What Will Antidote homeopathic Remedies?

By David M. Shein, CCH

Coffee will not antidote a remedy unless you are not used to drinking it.

As a practitioner, the rule of thumb is that aĺl allopathic drugs and most herbs and supplements, will antidote a homeopathic remedy. A maintaining cause in the person's environment will as well. A trauma or abuse, even dental cleanings will often antidote, grief will, or any acute injury or illness.

Why is this so?

In homeopathy the gestalt of the body's healing and homeostatic mechanisms is called the Vital Force (VF). The VF doesn't understand the intent of allopathic medicines. It cannot and does not distinguish between a drug and any other ingested chemical (or trauma) from the environment. The VF's job is to filter out that stuff and get rid of it through the liver and kidneys. The VF's job is to keep you alive and to respond appropriately to all the insults from your environment.

For the most part, the VF can only manage one disease at a time, and to the VF, ingested drugs, are a disease state it has to deal with right away. So in turning its attention to a medication, even a homeopathic one, the VF "forgets" the action it was taking based on the prior homeopathic medicine you took. This is how allopathic medicine "antidotes" the remedy. Strictly speaking this just terminates the action of the remedy; it won't undo what VF has already done in response to the remedy -- mostly. Sometimes the most recent changes, that were not well established, will revert.

The only solution (that I know of) to homeopathically treating someone on conventional, daily, allopathic medication is to use an LM Potency. These were described in Hahnemann's 6th edition of the Organon, which was not published in English until 1929 ( He wrote it in 1845.). The beauty of LM dose dispensing is that the doses are typically given daily and in liquid form. In contrast, C potency doses are most commonly given weeks apart. C's don't work well in clients who are taking allopathic meds, herbs or supplements, because every day these allopathic meds redirect the VF away from the remedy's action. But instead, since LM's are given daily, we give the VF a little push every day, instead of one big push, which is then interrupted, i.e. antidoted.

For a variety of reasons many C potencies are not well suited for daily use.

Lastly, here are some thoughts on common things that folks often worry about. Coffee or mint are not likely to antidote a remedy if you are used to taking them. So starting to work with a homeopath is the wrong time to start drinking coffee, but otherwise you are okay. Just take your remedy at least 15-20 minutes away from coffee or mint. In my experience, what will antidote a remedy are astringents or astringent herbs. These are Tea Tree Oil, Eucalyptus Oil, Menthol, or Camphor. Tiger Balm is full of camphor and will antidote. Vic's Vapo Rub is as well. Listerine gets its kick from eucalyptus. Stay away when you are using remedies.

There's more, but I think that answers the question.

Dave