
Drainage Principles, by Michel Bouko Levy, MD
Homeopathic Drainage (formerly known as Biotherapeutic Drainage) is the easiest and most natural way to safely practice preventive medicine. However, it goes beyond the simplistic practice of giving combination remedies. To get real results, you need to understand its basic principles and apply specific strategies.
The disorders that the patient presents to the homeopath are superficial expressions reflected from their deep reactive mode. Each person is made of various layers and the homeopath must take them off carefully, one by one, to penetrate deep into the mechanisms of the patient. As the homeopath removes each layer, the body needs assistance in detoxifying and tonifying the affected organs. It needs drainage of the essential emunctories.
It usually takes many years to become a good homeopath. The materia medica evolves all the time and the repertories are very large. So, how can we quickly get good results in chronic diseases? An easy way to penetrate the homeopathic world is to use the techniques of drainage. This is the perfect field of action for the new biotherapeutics which have been prepared from the three ever-present kingdoms of nature, i.e. the plant, animal, and mineral kingdoms.
These new biotherapeutics are excellent for all ages. They are particularly effective for all chronic diseases such as allergies, ear, nose, and throat pathologies, woman’s health, rheumatisms, digestive disorders, overabundance diseases, stress management, and general ageing functions. In most cases, the patient needs to stimulate the organs affected by a chronic disease. The body’s cleaning and fortifying abilities are naturally maintained by the wheel of emunctories. Two courses of emunctories treat and eliminate the stream of toxins along this wheel. The first course goes from the skin to the digestive system and then to the respiratory system. The second course evolves from the urinary system, then goes to the osteoarticular system and finally to the cardio-vascular system. All of the emunctories are governed by the endocrine and nervous system and must be considered at each stage of treatment.
Our individual wheel of emunctories turns according to our own constitution, reactive mode, and line of life. In the evolution of a chronic disease, the order in which the different organs are affected shows the exact treatment strategy to follow and the type of drainage the patient needs. The key to chronic disease treatment is good detoxification. Homeopathic Drainage regulates the activity of the blocked or deficient organs and improves the quality of the essential emunctories. This is the first condition necessary for a quick and complete healing. Drainage and hygiene of the body are always necessary to correct dysfunction and maintain good health.
Techniques of Drainage
Phytotherapy and Gemmotherapy: plant extracts, in mother tincture (M.T.) and phytogemmotherapy: bud extracts, in first decimal ( 1DH).
Plants are the basic elements to use for the drainage of all chronic diseases. They must be used for prolonged courses of treatment, usually for a minimum of 2 months each. It is important to alternate the different plants according to the rhythm of seasons: vascular plants should be given in the Summer and rheumatic plants in the Winter, liver detoxifying plants in the Spring and kidney detoxifying plants in the Fall.
Organotherapy: organotherapeutic remedies are healthy organ extracts or organ secretions prepared according to the general rules of homeopathic remedies. The most common potency used is 4CH.
Action of the remedy according to its potency:
- 4C – stimulates the organ
- 7C – regulates the function
- 9C – suppresses the activity
All diseases evolve to a cellular destruction of the system. Organotherapy will help to slow down the natural and pathological deterioration of the organ and its function. Organs must work in harmony with the body so that each organ can assimilate the proper nutrition from the body as well as help maintain the body healthy. Organotherapy represents a vital support for over-stressed organs and must be started in all lesion pathologies. In combination with, or after, prolonged allopathic treatments, organotherapy will support the organs and help them recover their natural function.

Oligotherapy: usage of trace elements
Trace elements are metals and metalloids present inside the human body, in minute quantities, necessary for normal metabolic functioning. As biotherapeutic remedies they can be used in either liquid or pill form and are known as oligotherapic remedies.
They should be used when the patient has a functional pathology. A functional pathology means that the patient does not have any deep organ lesions, rather, the disorders are due to the difficulty of the person to adapt to stressful conditions. There are many cases where oligotherapy is an essential part of the treatment. For example, in arthritis it is a major complementary therapeutic; during viral infections it stimulates the immune system and facilitates a quick and complete healing.
Satellite Remedies
Satellite remedies facilitate the action of polychrests by improving the function of the affected emunctories. In acute and chronic pathologies they aid in the drainage of the patient. Some have a very sharp action such as lemna minor, the satellite of thuya and calcarea carbonica, acting on the nose mucosa. Others have a wide emunctorial field of action such as chelidonium, the satellite of several polychrests, acting on many emunctories. They should be used before the polychrest or nosode and during the entire chronic treatment, in 4C to 7C potencies, 1 to 6 times a day or less, or as needed. They will help to prevent the aggravations that are produced by a deep acting remedy and permit the stabilisation of a chronic disease.