Abstract : Exciting cause can be defined as the cause that excites and brings about the acute sufferings in a chronic case
Identifying the exciting cause is the most important step in treating acute diseases. During the case taking process, if a patient says “since then” or “since that incidence I am not feeling well”, the physician has to consider that cause as the exciting cause that brought about this acute disease.
Exciting cause is explained in aphorism number 5 in 6th edition of organon of medicine.
Exciting cause is useful in:
Selecting a remedy
In prevention of disease
If acute disease is not of a severe character, just by avoiding the exciting causes alone one can relieve the patient.
Keywords: Homoeopathy, exciting cause, causation, acute disease, case report.
Introduction:
Exciting cause may be defined as the cause which excites a dis-ease condition – either acute disease or acute exacerbation in chronic diseases. So it is responsible for both acute diseases and acute exacerbation in chronic diseases. It may also produce indisposition.
Relative importance of an exciting cause is dependent upon and is modified by the fundamental cause (sec.78-80) if any, and the accessory circumstances (sec.5).
APHORISM 72:
Acute diseases are the diseases to which man is liable are either rapid, morbid process of the abnormally deranged vital force, which have tendency to finish their course more or less quickly, but always in moderate time
Here, the symptoms are violent in nature and can be in prodromal period, progressive period and declining period and is due to an Exciting cause
The exciting cause excites or brings about an acute disease or an acute phase in the chronic disease.
The nature of exciting causes helps in the selection of homoeopathic remedies. If identified correctly, one can avoid it & thus prevent the flare up of acute diseases or the acute phase of a chronic disease. The exciting cause cannot trouble the patient unless the person is affected by the fundamental cause. So as a conclusion, acute diseases are nothing but the temporary explosion of the fundamental cause “psora” because of the exciting cause.
Aphorism 73-
As regards acute diseases, they are either of such a kind as attack human beings individually, the exciting cause being injurious influences to which they were particularly exposed. Excesses in food, or an insufficient supply of it, severe physical impression, chills, over heatings, dissipation, strains, etc., or physical irritations, mental emotions, and the like, are exciting causes of such acute febrile affections; in reality, however, they are generally only a transient explosion of latent psora, which spontaneously returns to its dormant state if the acute diseases were not of too violent a character and were soon quelled. Or they are of such a kind as attack several persons at the same time, here and there (sporadically), by means of meteoric or telluric influences and injurious agents, the susceptibility for being morbidly affected by which is possessed by only a few persons at one time. Allied to these are those diseases in which many persons are attacked with very similar sufferings from the same cause (epidemically); these diseases generally become infectious (contagious) when they prevail among thickly congregated masses of human beings.
Exciting cause having the following characteristics
Sudden onset
Rapid progress
Finish their course more or less quickly
Duration of suffering is fixed & always moderate
Without medicine, terminates of itself either in recovery or in death.
TYPES OF EXCITING CAUSE
1.Individual
Want of optimum hygienic conditions (e.g. excess or in-sufficience in food or sleep or rest etc.)
Physical and mental irritations, which bring a latent chronic disease to surface (acute exacerbation in chronic disease).
2.Collective-
Meteoric (climatic i.e., physical forces) and telluric (physi-cal substances e.g. water, soil) influences, and
Acute miasm and these are again the inevitable result of “calamities or war, inundations and famine.
3.Emotional
This includes emotional stressors such as grief, anxiety, fear or trauma. Emotional exciting causes can be particularly challenging to address, as they often require deep understanding of the individuals emotional landscape.
4.Physical
This include physical stressors such as injury, infection or environmental toxins, exposure to heat or cold, thunderstorm. Physical exciting causes can be more straightforward to identify and address but may still require a comprehensive approach to treatment.
5.Hygienic
Food poisoning, pollution, lack of personal and social hygiene.
ROLE OF EXCITING CAUSE IN ACUTE DISEASES.
ACUTE DISEASE
Defination:
Acute disease is that disease which is produced due to the transient explosion of latent psora by some exciting cause having the following characteristics:
Sudden onsetl
Rapid process
Finish their course more or less quickly
Duration of suffering is fixed & always moderate
Without medicine, terminates of itself either in recovery or in death
Acute disease is caused by the transient explosion of latent psora (S. 73) which usually remains dormant or in a latent condition. Exciting cause like over-eating or over-heating etc. Arises the latent or dormant psora and causes acute disease. So the condition which positively helps in the explosion of latent psora for a temporary period can be called as exciting cause.
Role Of Exciting Cause In Chronic Diseases
The chronic miasms (psora, syphilis, sycosis) become quiescent when the time and circumstances are favourable, but adverse time and circumstances rouse them into activity, and produce acute
Manifestation in the chronic diseases
Example
A person is suffering from bronchial asthma. Whenever he is ex-posed to cold his asthmatic attack starts. Here cold acts as the exciting cause in bronchial asthma-a chronic disease.
Therapeutic importance of exciting cause
Helps in selecting the medicine both in acute and chronic diseases: In sec. 5 Hahnemann mentions that the understanding of the exciting cause assists the physician in curing acute diseases by help-ing in the selection of remedy. It also helps to select the medicine in chronic cases
Example
In diseases after exposure to cold and damp weather, we may think of Rhus tox, Natrum sulph and Dulcamara etc. Finally we can select a remedy on further differentiation. Again, the efficacy of Arnica in cases having traumatic etiology has been clinically verified in several conditions. Such uses may be quite remote but deserve serious con-sideration. However the final selection will depend on actual differentiation among those medicines
Helps to avoid future sufferings: Apart from this, the proper understanding of the exciting cause also helps to avoid those noxious influences so that future sufferings can be avoided
Helps in the cure of indisposition: In indisposition, removal of the exciting cause alone is sufficient to restore healthy state
Importance Of Exciting Cause
Helps in the selection of a homoeopathic medicine both in acute & chronic diseases.
Helps to avoid future sufferings.
Helps to restore health from indisposition by its mere removal.
Identifying the exciting cause is the most important step in treating diseases. During the case taking process, if a patient says “Since Hell” that causes “since then” or that incidence. I am not feeling the physician has to consider as the exciting brought about Cause that that acute disease
Example – If a patient says “last night I drenched myself in rain, Since then I have had this running nose.” Then it is clear that in this case drenching in rain acted as an exciting cause” and caused acute disease. Knowledge of materia medica helps us in prescribing remedy “rhus tox” to that patient
In homoeopathy for treating the cases of pharyngitis we have to find out the exciting cause and the remedy selection on the basis of the exciting cause.
Examples of exciting causes- Cold weather, exposure to cold air, cold drink, fatty and oily food, sour food, alcoholic beverages, spicy and acidic food, getting wet in rain, river bathing in summer, citrus food, juices, etc.
Biography :
1. A.K.Das, Organon of Medicine, edition 2, Souvik Homoeo publication,2007,causes of diseases, page no 88,89,90.
2.Dr. Sammuel Hahnemann. Organon of Medicine. Sixth edition. B.Jain publisher.44th impression 2018. Aphorism number 5. Page number 91
3.Dr. G.Nagendra Babu. Comprehensive study of organon. An attempt to understand the organon of medicine as a scientific treatise. First edition. B.Jain 2010.
