself
An intense urge to hit himself in expression of a anger
Tormenting himself
A state of causing severe physical or mental suffering to one self
Thoughts tormenting
State where ones persons thought process troubles the patient.
There are various other auto immune rubrics represented in the various sections of the repertory .
Some of the direct/related rubrics for the following disease condition in Murphy’s Repertory
- Addison’s Disease,- Diseases – ADDISON’S DISEASE
- Alopecia Aereata- Consitution, HAIR, general, head and body,- loss, of hair from head – patches in
- Ankylosing Spondylitis- Diseases – ANKLOSING SPONDYLITIS
- Auto Immune Hepatitis- Diseases – HEPATITIS
- Celiac Disease- Intestine- CELIAC DISEASE
- Crohn’s Disease – Intestine – CHRON’S DISEASE
- Endometriosis- Female- ENDOMETRIOSIS
- Fibromyalgia- Muscles- PAIN, muscles
- Glomerulo Nephritis – Diseases , NEPHRITIS, kidney
- Grave’s Disease – Glands – THYROID, gland, remedies, goitre
- Hemolytic Anemia Diseases- HEMOLYTIC anemia, chlorosis
- Juvenile Diabetes- Diseases- DIABETES, mellitus/ insipidus
- Lichen Planus- Diseases – LICHEN, planus
- Meniere’s Disease- Ear/ Diseases –MENIERE’S disease
- Multiple Sclerosis Diseases / Nerves – MULTIPLE, sclerosis
- Myasthenia Gravis- Muscles- MYASTHENIA, gravis
- Pemphigus- Diseases- PEMPHIGUS
- Psoriasis- Skin- PSORIASIS
- Scleroderma – Diseases SCLERODERMA, skin
CONCLUSION:
In treatment of auto immune cases when there is a psychological stress before the onset of disease and individualistic reaction to disease is clearly understood, it can be considered as entry point for the case, the similimum can be found in ease. In such cases mental disposition of the patient should not be considered where as present mental state should be taken into the consideration for selection of similimum.
Bibliography
- Murphy R. Homoeopathic Medical Repertory. 3rd ed. Noida: B.JAIN PUBLISHERS (P) LTD.; 2016.
- Murphy R. Lotus materia medica. 3rd ed. Noida: B Jain Publishers Pvt Ltd; 2021.
- Gaikwad G, Chougle R. Decoding mental rubrics. 1st ed. mumbai: self publication;
- Hahnemann S. Organon of Medicine. 6th edition. New Delhi: B. Jain Publishers (P) LTD; 1921.
- Gupte D , Sawant K, Dadia B K. Genetic Code of Homoeopathy. 1st edition mumbai: Limitless Homoeopathy Pvt.Ltd. 2015
- Cooper G, Stroehla B. The epidemiology of autoimmune diseases. Autoimmunity Reviews. 2003;2(3):119-125.
Dr L. R. Nandha Subbian
Dept of Case taking and Repertory
Government Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital
Bangalore ,Karnataka
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