Cardiac Examination in Homeopathy: A Practical Approach to Examination, in the Tradition of the Homeopathic Masters

Dr. Janice Block has managed to pull the rug under my feet. I planned to write a similar text in the next few years. Well done, and I love this book. It is exactly what homeopaths need now to return to the source of being practitioners of medicine.

Janice describes the normal and pathologic anatomy and functions of the heart and blood vessels with a special emphasis on cardiac auscultation: each murmur is described and explained in detail, what it is, what it means, which pathology it is linked to with graphic representation of the sounds heard and what the diagnosis is. She then links every murmur, every sound and every pathology to the homeopathic rubrics that are present in our classic repertories, with the remedies. The materia medica of the major remedies is then described. There are also links to Web sites where one can listen to the different murmurs and train to identify them. Once accustomed to hearing and recognising those pathologic sounds, it is easy to open the book at the appropriate page, look for the rubrics and the remedies and include those rubrics in one's repertorisation of the totality of the case if one wishes to do so.

Homeopaths are repeatedly told that if they are not ‘real’ medical doctors (?), they should not proceed with this type of physical examination. Yet looking at a throat or at an eardrum and measuring the blood pressure (sometimes) seem to be acceptable. Why? What is the difference? The presence of a heart murmur, whether benign or diagnostic of heart pathology, is part of the totality of the patient. Most importantly, it is not one that can be faked or hidden like the emotions, feelings and sensations we are told are the most important part of the homeopathic interview. To neglect including such a symptom might lead to a wrong choice of remedy and a failure of treatment or worse to neglecting an emerging pathology that could be nipped in the bud. This book is the long overdue first step toward ensuring that homeopaths use all their diagnostic skills so that they can use all the sections of the repertories and choose the most appropriate remedy with confidence.

Thank you Janice for this impressive work!