Saccharum Anhang
4
[Elizabeth Adalian]
Concurs with Constantine Hering,
that a large proportion of chronic diseases of women and children are developed
by using too much sugar. Saccharum album is a syphilitic
remedy that can be useful in numerous pathologies including addictions.
First published in Homeopathy in Practice,
Autumn/Winter 2019
Constantine Hering
(1800-1880) will go down in the history books of homeopathy for his invaluable
‘Law of Cure’. What is much less well-known about him, but just as significant,
is his perspective on the excessive consumption of sugar. In fact, Boericke (1980) says:
According to the great Dr Hering,
a large proportion of chronic diseases of women and children are developed by
using too much sugar.
Judging by his own long lifespan (for those days) Hering may have adhered to this principle in his chosen
habits, even though he is not reported to have extended this recommendation to
men – perhaps as they were perceived to be the stronger gender.
When considering the amount of foodstuffs being
produced today – even those of a savoury nature – many contain hidden amounts
of sugar.
This is completely unnecessary and panders to what the
industry assumes appeals to the palate of the consumer.
At the same time, the incidence of diabetes has become
a global epidemic which affects increasingly younger people. The link between
sugar and diabetes is evidenced
by the rising amount of obesity across the age
spectrum witnessed at large in society today.
In fact, this tendency is creeping into more
traditional cultures as they unwittingly adopt the Western diet. This is in the
ill-founded aspiration to in the modern lifestyle
which is portrayed in such a glamorous way.
One only has to look at today’s marketplace to observe
the popularity of not only alcohol, which contains a high amount of sugar, but
also confectionery as well as sweetened drinks. When giving up alcohol in the
process of cure, the addict often resorts to sugar in other forms as the grip
of dependence is loosened.
It is paradoxical that sugar holds such temptation
while, at the same time, acting as such a strong poison. It is no coincidence
that cola has become such an iconic substance on a global level ever since it
first made its appearance on the world stage more than a century ago.
In the pathogenesis of the remedy Saccharum
album (= as Saccharum officinale),
derived from cane sugar (or sugar beet), the major target of the fundamental
distress is levelled at the gut ecology (more recently known as the ‘microbiome’).
This manifests in the form of putrefaction, indicating
that when sugar is imbibed to excess it can cause pathological changes in the
immune system. This is due to the creation of an acid imbalance. This is
anathema to the variety of the microbiome’s healthy
population of bacteria, fungi, viruses and so on, which is vital to optimise
its full functioning.
Saccharum album, a highly
syphilitic remedy, acts unrelentingly on the organism and penetrates it
profoundly. Deep cases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease can be
observed to be eased by way of promoting more diversity in the microbiome with the application of Saccharum.
This could be the case with any indicated remedy but,
when such toxicity has created this type of pathology, this remedy should be
considered to match the rather extreme picture manifesting in this very
distinctive way.
In the background of this remedy on a constitutional
level is a history of deprivation. It is as if a primal ‘rupture’ occurred in
the early phase of development of the patient
(an early lack of symbiosis with a birth mother leaves
an indelible imprint). This could apply to any of the following:
Early
severance from the birth mother in the form of adoption
Early
severance from the birth mother in the form of incubation – this could be due
to compromised health as a result of premature birth
Caesarean
birth where there has been no struggle through the birth canal
Abuse of
alcohol, drugs, or sugar by either the patient or their parent.
When considering the mood that contributes to sugar
craving, one cannot ignore the search for love and security which often
triggers it when, for example, the cry for a hug
or heart-to-heart sharing has been denied. This
illustrates that oxytocin, known as the
‘cuddle hormone’, represents more than just safety but is also a
stress-handling hormone (Carter and Porges, 2013).
The proving of Saccharum
album illustrates the connection between the consumption of sugar and the
production of dopamine
(the ‘reward neurotransmitter’).
This is stimulated through the microbiome
where it mainly resides (along with serotonin, the ‘feel-good neurotransmitter’).
It is the vagus nerve which
relays this message to the brain through its action on the autonomic nervous
system and its unique ability to cut across the blood-brain barrier.
This is how addiction is born and shows how it can
rapidly take over the organism as increasing amounts of the much sought after
dopamine are used up through the habit.
