LM Potencies vs. Centesimal Scale Remedies

Fifty Millesimal Potency

LM Potencies vs. Centesimal Scale Remedies

Centesimal Scale Remedies

The centesimal scale remedies are the ones you see identified with the letter C after the number.  The dilution ratio is one part medicinal substance to 99 parts water, with a certain number of succussions between each dilution (Different texts give different numbers for the amount of succussions.) The standard interval range for the centesimal scale remedies is : 6C, followed by 9C, 12C, 15C, 30C, 200C, 1M, 10M, 50M, CM, DM. I have heard one teacher say that this is a logarathmic scale, meaning that as you go higher up the scale you need a greater amount of potentization in order to equal the difference that you get from the interval in the lower potencies. Some people contest the intelligence of using this scale and have suggested using the Fibonacci intervals, which is also very interesting and worth exploring.

Enough of the science, so what is the practical application of how to work with centesimal scale remedies: The potencies I work with the most are the 30C, 200C and 1M potencies. I very rarely will go higher than these potencies. When working with remedies of this strength I will give the dose only one time and not repeat until there is definite evidence that the person has been better and is now relapsing. I create a base-line chart of their response at seven weeks from when they took the remedy, which serves as a guide to repetition. I only repeat if symptoms that have been better move backward for a while.

The way centesimal scale remedies work is that they go in, search for the symptoms they need to work on, and get to work. Sometimes the effects are subtle and people may not even notice that there are changes taking place until they are reminded at the follow up of the symptoms they had before they took the remedy. They remember that they used to have headaches, back pain, depression and now they are not experiencing those symptoms. Yes, indeed, their symptoms have improved.

The remedy will bring up symptoms in the person’s health history as a part of the healing process, in order to  address them. If these old severe were very concerning in the past, the patient may be alarmed at their reappearance (such as a history or heart pain or arthritis). It is important not to repeat the remedy when this happens, because this is a sign that the remedy is on the job and retracing symptoms from the past in order to heal them.. These old symptoms usually cycle through within three to four days.

Symptoms may aggravate or increase in intensity for awhile before they get better. That aggravation can vary in intesity depending upon the potency of the remedy taken, how long the symptom has been there, how much suppressive treatment the person has had, overall health and vitality of the person, and other factors.

The duration of the aggravation or what I call the initial response time on the remedy also varies with the potency of the remedy, the age of the client, how long the symptoms have been present and how deeply rooted they are. The healing process can unfold over the course of  a few days in an acute illness, or over the course of weeks, or months in chronic cases. The lower potencies will often have a shorter aggravation period, and the higher potencies often have a longer aggravation period, but not necessarily so.

How long the single dose centesimal remedy holds also varies with the potency. A rough estimate of the duration of  action of a remedy is approximately three months for the 30C dose, but I have seen 30C dose remedies hold a year and a half and longer. They also can cure the symptoms altogether.

The 200C strength holds on average for six to eight months. For many people it only holds two to three months, and for others it can hold for four or five years, and again it can cure. The higher potencies have the potential to work even longer.

I avoid using very high potency remedies because the aggravations can be very long lasting and very intense, and they can pull anyone under their influence, even if they would not be susceptible to that remedy in lower potency.

Some people prescribe 30C potency and 200C potency remedies daily, and they claim that they do not see any negative affects from doing this. I never practice in this manner, not just because it goes against my training, but also because I feel it is too aggressive. An analogy I have given to many people is that it is like putting your finger on the light switch and turning it on and off constantly to keep the light on, whereas all you really needed to do is flick the switch once and let the light shine. You do not need need to flick the switch again (give another dose of the remedy) until you see that the light is beginning to dim.

Dr. Farokh Master uses the 5 cup method, which you can look up on Youtube. This is his method of repeating daily, as he does not have confidence that the single dose method works. I have thirty years of experience working with the single dose method and I have seen its effectiveness time and again, so I do not agree that daily repetition is preferable, but he gets good results dosing in this manner, and I get good results dosing the way I do.

Most people on a centesimal scale remedy that is working well may only need to repeat the remedy one to three times in a year. Some people may go many years without needing a repetition. Many people need more than one remedy to bring about optimum health. One remedy may address certain symptoms, certain states of being, and then an underlying state emerges after the first remedy, and they need another remedy to address that new state. People may cycle through a number of remedy states even in short amounts of time. Each successive remedy bringing greater health.

