Organon of medicine Diminished susceptibility

1. DIMINISHED SUSCEPTIBILITY
BY,NAYANA.M.R
IVBHMS
ROLL NO 55

2. SUSCEPTIBILITY
DEFINITION
By susceptibility we mean the general quality or capability of the living
organism of receiving impressions; the power to react to stimuli.
Susceptibility is one of the fundamental attributes of life. Upon it
depends all functioning, all vital processes, physiological and
pathological. Digestion, assimilation, nutrition, repair, secretion,
excretion, metabolism and catabolism, as well as disease processes
arising from infection or contagion depend upon We power of the
organism to react to specific stimuli.
The cure and alleviation of diseases depend upon power of the organism
to react to the remedy.

3. DIMINISHED SUSCEPTIBILITY
the kind and degree of reaction to medicines depends
upon the degree of susceptibility of the patient
To bring about cure he must know that susceptibility
implies and includes affinity, attraction, desire, hunger,
need; that these all exist and express themselves
normally as states and conditions in every living being;
but that they may become morbid and perverted and so
cause disease, suffering and death.

4. Susceptibility as a state may be increased, diminished or
destroyed. Either of these is a morbid state which must
be considered therapeutically from the standpoint of the
individual patient. Susceptibility in organism, mental or
bodily, is equivalent to state. State involves the attitude
of organizations to internal causes and to external
circumstances. It is all the resource of defense or the way
of yielding.

5. No agent or procedure should be used as a therapeutic
measure which has the power to, diminish, break down
or destroy the normal susceptibility or reactibility of the
organism, because that is one of the most valuable
medical assets we possess.
To use agents in such a manner or in such a form or
quantity as to diminish, impair or destroy the power of
the organism to react to stimuli, is to align ourselves
with the forces of death and disintegration.

6. ANTISEPTICS
The use of antiseptics in the treatment of disease, or
surgically (in the field of operation), is another means of
impairing or destroying normal susceptibility.

7. FEVER
Medicines were given to reduce inflammation and fever.
However the dominant School failed to realise that
inflammation and fever were only signs not disease per
se.
That they were vital reaction not to be interfered with.

8. ALCOHOL
It seems to be pretty well established that alcohol, the
typical and perhaps most commonly used stimulant,
adds nothing to the physiological forces of the body.
We know the power of alcohol to harden and shrivel and
devitalize organic tissues Its power to paralyze the vaso-
motor system is seen in the flushed face, congested
capillaries and ruby nose of the inebriate.

9. We are aware of its inhibiting effect upon the sensory
nerves, by which it makes its victim insensible to the
impressions of heat, cold and pain, so that, in extreme
intoxication, he falls on a red-hot stove and is burned to
death, or staggers into a show bank and freezes to death
without knowing it.
All these things define the nature and measure of
power of alcohol to decrease or destroy normal
susceptibility.

10. Deficient reaction or diminished susceptibility
may exist in a case or appear during treatment
and constitute a condition requiring special
treatment. This is especially true in the
treatment of chronic diseases, where
improvement ceases and well selected remedies
do not seem to act.

11. Under such circumstances it may sometimes be
necessary to give a due of what is called an
"intercurrent remedy." Bœnninghausen mentions as
appropriate in such cases: Carbo veg., Lauroc.,
Mosch., Op., Sulph. To these may be added the
typical nosodes: Medorr., Psor., Pyrog., Tuberc.,
Syphil.,. and also Thuja. The choice of any particular
one of these remedies must be governed by the
history and symptoms.