WHAT IS CHRONIC DISEASE AND CAN IT BE CURED?
A chronic disease is an illness that is long-lasting and often permanent. It usually cannot be cured but only palliated, that is, made somewhat endurable. According to Wikepedia nearly one in two Americans, somewhere around 150 million, have a chronic disease. There are hundreds of chronic diseases but among the most common are high blood pressure, diabetes, various cardiac disorders, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), recurrent headaches, endometriosis, pre-menstrual syndrome, painful menses, a wide variety of skin diseases (psoriasis, acne, etc.), all the autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus [SLE], dermatomyositis, scleroderma, lichen planus, Sjogren’s, temporal arteritis, to mention a few of these highly destructive diseases). And of course, there are millions of persons who suffer from chronic mental disorders ranging from frequent depressions, bipolar disease to schizophrenia and many others.
According to a study of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation entitled “Chronic Care in America: A 21st Century Challenge” ninety percent of seniors have at least one chronic disease, often several.
Many millions of citizens between the ages of 18 and 64 also suffer from a chronic disease.
Not all chronic diseases are disabling but many are. Without a doubt the diagnosis and treatment of chronic disease consume most of the healthcare resources of the United States.
There are exceptions but in general, conventional medicine cannot cure chronic disease. It can manage chronic disease and render it less burdensome but it cannot cure chronic disease. The great exceptions are the cured cases of various cancers. Using surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy many cancer patients are alive and well five and ten (and more) years later. In general, and apart from the successful treatments of cancer, virtually all chronic diseases cannot be cured, that is, treated with the symptoms disappearing and the patient remaining well without more treatment.
The great question is: can homeopathy cure chronic disease? That is, can a person with, say, rheumatoid arthritis, a known incurable autoimmune disease, be cured with homeopathy? Can he or she, after being treated for some months or one or two years, be declared free of the disease and need no more medicine? The answer is a definite yes. But (there is always a ‘but’) the patients can only be cured of their chronic disease with the correct homeopathic medicine. We call that medicine the similimum or the medicine that is most similar to the patient as well as to his or her chronic disease. In other words, it is the homeopathic medicine that most perfectly corresponds to all the symptoms and innate characteristics of the patient. When the homeopath finds the patient’s similimum the probability of a cure increases immensely.
Unfortunately, it is not so easy to find the similimum for a chronic disease. It requires great skill, enormous study and a keen insight into the overall situation of the patient by the homeopath. But it is doable.
The treatment and cure of chronic disease is the life work of all serious homeopaths.