At the beginning of the twentieth century the German medical doctor and homeopath Dr. Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg (1877-1944) developed a more integrated approach to homeopathy. He recognized that the industrial revolution not only brought with it a more multifaceted lifestyle, but that diseases and illnesses too started to present a more complex picture.

As a result, Dr. Reckeweg developed a concept that helped him formulate a line of compound homeopathic remedies that where built on the synergistic action between several remedies or potencies -- much as with herbal remedies used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Dr. Reckeweg called these new remedies "antihomotoxic remedies," using a Latin term that implies their ability to counteract toxins in man. He considered these remedies a bridge between homeopathy and western medicine because they allowed prescribing according to the disease patterns.

This approach sufficiently differed from the time-honored, but narrowly defined approach of classical homeopathy that treats according to the patient's constitutional patterns.

Dr. Reckeweg, for the first time in the history of medicine, clearly formulated and described the pathways along which illnesses proceed or heal.

His 6-Phase Table presents a medical classification of the progression and reversal of illnesses and conditions.

The process, which he named Homotoxicosis, may be described as follows:

When a pathogen enters the body it causes a reflex reaction designed to expel it (diarrhea, vomiting, cough, tears, etc.). This is Phase 1; he called it the "Excretion Phase."

If your body fails to get rid of the offender in this initial phase the disturbance will move deeper into the system and cause an infection or inflammation in specific areas (any condition ending in -itis). He called this Phase 2, the "Inflammation Phase."

Suppose you suppress such an inflammation -- as it is done routinely in mainstream allopathic medicine -- the pathogen may become dormant. As a result, more chronic problems tend to follow at a later time.

For now such a pathogen is "hidden away" in the interstitial fluid, the fluid surrounding all your cells. Dr. Reckeweg calls this Phase 3, "Deposition Phase."
We know that this is where your T3 and T4 immune system cells are springing into action. As a result, your lymph, your body's cleaning pathway, goes into overload.

Any disease and condition up to this third stage may be reversed quite easily. Dr. Reckeweg was clear to explain-in good homeopathic tradition-that, in order to find lasting healing, an illness needs to be guided back step by step in the reverse direction through all its stages.

In other words: Once a pathogen has reached your cell fluid, the healing process may have to pass through another stage of inflammation (Phase 2) before the body has the opportunity to get rid of the pathogen (Phase 1). Homeopathy refers to such a possible initial deterioration as a "healing crises."

If a healing crisis should happen to you at any stage of taking homeopathic remedies consult your natural medicine provider for direction. Don't be surprised, though, if you make your practitioner smile and happy; never mind that you feel under the weather.
Homeopathy usually considers a reaction as a positive sign of this vicariation process (reversal of the disease) having been successfully initiated. Still, since this indicates that you have entered a different phase of your disease your practitioner may decide to change the potency of your remedy or even the remedy itself.

Let us continue with the next three phases of disease development according to Dr. Reckeweg's Six-Phase Table:

If a pathogen is not bound and repelled through any one of the first three stages it can find its way into your cells. Reckeweg called this Phase 4, "Impregnation Phase."
It is getting much harder now to find effective ways to get rid of the invader. Phase 4 is where glucose intolerance, malabsorption issues, autoimmune deficiencies, irritable bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and many other conditions are categorized.

All too often, these problems are not properly diagnosed because laboratory tests, commonly used by mainstream medicine, in this phase rarely are indicative or conclusive.

If the vicariation (reversal) process is unsuccessful at Phase 4, the pathogenic development will proceed to Phase 5, the "Degeneration Phase." The presence of the invader inside your cells starts interfering with your normal cell functions and processes. As a result, your health noticeably degenerates.
Finally, at this stage, your laboratory tests start picking up that you have a problem. The diagnosis of diabetes too falls into this phase.

What happens next? If it has not done so earlier, natural medicine quickly jumps into action and attempts pulling the body back to Phase 4, then Phase 3, and onwards in the process of vicariation.
Mainstream medicine, on the other hand, by using drugs, in most cases suppresses the disease rather than helping your body step by step to get back to its original function. With some luck those prescription medications may stabilize the disease at this level.

But, remember, changes in your cells keep taking place. Therefore, it is likely that the disease process is starting to affect other organs and functions too, eyes, kidneys, heart. You get the picture; we call these the complications of diabetes.

If the disease factor is allowed to linger in this Phase 5, further deterioration is possible. This much depends on the state of your immune system. There are two possible outcomes in what Dr. Reckeweg called Phase 6, the "Dedifferentiation Phase" or the "Neoplasm Phase."
One, the damage in your cells continues to the point where the cell function impairs or shuts down one or several organs.
Two, the pathogenic cells start taking over, develop a plan of their own, lead to cancer and-if not detected early enough-metastasize, that is, spread through your body to other structures.

The disease model of Dr. Reckeweg quite directly illustrates most of the issues we are facing with today's healthcare system and its inability to recognize potential problems early and to prevent disease.

If a patient has to reach "Phase 5" before positive laboratory tests have the warning lights in our mainstream medical offices go on, no wonder that the cost of healthcare is skyrocketing and ever rising.

Dr. Reckeweg's understanding and method of homotoxicology as a system of the natural disease progression, along with our ability to coach the healing process back through all the stages of vicariation, may be the very explanation for many so-called unexplained remissions in a variety of diseases.

By whatever approach -- and, mostly by removing all their specific disease-causing factors -- individuals who are able to get their disease to reverse have followed the path of reverse toxicosis. It can be done! This is healing, true healing.

Precisely for this reason in my natural medicine practice and in my diabetes avoidance programs I base much of our approach towards control and possibly reversal of conditions such as fibromyalgia, diabetes, and others on a combination of the biochemical knowledge and the system of homotoxicology along with the use of antihomotoxic remedies according to Dr. Reckeweg.