Suppression vs. Healing: Hering’s Law of Cure

One thing I have observed consistently in my work as a homeopath over the years is that an educated patient is an empowered patient. Good information is power. Well informed patients make better choices for themselves, improve faster, and stay well longer.

With education in mind, I thought I would discuss a fundamental principle and understanding in homeopathic circles about the natural ways that people heal. These ways of healing occur according to laws of nature, which govern or orchestrate how the living organism moves from sickness to health, from depletion to robust vitality, and from suffering to well-being. Interfering with these healing laws generally only leads to health complications and prolongation of suffering.

In an age where expediency is the norm in conventional medicine, suppressing symptoms is the main approach most often employed, basically through the use of drugs. However, knowing about how we actually heal can illuminate the rationale behind why we don’t really want to suppress our conditions the allopathic way, and points to a truer path which leads ultimately to our getting well, to restoring us back to full health and vitality.

Constantine Hering, a renowned homeopath who lived in the 19th century, is credited for formulating for the first time this law of healing, which describes the direction of symptoms in cure. According to Hering, during the healing process, symptoms in living beings move:

1. From above downwards,
2. From within outwards, from the center to the periphery,
3. From a more important organ to a less important one,
4. In the reverse order of their coming.

Indeed, Hering’s Law is at the basis of all real healing. Simply put, it is the way that the body instinctively and organically heals itself in nature. You can tamper with it but you cannot change it. For instance, when symptoms get suppressed through the use of drugs, it prevents our organism from working things out through normal healing channels. The use of allopathic drugs creates complications by impeding the direction the healing process is taking, by interfering with the organisms intelligent response to illness. While suppression and palliation may make us feel good, they never cure disease, and, even worse, they often create or exacerbate them by interfering with the natural laws of cure.

As a more specific example, if a person suppresses cold symptoms with drugs that oppose fever, mucus production, sore throat, and sneezing, the condition may go more inward to more important organs (#2 and #3 above) and result in transforming a simple cold into a more severe bronchitis or even pneumonia (i.e. from nose and throat to chest and lungs).

In the chronic suppression of longstanding disease, we often see new symptoms and new diagnoses cropping up, adding complexity to an individual’s problem list. As commonly observed by seasoned homeopaths, a longstanding eczema repeatedly suppressed by steroid creams may lead to the development of asthma or chronic intestinal problems. Repeated suppression of arthritic conditions with potent drugs may one day give way to a serious heart ailment.

Hering’s Law is not theoretical. It is derived from keen and repeated observations of real patients over many years, who have gone from serious acute and chronic illness to complete recovery. It has been verified and substantiated time and again in clinical work through observations of patients as they move toward real and lasting cures. Hering’s Law is something all homeopaths see at work routinely in their practices, and it has stood the test of time.

What it means on a practical level, is that, in order to heal, one needs to undergo a definite and specific healing process. Inner conditions need to externalize before leaving the system entirely. Recent conditions must resolve first, before chronic conditions begin to significantly alleviate. Curing asthma, for example, may lead to the temporary return of an old rash or eczema. Treating people with diabetes and heart disease may lead to the return of an old arthritic condition or recurrent bronchitis or sinusitis, before the body strengthens enough to overcome both.

Healing can be complex and uncomfortable at times, but knowing that your symptoms are following a reliable law of cure can be reassuring along the way. It means that you may not be completely free of suffering or discomfort for a period of time as you heal with homeopathy, but your determination will be emboldened by the knowledge that all is proceeding according to plan, and the ultimate goal of wellness is ever growing nearer.

Homeopathy is one of the few systems of healing that so clearly demonstrates the truth of Hering’s Law, while upholding its promise of curing disease at its root, thereby relieving suffering, often entirely. Knowing that suppressing symptoms can give short term relief while creating deeper, more complicated problems in the long term, gives one a clearer perspective from which to make informed choices regarding one’s health care.

There is an observation that for each year one has suffered a given condition, it will take 1-2 months (sometimes longer) of proper, non-suppressive (i.e. homeopathic) treatment for its complete reversal. Thus a disease condition tens years standing will take approximately a year of treatment to fully resolve. This “formula” provides a useful benchmark for assessing your own personal prognosis. It also points toward a definite and necessary commitment to the healing process.

I hope that knowing about Hering’s Law will assist each and everyone of you to better gauge where you are in the healing process. It often leads to “aha moments,” as you reflect on your experiences in the healing process, making connections and perceiving relationships between experiences past and present, things that you hadn’t thought of or understood before.

Coming to an awareness of how Hering’s Law has operated in your own healing may motivate you, perhaps, to share this new perspective with others whom you care about. For sharing your understanding of how the process of healing happens might encourage others to seek effective homeopathic treatment over suppressive conventional approaches, and could allow them to enjoy all the benefits you have from the use of homeopathic remedies for healing.

Wishing you and hoping you are all having a wonderful Summer!

Yours in health,

Dr. Doug