Streptococcus pyogenes, from the bacterial family that causes strep throat and rheumatic fever, is being used as a homeopathic remedy for stubborn infections and existential angst. Cate Montana investigates
Late in the 18th century, Dr Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician well versed in chemistry, botany, natural sciences and philosophy, encountered a quote by the first-century Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides: “Cinchona bark (quinine) cures malaria because it is bitter in taste.” Curious, he began dosing himself with quinine twice a day.
Within a few days, he started experiencing fever, chills and exhaustion—all symptoms of malaria. Intrigued, he started experimenting with all sorts of other substances from plants, animals, chemicals, even toxins, eventually proving substances that produce specific symptoms in humans can also cure those symptoms. Thus, the first fundamental principle of homeopathy, “the law of similars,” was born.
Hahnemann also eventually theorized that all disease is “miasmatic,” that an energetic fog, cloud or subtle influence develops in human beings and permits susceptibility to various diseases over the course of their lives—a susceptibility that can be passed down through the generations. It sounds quaintly ridiculous until you rephrase it in modern terms and realize he was developing a theory of chronic disease based in human genetic and epigenetic imprinting.
Toward the end of his life, Hahnemann focused primarily on the most common and broadly influential miasm (genetic influence) that he knew of at the time, which had evolved from the ancient skin diseases psoriasis, scabies and leprosy. This miasmic influence, which he termed “psora,” he believed lay at the root of most diseases. He treated the myriad diseases and symptoms in the category psora with homeopathic remedies he developed, primarily Sulphur.
It may be too early to say for sure, but it seems likely that 200 years later, a new and yet even more ancient and universal miasm has been discovered, affecting human beings and creating disease. And its treatment lies in the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes.
The ancient Greek name for these spherical bacteria belonging to the family Streptococcaceae translates as “twisted,” and Group A streptococcus causes many throat and skin issues, such as strep throat. It can be life-threatening, as in the case of Streptococcus-based toxic shock syndrome.
In April 2015, German doctor and homeopath Andreas Tilch (dr-andreas-tilch.com) attended a homeopathy seminar given by his teacher and friend Dr Jayesh Shah from Mumbai (homoeopathyconsultants.com). He didn’t know it, but he was about to start a life-changing deep dive into the world of S. pyogenes.
During the seminar, Shah reported amazing healing experiences, often with the most intractable cases, using the nosode Streptococcinum. (A nosode is a category of homeopathic medicines made from diseased tissue or disease-causing agents. Other examples are Botulinum, Candida Albicans and Typhoidinum.) Impressed, Tilch ordered the remedy.
Months later, a 30-year-old female patient he had worked with for years came in presenting with an acute rheumatic issue called erythema nodosum. She had extreme pain in all her joints, and red and bluish swellings dotted her legs.
She couldn’t walk because of the pain, was in a wheelchair and couldn’t sleep. For a couple weeks Tilch tried and failed to find any remedies that would produce significant relief.
“I was about to send her to an allopathic physician,” he says, “but then I thought about the Streptococcus remedy. I gave it to her without much hope.
“But then, all of a sudden, there was a miracle. After three days, she was so much better. She could sleep and get rest. The pain reduced, and she felt happier inside. This chronic, really difficult situation disappeared very slowly and calmly.”
Impressed and puzzled, he shelved the remedy, only using it again a year later on himself when a severe sore throat refused to resolve using his usual constitutional remedy. The throat pain swiftly got better.
At the same time, Tilch noticed anger coming up over a situation with a neighbor—which flared to the point that he wanted to pick a physical fight. It was a highly atypical emotional reaction for him.
“But then I understood, “Ah, this whole thing, the sore throat, everything, must be connected to suppressed anger in me,’” he recalls. But after everything resolved, he didn’t think about it again. He did, however, start using the remedy with more patients at that point.
