The physician who can soonest remove disfiguring blemishes, heal diseased conditions, smooth and beautify the skin is the one whose praises are most loudly proclaimed by the gratified patient. However, things may not be as simple as they appear on the surface. The mere removal of skin problems by addressing only the local skin symptom may lead to some dire consequences for the patient in the future.

Most patients with skin conditions have undergone years of allopathic treatment before coming to homeopathy. In fact, the majority of patients come to us because the allopathic treatment they are currently taking to suppress their symptoms no longer works. The reason for its failure is that skin conditions are merely local manifestations of some greater constitutional affection. Local skin symptoms simply represent an effort by nature to get rid of the disease in the system, be it congenital or acquired. These natural efforts by the body should not be suppressed, but helped.

The allopathic dermatologist's view of skin conditions is that there are basically two broad classifications:

1. Symptoms that are physiologically related to the internal disease process such as erythema nodosum in leukemia, tuberculosis or Crohn's disease.



2. Conditions considered to be "purely dermatological" such as acne, eczema or psoriasis.

The difference between these classifications is that in the first group, allopathic treatment considers the connection between skin conditions and the underlying disease, whereas in the second group, treatment considers only the local symptoms of the skin condition, with the aim of suppression. There are exceptions to these simplifications as the idea of treating disease holistically gains acceptance in the medical profession.

Terms such as neurodermatitis and angioneurotic edema exist in dermatology but are not widely popular because they make a connection between the mind and the skin, which cannot be measured and are therefore subjective. Even where the influence of the psyche in skin conditions is recognized, the common approach is to treat the skin symptoms directly.

Clearly this view differs from the homeopathic view in which almost all symptoms, however superficial, are considered to be manifestations of some sort of inner disorder. The disorder may be psychological, inherited, miasmatic, or multi-factorial and multi-faceted, in which case it may be described as 'constitutional'. In treating the skin we are always concerned, either simultaneously or subsequently, with treating the underlying disorder.

The concept of suppression, as homeopaths see it, does not exist in dermatology. The homeopathic view is that the removal of peripheral symptoms by mechanical, topical or chemical means, without addressing the underlying imbalance, forces the organism's defense mechanism to re-establish a state of balance. With repeated or continual suppression, the new symptoms - or imbalance - occurs on a deeper level than they did originally, thus affecting more important vital organs and systems in the body. Thus exterior, peripheral symptoms, when removed without addressing the underlying cause, can lead to internal, systemic disease.

In allopathic medicine, the effective suppression of skin symptoms would be seen as a satisfactory outcome of treatment. The possibly dangerous consequences are not considered. For example, there would be no way of showing a physical connection between the suppression of diaper rash and asthma in a young child, or a connection between the suppression of eczema and depression in an adult since there is no physiological basis for such a connection. A Homeopathic physician would have no difficulty in making such a connection.

According to Herring's Law of Cure, disease needs to be cured from within outwards. During the process of cure, symptoms move from more important organs to less important organs. For example, when treating chronic conditions, we may observe a temporary return of old suppressed skin symptoms while the mental and emotional symptoms greatly improve. The reverse of this would indicate that a harmful suppression has occurred. In homeopathic medicine we model the human organism as an energetic whole, allowing for the possibility of relationships between any types of symptoms regardless of the physiological systems in which they may arise.

Rather than treating the obvious and visible symptoms, the whole constitution has to be treated. Otherwise your treatment may only be skin deep.