Muhammad Saalim

S/o Muhammad Salim Akhtar Ansari

0302-2640894
muhammadsaalim@gmail.com
H.No 184, Heaven City, near SITE II
KDA Scheme 33, Sector 10,
Gadap Town, Karachi, 75340
St. John Homeopathic Medical College, Karachi
Efficacy of Homeopathic Medicines in Renal Disease
 Abstract

Objective
To describe the efficacy of homeopathic medicine in Renal Diseases.
Method
A simple cross-referencing approach is used for defining the outcomes and results of
different publications, books, journals, research papers etc., to establish the objective of the
paper.
Result
The positive effects of different homeopathic medicines are clearly observable in the
treatment of Renal Diseases.
Conclusion
Homeopathy can treat renal diseases and can even reduce the frequency of different
renal therapies in a patient with no other choice.
Keywords
Homeopathy, Renal Diseases, Renal Calculi, Complementary and Alternative
Medicines
Renal Diseases 1

Introduction

Renal Diseases are the most common problem now a day. Around 3.7 million people

worldwide are suffering from an end-stage renal disease. A 6% increase, greater than the

population growth rate, is observed annually in it (ERCPA, 2017). This sudden increase in

Renal ailments is causing both social and economic difficulties. The Dialysis alone costs

fourteen billion annually to the European Union (ERCPA, 2017). To cut off the cost and the

figures it is necessary to have an alternate cheaper way of treatment.

Homeopathy is the one that surely fulfills the requirements. This paper tries to

understand the effectiveness of homeopathy in the treatment of Renal Diseases. Different

publications are used to cross-reference and to provide a stance for the theory.

Discussion

Renal diseases or the kidney diseases are one of the emerging problems of the world.

Lack of hygienic environment, use of contaminated drinking water, shortage of purified water

supply, socio-economic conditions and unawareness are some of the main cause of this

worldwide health crisis. Over two million people are either on dialysis or receiving treatment

for the kidney transplant and the worst part of this is that these two million people just make

the ten percent of the ones who actually need it (Couser et al., 2011).

The conventional method of treatment does not provide the complete, easy and

economical treatment for this problem. This leads to a decreasing trust in the conventional way

of treatment and increased visits to complementary and alternative medicines. In 1997, 629

million visits were made to CAM providers as compared to the primary care providers, that

had only 386 million visits (Institute of Medicine, 2005).

Homeopathy is the biggest CAM, more than 50% population in India and UK depends

on it, and has the best records in treating renal diseases, especially renal calculi. Hundreds of
Renal Diseases 2

research papers and case studies clearly appraise its proficiency in the treatment of kidney

stones.

Renal Diseases

Kidneys are one of the vital organs of the human body. They purify or filter our blood

from excess water and hazardous wastes. A slight problem with them may result in an

uncontrollable outrage of the abnormal body functioning. To understand the effectiveness of

the homeopathy in the treatment of renal diseases, a brief introduction of some of the renal

disorders is needed. Following are the definitions of the major renal ailments.

Nephrotic Syndrome

Nephrotic Syndrome is a common kidney disease with specific sets of symptoms.

Protein in urine, edema in limbs especially lower limbs and decreased albumin in urine are the

complications associated with Nephrotic Syndrome (Hull, Gallagher and Goldsmith, 2013).

Usually caused due to the damage of the nephrons, the tiny little blood vessels in the kidney

that filter blood, Nephrotic Syndrome may end up in high blood pressure, elevated blood

cholesterol, chronic kidney disease and even renal failure.

Bright’s Disease

Bright’s Disease, named after Richard Bright (1789-1858), who discovered it in 1940,

is a chronic kidney disease (Peitzmen, 2014). Also known as acute or chronic nephritis,

Bright’s Disease has symptoms of inflammation of serous membrane of kidney, hematuria,

albuminuria, and edema. Untreated nephritis may lead to hypertension, cardiac arrest and renal

failure.

Renal Failure

Renal Failure is defined as the loss of renal functionality, due to the decrease in

Glomerular Filtration Rate below 80ml/min, with the buildup of urea, creatinine and other
Renal Diseases 3

nitrogenous compounds in blood. Uremia, urine in the blood and Azotemia, nitrogen in blood

are the two outcomes or complications of renal failure (Abuelo, 1995).

