Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, used this term miasm to describe transgenerational diseases, which are diseases that are passed down from generation to generation until they are cured or not (Source: Miasm Formulas: Breakthroughs in the Cure of Disease). Think of chronic illnesses that run in a family like cystic fibrosis or Huntington disease in humans. These inherited diseases exist in various layers of the body. The more severe the disease is, the deeper it is in the body.
Acquired diseases are those that are caused by environment/lifestyle in your dogs' lifetime, which often are attributed to, poor nutrition, too many vaccines, lack of sunlight, water or proper movement. Just like transgenerational diseases, the more severe the disease is, the deeper it is in the body.
According to Hahnemann, these diseases are caused by 3 distinct miasms: Sycosis, Syphilis and Psora. Each one has their own characteristics and remedies to cure them.
- Sycosis is responsible for many sexual and urinary disorders, joint problems and mucous membranes. Specific sycosis diseases include rheumatism, asthma, catarrhs, bronchitis, cystitis and warts.
- Remedies to heal: Thuja, Lycopodium, Natrum sulph, Causticum, Kali sulph, Staphysagria, Calc and Sepia
- Syphilis is responsible for diseases of the nervous system, skeletal system, cardiovascular system, as well as psychological disorders including including alcoholism, depression, suicidal impulses, insanity, loss of smell and taste, blindness, deafness and ulcerations.
- Remedies to heal: Arsenicum, Aurum, Mercury, Phosphorus and Lycopodium, Nitric acid, amongst many others.
- Psora is responsible for most chronic diseases including skin disease, mental illness (excluding syphilitic ones), allergies, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, and dysfunctions of organs. Psora is responsible for most bulldog-specific issues.
- Remedies to Heal: agar, alumina, ammon carb, ammon mur, anacardium, antimon crudum, arsen alb, aurum, aurum mur, bar carb, borax, calc carb, carbo an, carbo veg, caust, clem, colocynth, conium, cuprum, dig, dulc, euphorbium, graph, guaj, hepar, iodium, kali carb, lyc, mag carb, mag mur, manganum, mez, mur ac, nat carb, nat mur, nitric acid, nitrium, petroleum, phos, phos ac, platina, sars, sepia, silica, stannum, sulph, sulp ac, zincum
(Source: Hahnemann's Miasm Theory and Miasm Remedies).
Often dogs that have inherited transgenerational diseases are more susceptible to acquired diseases because their immune systems are already compromised. Healing disease in the entire body is like peeling away layers of an onion because as one layer is healed, new symptoms emerge that require healing.
These symptoms are actually a good thing. It is the body trying to repair itself. Sometimes, the chi is disrupted so much that treatment of some kind is necessary to help the body restore balance. Homeopathy is one of the ways to help the body restore chi because it treats the root cause.
Specific remedies and miasm forumulas are used to heal disease and optimize health. Once healing has begun, new symptoms will appear, just like peeling layers of an onion, that will need to be treated as they emerge in order to heal the miasm for good. Ultimately, once the miasm or miasms are healed, symptoms will subside, acute disease is healed and so are transgenerational diseases.
If your dog is sick and you need some help on getting started, please visit Bobzilla's Healthy, Happy Life Made Simple.