Constitutional Homeopathy Explained

Homeopathy is a system of medicine based on the laws of similars. It uses the principles of “like cures like” meaning that a medicine capable of producing symptoms in a healthy person will cure similar symptoms occurring as a manifestation of a disease. It treats the individual as a whole, taking into consideration the psychological, emotional, physical, and hereditary symptoms presenting with each homeopathic prescription.

I am often asked by patients in my practice, “What is my constitutional remedy?” In my experience, this answer differs, depending on the homeopath you ask and the training they have had. In my homeopathic education, this is what I have learned.

When you search the definition of “constitution”, this is the Merriam-Webster definition: (a)the physical makeup of the individual especially with respect to the health, strength, and appearance of the body, (b) the structure, composition, physical makeup, or nature of something. When you look at these definitions, it would make sense that a remedy with the most similar components of a human body would be that of what it is made up of. The top minerals constituents of the human body are: magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium and phosphorus. Furthermore, we find trace minerals of sulphur, silica, iron, zinc etc.

Homeopathic remedies are made up of diluted substances of plant, mineral and animal origin.

While each remedy has a place when it comes to prescriptions in my practice, when I classify my prescribing as constitutional, I use only remedies of mineral origin.

As a Classical Homeopath, I have different ways of prescribing when patients come into my practice. My initial case taking includes the patient’s chief complaints, mental emotional state, health history, sleep patterns, childhood-from conception to adulthood, body thermals, illness/disease susceptibility, temperament, food desires and aversions, a head-to-toe assessment of all body functions and any pattern/likeness that forms during the case taking. From this information gathered, there are a few ways to prescribe. I will sometimes prescribe a remedy that matches the “current chronic” state of the patient. This type of prescribing occurs when the chief complaint needs a different remedy than the patients presenting constitutional remedy. Other times, the illness or disease picture may fit the persons constitutional type and the mineral remedy prescribed will affect the chief complaint and possibly have an affect on the person as a whole. I use the example of a lock and key. The person and their presenting illness and constitution are the lock and the homeopathic remedy is the key. The homeopathic case taking reveals the prongs on the lock (the person) and as a homeopath, my job is to find a homeopathic remedy to match up as many prongs on the key as possible. This is what I love most about homeopathy and case taking, no two cases are alike and each patient is treated as an individual, with a unique homeopathic remedy prescription just for them and their symptom picture.