Asa Hershoff ~ Pictorial Images of Pain Sensations

BOOK REVIEW: reprinted with the permission of the International Foundation for Homeopathy. PO Box 7 Edmonds, WA 98020

Homeopathy for Musculoskeletal Healing
By Asa Hershoff, N.D., D.C.
314pages, paperback
Reviewed by Gloria St. John, M.B.A

Is this book on your shelf? Perhaps not, but it should be. It is a sleeper-something really good that is not appreciated for quite a while after its publication. Asa Hershoff, an experienced practitioner, accomplishes something very difficult with this book. He has made it useful for self prescribing and beginners as well as being an excellent reference for the homeopathic professional. In fact, even if you on treat muscular and skeletal problems, or do so rarely, this book offers a materia medica of 60 remedies that will enhance your general prescribing capability.

The first part of the book includes a wonderfully clear description of the vital force, the heating process, and the preparation of homeopathic remedies among other subjects that confound the newcomer to homeopathy. The way he expresses these concepts, however, has value even for those who understand them well. After 75 pages, we are into the "meat" of the musculoskeletal system: the spine, the extremities, arthritis, and headaches. There are also sections on trauma and scar tissue.

Within each section are useful subdivisions. The spine, for example, covers each physical region thoroughly as well as common conditions like sciatica. The section on arthritis is divided into sections based on the extent of degeneration, followed by one on the small joints. Arthritis shows up again in the sections on the specific joints where it is likely to strike.

I must confess that I don't completely understand the reasoning behind the organization of each section. However, I have absolute confidence that I can find whatever I am looking for in this book, perhaps because of Hershoff's expressed interest in "the way people assimilate knowledge" and his desire to provide an "easy -to-use interface." If a condition is not in the first sections, there is a therapeutic guide in the back that presents an alphabetical list of additional conditions likely to occur by body site and offers the main remedies in typical homeopathic convention of capitals, italics, etc.

The illustrations are superb. My favorite is the knee joint, which is used to show remedy tissue affinities. Ruta, it turns out, is not just "for the knee" but is for the cartilage or tendons of the knee. Arnica is best for muscle tissue and Bryonia for problems with the bursa or joint space, with Rhus tox for ligaments. My next favorite illustration is for headaches-that most ubiquitous of conditions. Who can recall all the locations and modalities for even the top remedies? The two-page head-ache chart gives a graphic look at the symptoms of 12 useful headache remedies. I would only ask that future charts keep the head gender-neutral to allow the graphics to stand alone.

The book gives us an unexpected gift at the end-a chart of remedy relationships: complementary, antidotes, and incompatibles along with duration. I can already see that it is more extensive, not to mention much easier to read, than the section in my Boericke Materia Medica. It turns out that remedies needed for musculoskeletal healing are the same remedies used frequently for other conditions.

This book is well worth having as a general reference. I took forward to Asa Hershoff's future works. His depth and scholarly approach, combined with attention to form and layout, assure me that I will be able to learn whatever he is trying to teach.

Gloria St. John is currently editing a book on the natural treatment of arthritis.

RESONANCE - September/October 1998

Tags: Asa-Hershoff, Homeopathy-for-Musculoskeletal-Healing

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Permalink Reply by Myra Nissen on October 5, 2009 at 1:34am

Interestingly enough it sits on my shelf, but I have not read it...

Permalink Reply by Vaikunthanath das Kaviraj. on October 5, 2009 at 7:47am

Very nice!
Now if only we could have such for the entire body and not just for trauma.
Just imagine how that would simplify things.
That is however too much to ask because the pages would be filled with remedies - we have too many for that.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Wequar Ali Khan on October 5, 2009 at 9:08am

Congratulations Debby,so finally what i posted about the book is now a reality.I got the book from Dana Ullmans "Homeopathic services" when it was first published many years ago.I am glad that the idea of charts for "EXPRESSION" of homeopathic symptoms, can be utilized even with language barrier.Asa's book proves it and opens a new direction how charts can be utilzed.Further Dr Kavi's appreciation of the idea has made my day of course with your relentless interest and effort;

I would now like to mention another book "SPORTS INJURIES and ITS HOMEOPATHIC TREATMENT" by DR SUBOTONIC. He is a "podriatic" specialist who treated long distant runners for their injuries with homeopathic medicines.It also has charts for treatment but not as the ones on Asa's book.This book was also obtained from the same source.I was introduced to the book while i was doing my post graduate course with BIT London. I found both the book extremely useful.

Permalink Reply by Prarthana Kalaskar on October 5, 2009 at 10:22am

This is really useful! Thank you!

Permalink Reply by TRILOKI. NATH MEHTA on October 8, 2009 at 11:27am

nice to have such blogs

Permalink Reply by Oksana Dermendzhieva on October 9, 2009 at 4:07pm

Dear Debby, thank you for this information! I think it`s nice and very useful book, really. I know that there is one similar (illustrated) book, Rollin R. Gregg - An Illustrated Repertory of Pains in Chest, Sides & Back. It`s the link where you can see some pages with schemes from this repertory.

www.homoeopathie-zentrum-karlsruhe.de/pdf/Gregg_Tafeln.pdf

Permalink Reply by Debby Bruck on October 9, 2009 at 7:11pm

Oksana ~ fantastic link. I'm wondering how all of the diagrams would match up if they were transparent pages?

Permalink Reply by Vaikunthanath das Kaviraj. on October 9, 2009 at 7:16pm

Print them out on transparent paper and find out.

Permalink Reply by Vaikunthanath das Kaviraj. on October 10, 2009 at 12:33am

Brilliant piece of work. I do find it a bit cluttered though. Maybe we need to simplify it more.

Permalink Reply by Vaikunthanath das Kaviraj. on October 10, 2009 at 10:37am

I have been thinking about this some more.
I would separate the outward arrows from the inward ones and those that remain inside - not going in or out. These in turn can be divided in those going up and those going down. That way, each chart is divided in 4 and you have a better oversight.

I think i am going to see if that can be done and if so, shall post the result.

If then they are printed on transparencies, the overlap would still show the original chart.
I reckon it would serve its purpose better that way.

Permalink Reply by Oksana Dermendzhieva on October 10, 2009 at 1:12am

Debby, yes, the schemes are fantastic. Unfortunately there are these scanned pages in internet only. I`ve ordered this book and wait it very very long time....

Permalink Reply by Dr.M.Senthil on October 10, 2009 at 9:42am