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This was my third trip to India and every visit was unique and very meaningful for me. My goal for this visit was to study the Indian experience with the homeopathic treatment of eye disease. I have to thank Dr. Ramakrishnan for coordinating my visits with some of India's finest homeopaths. In addition to visiting Dr. Ramakrishan in Madras, I also had the opportunity to spend time with Dr. Jugal Kishore in New Delhi and Dr. K.P. Muzumdar in Bombay.
The first practice that I visited was Dr. Ramakrishnan. Dr. Ramakrishnan has
been a close friend and has been very helpful with my homeopathic evolution. He
has made several visits to my practice in Pittsburgh to study problem eye cases.
He has been very kind to hold two seminars in Pittsburgh: the first on cancer
and the second on diabetes.
Dr. Ramakrishnan is noted for his work with cancer patients. His approach to cancer is very aggressive often utilizing two remedies: the constitutional and a lesional remedy specific for the cancer. He has also developed a plussing technique and believes in frequent repetition. He uses a 200C potency of a remedy for plussing. (Frequently in cancer cases it is either Carc. or Scir. ) Three pills of 200C are placed in 11 teaspoons of water. The patient is instructed to take one teaspoon every 15 minutes, stirring gently between each dose. In this method of plussing and second dose is infinitesimally stronger than the first dose. One teaspoon is left in the glass for the next day. The following day 10 more teaspoons of water are added and again the patient takes 1 teaspoon every 15 minutes leaving one teaspoon in the glass. This is repeated every day for one week. This constitutional remedy is alternated with a lesional remedy for one week. The lesional remedy is also taken in the plussing manner. He has done this alternation for as long as three months. He believes with cancer there is no time to give one dose and wait, “Cancer is a race against time”. Dr. Ramakrishnan has documented a better response using this method in the treatment of over 3,000 cancer patients. He teaches that there is a constitution of the person and also a constitution of the tumor; “You must look at both to affect a cure”.
Dr. Ramakrishnan has considerable experience in treating eye problems homeopathically. He has used Senecula in cases of macular degeneration with the symptom of wavy vision. He also has reported success using Vanadium 200C q month. In glaucoma, because many of these cases are one sidedand when there is no clear remedy in the case he utilizes one of the following: Apis, if there is glaucoma and the patient is thirstless; Physostigma, if there is a family history of glaucoma and Glonoinum, if there is glaucoma and hypertension or renal disease. His recommended treatment is 200C every 15 days for two months. He will often alternate with the constitutional remedy if it becomes evident.
His day begins at 5:00 AM when he reviews correspondence from his patients who are located all over the world. Most of this is done by fax and email. He begins his office examinations at 7:30 AM and often works until 9:00 PM. New patient visits are scheduled every 30 minutes and follow ups 10 to 15 minutes.
Patients bring their complete medical records to each visit which includes x-rays and lab studies. Dr. Ramakrishnan also conducts a physical exam on each visit which includes an examination of the conjunctiva of the eye, the neck for nodes, the tongue, the heart and lungs, and blood pressure. He will also carefully examine areas related to the chief complaint of the patient.
Here are a few cases that I observed.
Arg-n 200C
Businessman who manufactures mineral water processing equipment. He is very evasive while answering questions during the interview. He has hemorrhoids with bleeding for 15 days. No pain . Stool is free from blood. The bleeding is after the stool.
Thuja 200 C Piles are a sycotic disease. (The key to Thuja was that he is very evasive in answering all questions)
Nux-v 200C
Next my visit was with Dr. Jugal Kishore. It was reported that Dr. Kishore has the largest and most successful homeopathic practice in India. It was my pleasure to sit in with him for a week and observe this truly great master of homeopathy.
Dr. Kishore has been practicing homeopathy for over 53 years. His introduction to homeopathy was very interesting. He graduated with a degree in physics and was working in the Indian Civil Service when he became very sick and no physician was able to help him. Out of desperation he began to read various medical books and he studied his case in a homeopathic textbook. His symptoms matched Iodum. He thought he had nothing to lose by taking the Iodum and after taking a few doses he had a miraculous cure. He spent the next year taking various remedies and experiencing their effect. He then enlisted in a homeopathic college and began his life's work.
