DIMINISHED

SUSCEPTIBILITY
BY,NAYANA.M.R
IVBHMS
ROLL NO 55
SUSCEPTIBILITY

DEFINITION
By susceptibility we mean the general quality or capability of the living organism
of receiving impressions; the power to react to stimuli.
Susceptibility is one of the fundamental attributes of life. Upon it depends all
functioning, all vital processes, physiological and pathological. Digestion,
assimilation, nutrition, repair, secretion, excretion, metabolism and catabolism, as
well as disease processes arising from infection or contagion depend upon We
power of the organism to react to specific stimuli.
The cure and alleviation of diseases depend upon power of the organism to react
to the remedy.
DIMINISHED SUSCEPTIBILITY

the kind and degree of reaction to medicines depends upon the

degree of susceptibility of the patient
To bring about cure he must know that susceptibility implies and
includes affinity, attraction, desire, hunger, need; that these all
exist and express themselves normally as states and conditions in
every living being; but that they may become morbid and
perverted and so cause disease, suffering and death.
Susceptibility as a state may be increased, diminished or
destroyed. Either of these is a morbid state which must be
considered therapeutically from the standpoint of the individual
patient. Susceptibility in organism, mental or bodily, is equivalent
to state. State involves the attitude of organizations to internal
causes and to external circumstances. It is all the resource of
defense or the way of yielding. 
No agent or procedure should be used as a therapeutic measure
which has the power to, diminish, break down or destroy the
normal susceptibility or reactibility of the organism, because that
is one of the most valuable medical assets we possess.
To use agents in such a manner or in such a form or quantity as to
diminish, impair or destroy the power of the organism to react to
stimuli, is to align ourselves with the forces of death and
disintegration. 
ANTISEPTICS

The use of antiseptics in the treatment of disease, or surgically

(in the field of operation), is another means of impairing or
destroying normal susceptibility.
FEVER
Medicines were given to reduce inflammation and fever. However
the dominant School failed to realise that inflammation and
fever were only signs not disease per se.
That they were vital reaction not to be interfered with.
ALCOHOL

It seems to be pretty well established that alcohol, the typical and

perhaps most commonly used stimulant, adds nothing to the
physiological forces of the body.
We know the power of alcohol to harden and shrivel and
devitalize organic tissues Its power to paralyze the vaso-motor
system is seen in the flushed face, congested capillaries and ruby
nose of the inebriate.
We are aware of its inhibiting effect upon the sensory nerves, by
which it makes its victim insensible to the impressions of heat,
cold and pain, so that, in extreme intoxication, he falls on a red-
hot stove and is burned to death, or staggers into a show bank and
freezes to death without knowing it.
     All these things define the nature and measure of power of
alcohol to decrease or destroy normal susceptibility.
Deficient reaction or diminished susceptibility may exist
in a case or appear during treatment and constitute a
condition requiring special treatment. This is especially
true in the treatment of chronic diseases, where
improvement ceases and well selected remedies do not
seem to act.
Under such circumstances it may sometimes be necessary
to give a due of what is called an "intercurrent remedy."
Bœnninghausen mentions as appropriate in such cases:
Carbo veg., Lauroc., Mosch., Op., Sulph. To these may be
added the typical nosodes: Medorr., Psor., Pyrog., Tuberc.,
Syphil.,. and also Thuja. The choice of any particular one
of these remedies must be governed by the history and
symptoms.