Gonneke said: "but I think what the homeaopath meant is that eczema is the way the body deals with getting rid of unacceptable particles. What happens a lot with eczema patients if the eczema is topically (is that the word for ''on the outside only''?) treated is that you will see the rash disappear and a form of CARA appear. So the unwanted particles (by this hoeopath referred to as poisons) are being worked out some other way." *********************************************************** I think an easier way (for americans) to understand this concept is to think of it in light of what we now know about stress and illness. The body is infinitely wise. When it recognizes that something is wrong in its environment (stress) it will respond with symptoms. If we just repress the symptoms and do nothing to address the underlying cause, we get worse symptoms in the long run. Hct cream is a symptom suppressor...pure and simple. It does not cure the underlying problem, which may be a dairy insensitivity or any of a variety of other environmental stressors. If we use the Hct, sure we will get a quick fix (like we americans seem to prefer) but there may be a price to be paid later. It is certainly true that Asthma (RAD) is on the rise in the US...and it is harder to deal with than eczema. The two illness seem to run side by side in families. We can laugh about the concept of "internal eczema" or we can try to understand it. Suppression of symptoms does not equal cure. Sometimes supression of symptoms is useful (ie. when the symptoms present a life threat) but they do not address the underlying problem. In my own practice I tend to think of allopathy as an acute symptom fixer and homeopathy as a long term balancer. If a mom presents, for instance, with acute mastitis, I want to see her on antibiotics. If, on the other hand, she is having recurrant plugged ducts...I'd go for the phytolacca decandra. Susan Keith-Hergert RN, MS, CPN, IBCLC, PLA *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html