LM Potencies

LM potencies are also known as Quin potencies and 50 millesimal potencies, and referred to by Hahnemann as medicine au globule.  LM does not stand for 50,000, but for 950. I learned this from Kim Elia’s class on the History of Homeopathy. No one knew about LM potencies until 1921 when the sixth edition of the Organon of Medicine written by Samuel Hahnemann was finally published. Prior to 1921 the 4th edition of the Organon was the one people relied upon and the centesimal scale is what it advocated. Great teachers such as James Tyler Kent popularized and explained how to use the centesimal scale remedies.

The LM potencies are not prepared in the same manner as the centesimal scale remedies. One grain of a medicinal substance is triturated with 100 grains of milk sugar for one hour, and then a grain of that is triturated with another 100 grains of milk sugar for an hour, and the process is repeated three times, so that you have three hours of trituration. Then one grain of that is dissolved in 500 drops of a mixture of 90 proof grain alcohol and one part distilled water. A single drop of that is mixed in a vial with another 100 drops of grain alcohol, corked tightly and succussed 100 times. This is the first degree of dynamization. Then fine sugar globules are moistened with the liquid, dried on blotting paper, put in a corked bottled and labeled the LM1 potency. To prepare the next strength a globule of the previous strength is placed in a new vial with a drop of water to dissolve it, then 100 drops of wine spirit or grain alcohol is added to the vial. The tightly corked vial is successed 100 times, and the process of moistening sugar globules with the remedy and labeling it LM2 is completed. This process is repeated for each subsequent level of dynamization.

Hahnemann felt that in certain chronic cases the LM potencies would speed up the healing process dramatically. The LM potencies are administered in water, and doses can be taken daily or at longer intervals. He emphasized that it was never admissble to repeat the remedy in an exactly identical form. By shaking or succussing the stock bottle that holds the remedy before taking each dose, the medicine was slightly altered with each dose.

By using this method of administration the remedy could be repeated at frequent intervals without any detriment. This is what Hahnemann says about frequency of repetition for LM potencies in aphorism 248, paragraph 2:

“In protracted diseases, give the medicine daily or every second day. In acute diseases, give the medicine every six, four, three or two hours. In the most urgent cases, give the medicine every hour or even more frequently. In chronic diseases, every correctly chosen homeopathic medicine, even one whose action is of long duration. may be repeated daily for months, with ever-increasing success [when fifty-millesimal potencies are used].

How do LM potencies work in practice?

In practice I have noticed that LM potencies can be very efficient, but they can also present challenges when the dosing is not quite right. It often takes people about three to four weeks working with the remedy to figure out the best frequency of repetition and dosing. Some people do very well taking the remedy daily for months, and other people are very sensitive to the remedy, and have to be careful with how to take it.

In the past the way I worked was to start with the LM1 bottle, and when that was finished I moved to the LM2 bottle, and then the LM3 and so forth. Nowadays I ask the client to hold the LM bottles of different strengths, and I can feel intuitively which strength resonates the best with the client, and that is the potency we begin with. When ascending from the lower to the higher LM potencies each successive bottle is stronger than the previous one, so you move up in potency as you move to the higher bottles. Hahnemann, says that it is okay to move to the next higher strength after seven or eight doses from the LM1 bottle, so you do not have to finish one bottle before moving to the next..

LM or Quin Potency Instructions

These directions are constantly evolving. I revise them as I gain more experience using LM or Quin Potencies. This is my latest revision. My goal is to make the instructions clear and understandable. It has taken me many years to understand how to work with LM or Quin potencies safely. I appreciate any suggestions you have to improve them.

1.    Succuss the stock bottle 5 times before each use.  You do this by hitting the bottle
against a book.  (Note: It is best to take the remedy at the time of the day when you feel at your best. Please don’t take it at the same time you are eating. Give it about one hour away from meal times).

2.    Pour a teaspoon of liquid from the stock bottle into a cup with 4 oz. of water in it, and stir.  (Please see Various Dosage Quantity Examples below to learn about adjusting the quantity you take to your needs).

