continued from last issue . . .
Rheumatoid Arthritis
The previous descriptions of the chronic miasms can be applied to understand the subtle mechanism of any given disease. I have chosen the chronic disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a model of the miasmatic process for several reasons. RA is one of the most common, severely crippling and devastating chronic diseases. Etiology is said to be unknown and current medical treatment often culminates in suppression and deeper complications of the rheumatic process. From the homeopathic viewpoint, RA is an example of the manifestation of the combined three miasms. Fundamental psora with its condition of stasis and lowered resistance paves the way for the other miasms. Medical scientists perplexedly proclaim that an as yet unidentified stimulus to the cells in the synovial membrane causes hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the cells. We call this stimulus sycosis. The inflamed synovial tissue or pannus spreads over and under the articular cartilage. It is thought that greatly increased amounts of intracellular lysosomal enzymes are released by this pannus, to produce characteristic irreversible erosive lesions in the cartilage. Several different lysosymal enzymes have been identified as having the erosive process. We call the erosive process syphilis.
If it can be demonstrated that RA is an internal morbific process resulting from disturbed energy patterns due to miasmatic infection, then we can offer anti-miasmatic homeopathic treatment. If the rheumatic process is detected in its earliest stages, we can hope to prevent it from developing into the crippling affliction that is commonly seen. Once the process has expressed the characteristic signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, we can possibly offer curative treatment.
By classical definition, RA is a progressive chronic inflammatory disease that not only involves the joints, but has profound effects on the entire organism. Although it is characteristically seen in multiple joints, extra articular tissues and organs may also figure in the picture of RA such as the heart and vascular system, voluntary muscles, lungs, bones, eyes and skin.
Going along with this definition, we can say that the typical image of RA is one of the ways by which the human organism is attempting to release itself from the clutches of the miasms. As the main processes involved are inflammation and transformation, and the structures that are involved are principally of mesodermal origin, we can redefine RA to be one of the many faces of sycosis. Several of the major characteristic symptoms of sycosis are included in the picture of typical RA: stiffness, pain on motion, soft tissue swelling and subcutaneous nodules. The histologic changes likewise are evidence of the underlying sycotic process—proliferation of synovial cells, hypertrophy of the villi and infiltration of inflammatory cells. These all indicate a disturbance of vyana and apana. In its later stages when permanent irreversible erosive changes are evident, then we can say that syphilis is also acting. Underneath the sycosis and syphilis is of course the ever present psora.
. . . to be continued
Dr. Barbara Bova, HOD, Department of Homeopathy