He didn’t take Streptococcinum for two more years. In the meantime, patients started reporting very positive long-lasting effects as well as short-term results. After a lifetime of allergies, all of a sudden, several patients had no hay fever. And this was after he had given them Streptococcinum at 200C potency for just three days two years before.
As well, patients started reporting significant emotional shifts. They’d notice suppressed emotions coming up while they were on the remedy and then, afterward, as the months passed, they saw their lives steadily changing for the better.
At that point Tilch reflected on his own life and was shocked to realize that since he’d last taken Streptococcinum, a seemingly impossible situation with his ex-wife had amicably resolved. He’d met his new wife and found a wonderful new place to live. His practice was flourishing, and he felt more connected to “divine grace.” What was going on?
As he continued to use the Streptococcinum remedy in his practice, Tilch began to deeply contemplate the ancient bacteria itself. In doing so, he found striking similarities between the bacteria and human beings.
S. pyogenes bacteria are not antibiotic resistant and are extremely vulnerable to outside attack (as are humans). When threatened, they coat themselves in a network of hyaluronate polymers, creating a capsule in which they try to hide for protection.
And what do humans do? Starting as infants, we commonly withdraw from attack—whether physical or emotional—into protective shells so we can’t completely feel what’s happening to us. And we often suppress our authentic emotional responses lest they get us into further trouble and suffering.
For example, let’s say a father beats his son. The boy swallows his feelings of fear and resentment because his father is stronger. Now there’s a stuck emotion in his throat: suppressed rage.
In these situations, Tilch says, very often children develop tonsillitis and Streptococcus bacteria in the throat. All the heat of suppressed anger that was inside the body is expressed through fever and pain.
Or perhaps a father and mother are screaming at each other all the time, and suddenly their child gets a severe infection with Streptococcus in the ear. Encapsulated unconscious fear in the child’s body is released through the heat of the raging fever.
“Obviously, this remedy is good for treating strep throat, tonsillitis, things like that,” says Tilch. “But it also helps us to heal the formerly unacceptable emotions and trauma that underlie and create the physical symptoms we experience in the first place.
“Streptococcus reveals what has been suppressed and encapsulated, swallowed during a lifetime. Gradually there’s more acceptance of the underlying feelings, which can be ancestral as well. And as these emotions become more acceptable, the system can change and develop into something very positive.”
Tilch claims Streptococcinum treats the most basic miasm of all: The energetic field distortion of primal fear that arises in humans, often starting with birth trauma and developing—mostly unconsciously—from there.
About 26 percent of all live births result in physical trauma that causes infant post-traumatic stress.2 Existential angst about our origins, death, the meaning of life, etc. affects the vast majority of people, showing up in different times of life, and is identified in psychological circles as “sophomore crisis,” “the adult existential crisis,” “mid-life crisis” and “later existential crises.” Indeed, existential anxiety is now viewed as closely related to depression, general anxiety and overall stress.3
Tanja Mayer, MD, a holistic practitioner and homeopath in Ettenheim, Germany (tanjamayermd.com), uses the remedy Streptococcus Pyogenes (Tilch C5), a more potent remedy Tilch developed with Helios Homeopathy (helios.co.uk). She gives almost every patient the remedy and has consistently seen “really big changes,” especially when the entire family takes it.
“The effect is systemic,” she says. “It really does help bring the tribe together and helps people to set healthy boundaries and be their authentic selves again.”
“Respiratory infections, urinary infections, joint pains, genital herpes, filariasis, skin infections, rectal abscesses, diabetes mellitus, viral infections like dengue have responded to this remedy,” says Dr Jayesh Shah, Mumbai practitioner and global lecturer on classical homeopathy since 1981. “It is my favorite remedy when nothing works and has become a part of case management in long-term treatment of all cases of recurring infections, including infection consciousness” (psychological fear of infections).
Dr Sarah Valentini is a homeopath and director of The Family Apothecary in Victoria, Australia (thefamilyapothecary.com.au). She specializes in developmental and behavioral disorders such as autism, ADHD, emotional dysregulation and rage, PANS (pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome) and PANDAS (pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcal infections, a type of PANS).
