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In psora all functions of prana become imbalanced to some extent. The pores of the skin are of course part of the natural excretory system of the body. When the controlling subtler levels behind prana are strong and healthy, there is normal functioning of the immune response and the unwanted wastes are pushed out all the way to the skin, the least vital and most superficial organ of the body. However, when the skin is being used by apana as an alternative means of eliminating the morbific process and excessive wastes that could not be eliminated through normal pathways, then the pores may become clogged and overworked. When there is an underlying irritation of the skin due to some deeper malfunctioning on the more subtle pranic levels, when there is lowered resistance to infection due to disturbed prana, and if in addition the person is living in very unhygienic conditions, then the ecology of the skin will become imbalanced. The bacteria that live in harmony on the skin under normal circumstances will become disturbed. These are the conditions that prepare the fertile soil for the natural bacterial flora to proliferate and to become dangerous morbific enemies. Such diseases as scabies or other vesicular and pustular skin diseases will result.

We have seen that psora, particularly in its tertiary stage, is a condition of stasis. This prevailing stasis is the foundation stone on which the other two chronic miasms build their perversities. Psora cannot be complicated with the other two miasms when it is latent and slumbering, but only when it has manifested as a chronic disease.

When there is suppression of skin diseases by external application or other medication, the eliminative process is pushed back to more vital organs. The condition of stasis dominates, and waste products build up. This is one of the ways in which the soil is made fertile for the sycotic or syphilitic miasms. In the genesis of the miasms, we can now understand how psora, which is synonymous with disturbances of all aspects of prana, is necessary for the other miasms to take hold. If we understand disease to be primarily a disturbance on the dynamic level, then it is only logical that prana would be the origin of the disturbing force. The consequent weakening of the immune response is basic to the genesis of acute and chronic infections, non-infectious chronic disease and malignant processes.

SYCOSIS

Sycosis is the miasm of excess. We can say that a person has a sycotic constitution when the organism has the tendency to accumulate and concentrate superfluous quantities of energy. The underlying stasis of psora must be present before such a condition can prevail. The signs and symptoms by which we come to know of the presence of the sycotic miasm in an individual are not really caused by the disease per se. Rather they are the attempts of the whole organism to rid itself of the invading miasm.

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Dr. Barbara Bova, HOD, Dept. of Homeopathy