Over the years of practicing medicine, I have found that the patient can tell you what is really wrong most of the time, when you actively listen. If needed, the physician may add a few diagnostic studies to determine the medical or surgical specificity of the problem, but it is the patient who sets the priorities based on his awareness of what is going on internally. In history taking we call the patients understanding a ‘Chief Complaint’. We usually follow this by a ‘Review of Systems’ to determine the influence this complaint has on body organs and systems or to see if there are independent conditions unassociated with the chief complaint. Seidel Henry M. Mosby’s Guide to physical examination (St. Louis: Mosby-Year Book Inc. 1995
Homeopathic physicians, on the other hand, want to know the ‘totality of symptoms’ in order to establish a priority for prescribing a remedy. It is the client who provides the information. It is his symptoms that establish the priority for treating. Boericke, William, Homeopathic Materia Medica, 9th Edition, (Santa Rosa: Boericke and Taffel Publishers; The Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, 8th Edition Volume I (American Institute of Homeopathy
1979)
In acupuncture theory, energy flows in channels beneath the skin. These channels represent energy flowing from certain organs or systems to the skin. Symptoms may be modified by inserting a needle at sites along an energy channel. Selection of a specific site for treatment is based the acupuncturist’s understanding of signs or symptoms even though the individual is unaware of the acupuncture meridian system through which the energy flows. It is the individual’s awarenesss of internal events that sets the priority for the site selection of acupuncture needle insertion. Chen, Kuo-Gen, Electrical Properties of Meridians (IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine pp
58-63, Volume 15, Number 3 1996)
When looked upon from an electrodermal perspective, energy flows in lines similar to acupuncture channels. Energy flows in pulsed patterns that convey specific bits of information. As in acupuncture, information originates in an organ or system and is conducted to a specific site on the skin without the individual’s awareness of the information being conducted. Alteration of electromagnetic conductance in the organ or system is not only associated with signs and symptoms but is also associated with information being conducted through electromagnetic pathways to specific locations on the skin. The patient is aware of the signs and symptoms but is unaware of the information being conducted nor is he aware of the electromagnetic pathway through which they are being conducted. The individual’s energy flow pattern sets the priority for the sites to be tested. An Electrodermal Analysis of Biological Conductance (Biological Conductance Inc. Virginia Beach VA 2004
Once the initial conductance abnormality is corrected, retesting will demonstrate priorities for the next set of tests. This process (iterative analysis) is continued until the case is completed, that is, there is no longer a conductance abnormality. There may be more than one set of priorities in an examination. Conductance disturbances may be corrected in each of these at the same time.
The advantage of this type of analysis is that the process is patient directed and not ‘machine’ directed. Clinical improvement and electromagnetic changes are able be observed at the same time. The goal for electromagnetic intervention is to obtain a favorable clinical outcome, not to eliminate of all abnormal wave forms.
Until we have a clear understanding of the interrelationship of normal and abnormal waves, both before and after intervention, we should try to detect the fewest number of signals in the conductance pathway that are needed to bring about a favorable clinical outcome. We should try to reduce the number of destructive waves in the conductance pathway that could possibly be introduced by random induction of signals.
In my judgment, iterative analysis is the best way to accomplish this objective and is the best way to develop a scientific format for statistical analysis and data recording.
Vincent J. Speckhart MD, MD(H)