Renal Calculi

Renal calculi or kidney stones are the solid masses made up of different chemical

crystals. Renal calculi are the most painful renal ailment. Renal calculi are usually made up of

one of the six major crystalline substances (Table 1), Calcium Oxalate, Calcium Phosphate,

Purines, Cystines, Silicates and Bacterial decompositions (Mandel and Mandel, 1987).

Mineral Names Chemical Nomenclature Chemical Formula

Whewellite Calcium oxalate CaC2O4H2O

monohydrate (WH)

weddellite Calcium oxalate dihydrate CaC2O4(2 + x)H2O

(WE)

Apatite Basic calcium hydrogen

phosphate (AP) Ca5(PO4)3(OH)

Brushite Calcium hydrogen CaHPO42H2O

phosphate (BR)

Whitlockite B-tricalcium phosphate (B- B-Ca3(PO4)2

TCP)
Octa calcium phosphate Ca8H2(PO4)66H2O
(OCP)

Struvite Magnesium ammonium Mg(NH4)(PO4)6H2O

phosphate (ST)

Newberyite Magnesium hydrogen MgHPOC3H2O

phosphate (NE)
Uric acid (UA) C5H4N4O3
Uric acid dihydrate (UD) C5H4N4O32H2O
Monosodium urate NaC5H3N4O3H2O
monohydrate (MSU)
Ammonium acid urate (AU) NH4C5H3N4O3
Xanthine (XA) C5H4N4O
2,8-Dihydroxyadenine C5H7N5O2
Cystine (CY) S2C6H12N2O4
Table 1: Crystalline substances that occur in renal calculi (Mandel and Mandel, 1987).
Renal Diseases 4

Hematuria

Hematuria or blood in urine is another renal disorder or problem usually caused by

some internal infection or damage to the kidney, urinary tract or urinary bladder. Hematuria

generally has some underlying cause like kidney stones. The timing and color of blood in urine

describes the origin of the blood, e.g. crimson red blood at the start of micturition indicates the

problem in urethra or prostate while clotted blood at the end of urination indicates the origin to

be urinary bladder (D'Castro, 2005).

Homeopathic Treatment of Renal Diseases

Homeopathic is a holistic way of treatment, founded in the late seventieth century, by

a German physician, Christian Samuel Hahnemann (Ernst, 2016). Homeopathy works on the

basis of similarity, its emblem "Similia Similibus Curentur" truly defines its doctrine. To treat

any disease or health disorder, either communicable on noncommunicable, chronic or acute the

law of similarity must be considered.

Procedure for the Selection of Homeopathic Remedy

The selection criteria of homeopathic medicine are based on the law of similarity,

detailed case taking and then repertorization of the symptoms. Case taking is the evaluation

and classification of the symptoms into different useful categories, such as constitutional,

miasmatic, general, physical and characteristic, to help out in the repertorization. Repertorizing

of remedies, on the other hand, is basically a method for the eradication of all medicines other

than the actually needed one, the similimum (Abarna et al., 2015).

Another thing to remember while selecting a homeopathic remedy is its source of

creation. As observed in clinical practices, homeopathic medicines are found to act differently,

rendering their sources. Medicines from plant kingdom usually have a short but quick action,

