Pharmacological Basis of Similia Similibus Curantur and the Nature of Homeopathic Materia Medica

Similia Similibus Curantur is also called the law of similars. That is, when a drug produces pathological/pathogenic symptoms in healthy individual means, the same drug can relieve similar kinds of symptoms in individuals with the disease. The biological, pharmacological and toxicological action of capsaicin alkaloids is a perfect example to explain the Similia Similibus Curantur principle. Most of the drugs in homoeopathic materia medica contain toxicological, pharmacological, drug-proving, and traditional use-related symptoms and indications. Abnormal sensations and symptoms of the disease are caused by the involvement of a specific receptor or molecular pathway and gene functions. These receptors or molecules may be stimulated or suppressed by environmental, natural or artificial agents. In such conditions, the administration of specific homoeopathic medicine having a similar kind of affinity towards the particular receptors or molecules involved in the disease process leads to modulation of such receptor or molecular pathways (e.g., desensitization, sensitization, inhibition). These kinds of actions cause the betterment of symptoms or curative effects. So “Similia similibus curanter” can be understood as a similar receptor or molecular pathway involved in both drug molecules biological/ pharmacological and toxicological action and disease pathogenesis". The selection of medicine is by comparing the similarity between the receptor or molecular pathway in disease pathogenesis and drug pathogenesis. To avoid unwanted aggravations or side effects while using mother tinctures or solutions, administer them less than their physiological dose. The theory of the pharmacological basis of Similia Similia Curantur creates a rational method to apply this Similia Principle. Based on this theory, there is a possibility of discovering Novel drugs in the future that acts and gives a cure in similia similibus curantur way.

Principios filosóficos de la homeopatía / Philosophical principles of homeopathy

De una manera clara, directa y muy didáctica, los autores de este trabajo realizan un recorrido por los principios que configuran la estructura de la filosofía homeopática, rescatando muchos de los conceptos inscritos en algunas de las obras literarias del célebre Higinio G. Pérez, fundador de la Escuela Libre de Homeopatía, y del fisiólogo norteamericano Walter Bradford Cannon, los cuales, por supuesto, son coincidentes con muchos de los preceptos hipocráticos y hahnemaniannos. Para complementar su análisis, los investigadores refieren las opiniones de algunos otros científicos (fisiólogos y biólogos) y citan de manera textual diversos parágrafos del doctor Samuel Hahnemann, al tiempo que expresan su opinión sobre la vigencia de dichas premisas en la época moderna...

In a clear direct and very didactic manner the authors of this paper perform a journey by the principles that configure the philosophical structure of homeopathy, recovering many of the concepts written in various of the literary works of the notorious physician Higinio G. Pérez, founder of the Homeopathic Free Scholl and from the north American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon, which of course, are coincidental with most of the Hippocratic an Hanemanniann precepts. In order to complete their analysis, these researchers refer the opinions of some other scientists (Physiologist and Biologists) and quoted verbatim various paragraphs of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, at the same time, that they state their personal opinion on the validity of these assumptions in modern times...