What is Health?

Is it just the removal of physical signs and symptoms OR a state of well-being physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?

A male patient, aged 30 yrs from Mumbai, with Tinea Pedis, consulted me online and we had a discussion on Skype (video calling) for one hour. Some excerpts of the case:

He had purchased a new pair of shoes before two months. After two or three days, he realised that they were too tight for him. Now that he couldn't return those shoes to the shop, he had to adjust with those tight-fitting shoes. After a few days, his toes started hurting and his fourth toe (ring toe) was badly swollen.

The swelling and burning pain had become so intense that he couldn't even wear loose oversized flip-flops, forget those shoes! After a few days, severe itching started between his toes and around his swollen toe. He started applying some antifungal creams without any results. He even started treatment from a general practitioner, but it couldn't help him. As he was thinking of visiting a dermatologist, his friend advised him to try Homeopathy. So he opted for Homeopathy and contacted me through a common friend.

I asked him to describe the pain and all the complaints associated with it.

He told me that he was feeling too much heat in his feet. He had to uncover the feet while sleeping at night (Generally he is a chilly person and covers the whole body while sleeping). He had excessive perspiration on his feet throughout the day. Even his flip-flops turn sopping wet in a few minutes. And every day after bathing, this skin complaint was aggravating. He couldn't wash his feet, as once his feet got wet, there was excessive burning and itching continued for an hour.

I asked him, "What is his feeling while having this problem?"

He said he was always alert because of this. He was constantly thinking about what his relatives and friends would think about him. He didn't want them to know about this problem. He tried his best to hide his wet and dirty flip-flops at home, so that they would not be seen even by his parents!

I asked him, "Why would you hide them?"

He said, "They (flip-flops) are dirty with bad perspiration, so what would they think about me? I want to keep my image good. By seeing those bad-smelling flip-flops, they would think I am not an organised guy. But I am a very organized and well-groomed person and I don't want my image to be altered. This fungal infection made me look like a disorganized guy, which I am not!" This is a story of my dirty feet.

The video case further continued for an hour and I understood his altered pattern (unhealthy thought process, behavior, main sensitive issue) while having this fungal infection, as well as his physical complaints.

My understanding of the case :

This fungal infection made him look like a disorganized guy, which he was not. So he was trying to hide this problem. He didn’t want his image to be altered. He had his fixed image which he didn’t want to be changed.

As you can see here, because of the fungal infection, he had issues with his image. He was neither seeing himself as any victim (or his parents and relatives as aggressors) nor he had any sensitivity or reactivity of a plant, but he had issues with himself - his image. He was trying to protect his image by hiding his issues. This is the 3rd row (issues of image and identity) of Mineral Kingdom with Sycotic miasm (he is hiding or covering up his weakness/issue). He said, he is a very organised guy, but now because of this issue, he looked like a disorganized guy, which he wasn’t actually. This is clearly trying to retain his fixed image. He is scared that his image might be lost, so he is covering up his weakness. This is Silicea. Silicea always tries to protect his image at any cost.

Here, I didn’t need to repertorize this case, as the remedy was too obvious but you can see his general symptoms like, heat and uncovers the feet, profuse perspiration on feet, washing/bathing aggravates, etc are the keynotes of Silicea.

We prescribed him Silicea 200C, a single dose, followed by SL.

Result :

Now even his image-conscious thoughts and worries have been decreased. He doesn't overthink about himself or others now. He has become a little bit careless compared to his previous extra-careful and over-conscious nature, which was needed for being healthy physically, mentally and emotionally!

As you can see in the picture, his toe became clearer day by day. Initially for a week, his burning pain and itching was intensified and he was reluctant to continue the medicine. But we explained to him how Homeopathy works and told him to have some patience. Thereafter he recovered very fast. After a month, his toe became as normal as it was before. Even the heat and perspiration on the feet has been decreased by almost 70-80% in two months.