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Mankind has survived for hundreds of thousands of years and evolved into a very intelligent life form. Mankind has survived from the scourges of nature as well as diseases in this period on his own, without the help of any doctor be it an allopath, homoeopath or ayurvedic physician. This is due to his inherent
immunity. Human body has ways of resisting and recovering from diseases and these mechanisms are collectively called as Immunity. It is also defined as ability of the human body to resist against different types of organisms or toxins that tend to damage the tissue. This disturbance in immunity when it is mild it leads to morbidity and when it is severe it leads to death in extreme cases. All this is controlled Automatically in the human body by our genes and is what we call Automaticity as mentioned in physiology book by Guyton and Hall and also in our organon of phiolosophy.
A infection in the body is not always synonymous with disease. A person can be infected with an organism but will not suffer from the disease, this is because of his immunity. For e.g. during an epidemic of any infectious disease such as Measles or Chicken pox lot of people are exposed and infected with the respective viruses but not everybody suffers from the disease. Many people attend a wedding or a party but only few people suffer from diarrhoea after consuming food at the party. Those who do not suffer from the disease are said to have good immunity. Immunity in a person should be optimum it should not be excess or deficient. When deficient it makes a person prone to lot of infections or diseases, while as when it is excess it makes a person hypersensitive and shows excess response to the normal stimuli and causes suffering because of excess immunity and immune responses. Hence what we want is normal immunity and the process by which we achieve that is termed as Immunomodulation. In cases where immunity is high we need to bring it down and in cases where immunity is low we need to bring it up. Homoeopathy brings the immunity to normal and hence we cure patients with
Immunomodulation. Study of immunity and its mechanisms and its clinical application is termed as
Immunology.
Study of Immunology is divided into 2 parts :
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Defence
against Infections.
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Immunopathology,
which deals with immune mechanisms involved in individual
diseases.
Defence against Infections: the human body defends itself against variety of infections and toxins which try to make it sick. They are divided into 2 sub categories as follows.
The external defence mechanism compromises of the
following :
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Anatomical barriers: Continuity of skin and mucous membranes act as anatomical barriers and prevent the microbes from entering the body. Skin and mucous membranes have glands that secrete chemicals such as lysozymes which act as a part of the external defence mechanism. Lysozymes are also secreted by the tear glands, these tears help in physically washing of the toxins and microbes which enter the eyeball cavity. The other tissues such as Cilia in the respiratory tract, Hairs in the ears and nose and eyelashes e.t.c. also act as anatomical barriers in the human body. The eyelashes are there to protect our eyes, a very important organ, they prevent the foreign body from entering the eyes. Hence in cases of Alopecia aereata or Alopecia universallis, eyelashes are also lost and they should be the first to reappear after the homoeopathic similimum. These eyelashes have a very important immunological function of defence. Immunity is therefore vital in assesing the follow-up of a patient.
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Reflexes: Reflexes such as closing of the eye lids when something approaches our eyes, raising of our hands or kicking of legs to defend ourselves when being attacked by somebody form an important part of our external defence mechanism. Hence in a case of paralysis or coma if a patient starts moving his eyelids then we know that improvement has started.
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Chemical: Skin secretes chemicals such as fatty acids, lactic acid, phospholipids and Immunoglobulin A (IgA). These chemicals do not allow the micro – organisms present on the skin from causing any disease. They keep these organisms in check and from proliferating beyond control. When the immunity of the skin decreases due to any reason these organisms multiply and cause diseases such as Taenia or Ringworm e.t.c. If any local application is applied to these skin lesions (Allopathic or Homoeopathic) then the disease gets suppressed and travels to a deeper layer or organ. Hence in Homoeopathy we are strictly against the use of local applications.
The internal defence mechanism
compromises of :
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Continuity of Mucous membranes: As the continuity in the skin externally, likewise the continuity in the mucous membrane prevents the micro - organisms from entering our body.
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Reflexes: Like the external reflexes there are internal reflexes in the body such as the sneezing and cough reflex which form an important part of the internal defence mechanism by throwing out the irritants. For e.g. during the treatment of Asthama, breathlessness should be the first to go. It should be followed by transient increase in cough, which is non - productive and dry in nature. This cough should be followed by sneezing and transient coryza.
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Discharges: Normal discharges of the body such as urine, stool and perspiration are an important part of internal defence mechanism by helping in eliminating the metabolic waste products of the body. Hence after the administration of the genetic constitutional similimum the discharges of the body should normalize and constipation should definitely improve.
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Chemical: Mucous memranes also secrete Lysozymes and IgA which as described before keeps the micro organisms in check. Salivary glands secretes Saliva which has got antibacterial properties keeps the microbes present in the oral cavity under check and prevent from cavities forming in the teeth. Stomach secretes Hydrochloric acid (Hcl), renin, pepsin and other digestive enzymes, which kills the microbes that are present with whatever we ingest.
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Bacterial: Bacteria’s such as Lactobacillus acidophilus and E.colli are normal flora of the intestine that help in proper digestion and also keep the foreign micro – organism in check in our intestines. When drugs such as antibiotics are ingested they destroy the normal bacterial flora also along with the foreign bacteria. This disturbs the immunity in the intestines as a result making the intestines more susceptible to infections. Therefore drugs like Nux-vomica are indicated in constitutions which are easily affected by allopathic drugs.