“In many of my clients, I’ve witnessed a profound shift with Strep-Tilch C5 from feeling stuck to realizing their ability to make choices in circumstances that once kept them victimized, trapped or helpless,” she says. “In children with PANS/PANDAS, I’ve observed a profound shift toward emotional resilience. This transformation reflects a deeper healing within the family system, enabling both the child and parents to experience healthier, more autonomous relationships.”
Over and over, both doctors and patients using Streptococcus Pyogenes (Tilch C5) talk about its “life-giving effects” and how it helps patients to break free of emotional restrictions and the health issues that so often follow.
A four-year-old boy was brought in to see Dr Jayesh Shah, presenting with cold symptoms that recurred every 15 days. His symptoms included profuse nasal discharge with immediate lower respiratory congestion, chills with fever, swollen eyes, headache, violent coughing and vomiting of sticky mucus. He also experienced nocturnal leg pains, nausea on waking up, general poor appetite and motion sickness in cars.
The boy had received a course of antibiotics about every 20 days since one year of age. Developmentally he exhibited delayed walking and early talking and appeared weak and emaciated.
According to Dr Shah, “The most significant indication for Streptococcinum was acute phobia of infection at home, which his parents and grandparents also exhibited.” The child often spoke of germs and disinfectant and having to be clean. He feared monsters would crush his home and feared mosquitoes biting him and then needing to go to doctors.
Dr Shah prescribed one dose of Streptococcinum, 1M potency, and there were zero episodes of sickness and infection in the three months following that treatment. The boy’s motion sickness was cured, his appetite was much better and he gained weight. Many conflicts that disturbed the family were reportedly resolved in this time period.
A two-year follow-up revealed a few mild colds that required no need for further treatment.
A 35-year-old woman visited Dr Kristina Schönleitner, a general practitioner and homeopath in Austria (ganzheitsmedizinerin.com), with cold symptoms that had persisted for three months. She had a severe irritable cough, recurring fever, intense headaches and occasional complete loss of voice. She also suffered from severe recurring hip pain.
Prior to the onset of these symptoms, the patient had experienced “a difficult separation” that left her feeling “shock, disbelief, incredulity and powerlessness.”
Schönleitner told her to take Streptococcus Pyogenes (Tilch C5) 1.3MC potency, three to five globules once daily. After one week the cough improved somewhat, and the patient reported a clearly noticeable sense of emotional calm and clarity. She also experienced a new symptom—a strong runny nose with white-yellowish discharge. Schönleitner told her to continue taking the remedy and increase the dose to twice daily.
At her follow-up appointment three weeks later, all her cold symptoms had completely resolved, and the hip pain had disappeared. The patient recorded her emotional state as “very good.”
A 38-year-old man came to Dr Tilch in November 2013 complaining about acute breathing problems. He had been suffering from severe respiratory issues and been treated for them by Tilch on and off for eight years.
His allergic asthma required frequent use of Allergospasmin, an emergency bronchodilator that gave an average of four hours of relief from symptoms. He was unable to participate in any sports and felt pressed to do every physical action slowly lest he have a respiratory attack. From an emotional and psychological perspective, he described his life as “always densely packed” with “very little free space” due to overwork.
Not knowing about Streptococcinum at the time, Tilch treated the man with other remedies that helped very little. Over the next two years, he continued to see the man on and off for respiratory problems, hay fever and infections. Finally, in March 2016, Tilch gave him Streptococcinum 200C (three globules daily for three days).
“After three weeks he reported quite soberly and factually that the remedy had worked well,” says Tilch. “His breathing difficulties had completely disappeared after one day. He had not needed any more Allergospasmin since then and had not had any more problems with his breathing.”
A two-year follow-up showed that the patient’s lifetime of respiratory issues ended after he took Streptococcinum 200C for three days.