minerals, on the other hand, works for a longer period of time. Homeopathic remedies sourced
Renal Diseases
from animal kingdom generally have the slowest but the longest span of action (Shreedharan,
2004).
The best way to choose a remedy is to select it from a repertory, a repertory is a book
in which symptoms along with their possible remedies are written. Table 2, shows key
homeopathic remedies for different renal diseases. The remedies are chosen from the two main
homeopathic repertories.
Renal Diseases Oscar E. Boericke
Clinical Repertory and
Therapeutic Index of
Homoeopathic Materia Medica
(Boericke, 1969)
Bright’s Disease acon., apis, ars., aur-mur., bell.,
(Nephritis) berb., cann-s., canth., chim., chin-
s., cupr-ars., hell., hep., kali-chl.,
koch's lymph., merc-s., methyl-
bl., ol-sant., phos., pichi., sab.,
samb., scilla., ter., ver-a., ver-v.
Renal Calculi arg-n., bell., berb., canth., coccus,
diosc., epig., eup-pur., lyc., nit-
ac., nux-v., ocimum, pareira,
pichi., sars., solid., stigm., tab.
Hematuria acon., arn., bell., berb., cann-s.,
(Blood in Urine) canth., carb-ac., coccus, colch.,
cop., crot., equis., erig., ham.,
ipec., lach., lyc., mill., nit-ac.,
nux-v., ocimum, pareira, phos.,
rhus-ar., sars., senec., solid., ter.,
thlaspi, uva.
5
James Tyler Kent
Repertory of the homoeopathic
Materia Medica (Kent, 2005)
acon., all-c., apis., arg-n., arn., asc-
c., aur., bell., benz-ac., berb., bry.,
cann-s., canth., caps., carb-ac.,
chel., chim., colch., ery-a., eup-
pur., gels., hell., helon., hep., kali-
ar., kali-c., kali-chl., kali-i., lyc.,
merc-c., merc-s., nux-v., oci.,
phos., phyt., polyg-h., puls., rhus-
t., sab., sars., senec., sulph., ter.,
thuj.
acon., ars., benz-ac., berb., canth.,
chim., coloc., cop., kali-ar., kali-p.,
lyc., mang., merc-s., mez., naja.,
nit-ac., petr., phos., pic-ac., puls.,
sars., sep., sil., staph., sul-ac.,
sulph., tarent., valer., zinc.
acon., ant-t., apis., arg-n., arn.,
ars., aur., both., cact., calc.,
camph., cann-s., canth., caps.,
carb-v., caust., chim., chin-a., coc-
c., colch., con., cop., crot-h., erig.,
ferr-ar., ham., hell., hyper., ipec.,
kali-ar., kali-chl., kreos., lach.,
lyc., merc-c., merc., mez., mill.,
nat-m., nit-ac., nux-v., op., ph-ac.,
phos., plb., puls., rhus-a., rhus-t.,
sabin., sars., sec., senec., sep.,
squil., sul-ac., sulph., ter., zinc.
Renal Diseases 6

Albuminuria am-benz., apis, ars., berb, calc-
(Albumin in ars., colch., dig., euonym., Eup-
Urine) pur., Ferr-mur., hell., kal., merc-
c., osm., phos., plumb-c., sec.,
solid., stroph., ter.
ant-t., apis., arg-n., ars-i., ars., aur-
mn., aur-m., aur., brach., calc-ar.,
calc., cann-s., canth., carb-ac.,
carb-s., carb-v., chim., chin-a.,
chin., colch., crot-c., crot-h.,
cupr., dig., dulc., ferr-ar., ferr-i.,
ferr., gels., glon., hell., helon., hep,
hippoz., iod., kali-bi., kali-c., kali-
chl., kali-i., kalm., lac-d., lach.,
lyc., merc-c., merc-cy., merc-i.,
merc., nat-a., nat-c., nat-m., nat-p.,
nat-s., nit-ac., petr., ph-ac., phos.,
phyt., pic-ac., plb., pyrog., rhus-t.,
sabin., sulph., ter., uran.

Table 2: Some homeopathic medicines for renal diseases as suggested in the repertories.

Short Review of Some Key Homeopathic Remedies for Renal Diseases

To study the benefits and efficacy of medicines, clinical trials and case studies are the

most valuable things. Bonney, (2015) “suggest that case studies, regardless of the source, are

significantly more effective than other methods of content delivery”. They help not only to

understand the medicine but also provides us with the ability to the better application of those

medicines. Similarly, the clinical trials give us an insight into the real-world problems and

intensify our performances.

Below are short reviews of some homeopathic remedies, for Renal Diseases, supported

by different case studies and clinical trials.