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Blood: Blood forms the most important part of our Specific or adaptive immunity. The immunity is by its cells such as Lymphocytes, Eosinophils, Basophils, Monocytes e.t.c. There are 2 types of specific immunity i.e.
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Humoral: Humoral immunity is by Antibodies that are secreted by Immunoglobulins such as IgA, IgG, IgM, IgD and IgE. These immunoglobulins in turn are secreted by B - Lymphocytes. The antibodies secreted by these Immunoglobulins attach themselves to the foreign microbes and mark them so that they can be phagocytosed by Macrophages and Polymorhonuclear neutrophils (PMN). Phagocytosis is an important part of immunity. Dead PMN is what forms pus and hence pus in any part of the body is not a good sign. Hence formation of boils with pus in the body indicates general decrease in immunity and is not welcome even if these boils are on the superficial tissue such as skin.
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Cellular:
Cellular or cell mediated immunity is by T – Lymphocytes which are induced by toxins and other non – microbial foreign substances. These T – lymphocytes act as phagocytes and kill the intracellular microbes especially the bacterias or directly lyse cells especially which contain viral proteins. These T – Lymhocytes have a property called as Tolerance. Whereby they become immunologically unresponsive to bodies self (own) antigen. Any disturbance in this property of tolerance of Lymphocytes leads to creating of Autoantibodies which attack and destroy body’s own tissues and cells. Those diseases where Autoantibodies are produced are called as Auto - immune disorders. For e.g. In Rheumatoid arthritis T lymphocytes form immune complexes with the body’s self - antigen and destroy the synovial membrane of the joints. Since this is the disturbance of the basic function of the cell, Rheumatoid arthritis and other Auto – immune disorders such as Chronic Renal Failure, AIDS, e.t.c. are classified under seventh layer of Dr. Vijaykar’s chart of supression.
In Rheumatoid arthritis the diagnostic test of RA Factor is the measurement of the antigen – antibody complexes. Hence when a patient of Rheumatoid arthrits improves the titre of RA Factor will also come
down.
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Cytokines: Cytokines are plasma proteins that form a part of the complement system. Complement system is an important of the natural immunity. One of the important major component of cytokines is Interleukins. There are around twenty different types of Interleukins named as Il1, Il2, Il3 e.t.c. One of the Interleukin IL1 attacks the immune complexes known as Major Histocompability Complex (MHC). On breakdown of these MHC’s chemical substances called Prostaglandins are released. These prostaglandins stimulate the temperature centre in the Hypothalamus and cause Fever. Hence during Homoeopathic treatment a mild to moderate rise in temperature is a welcome sign both in acute and chronic diseases. In acute disease after the administration of a genetic constitutional similum, usually we see a slight increase in temperature initially which is followed by temperature becoming normal and patient improving. This also confirms with Kent’s 1st observation. It says that an initial aggravation followed by amelioration is a very good sign. Another cytokine called Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF) also gives rise to fever. TNF is secreted by Mononuclear Phagocytes and T Lymphocytes. They give rise to fever by increasing the catabolism and cause cachexia. This TNF is what leads to loss of weight in diseases such as tumours and cancers. During homoeopathic treatment of cancers patient should gain weight or at the least stop losing further weight and stabilise.
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Acute phase response: Acute phase response is the response of the body during acute emergencies and acute inflammation. Fever is a part of Acute phase response. Acute phase proteins such as Proteolytic Enzyme Inhibitors, coagulation factors, Fibrinogen e.t.c. also form a part of acute phase response. They help in recovering after an injury or infection by limiting the damage caused to the affected tissue and by reducing bacterial toxicity. For e.g. C – Reactive protein which is a part of Acute phase response increases thousand fold immediately after an injury or infection. The C- reactive protein binds to the phospholipids of bacteria and activates the complement system thereby promoting phagocytosis. Increase in fibrinogen levels in the blood is what leads to increase in the Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (E.S.R.). hence during an acute or chronic infection ESR rises and during recovery or cure ESR decreases and normalises. Injuries to a person also depend upon his constitution. The severity of effect of injuries on an individual also depends upon his immune status. Constitutions such as Natrum-sulph, Arnica, Cicuta get easily affected by injury to the head while others do not show any effect. Different constitutions show different effects to the same kind injury according to their affinity, predisposition and sphere of action. This is termed as susceptibility in Homoeopathy. As a result Arnica constitutions will produce stroke, while cicuta will produce convulsions, and Natrum-sulph will produce migraine after head injury. We know this as Individualization in Homoeopathy.
Proteins form an integral part of Immunity in an individual. As a result Immunity gets affected by numerous factors and a number of different kinds of proteins, these proteins can be foreign or own. These proteins disturb the protein balance and as a result they produces diseases. These proteins are released by the following.
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Emotional factors which leads to either excess or reduced secretion of chemicals called as Neuro-transmitters. For e.g. greif, which leads to excess serotonin uptake, anger or vexation, which leads to secretion of excess adrenalin, rudeness, insults or shock e.t.c. These Neuro-transmitters are all proteins which ultimately disturb the balance and immunity and produce disease.
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Physical factors such as crushing injury, burns, insect bites, bee-stings e.t.c. These also release proteins which adversely affect the immunity.
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Intake of drugs such as antibiotics or anti-helminthics kill the microbes. Phagocytes in the body ingest these dead organisms because it is their function to act as scavengers. They cause the break up of these organisms into proteins that are foreign to humans.
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Introduction of foreign proteins in the body in the form of Vaccinations.
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