This represents an unconscious drive on the part of
the individual. As the habit deepens, without the intervention of the simillimum, heroin addiction can supplant the lesser addictions
of alcohol or sugar. There is an association between sugar craving and heroin
addiction due to their joint connection lack of dopamine.
Sugar is said to be 8x more addictive than cocaine,
which suggests Saccharum album could be a much
overlooked and underused remedy for any major addiction, whatever
its source (Ahmed, 2009). This demonstrates how deeply
syphilitic this remedy is in its progression of disease and how the limbic
system becomes so easily swamped.
Equally (as illustrated above), addiction cases, as
they respond to homeopathic treatment, can replace the deeper addiction with a
lesser one as they start to recover.
This is also driven by the unconscious as the
substance loosens its grip on them. This could otherwise be perceived by the
practitioner as a retrograde step in the ‘Law of Cure’.
Isolation is a major theme of this remedy and is
reflected widely in today’s society. When women are feeling pre-menstrual, they
often crave sugar. After all, it is a time of pent-up stress and frustration
and can distance the sufferer from their family members.
As a result of this feeling, the patient, whether a
pre-menstrual woman or a petulant child, will push all the boundaries to
breaking point.
[Tinus Smits] in his proving
of the remedy described the Saccharum patient thus
‘He is like a perforated bucket, you can put all the water you want in it, but
the bucket will empty itself constantly’. He continues: ‘There is a fundamental
and profound hurt from early life that cannot be satisfied at the level of
actual life – only a deep transformation can help such a person, and homeopathy
can be a very effective tool for this’ (www.tinussmits.com).
Also, they will seek sugar as a compensation for the
lack of love they experience. Of course, this only goes to compound their very
testing behaviour which forms the bedrock of this manifestation.
The craving for sugar is part of the ‘fight or flight’
response which acts to prepare one for running from or fighting a threat – the
latter often in the form of being chased by a wild beast.
In one case where I treated a child with a tragically
life-limiting genetic disease, the mother very understandably gave in to him. Each
morning when he woke up, he demanded Smarties before
getting out of bed. After giving him Saccharum, the
child no longer needed to rely on this ‘fix’ as his microbiome
became less compromised.
It also acted to slow down the progression of the
disease despite the heavy allopathic medication he was exposed to at the same
time.
Saccharum album children are
reputed to be ‘large- limbed, fat, and bloated with the remedy’s close
relationship with Calc.: (Clarke, 2005). However, as in
this case, they can also present with emaciation. In my experience it is more
about assimilation than specific body type.
My research for this article has reminded me of the
need to emphasise to our patients the actual hazards of consuming sugar, even
in minimal amounts. This applies across the board and not just in cases calling
for this choice of remedy.
Wherever pathology has arisen or to prevent it from
occurring in the first place, I would recommend sugar is removed completely
from the patient’s diet. After all, it takes some build-up before a state
develops. It is a vicious circle, as the more someone feels deprived, the more
likely they are to fall into the trap of self-reward in this way.
In any other case requiring this remedy, an early lack
of symbiosis with a birth mother leaves an indelible imprint. If sugar has been
substituted for true affection, the child grows up with this association in
their psyche and this can translate into eating disorders as the child develops
(Adalian, 2017).
In the context of this article, a recipient of the
Nobel Prize and long-term director of the Max Planck Institute for Cell
Physiology in Berlin-Dahlem – Otto Heinrich Warburg –
gave a lecture in 1966 where he is quoted as saying:
‘Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless
secondary causes. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. Summarised
in a few words, the prime cause of cancer
is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in
normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar.’
He continues: ‘oxygen, the donor of energy in plants
and animals, is dethroned in the cancer cells and replaced by an
energy-yielding reaction to the lowest living forms, namely a fermentation of
glucose. All normal body cells meet their energy needs by respiration of
oxygen, whereas cancer cells meet their energy needs in great part by
fermentation.’ (Warburg, 1966)
This was a visionary perspective at the time which,
unfortunately, lost momentum at the end of this scientist’s life. His reclusive
life style may explain why it remained obscured during his lifetime and it is
only today that his revolutionary theory has caught on.
