This book review is reprinted with the permission of the American Institute of Homeopathy
925 E. 17th Avenue
Denver, CO 80218

Reviewed by Wilson, MD, DHt, Jaquelyn

Being a family doctor in California who has been especially interested in non-toxic cancer treatments, the words Cancer and Homeopathy caught my eye on a flyer announcing a June cancer conference featuring Ramakrishnan, an Indian medical doctor and homeopath with extensive homeopathic experience treating cancer.

Realizing that I would be sailing with friends in the British Virgin Islands during the exact Cancer conference days, I called the conference organizer and asked where l could buy the book,A Homoeopathic Approach to Cancer, mentioned in the conference flyer. She was very helpful and told me that the Washington Homeopathic Pharmacy in Bethesda, MD mail orders it. I immediately phoned the pharmacy, charged the $39.95 to my Visa card and the book, arrived in three days.

As I marveled at the technology of both easy book ordering and easy wrapping recycling, I recalled the statute in the California law that prevents me as a licensed medical doctor from prescribing for cancer in a patient any thing but radiation, surgery or chemotherapy. I wondered if the new 2000 California comprehensive law in complementary medicine had changed that. A quick call to my California health attorney dashed my hopes. She said that the specific statute law supersedes the new comprehensive general law in complementary medicine. If I wanted to keep my medical license, I had better not treat anyone with cancer in California with non-toxic homeopathic medicines unless I am part of supervised clinical research team.

As a physician, it does not feel good to be legally restricted from treating people with cancer with homeopathy when it is estimated that one out of three people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and about 500,000 people will die from cancer in the United States each year.

However there is no law in California against reading this 198-page book, A Homoeopathic Approach to Cancer. I sat down under the trees in my yard and read the entire book that same day ... nice to have the time to do so thanks to my self-funded sabbatical.

The two authors, Ramakrishnan and Coulter, are seasoned homeopaths and their book has wonderful new homeopathic information which again excited my passion to treat patients with cancer. This book is based on Ramakrishnan's clinical experience from his patient records of 1974 to 2000 during which time he has treated more than 5,000 cancer patients in India.

My own past frustrations in treating a few cancer patients decades ago, using a classical homeopathic approach with monthly repetition of the dose, were laid to rest when I read about Ramakrishnan's similar failures. This is why in 1993 he changed to plussing the dose daily and alternating the medicines weekly which gave good results. Ramakrishnan's prescribing methods are ever changing to improve outcomes which now range from 38% to 86% success depending on the patient and type of cancer. Included is his latest treatment protocol developed in 1993 that consists of two homeopathic drugs plussed in water; one given daily by mouth for one week followed by one appropriate nosode given daily for the second week.

This cycle is repeated and a sense of well-being and shrinkage of the malignant tumor is expected in 6-8 weeks if the protocol is working.

The book is laid out in nine chapters plus an appendix of Frequently Asked Questions with Answers and a four-page index. The first three chapters cover the Homeopathic Approach, the Principal Remedies Used for Cancer and the General Rules for the Application of the Ramakrishnan Method.

Chapter 4 enumerates the Types of Cancer that have responded well to homeopathy and their most appropriate remedies which are rather few. The next section includes two chapters on Assistance and Palliation in cancer cases that lie beyond homeopathic healing and information on Pain Control with homeopathy and the advanced and terminal stages of cancer and what remedies to use.

Each of the next three chapters addresses different issues in homeopathy. Eleven pages are devoted to Classical homeopathy and the Ramakrishnan method including the place of constitutional prescribing in cancer treatment and treatment of acute ailments during the plussing method and a discussion of potencies.

Chapter 8 discusses how homeopathy and western medicine can work together to aid cancer patients.

The final chapter is on Homeopathy in Cancer Prevention and how to counteract a family history of cancer, prevention of recurrences, and treatment of precancerous lesions of the oral cavity, prostate and cervix plus other precancerous skin conditions.

Coulter has thoroughly examined the case reports of Ramakrishnan. She carefully wrote them up using no extra words, interpreted and organized them so that those less experienced in homeopathy could gain this invaluable knowledge. There are 126 case reports of patients with all types of cancer entwined through the chapters providing human examples that anchored the homeopathic information in my mind. These abbreviated case reports are summaries of the patient's history, course of allopathic treatment which was often used, plus the detailed report of the homeopathic prescription and clinical outcome. Most of his cases are documented week-by-week and month-by- month until tests show everything perfectly normal or death. Many follow-ups span several years.

In patients whom Ramakrishnan thought had a good chance to do well, viable as he termed it, there is much documenting of changes for the better from the homeopathic prescribing. In six to eight weeks, many malignant tumors shrank on repeated MRI or CAT scans after a few dollars of daily oral homeopathic medicines, both prescription and over the counter drugs. The homeopathic medicines most often used are from the small number of cancer nosodes, the wide-spectrum cancer specifics like Thuja, Conium and Arsenicum album and the organ-specific remedies like Lycopodium for lung cancer which are cursorily discussed in the case reports. The authors urge the practitioner to confirm all prescribing by consulting basic homeopathic texts which they list in the bibliography.

This book is deceptively simple, reads like a cook book approach but one does need to be well versed with homeopathic methodology and know individual medicines to make valid choices for each patient. Patients may try to use this as a self-help book but would be advised to consult with an experienced practitioner for help.

The case statistics of specific cancers are displayed in small charts that compare Ramakrishnan's results with specific cancers before he used the plussing method (before 1993) and after using plussing. For example, viable patients with brain cancer had a 37% success rate pre-plussing compared to 70% using the plussing method.

I only have three suggestions for improvement. First, it would be helpful if all these charts that compare results pre and post plussing were collected on one page and presented at the beginning of the book in chapter 4 as well as in their respective chapters.

Second the index is not detailed enough. To find information related to breast cancer, it is indexed under Types, not Breast or even Cancer. And last, to enable the clinician to retrieve therapeutic information more efficiently, a spreadsheet of cancer types with their organ specific medicines would be a helpful addition.

This book is a most welcome addition to the existing homeopathic cancer literature and a much-needed beacon showing a homeopathic way of treating cancer patients successfully that can be incorporated into practice. Its case reports show that homeopathic treatment individualized for patients with cancer and repeated daily can clinically help many patients in a timely and non-toxic manner. Ramakrishnan's methodology can cause the disappearance of malignant tumors on cat scans and MRI's which may mean a cure for many patients.

After finishing this book, I felt motivated to research this new methodology. Who knows what it will do for you. It certainly deserves to be read and placed on the reference shelf of anyone who practices homeopathy. Hopefully a curious oncologist will read it too and embrace diversity.

Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy
Volume 94, Number 4, Winter 2001-2002