3.    Drink one teaspoon of the 4 oz. mixture (or the amount recommended by your homeopath).

4.       Discard the remainder of the liquid on the ground, or pour the liquid into a sealed container that you can dispose of at your convenience. Please prepare the medicine in the bathroom, so as to avoid exposing other family members to the remedy, and set aside special cups and a spoon for this purpose. You may also use disposable cups.

5.     Take only one dose and do not repeat the remedy. Please be in contact with me by sending me weekly progress reports in the first month of treatment. My goal is to identify two or three symptoms that we can use as markers that will help us determine when you should repeat the remedy. A single dose of an LM or Quin potency remedy can hold many months, and can potentially cure. These remedies need to be repeated with as much care and caution as when working with centesimal scale remedies. When repeated too soon, they can  cause severe aggravations of your symptoms, which we want to do our best to avoid.

When you first begin taking LM potencies I recommend that you take one dose and evaluate yourself three days later. Do not repeat in the meantime. At the end of the third day ask yourself if you see improvement in any symptoms. If you do see improvement, do not repeat the remedy, because the remedy is working and the healing process is unfolding on that first dose.  That one dose you took is capable of holding for weeks or even months. The only reason to repeat is if you start to see that the symptoms that you saw an improvement in have been moving backward for awhile.

It is important that you do not repeat the remedy before clear evidence of a relapse is evident, because repeating too soon can cause an aggravation of symptoms that can last awhile.

Another thing to note is that is that if you see an aggravation of symptoms by day three,  that is another indication that the remedy is on the job and looking for symptoms that it needs to work on, and bringing them up for treatment. You should not repeat the remedy while symptoms are aggravating. The aggravation should be followed by an amelioration. You would only repeat the remedy if symptoms that got better after the aggravation started to relapse for a while.

Some people need to take the remedy at frequent intervals and others need to repeat the remedy very rarely. Here are common intervals at which people take their LM or Quin potency remedy doses:

Common Intervals at which People Take Their LM Potency Doses

Some people benefit from taking the remedy daily. These people have to be aware that a point will come when they need to stop. That point is when they feel an amelioration of symptoms or an aggravation of symptoms. They should then follow the rules of repetition I have described above.

Some people take the remedy 2 times a week.
Some people take the remedy once a week.
Some people take the remedy once every two weeks.
Some people take the remedy once a month.
Some people take the remedy at 45, 60, 120, or 180 day intervals and longer.
Some people need only one dose of the remedy in total.

If you need the remedy frequently, you may need to order more of it. Here is information on how to order, and going up in potency:

When you come close to the end of the stock bottle, please send me an e-mail to let me know. You can get the next bottle from Hahnemann Laboratories. Their phone number is 1-888-226-6483. You may also purchase the remedy from other reputable homeopathic pharmacies.  Each time you order a bottle it has to be one strength higher than the previous bottle, so LM1 will be followed by LM2, and then LM3.

Another thing that is important is that I will ask you not to completely finish the LM1 bottle, but leave about a teaspoon in the bottom. The reason for this is that for some people the LM2 from the pharmacy is too strong. In that case we can prepare an LM2 from the remains of what is in the LM1 bottle. I will explain how to do that.

Protocol for the Sequence of Bottles:

The LM1 is usually followed by the LM2, the LM3 and so forth, so that you move up consecutively in the sequence. From my experience, however, I have found that people may resonate better to certain potency levels than others. I can often test that intuitively when I see them in person. So for some people it is more beneficial to go from an LM1 to an LM3 and skip the LM2.

Do We Have to Finish a Bottle Before Going to the Next Level Up?

If you feel that the benefit from the remedy is plateauing, meaning that you do not experience increasing benefit from continuing with that dose of the remedy, it is okay to go up to the next level of the LM potency without finishing the bottle at the level where you are at.

Different people need different dosage quantities depending upon their sensitivity to the remedy. Here are some examples of various dosage quantities:

Various Dosage Quantity Examples

One teaspoon from the stock bottle into 4 oz. of water in a cup.

Half a teaspoon from the stock bottle into 4 oz. of water in a cup.

