Diathesis

Definition

• Diathesis is a bodily condition in which an individual is prone to suffer from some peculiar type of disease
• Some diathesis being acquired, others inherited
• Some are of a transient nature, some permanent.
• Temperament is physiological and diathesis pathological.

• Diathesis should not be confounded with Dyscrasia / Miasms, which implies the immediate and peculiar effects of disease
• There are many conditions called diatheses, and oftentimes it is difficult to say where a diathesis ends and a dyscrasia begins.
• Constitutional syphilis, for instance, is a dyscrasia.
• A malarial diathesis is different from a malarial cachexia; the former is an acquired tendency to contract the malarial poison, and the latter is constitutional saturation with the poison.
• Oxalic acid diathesis is a form of dyspepsia which is perhaps frequently characterized with sudden outbursts of irascibility among other symptoms.

Different Diathesis

Scrofulous diathesis

• It is practically Hahnemann’s psora theory
• It has two forms, different phases
  1. Tuberculosis: Aurum, Pulsatilla, Agaricus and Calcarea
  2. Phlegmatic: Mercurius, Hepar  and Sili

Tonsillar diathesis

• With its glandular enlargement and narrow chest, is one that may require such remedies as Baryta carbonica. This diathesis nearly always improves at puberty, and therefore, it is mostly useless to remove tonsils and vegetations. The proper treatment is gymnastic exercises to improve the chest capacity; when this is done the lymphoid tissue will surely disappear by atrophic changes, and the enlarged glands will become normal. I have observed this in a large number of cases.  Calcarea and other remedies will work wonders in this diathesis.

In the gouty diathesis heredity is marked, and remedies like Nux, Lycopodium, Staphisagria and Coccus cacti will be needed. Colchicum will not cure in a purely Colchicum case engrafted upon a Staphisagria constitution unless that remedy be given as an intercurrent.

The alternation of our forefathers in Homoeopathy was based largely upon this application of remedies. The haemorrhagic diathesis will call for remedies like Phosphorus. The rheumatic diathesis, in which, by the way, throat affections are common, will require remedies like Actea, and perhaps some of the potash preparations.

The catarrhal diathesis is quite similar to the rheumatic; such subjects take cold easily, they have coryzas, diarrheas and dermatites. Piulsatilla seems to be the great remedy in these cases; for the attacks, of course, Aconite, Bryonia and Arsenicum will be needed, but to correct the tendency the constitutional remedy may be sought for.

Hering suggested Senega, which he says suits phlegmatic or fat people predisposed to catarrh, or to the sluggish who react from colds indifferently. It is a remedy that will repay a careful study. The uric acid diathesis, we are told by our old school recent authorities, is passing, but as long is we have Lycopodium, Benzoic acid and Sarsaparilla we will not be troubled with diseases complicated with it.

Finally, there is one warning note that I would sound, and I believe that it cannot be too strenuously heeded. That is, if we wish to preserve the landmarks and traditions of our school intact, we must oppose compulsory medicine in all its forms, we must oppose the passing of laws to compel the administration of antitoxin, of anti-scarlet-fever serum, of anti-universal infectious disease serum, and compulsory vaccination.

Just so sure as we stand idly by and permit these laws to be passed, just so sure some day we will wake up and ask where we are at. Admitting that there is some virtue in all of these procedures, that vaccination immunizes from small-pox in some cases, that antitoxin has improved the diphtheria statistics of our old school friends and those of our own school who study not our Materia Medica, we cannot stand idly by and see laws passed to rob us of the great cardinal feature of Homoeopathy, namely, the individualizing of our cases.

It is to us that patients apply for aid, it is to us they come for treatment, and, whatever be the disease, the family physician and not the board of health, the examining board, or the State Legislature should have the say. Temperaments and diatheses are a part of the study of our cases, and the old adage of what is wholesome for one person is poison for another is a part and parcel of our system of therapeutics.