Necrobiosis lioidica is a necrotizing skin condition meaning that it causes the death of skin cells in fashion that could see it diagnosed as ‘gangrene’. This is a serious condition and can lead to the loss of limbs and eventually even death if untreated. Often this is associated with diabetes and occasionally rheumatoid arthritis in the former of which cases it is termed necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum. This occurs in roughly 3% of diabetic patients, with 90% of those sufferers being female. This is one of the most dangerous and feared aspects of diabetes.

Patients will notice necrobiosis lipoidica most commonly on their shins, usually on both legs. This will appear as first bruise-like marks and develop into yellowish legions that ulcerate when injured.

Traditional medicine will attempt to address the underlying cause of the necrosis first in order to halt the progression (though this is difficult in cases of necrobiosis lioidica diabeticorum) and will then operate to remove the dead cells surgically. Treatments for nerobiosis loidica are fairly unsuccessful however and tend to focus around maintenance and damage limitation rather than curative measures. Grafting and laser treatment has been known to heal poorly and recurrence is common. Tube socks may be used to support the legs and counteract ulceration.

This is in contrast to homeopathic cures for necrobiosis lipoidica which aim to treat the symptoms as opposed to the cause. This is true of all homeopathic treatments which seek to address the symptoms by using medication designed to in fact exacerbate those very symptoms. By using active agents that would cause the same symptoms as the original condition in the patient, the hope is that it will cause the patient’s own immune system to begin addressing the problem itself. Two homeopathic cures for necrobiosis lipoidica that might be recommended are Flouric Acid and Symphytum, though the precise remedy used will depend on the specific case and the individual characteristics of the patient themselves.

It is not unusual then for patients using homeopathic cures for necrobiosis lipoidica to experience at first a worsening of their symptoms preceding improvement. This is not a cause for alarm but rather a sign that the treatment is working. The extent to which homeopathic remedies exacerbate symptoms is very limited however to ensure this is safe by the thorough dilution of the medications.

Here homeopathic cures for necrobiosis are mixed with large ratios of water, alcohol, sugar or lactose via a process known as ‘succussion’ whereby the solution is shaken up through repeated striking against an elasticised resistance.

This dilution process is referred to as ‘potentisation’ as it is believed that the more heavily diluted the substance is, the more potent it will be in addressing the condition. This is because it is thought that the dilution process causes the water to take on some of the ‘vital force’ of the original substance. All homeopathic remedies then, including homeopathic cures for necrobiosis lipoidica adhere to a ‘C’ scale that determines how dilute the substance is. The higher the number (200C being the highest) the more diluted the medicine and the more effective it is thought to be, the lower (1C being the lowest) the more active ingredients there are in it.

The problem with Homeopathy as far as many critics are concerned is that any solution stronger than 10C is unlikely to have even a single molecule of active ingredients, and that even those less diluted substances are unlikely to contain enough of anything to have an effect. Advocates of homeopathy meanwhile claim that the succussion process infuses the properties of the ingredient with the water giving it its ‘vital force’. More modern interpretation have explained the water as having a form of ‘memory’ that allows it to retain properties of the chemicals it dilutes. However studies have failed to demonstrate the existence of such a phenomenon and after potentisation the chemical make up of the water remains the same. The molecular structure of water also makes it highly unlikely that any form of ‘memory’ could exist. For this reason critics claim that there is no way that homeopathic remedies can have any effect and that any perceived effects are no more than a placebo. As homeopaths do not subject their methods to the same rigorous and objective testing that modern medicine expects, homeopathy is considered a ‘pseudoscience’.

However with there being no real cure for the condition, homeopathic cures for necrobiosis lipoidica can do no harm and many patients believe them to be effective. For this reason patients at a loss could try homeopathic treatments to supplement those recommended by their physician.

Mack LeMouse

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