Homotoxicology Explained
Homotoxicology is the science of toxins and their removal, and presents the idea that the severity and duration of an illness is based on the body’s toxin load and ability to detoxify. Normally, the human body excretes toxins through feces, urine and sweat. However, when the immune system is challenged, so is the body’s ability to detox.
The object of homotoxicology of the EALA Medical Centre is to stimulate and regulate the body’s ability to heal thereby eliminating homotoxins and resolving illness.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the German medical doctor and homeopath, Dr. Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg (1877-1944) developed a more integrated approach to homeopathy. He recognized that the industrial revolution not only brought with it a more multifaceted lifestyle, but that diseases and illnesses too started to present a more complex picture. As a result, Dr. Reckeweg developed a concept that helped him formulate a line of compound homeopathic remedies that where built on the synergistic action between several remedies or potencies, much as with herbal remedies used in traditional Chinese medicine
Dr. Reckeweg called these new remedies "antihomotoxic remedies," using a Latin term that implies their ability to counteract toxins in humans. He considered these remedies a bridge between homeopathy and western medicine because they allowed prescribing according to the disease patterns.
This approach sufficiently differed from the time-honored, but narrowly defined approach of classical homeopathy, that treats according to the patient's constitutional patterns.
The 6-Phase Table of Homotoxicology
One of Dr. Reckeweg's greatest achievements is the formulation of his "Six-Phase Table." Dr. Reckeweg, for the first time in the history of medicine, clearly formulated and described the pathways along which illnesses proceed or heal. His 6-Phase Table presents a medical classification of the progression and reversal of illnesses and conditions.
The process, which he named Homotoxicosis, may be described as follows: When a pathogen enters the body it causes a reflex reaction designed to expel it (diarrhea, vomiting, cough, tears, etc.).
Phase 1: Excretion
If your body fails to get rid of the offender in this initial phase, the disturbance will move deeper into the system and cause an infection or inflammation in specific areas (any condition ending in -itis).
Phase 2: Inflammation
Suppose you suppress such an inflammation (as done routinely in mainstream allopathic medicine), the pathogen may become dormant. As a result, more chronic problems tend to follow at a later time. For now such a pathogen is "hidden away" in the interstitial fluid, the fluid surrounding all your cells.
Phase 3: Deposition
We know that this is where your T3 and T4 immune system cells are springing into action. As a result, your lymph, your body's cleaning pathway, goes into overload. Any disease and condition up to this third stage may be reversed quite easily. Dr. Reckeweg was clear to explain, in good homeopathic tradition, that in order to find lasting healing, an illness needs to be guided back step-by-step in the reverse direction through all its stages.
In other words: Once a pathogen has reached your cell fluid, the healing process may have to pass through another stage of inflammation (Phase 2) before the body has the opportunity to get rid of the pathogen (Phase 1). Homeopathy refers to such a possible initial deterioration as a "healing crisis."
Phase 4: Impregnation
If a pathogen is not bound and repelled through any one of the first three stages, it can find its way into your cells. It is getting much harder now to find effective ways to get rid of the invader. Phase 4 is where glucose intolerance, malabsorption issues, autoimmune deficiencies, irritable bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and many other conditions are categorized. All too often, these problems are not properly diagnosed; laboratory tests commonly used by mainstream medicine in this phase are rarely indicative or conclusive.
Phase 5: Degeneration
If the vicariation (reversal) process is unsuccessful at Phase 4, the pathogenic development will proceed to Phase 5, the "Degeneration Phase." The presence of the invader inside your cells starts interfering with your normal cell functions and processes. As a result, your health noticeably degenerates. Finally, at this stage, your laboratory tests start picking up that you have a problem. The diagnosis of diabetes too falls into this phase.
What happens next? If it has not done so earlier, natural medicine quickly jumps into action and attempts pulling the body back to Phase 4, then Phase 3, and onwards in the process of vicariation. Mainstream medicine, on the other hand, by using drugs, suppresses the disease (in most cases) rather than helping your body step-by-step to get back to its original function. With some luck. those prescription medications may stabilize the disease at this level.
But, remember, changes in your cells keep taking place. Therefore, it is likely that the disease process is starting to affect other organs and functions too (eyes, kidneys, heart). We call these the complications of diabetes. If the disease factor is allowed to linger in this Phase 5, further deterioration is possible. This much depends on the state of your immune system.
Phase 6: Dedifferentiation or Neoplasm
There are two possible outcomes in what Dr. Reckeweg calls Phase 6, the "Dedifferentiation Phase" or the "Neoplasm Phase." First, the damage in your cells continues to the point where the cell function impairs or shuts down one or several organs. Second, the pathogenic cells start taking over, develop a plan of their own, lead to cancer, and (if not detected early enough) metastasize through your body to other structures.