What is Homotoxicology, and Why Should We Care?
One of detox's best-kept secrets. How it can help.
First developed between 1948 and 1949 by Dr. Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg (1905-1985), the study of homotoxicology is based on the premise that diseases are caused by substances he termed as “homotoxins”.
According to Dr. Reckeweg, illnesses are processes of the body in which exposure and ingestion of homotoxins cause the body to react with inflammation.
Dr. Reckeweg described homotoxins as “any substance that creates a direct or indirect toxic burden in the human organism.”
The target of the homotoxin is the extracellular matrix. The extracellular matrix acts as a molecular sieve between the capillary system, the lymph vessels, and the cells which are to be supplied with nutrients or to have their waste removed.
All substances reaching reaching a cell are thus filtered through this molecular sieve.
This sieve can become clogged, but can be restored to proper functionality through appropriate detoxification measures.
According to Dr. Reckeweg, homotoxins can be categorized into two groups: exogenous and endogenous.
Exogenous homotoxins are substances that originate outside the body (i.e. in the environment) and have a direct or indirect toxic effect on body tissues, organs, or metabolic mechanisms.
Endogenous homotoxins are created by the body itself. These are mostly metabolic intermediary or end products such as acids and free radicals. These are toxic substances that can accumulate in the body and become a burden when we can’t eliminate them from the body through normal physiological processes.
Homotoxicology is a unique synthesis of healing disciplines, designed to strenthen the organs responsible for detoxification and excretion, to remove the toxins accumulated in the extracellular matrix, to stimulate and also modulate the immune system, and to regulate the whole by rebalancing the diseased or dysfunctional body systems.
The methodology of homotoxicology differs from that of conventional medicine in that illness is viewed as much more than the mere presence of clinical symptoms.
Homotoxicology thereapy therefore approaches the patient holistically. It attempts to detoxify the body, to correct derailed immunological processes through immuno-modulation, and to support the proper function of cells and organs.
Illness is an indication that the body is trying to expel or eliminate something that is toxic. Ultimately that process of elimination will probably appear symptomatically as a disease if the self-healing detoxification is not achieved.
This concept is rather contrary to what has become accepted Western medical thought. The understanding of homotoxicology, coupled with the application of homeopathy, works to enhance the self-healing process by removing toxicity, not masking its symptoms and effects.
Allopathic drugs are generally designed to relieve or suppress symptoms, rather than relieve the toxic burden that is the root cause of the symptoms.
Even antibiotics, undeniably useful in certain circumstances but too often over-used, do not attack or remove the original toxin, but rather the biological result of the toxicity - the bacterial infection.
Dr. Reckeweg formulated an essential tenet of Homotoxicology: “According to Homotoxicology, all those processes, syndromes and manifestations which we designate as diseases are the expression thereof that the body is combating poisons, and that it wants to neutralize and excrete those poisons.
“The body either wins or loses the fight thereby. Those processes which we designate as diseases are always biological, that is, natural teleological processes which serve as poison defense and detoxification.”
Homotoxicology usually pursues an indication-based approach. Most anti-homotoxic preparations contain complexes of remedies in the low to middle ranges of dilution.
Each preparation carries an indication, facilitating its use. There is no need, therefore, to determine individual remedy choice or potency. Making use of conventional medical indications connects anti-homotoxic medicine with allopathy, while its use of potentized substances unites it with homeopathy.
Therefore, anti-homotoxic therapy is the connecting link between conventional (allopathic) medicine, and homeopathy.
Some History
In his early 20’s at the beginning of his medical career, Dr. Reckeweg was an assistant doctor in the Knappschaftskrankenhaus Volklingen hospital, and in the internal medicine department of the Hamburg-Harburg hospital, both in Germany
After his obligatory 2 years as a “junior doctor”, Dr. Reckeweg started his own private practice in 1935.
As was usual at that time, as a doctor Reckeweg was not only able to dispense drugs and medications, but was able to formulate and compound them as well.
As he began creating and dispensing his homeopathic formulas, he increasingly needed the facilities of a proper compounding laboratory in order to have them readily at his disposal.
Thus, in 1936 Dr. Reckeweg founded the drug manufacturing company HEEL (GmbH), which is an anacronym from the phrase “Herba Est Ex Luce” - or, “the medicinal plant draws its strength from sunlight”.
Shortly after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and the United States declaration of war on Japan, under the terms of the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany, Japan, and Italy, Hitler was almost obligated to act in mutual defense of Japan (in addition to the provocation of arms being provided to Britain), and quickly declared war on the United States on December 11th.
As with many physicians then still living in Germany (many had emigrated or fled due to the persecutions of the 1930’s) Dr. Reckeweg was commissioned into the German Armed Forces, serving in the war until he was captured by Allied forces, and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp.
After the war, Dr. Reckeweg was released from captivity in 1946. He moved to Triberg in the Black Forest, recovered what was left of the homeopathic remedies and original tinctures from his HEEL laboratory in Berlin, and reopened his private practice. The company he founded continues in business today, and is a significant developer, producer, and distributor of homeopathic preparations from its location in Baden-Baden.
In 1979, Dr. Reckeweg emigrated to the United States and settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico, creating a new company Biological Homeopathic Industries (BHI).
After Dr. Reckeweg’s death in 1985, in 1997 the company was re-named to HEEL USA Inc. Then in 2014, HEEL USA became independent from its German parent company, and today operates under the name MediNatura Inc, manufacturing and distributing BHI products, and as the only legal importer of HEEL products into the United States.
My Training with Dr. Reckeweg
I was privileged to become an advanced-study student of Dr. Reckeweg, after he had migrated to New Mexico and established his new US-based company to educate doctors and manufacture his special homeopathic medicines with fit in with the homotoxicology practice.
His untimely death in 1985 brought those studies to an end, but I have continued to pursue the study of homotoxicology on my own in the years since.
I am uniquely the only doctor in the entire Midwest who has studied with Dr. Reckeweg directly. His discoveries are the core principles in my work today regarding pathologies in the body being the result of internal metabolic toxicity, promoting healing through diet, detoxification therapies, and proper nutritional supports.
What this mean for our clinic patients is that through the various non-invasive tests that we are able to conduct here at the clinic, we can definitively determine what their underlying problems are regarding balanced metabolic function (homeostasis), and we can thus develop treatment plans and wellness protocols that will support the body’s natural corrective and healing systems.
Typical pharmaceutical-based medical treatments are based on the use of toxic prescription drugs which only suppress symptoms rather than address root causes, often leading to a worsening of the imbalance, or at best keeping you in a state of “managed illness” which can extend for years, or a lifetime.
Dr. Bowman is a Board Certified Doctor of Naturopathy (ND) with training and additional professional certifications in Homeopathy (DiHOM), Alternative Medicine (MD-MA), and as a certified advanced practitioner in LYME Disease (ILADS). Medically trained at one of Germany’s most prestigious universities, Dr. Bowman focuses his practice around the German naturopathic model of health. From his Navajo roots Dr. Bowman learned to appreciate the wisdom of natural healing and a spiritual, holistic approach to healthful living. Dr. Bowman also works closely with medical doctors and other healthcare practitioners to restore and optimize patients’ good health. For an appointment call (715) 341-4949 Monday-Thursday, 9AM to 5PM.