Double dilute by taking one teaspoon or half a teaspoon or a quarter of a teaspoon from the stock bottle and putting it in 4 oz. of water in a cup, stirring, and then transferring one teaspoon or half a teaspoon or a quarter of a teaspoon into another cup and stirring. Very sensitive people can also triple or quadruple dilute.

The important thing is for you to determine how much and how often to take the remedy to keep the healing process moving forward, while keeping aggravations to a minimum. Aggravations can be reduced by decreasing the quantity of remedy used, and by double and triple diluting.

Aggravations on LM or Quin Potencies and What they Mean

People can definitely have aggravations of their symptoms on LM or Quin potencies equal and even exceeding in intensity to what people have on centesimal scale remedies. This is why dosage and frequency or repetition have to be monitored very carefully.

Generally speaking an aggravations of symptoms is an indication that the remedy has found the symptoms it needs to work on and is working on them. It is important not to interrupt this process, but allow the aggravation to play itself out. The aggravation should be followed by an amelioration. The goal of using LM or Quin potencies is to keep the healing moving forward, while keeping the aggravations to a minimum.

If you experience a strong aggravation of symptoms it can mean that you need to decrease the quantity of the dose the next time you take it. For example: go from 1 teaspoon from the stock bottle down to a 1/4 of a teaspoon from the stock bottle and triple dilute, transferring only a 1/4 of a teaspoon from each dilution cup.

If you experience an amelioration of symptoms after taking a remedy, you should not repeat the remedy until the symptoms that have gotten better have relapsed for four to five days. Repeating before you are supposed to can trigger a strong aggravation that can take up to three weeks to recover from, so be careful.

Here are some ways to decrease the strength of the dose:

a) Give fewer succussions or shakes to the bottle.
b) Dilute twice by taking one teaspoon from the first cup and putting it in another cup with four ounces of water and then drinking a teaspoon from that. You can even dilute three or four times, if you are very sensitive
c) Use less than a full teaspoon from the stock bottle.
d) Reduce the frequency of taking the dose.

Here are some ways to increase the strength of the dose:

a) Increase the number of succussions to the bottle.
b) Increase the frequency of taking the dose.
c) Increase the number of teaspoons that you drink from the cup (not the stock bottle).

The beauty of the LM or Quin potencies is that you can monitor yourself, preferably with the help of your homeopath, and take your remedy when you need to.  You are not supposed to develop a dependency on the remedy.  It is designed to bring you to health and independence.  When you no longer have any symptoms you may discontinue the remedy, and only resume if the symptoms start back up again.

Please call or send me an e-mail if you have any questions about your response to the remedy, or whether you should start or stop. It usually takes people about four weeks to figure out exactly how best to take the remedy, so there is a learning curve. The goal is to keep aggravations to a minimum, while maintaining the effectiveness of the remedy. I would be happy to help you with fine tuning the remedy to your needs.

When to use LM Potencies and when to use Centesimal Scale Remedies?

This is the million dollar question?

LM Potencies:

I usually use LM potencies for people who are taking allopathic medication or are using a few health modalities at the same time that they are using homeopathy.

I often use LM potencies for people with eczema and other skin conditions, though I may prefer a centesimal scale remedy..

I often use LM potencies for older clients where I am concerned that they may have a hard time tolerating an aggravation.

I often use LM potencies for people who are in pain from various causes, where you want them to have more control over frequency of repetition.

I often use LM potencies when there are tissue changes and you want the person to have a continuous regular stimulus.

I often use LM potencies for people who tend to have frequent acute illnesses.

Centesimal Scale Remedies:

I usually use centesimal scale remedies when I feel the person has a strong vital force, and they are not taking other medications, or using other health modalities simultaneously.

I will often ask people do you prefer to take a one shot deal dose or a daily dose, and if they say one shot deal dose, I will give them the centesimal scale remedies. Many people just like the convenience of taking the remedy once and not having to think about it again for a long time.

The decision is often also an intuitive one based on factors that I would have a hard time enumerating.

Conclusion:

I know I have said way too much, and I should have stopped long ago. I hope you enjoy a lifetime of good health, aided by homeopathy, or any modality that works for you when you need it.

Here is a link to an article I wrote on How to Take Homeopathic Remedies. Click here.

In love and service,

Deborah

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Peace be with you,

Deborah Olenev CCH RSHom (NA)