{"id":4791,"date":"2017-07-05T12:45:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T12:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/?p=4791"},"modified":"2017-07-12T14:14:08","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T14:14:08","slug":"can-homeopathic-medicines-cure-dehydration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/can-homeopathic-medicines-cure-dehydration\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Homeopathic Medicines Cure Dehydration?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Homeopathic medicines, friends and foes explain, contain 99.9 percent water (or perhaps more).\u00a0 Dehydration, according to the Mayo Clinic, is when “your body doesn’t have enough water and other fluids to carry out its normal functions”. It makes sense then, that homeopathic medicines can cure dehydration. Or does it?<\/p>\n

Actually\u2026 it\u2019s much more complicated than you might think. The problem is not with homeopathic medicines, not with dehydration. The problem is with the word ‘cure’. To determine if a treatment cures an illness, we need to define cured.\u00a0 Cured is not defined for dehydration.\u00a0 It’s actually worse. For example, many medical dictionaries and references\u00a0do not contain a definitions for cure, cures, nor cured:<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Webster\u2019s New World Medical Dictionary, Third Edition
\nThe Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary, Ninth Edition, 2015.
\nThe Bantam Medical Dictionary, Sixth Edition, 2009.
\nBarron\u2019s Dictionary of Medical Terms, Sixth Edition, 2013
\nMedical Terminology for Dummies, Second Edition
\nMerck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 11th Edition
\nHarrison’s Guide to Internal Medicine
\nLange’s Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment
\nDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM\u20135)<\/p>\n

In the above list, only Merck’s Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, contains a definition of cure, and that definition is only in the section titled Complimentary and Alternative Medicines – actually under the section on Homeopathy.\u00a0 Are\u00a0alternative medicines the only medicines that cure?\u00a0 Is that why the only medical definition of cure in the above list is about alternative medicines?<\/p>\n

How can we possibly cure an illness, and prove that it has been cured, when cure, cures, and cured, are not defined?<\/p>\n

Many standard dictionaries contain definitions of cure. The problem is finding consistency.\u00a0<\/a> Webster’s offers “a complete or permanent solution or remedy<\/em>“. That’s pretty clear.\u00a0 The Oxford dictionary, unfortunately, is not so clear, defining cure thus: “Relieve (a person or animal) of the symptoms of a disease or condition” <\/em>and “Eliminate (a disease or condition) with medical treatment. <\/em>” Is\u00a0any illness\u00a0cured if the symptoms go away, but the illness is still present? I don’t think so. Are illnesses only cured with ‘medical treatments’? No. Most illnesses are cured by time and healthiness.<\/p>\n

Let’s begin with a definition of cured as the end of an illness<\/em><\/strong>. The current Wikipedia definition is “the end of a medical condition<\/em>“, but this is a bit weak, many medical conditions, including dying, are incurable.<\/p>\n

Dehydration is an illness.\u00a0 It is a disease that can be cured.\u00a0 Or is it? Is it a disease?\u00a0 Is it curable? The three main medical treatment reference texts, Merck, Lange\u2019s, and Harrison\u2019s offer treatments for dehydration, but NOT ONE use the word cure. We might\u00a0easily conclude that officially, dehydration is incurable. Silly? Yes. The official medical\u00a0references do not offer any cure for\u00a0dehydration, and the references to dehydration actually point to sections with\u00a0names like: “Fluid and Electrolyte Metabolism” (Merck)\u00a0 and “Fluid and Electrolyte Disorders” (Lange).<\/p>\n

Maybe dehydration isn’t actually a disease?\u00a0The diseases of dehydration are many and varied, with many and varied causes. We might\u00a0ask if dehydration is a symptom, not an actual disease. It’s both. It’s a disease, and it’s a symptom, and it’s a sign of illness.\u00a0 Modern medicine does not actually distinguish well between symptoms and diseases.\u00a0 If we check the ICD10, the International Classification of Diseases, Version 10, dehydration has the disease code E86.\u00a0 It’s a disease.<\/p>\n

What do the medical treatment references offer for dehydration?\u00a0 Each medical treatment reference make it clear that there are many possible causes of dehydration.\u00a0 Therefore, to effectively treat dehydration, you\u00a0need to find the cause. The most common causes are diarrhea, vomiting, even excess sweating, caused by food poisoning, cholera and other illnesses. In\u00a0some cases, when we find dehydration, we need to find the cause of the cause.\u00a0Dehydration can even be caused by medicines, which are taken because of treatments recommended for other illnesses.<\/p>\n

Dehydration\u00a0might also be caused by trying to cross the desert without sufficient water supplies<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Each illness, each case of dehydration is a specific condition, with a specific cause.<\/p>\n

The information from various treatment references, Merck, Lange’s, and Harrison’s suggest but do not directly state a further refinement of the definition of ‘cure’.<\/p>\n

An illness is cured when the cause has been addressed.<\/i><\/strong>A patient’s dehydration will be cured when the cause is addressed.<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0I have read definitions of ‘cure’ in dozens of books, and searched for definitions of ‘cure’ in hundreds more, I have, so far, only seen one single definition of cure that references ’cause’. It was not in a conventional medical text.<\/p>\n