A ‘strange, rare, and peculiar’ symptom of this remedy
is painlessness – a symptom it shares with Opium and Stramonium, both remedies with a history of extreme trauma.
It is as if the organism has been so brutalised in
these cases that it has become anaesthetised to pain as a defence mechanism. This
could relate to a condition called ‘alexithymia’
which, in Greek, literally means there are no words for feelings.
The patient is so cut off from their feelings that
their inability to sense emotional pain is transferred onto their physical
structure. By the time the patient realises they have marked symptoms, the
danger is that pathology may have set in, especially in a deeply syphilitic
remedy like Saccharum album.
Poor expression of emotions is also seen in the
remedies Chelidonium, Mercurius vivus, and Natrum sulphuricum. These three
remedies conversely do feel physical pain
even if they cannot articulate it verbally and it is
projected onto the somatic level.
In conclusion, I believe that the microbiome
will come increasingly under the microscope as long as this innocuously
presenting toxin (sugar) pervades our food and drink supply and cannot be
conceptualised for what it truly represents – an assault on the immune system –
as its effects build up over time. Given the way sugar is marketed
and perceived by a captive audience, it is extremely
hard to change this entrenched mindset.
John Henry Clarke, in his exposé of this remedy,
mentions a colleague of his (Swan) who observed a patient who accidentally
discovered, after 25 years of suffering, that
the cause of his trouble was sugar.
All the symptoms disappeared when he abstained from
sugar in food or drink, and only reappeared when he took it again by way of
experiment. Swan observed in another case that, after taking the remedy, the
patient lost their taste for sugar and could not even bear the sight of it
thereafter (Clarke, 2005).
Nowadays, as members of the public are becoming
increasingly aware of the extremely toxic effects of the consumption of sugar,
we should embrace Constantine Hering’s vital stance
on sugar more than ever. Had this been elevated to the ‘Second Law of Cure’ at
the time, and the message thereby infiltrated the mainstream, a marked upsurge
in disease states which have consequently become rife
in the world today may have been stemmed.
As homeopaths, therefore, I believe we need to call
sugar out and express this in no uncertain terms as a significant maintaining
cause to our patients. After all, this may be
the most damaging substance humans voluntarily (and
sometimes involuntarily) imbibe, often to the point of oblivion, despite our
intellectual awareness of its potential danger.
I dedicate this article to the memory of Constantine Hering.
can be contacted at Elizabeth.adalian@googlemail.com.
Case of a six-year old girl
She was adopted at the age of two and her history up
to that time was of a tenuous relationship with her birth mother. She has
remained with the same family since that time.
Her adoptive parents received a report of lack of
boundaries with other children in the school playground. This comprised
crowding their space in an intrusive way and needing supervision. Her adoptive
parents decided to bring her for homeopathic treatment as they recognised this
type of behaviour in the home environment too.
She was very manipulative and would push the
boundaries all the time. She had a cunning intelligence which duped those
around her with this persistent type of behaviour. Her presenting physical
symptoms were rhinitis and catarrhal infections.
After a split dose of Saccharum
album 200c, there was a shift in the child’s behaviour. She no longer displayed
the intrusive behaviour and could be left unsupervised in the school
playground. At the same time, she became more at ease in family relationships
and friendships at home. Her tendency to rhinitis and catarrhal infections
gradually ceased to affect her and resolved in tune with the emotional shift
which was needed.
Case of a 42-year old woman
She had presented with petulance in relationships,
preventing anyone persisting in their commitment to her. This meant she had
missed out on having children as she had not resolved her neediness from what
she described as ‘malignant parenting’ of her own parents. Her presenting
physical symptoms concerned a compromised gut with haphazard eating (reflecting
her out-of-control emotions).
I initially prescribed Magnesium carbonicum
but she relapsed. Her appetite had improved on the Mag
carb but now needed stabilising to avoid
hypoglycaemia which was affecting her. After a split dose of Saccharum 1M, she presented in a much more integrated way. Her
partner observed she no longer pushed him to the limit and was much more in control
of her emotions. At the same time, she started to devote time to taking care of
her diet and cooking proper meals which she had not done before. She even
contemplated parenthood although she was aware that her age could be a
deterrent and her own childhood was so dysfunctional.
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