Progressive Auto-Sanguis Therapy according to Reckeweg

Introduction and remarks on theoretic aspects

Medical history indicates autohemotherapy’s effects to have first been recognized as a result of the following observation: in persons having sustained blunt traumata with haematoma formation, other affections were also discovered to vanish during the course of haematoma absorbtion. Consequently, therapy with the patient‘s own blood (autohaemotherapy) initially consisted of withdrawing a small quantity of blood from the patient and immediately re-introducing it through intramuscular, hypodermic injection. In this manner, an artificial hematoma was created. The conjecture then was that the injection of one’s own blood would activate defensive powers which, in turn, would combat the ”forces of illness within the blood.” Since then, autohemotherapy has been modified and perfected in multifarious ways, yet in actual practice, the original form of autohaemotherapeutic treatment – as irritation therapy, reversal therapy, non-specific excitation, or stimulation therapy – still finds application in numerous individual cases (e.g., in treatment of acne) with highly successful results.

Progressive auto-sanguis therapy according to Reckeweg is autohaemotherapy in a specialized form. Developed from the fundamentals of homoeopathy in conjunction with Reckeweg’s homotoxicological principles, this technique has proven in practical experience to be reliable and exceptionally effective in treating an extremely wide variety of chronic and degenerative diseases including bronchial asthma, eczema, hepatic damage and numerous other disorders (see also ”Empirically-Proven Indications”).

According to the teachings of Reckeweg’s Homotoxicology, virtually every illness may be defined as either a defensive reaction by the organism against toxins or as the expression of toxic damage. It follows, therefore, that the blood of each patient  contains those pathogenic poisons (homotoxins) typical for the disease from which that patient suffers. Through withdrawing a patient’s blood, homoeopathically potentizing it over several levels and subsequently re-introducing it by means of hypodermic injection, Reckeweg holds that precisely these pathogenic poisons undergo modification to yield a homoeopathically active therapeutic agent ideal for application in stimulation therapy. In keeping with the Arndt-Schulz Law in the sense of the inverse effect, this agent stimulates the bodily defense systems, thus increasing detoxification and promoting the healing process.

In accordance with Bürgi’s Principle, the addition of appropriate homoeopathic injection preparations intensifies efficacy of the potentized auto-sanguis blood to an even higher degree. When potentizing the patient’s blood during administration of progressive auto-sanguis therapy, therefore, it has proven expedient to employ the homoeopathic preparation which is therapeutically indicated in each individual patient’s case. In summary, progressive auto-sanguis therapy is treatment designed to exert a counteractive effect against exogenic and endogenic homotoxins (including toxic deterioration products from the body’s own cells), thus promoting the healing of  chronic disease in a manner harmonious with the laws of nature.

Also discussed in Homotoxicology are further mechanisms of action which play a role in auto-sanguis therapy, the homoeopathic inverse-effect exerted against both auto- antibodies and antigen-antibody reactions in particular. This effect is due to a complement factor which, as a component of the patient’s own blood, is automatically injected in increasing degrees of attenuation during the course of treatment (the so- called complement-inverse-effect; at the 4th level, potentizing of the blood reaches a degree which approximately corresponds to that of C4!).

This would also explain the positive effects in the area of desensitization/hyposensitization which progressive auto-sanguis therapy is frequently observed to achieve in cases of auto-aggressive disease. One must add, however,  that no major scientific studies exist on the subject at this time. Presented here, rather, are the results of hypothetical deliberation based on the positive observations made during the course of daily medical practice.