But, back to homeopathic medicines.\u00a0 We will answer our question for the simplest, but not the most common, cause of dehydration: the patient is dehydrated because they are not drinking enough water<\/i><\/strong>. In this case, can homeopathic medicines cure the illness?<\/p>\n

Treatment with homeopathic medicines (consisting of mostly water), enough of it, will address the medical condition. The patient will no longer be suffering from, will no longer have the symptoms of dehydration. They will feel cured and will appear to be cured.<\/p>\n

But is\u00a0it a cure?<\/p>\n

When the patient goes\u00a0home and stops taking the medicine, assuming their behavior does not change, the symptoms, and the illness, the dehydration, will re-appear. The illness was never cured, because the cause was not addressed.<\/strong> The illness will not be cured until the patient starts drinking sufficient water as part of their daily activities.<\/p>\n

Remission<\/strong> is when the symptoms, but not the cause, of an illness are addressed. The symptoms go into remission – we often say the illness is in remission – and when the medicine wears off, the symptoms reappear, we say the illness has returned. It was never really gone.<\/p>\n

Cure<\/strong> is when the cause has been addressed. When an illness has been cured, and the cause returns, it’s a new illness.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/p>\n

– this illness might be cured by many things. Patient\u2019s habits change for various reasons, and the patient might start drinking sufficient water just as easily as they stopped drinking sufficient water.
\n– this illness might be cured by health. The patient\u2019s body might tell them to drink more water, and without conscious effort, the illness is cured.
\n– this illness might be cured by telling the patient they are not drinking enough water, if the patient believes and follows the instructions.
\n– if the patient is not drinking enough water because they don\u2019t want to get up and go to the bathroom in the night, they might be cured by advice to drink more water in the morning. If they follow the advice, the illness will be cured. If they only follow the advice some of the time, it will be only partly cured, or only cured some of the time.
\n– if the patient is not drinking sufficient water because they are stranded in the desert, telling them to drink more water will not cure. Providing\u00a0some homeopathic medicine will address the symptoms temporarily, but also will not cure. The only cure is to get them out of the desert, or at least to an oasis.<\/p>\n

Homeopathic medicine, even though in some cases, it might be\u00a0an excellent treatment for the symptoms of dehydration- will not cure it. This is not a surprise. Many medicines are specifically designed to treat symptoms, with no intention to cure. They are symptomicines, the most common of medicines.<\/a><\/p>\n

If we sell the patient huge quantities of homeopathic medicine (mostly water) and tell them to take the medicine every day – the symptoms will disappear. Are they cured?<\/p>\n

No. Why not?<\/p>\n

There is a third, important definition of cured that must be considered.<\/p>\n

The patient is cured when they no longer need the medicine.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

A homeopathic medicine, any medicine, any medical treatment, can only cure if it works itself out of a job. The patient, and the illness are cured when the treatment is no longer required.<\/p>\n

Drinking a healthy amount of water is not a medical treatment. It’s a healthy activity.\u00a0Many\u00a0illnesses can only be cured by healthiness. If use\u00a0a homeopathic medicine, even if\u00a0it consists of 99.9 percent water, it’s a medicine. If it’s a medicine, the patient is only cured when the medicine is no longer required. eg. When they can transition to drinking normal water, normally.<\/p>\n

It should now be apparent now that no medicine can cure dehydration, for the person who is dehydrated because they are not drinking sufficient water.\u00a0 But dehydration is curable.\u00a0 It can be cured by knowledge.\u00a0 It can be cured by health.\u00a0 It just can’t be cured by medicine. Most medicines don’t cure. Most illnesses are not cured by medicines.<\/a><\/p>\n

Final comment: In homeopathic theory, homeopathic medicines\u00a0cure by the mechanism of ‘like cures like’. They work on the principle that a medicine that causes the symptoms of a disease, can be used to cure the symptoms of the disease.\u00a0 Water, and homeopathic medicines consisting largely of water, does not cause the symptoms of dehydration.\u00a0 Therefore, in theory, as well as in practice, homeopathic medicines cannot cure dehydration.<\/p>\n

Dehydration is caused by unhealthiness, by disease and by medicines that are unhealthy. If dehydration is caused by diarrhea, then it might be cured by a medicine that cures the illness causing the diarrhea.\u00a0 But if the diarrhea is caused by cholera, which is caused by drinking water, no medicine can cure – the only cure is to health the water.<\/p>\n

How many illnesses can only be cured by healthicine, not by medicines? More than we know, because we don’t count them.<\/p>\n

to your health, tracy
\nFounder: Healthicine<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homeopathic medicines, friends and foes explain, contain 99.9 percent water (or perhaps more).\u00a0 Dehydration, according to the Mayo Clinic, is when “your body doesn’t have enough water and other fluids to carry out its normal functions”. It makes sense then, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4791"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4826,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4791\/revisions\/4826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}