Dr. Kishore’s practice has 11 homeopathic doctors, 6 exam rooms and a dispensing pharmacy. Each exam room has a computer which is linked into his private office. He has designed a program for case recording and patient management. Cases and all follow ups are taken by the junior associates and then presented to Dr. Kishore in his large examination room. At any given time there are 3 to 4 patients with their families waiting around his large desk waiting for their examination. There are also 3 to 4 doctors in the room listening as one of them presents the case. There are frequent interruptions with telephone calls, patients coming back into the room asking additional questions, old patients popping into the room just to say hello and other doctors interrupting to ask questions about patients. I was amazed at how calm Dr. Kishore is during this bedlam. Dr. Kishore listens attentively to the junior doctor presenting the case. Kishore will place marks on key points on the chart. He reviews the patients chart, looking at x-rays and laboratory studies. He will then ask the patient a few questions to clarify the case. He is very slow and methodical, listening very carefully to the patient. He then conducts a physical exam, checking their pulse and blood pressure, and examines the eyes, cervical nodes and tongue. In many cases of headache or eye complaints he will carefully palpate and check for tenderness over the sinuses. With many patients, when indicated, he will exam the lungs, heart and palpate the abdomen.
In most cases he will select the remedy based on his years of experience. With other cases he will ask one of his assistants to combine a few well-chosen rubrics or he will open Kent’s repertory, carefully thumbing through the well-worn pages. Then with a smile, he points to a rubric which illustrates the case.
He illustrated with a case the magic of the repertory and of homeopathy. As young man and just beginning his practice, a typhoid epidemic was spreading throughout India. He made a house call to a young girl with a temperature of 105 degrees. She had locked herself in a dark room and had closed her eyes tightly, not looking at the door. After carefully studying the case , Dr. Kishore treated her with Sepia. She made a dramatic recovery. He based his treatment on the rubric MIND - COMPANY - aversion to - sight of people; avoids the - lies with closed eyes. Sepia being the only remedy. It is not listed with the usual remedies in the rubric FEVER - TYPHOID FEVER. This is to illustrate the importance of a well-taken case and the necessity to approach the patient without any prejudices.
Dr. Kishore was also kind enough to give me copies of more than 200 cured eye cases, which I will, with his permission, study, analyze and publish. I suggest that everyone purchase and read his book Evolution of Homeopathic Repertories and Repertorisation. It is full of pearls from this great man. Dr. Kishore has such love for homeopathy and for his fellowmen that I left his practice enlightened and with renewed enthusiasm for homeopathy.
Here is a sample of some cases I observed with Dr. Kishore:
Dr. Kishore often uses intercurrents when the remedy is not that clear, for example I saw of case of Nat-m type headaches except the patient did not crave salt and had no sensitivity to the sun. Nat-m 30C TID along with Usnea Barbata 6C to be taken during the attack.
Another case was a women with an obstruction of her fallopian tubes. Her presentation was typical of Puls. except she was chilly. Puls 30C TID was prescribed along with Ars. 6C for her sinus discharge (Which had the characteristics of Ars.)
A third case was of a man with hypertension, L side weakness and shortness of breath and sleeplessness. He was given Lyc. 30C TID along with a tincture of Passifloria incarnata to be taken at bed time for the sleeplessness.
Lyc. 30C QID for one month
Ars. 30C QID plus
Sulph 200C, Calc 200C and Lyc 200C each every 10 days. This approach is used in cases with a strong family history of eczema, psoriasis, vitiligo, children with psoriasis.
Colc. 200C q6 hours. He is to avoid bending . If he had numbness Dr. Kishore would think of Gnaphalium.
AT PRESENT
Dr. Kishore reviewed the case
Merc-sol 30C TID for 1 week
Then Calc-p 30C TID for 1 week
Followed by Bacillinum
He uses this over Tub. when there are GI or skin symptoms with a tubercular taint.
