Direction
Of Cure - FROM TO TO BOTTOM
What is 'DOC
- From Top to Bottom'?
When a patient undergoes
homeopathic treatment, a phenomenon called 'direction of
cure - from Top to Bottom' is often observed.
This occurs when the patient's symptoms change in nature
and location as part of the overall healing process, moving
from upper parts of the body to lower parts.
Direction of cure
- from Top to Bottom -
(from above downwards)
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Symptoms may change considerably
so that it seems that there is a separate disease process
going on, but that is rarely the case. It is simply that
the patient's system is clearing the disease out
through natural channels, reversing the accumulated disease
processes, unsuppressing,
and so producing different symptoms on the way. It is a
healthy sign that the patient's self healing mechanisms
are back in action, and therefore is much more likely to
result in complete cure if not interfered with.
Patients will usually not be familiar
with this holistic perspective as it is outside of the allopathic
model they're used to, however it is important not to treat
these shifting symptoms as a separate illness because that
would be to revert to allopathic principles which are innapropriate
and nearly always counter-productive in homeopathy. Homeopathy
does not cure by suppressing
the condition but by eradicating it in the direction
of cure.
If symptoms
improve on the upper part of the body before the lower part,
or if symptoms actually move from the upper parts to the
lower parts even if the symptoms are not exactly the same,
this is the direction of cure operating from above to below.
Once this process begins it usually goes on to resolve of
its own accord, without a new homeopathic prescription,
and results in a clearing of all symptoms in the direction
of cure.
There are many examples
of this direction of cure in homeopathic literature, the
important thing is that the patient is questioned to determine
that the previous deeper seated condition has improved,
or that a clear progress in improvement has occurred. If
it hasn't then it isn't direction of cure.
It is very important
therefore that the patient understands and has confidence
in this process: its importance cannot be overstated.
E.g.,
A painful or arthritic hip might improve from a remedy,
yet the knees might then cause problems even if they were
previously symptom free, and then as they improve the ankles
may suffer and so on until the symptoms leave the body altogether.
This is direction of cure.
In a skin condition
like psoriasis which covers the whole body, the head should
improve first, then the torso, then the leg and arms. This
is direction of cure moving from top to bottom. If it went
in the opposite direction it might still be DOC if one of
the other criterion were met, ROS
for example, i.e. improving according to ROS
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