Adapted from the forthcoming English translation of From Primal Fear to Connectedness by Andreas Tilch (Similimum Verlag, March 2026)
A 50-year-old nursery school teacher had been under Dr Tilch’s care for more than 20 years. She came to see him because of a nasty sore throat and high fever. Swallowing was painful, there were blisters and white plaque on her tongue, and she sweated profusely and slept badly.
This episode followed a period of excessive domestic demands. Her mother had just undergone chemotherapy for cancer and was now bedridden at her home. In addition, her brother was in the hospital and needed an operation.
Tilch had long been treating this patient for emotional and psychological issues, which he believed were at the root of her decades-long battle with chronic, bloody psoriasis on her arms, elbows and shins. “In all the relationships throughout her life, she had allowed herself to be overburdened uncomplainingly, far beyond a healthy level,” he says. Unfortunately, homeopathy proved insufficient to create any emotional changes or a shift in the psoriasis.
When she came to him with the acute sore throat and fever, he treated her with Streptococcinum 200C. When he saw her a week later, the sore throat and fever were gone—and so, apparently, were her former emotional issues.
“I’m totally at peace with myself,” she said. “I no longer feel like I have to do something all the time, not even for my mum. I feel free now.”
Tilch upped the dosage to 1000C potency for another three days. Four weeks later the woman continued to comment on her astounding emotional and psychological changes. She was effortlessly setting firm boundaries with people, including her mother. The decades-long psoriasis had subsided, and her skin was healed completely after a holiday with her daughter.
Adapted from the forthcoming English translation of From Primal Fear to Connectedness by Andreas Tilch (Similimum Verlag, March 2026)
Reactions to Streptococcus Pyogenes (Tilch C5) are highly individual. Everybody has their own story, suppressed emotions and pattern of physical difficulties. As a general protocol, Tilch recommends starting with the lowest 10C potency, and many of his patients stay at this potency for a year or more.
Don’t be alarmed if typical minor strep reactions initially show up, such as a sore throat and low fever, as they will subside quickly, he says. And don’t be surprised if suppressed emotions come up.
“When you start, treat yourself like a newborn baby,” Tilch says. “Whatever this newborn baby shows that it needs, just give it that. Just follow the signals your body gives you.”
This intuitive listening and self-care process is part of the healing Strep-Tilch C5 brings. For centuries, the social program has been to function and show up, come what may. But this is a survival response grounded in primal fear. If I don’t function, who’s going to feed me? If I don’t struggle to get that oxygen into my lungs, how will I breathe? If I don’t work, how will I have the money I need? If I don’t protect myself, how will I survive? And so on.
Using Strep-Tilch C5 apparently inspires a “re-imprinting” experience that helps people move from primal fear into trust. “You need to experience that you are okay, that somebody cares for you and that nothing bad is going to happen,” says Tilch.
“With this remedy, usually you will have less anxiety.” In addition to his book, an informational video course is available for purchase on his website, and a Telegram community that Tilch monitors includes an open forum in which to ask questions.
So far, Tilch says he has successfully treated a wide variety of conditions in over 1,500 patients with Streptococcinum (the original homeopathic formula) and Streptococcus Pyogenes (Tilch C5). As well, he has received reports from hundreds of homeopathic physicians worldwide in the last several years about the remedy’s ability to treat a surprising number of illnesses. Here is a partial list of conditions he claims to have treated with this remedy:
These are some physical ailments he claims to have successfully treated:
Where to get Streptococcinum Pyogenes-Tilch
Streptococcinum Pyogenes-Tilch, the homeopathic nosode remedy Dr Andreas Tilch developed with Helios Homeopathy, is available directly from Helios (helios.co.uk), a UK-based homeopathic pharmacy that offers international shipping.
Alternatively, contact your local homeopathic pharmacy to see if they offer the standard Streptococcinum Pyogenes remedy.
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