I also had the pleasure of visiting another great homeopathic masters in India, Dr. Muzumdar, who is the former Director of the Central Research Institute for Homeopathy and Professor of the Bombay Homeopathic College. His students at the Bombay College of Homeopathy include George Vithoulkas and Rajan Sankaran. He has practiced homeopathy for over 35 years and continues teaching at The University of Winnipeg in Canada. He has published two books: Pharmaceutical Science in Homeopathy and Pharmacodynamics and Lectures on Homeopathic Therapeutics. It was a pleasure sitting with Dr. Muzumdar during his very busy day. He is assisted by two homeopathic doctors who act mainly as secretaries although they occasionally will take a case when the office is backed up. A large portion of his practice is pediatrics and acute prescribing. He rarely spends more than 30 minutes on a new case, acute cases 15 minutes and follow up cases 5 to 10 minutes. He has no receptionist; patients wait in a large room. He rings a bell and the next patient comes his examination room. During the examination of the patient, one of the assistant doctors will transcribe the case while he is conducting the interview. He will repeat 200C potencies 200C BID for 1 week for constitutional and acute cases and often use intercurrents or SOS (to take as needed).
He told me that his practice is patient-oriented not disease-oriented. Symptoms and miasms lead to the remedy. For example a patient presents with a cough. First we need to find out if it is dry or wet? Dry is psoric or tubercular, wet is sycotic. The remedies for each are very different.
Here are some cases that I observed with Muzumdar:
A patient presented with extreme sensitive and tenderness on the tip of his nose. Redness of nose with looks like Apis. No burning, better warm which is against Apis. Calcarea picrica is the remedy. This should also be thought of for a painful sty.
Patient with lethargy , heavy head, feeling of tiredness and exhaustion. Sleep not giving her relief. Tremendous amount of exhaustion after disease. China 200C given in this case.
Elderly man with wheezing with thick white expectorant, Hot patient, prefers fan and does not like covering. Ant-t.
Young boy who developed stammering. (His father also had stammering) He has it mainly while talking on the phone, when he is anxious, under tension or when he is conscious.) He stammers when he wants to interrupt someone talking. Occurs in the beginning of his speech. This started after he became frightened after hearing a tiger roar in the zoo. He also repeats questions. Dr. M is thinking about Zinc because he repeats the question even though Zinc is not in the rubric stammering.
Young man with severe attack of left sided migraine. Nat-m was given first and then its compliment Sepia) Bell SOS (as needed)
Young girl with low grade fever after walking, exertion, mental tension. Investigations are normal. Antibiotics suggested by another doctor. After 8 to 10 days there was no change. Low grade fever with no complaints. Baptisa is the remedy which in one day cured her. You see in THROAT - INFLAMMATION - Tonsils - painless.. Baptisa. (3)
Lady with herpes zoster on her right shoulder. Herpes has three main remedies and you can trreat based on these modalities. Pain give Ran-b. , burning give Taren. and with itching give Rhus-t., Post herpetic zoster pain Mezerium works very well
Girl with a painful felon on the tip of her right index finger. Myris. is the remedy. A remedy of great antiseptic powers. Inflammation of skin, cellular tissue and periosteum. Acts more powerfully often than Heper or Silica.
Eye strain from using the computer treated with Ruta 200C BD for 7 days.
Edward Kondrot, MD, CCH
Dr. Kondrot practices Ophthalmology and Classical Homeopathy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He hopes to continue the long heritage of Homeopathic Ophthalmologists, who includes Moffat, Norton and Berridge.
Dr. Kondrot received his medical degree in 1977 from the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. He completed his residency in Ophthalmology at the Scheie Eye Institute and St Francis General Hospital. He became Board Certified in Ophthalmology in 1981.
Dr. Kondrot became interested in Homeopathy in 1990 when during his training for the Hawaii Ironman he began using several Homeopathic remedies to aid in the treatment of injuries. Dr. George Vihoulkas, convinced him that homeopathy can be very valuable in the treatment of eye diseases. This interest evolved through his friendship with Dr. Karl Robinson and in 1995 he received his Diploma from the Hahnemann Homeopathic College in Albany, California and in 1999 received his certification from the Council on Homeopathic Certification.
He maintains an active practice in Phoenix, AZ and Pittsburgh, PA
Edward C. Kondrot, MD (H), CCH
Homeopathic Ophthalmology
ekondrot@pipeline.com
www.homeopathiceye.com
1-800-430-9328
3/2/98