Phosphorus

Phosphorus, with the characteristic symptom of the lassitude of the whole body, is a

common homeopathic remedy for Bright's Disease, waxy and fatty stones and albuminuria

(Mathur, 2003). According to a case study based research on renal calculi by Dr. Abhijit

Chakma in 2015, a patient with 12mm calculi in right kidney had successfully been cured by

just prescribing Phosphorus (Figure 1). The medicine was prescribed by repertorizing the

symptoms in Materia Medica (Chakma, 2015).

Renal Diseases 7

Figure 1: Ultrasound reports of the patient before and after the treatment (Chakma, 2015)

Figure 2: Ultrasound reports of the patient before and after the treatment (Chakma and Chandra Shil, 2014).
Renal Diseases 8

Lycopodium

Lycopodium is an antipsoric, anti-syphilitic and anti-psychotic remedy. Nearly all cases

of the lycopodium may have some urinary and digestive disorders accompanying with them

(Boericke, 2008).

A patient, age 55, with heaviness and pain in the hypogastric region came to the clinic.

He has been suffering from renal calculi and is taking allopathic medicines for the last two and

the half years, not only that but he had also been gone through a surgical procedure for that

very purpose some three years ago. The calculi return within the six months of the surgery. On

further investigation and diagnosing, it was found that the patient was still on antipyretics, had

twice a history of jaundice, had reoccurring feverish feelings.

A 11mm kidney stone was found in the calyx of the left kidney on Ultrasonography.

The assessment of the symptoms resulted in the selection of the Lycopodium Clavatum as the

sole medicine, based on the totality of the symptoms of the patient. One and a half month-long

treatment resulted in the expelling of the calculi (Chakma and Chandra Shil, 2014) (Figure 2).

Nux Vomica

A 48-year-old female with complaints of pain in right iliac region extending towards

legs, increased the desire to urinate with painful micturition, reported. On further investigation

and laboratory examination, the presence of Calcium Oxalate crystals, along with the elevated

Serum Calcium level was found. The ultrasonography of the KUB revealed two calculi, one

16mm in the right renal pelvis, and second, 9mm in mid of right ureter. After case taking and

repertorizing Nux Vomica 30C was prescribed. Only four doses of Nux Vomica 30C expelled

out both of the stones in just one month and ten days treatment (Sumithran, 2016) (Figure 3).
Renal Diseases 9

Berberis Vulgaris

Berberis Vulgaris is a commonly known remedy for the renal problems especially the

renal calculi. No other remedy is better than Berberis in handling stones, it let the little stone

loose so quickly that “the patient will take a long breath and wish he had sent for the doctor

sooner” (Kent, 2012). According to an experimental based research to illuminate the potential

role of the Berberis Vulgaris by Ganesan et al. (2015), demonstrate the possibility of the

dissolution of the Calcium Oxalate stones in human urine by using Berberis Vulgaris (Figure

4).

Figure 3: Ultrasound of the patient (a) 16 mm stone Figure 4: Pattern of Calcium Oxalate (a) Non-Citrated (b) Citrated (c)
in right renal pelvis (b) No stones in the right renal Berberis 30C (d) Berberis Ø (Ganesan et al., 2015)
pelvis and right mid ureter (Sumithran, 2016)

Results and Outcomes

A study of the effects of Magnesium Phosphoricum on arthritis shows that “small dose

of substance having a capacity to produce inflammation could work against inflammation, as

per like cures like, the fundamental principle of Homoeopathy” (Shah and Sathaye, 2017). In

our case, different cases studies also make it clear that a symptomatically repertorized

similimum homeopathic drug can easily provide relief in a short period of time, with minimum
Renal Diseases 10

repetition of doses. The outcomes of this papers clearly show the efficacy of the homeopathic

drugs in renal diseases, especially like renal calculi, nephritis, albuminuria and hematuria.

Conclusions

Renal Diseases are evolving increasingly due to a change in social and economic

standards. People suffering from renal ailments have fewer choices left for treatment. The most

common are renal replacement therapies. Renal replacement treatments may extend one's life

but are not good at maintaining a good life.

The homeopathic way of treatment, either constitutional or symptomatic, is found to be

very successful in treating the renal patients. It not only helps in an improved quality of life but

also decreases the frequency of dialysis and other renal replacement therapies (Pareek, 2017).
Renal Diseases 11

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Renal Diseases 12

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