A more practical topic this month: homeopathy for tooth nerve pain or neuralgia
My problem being a neuralgia, on the left side and lower jaw of my face. Tooth nerve pain was the likely cause.
It didn’t improve my humour! And it got me out of bed at 3am for a few nights.. 🙁
This blog explains the homeopathic approach to neuralgia.
Dr Samuel Hahnemann – of whom I have written before – set out the principles of homeopathy. He classified two types of disease (aphorism 72 of The Organon of Medicine).
The common coughs and colds sit with the first group, and such as arthritis or eczema – and much more besides – sit with the second.
The first we recover from without much intervention, the second we do not.
To set the scene, here is a very funny sketch from the USA (Carol Burnett Show). Lest I risk censure – my dentist is highly competent!
So, I have this sensitive tooth and expect it to pass but it doesn’t. I have not had a filling for many a year, but have all too many from a misspent youth (remember “a Mars a day helps you work rest and play“…beware slick marketers!).
Alas it didn’t pass, so my kindly dentist fitted me into his busy day. Alas the visit was inconclusive were fine; even the x-ray. He gave me an antibiotic prescription on an “only if needed” basis.
The cardinal signs of inflammation are long known: warmth, redness, pain, and swelling or in the words of the Roman Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25 BCE – 75 CE) calor, rubor, dolor, and tumor.
At best I scored a shakey 2 out of 4.
So I didn’t take the antibiotics.
I cannot say that I have had tooth nerve pain as intense before and I don’t commend it. Least of all because of disturbed nights.
It could have been much worst – there is a very painful condition known as trigeminal neuralgia where the pain is much more widespread.
In the ‘wee small hours’ I confess to taking an Aspirin something I have not done for many a year.
Homeopaths classically work between two books: Repertory and Materia Medica (often computerised these days).
The Repertory give some pointers as to possible remedies and the Materia Medica detailed information on each remedy.
The selection of the most appropriate remedy is based on the Materia Medica. Here is one classic online example of the Materia Medica by William Boericke MD.
First, I did a simple repertorisation as shown below: symptoms on the left and possible remedies on the right.
I did not take Verbascum because I didn’t have it in my box.
The ‘picture’ of Causticum did not seem to fit – remember in homeopathy you match the picture of the remedy to the symptoms of the patient.
In the end I alternated Spigelia and Colocynthis.
Spigelia was perhaps the best choice. In a short description from Dr Andrew Lockie in his Family Guide to Homeopathy he writes “Neuralgia on left side of face, tearing pains, twitching muscles, noise makes symptoms worse, pressue makes them better”.
At any rate after a few days everything settled down.
Might it have got better anyway? – quite possibly.
Had I taken the antibiotics, I would have said they worked! But I didn’t, rather I used homeopathy and self-prescribed on homeopathic principles.
All I can say is that Spigelia has a reputation in neuralgia of the facial nerve.
It boils down to a balance of probabilities.
So Spigelia worked – maybe! And I am glad the pain is gone.
But in the end the purpose of this short blog was to simpy share with you the homeopathic method in the management of an “acute”.
The clinical trial, I leave to others.
There is a part two to this story which you will find in another blog here
https://www.instagram.com/p/CopF5p9IP2N/
That water has memory is key to homeopathy and frontier science.
When it comes to our physical body there are some remarkable statistics:
(from Unfolding Consciousness by E. Bilimora, 2022, Shepherd-Walwyn Publishers)
Added to that we are substantially water – roughly two thirds by volume. Indeed over 99% of the cells in the human body are water. (the residual 1% of a million, billion is still quite a lot of other stuff!)
All of which says that we are like a river flowing through life. No moment in time is the same. Life is dynamic not static.
Back in November and December I introduced you to Dr Samuel Hahnemann who is credited with setting out the principles of Homeopathy in a small volume titled the Organon of Medicine. It ran to six editions and it is still in print. He died in 1843 at the age of eighty eight.
He was undoubtably a polymath: a translator (he knew a dozen or more languages), a chemist and a medical man.
Hahnemann certainly believed in a life giving or vital force, and so do I. Sooner or later we all experience the death of someone close to us and it is a remarkable fact that at the instant of death nothing really changes at the molecular level, but the conversation stops. What is going on?
Modern medical science is rather dismissive – in fact the nature of ‘life’ is barely mentioned. You might care to ask your doctor his or her views! I suspect you will get a more interesting answer from those working in palliative medicine.
Not so long ago the concept of a life force was taken for granted. As an aside, most Scots of my age will remember the TV adaptation of Neil Munro’s Para Handy, the wily captain of a coastal ship (steam ‘puffer’) named the ‘Vital Spark’. Those living on the islands on the west of Scotland were – and still are – in tune with their nature.
Hahnemann might have had a simple microscope but little more in the way of technology. He was however a skilled observer of his fellow man and a scientist ahead of his time.
It was in the half-century after his death that an understanding of the inner workings of the body developed (bacteriology, x-rays and so forth). And through the 20th century medical science brought even more sophisitation. To this day the focus is on the inner workings of the body.
However, Hahnemann saw things differently. His view was that disease is fundamentally a disturbance of the vital or life force. To quote him:
‘So it is the totality of symptoms, the outer image expressing the inner essence of the disease, i.e. of the disturbed vital force, that must be the main, even the only means by which the disease allows us to find the necessary remedy, the only one that can decide the appropriate choice.‘
Organon of Medicine, Dr Samuel Hahnemann (extract from aphorism 7)
‘When I speak of disease as a tuning or untuning of the human economy, far be it from me to attempt a metaphysical explanation of the the inner nature of disease in general or of any particular case of disease. I am merely pointing out that the diseases obviously are not and cannot be mechanical or chemical changes in the material substance of the body, that they do not depend on a material disease substance, but are an exclusively dynamic spirit-like untunement of life‘.
Organon of Medicine, Dr Samuel Hahnemann (footnote to aphorism 31)
Now I think it obvious that he was not talking about, say, a broken limb when there is clearly a mechanical cause. Rather, he says that in the absence of an obvious cause, your root of your illness is a vital force untuned.
So [he says] first remove any obvious cause (see January blog), and then bring the vital or life force back into balance (by homeopathic or other means).
Last week the composer Burt Bacharach died, who with lyricist Hal David penned ‘I’ll never fall in love again” – here is a verse that comes to mind:
What do you get when you kiss a guy?
You get enough germs to catch pneumonia
After you do, he’ll never phone ya
I’ll never fall in love again
I’ll never fall in love again
My point is simply that how we resonate with another person has consequences; good and bad. This is a disturbance of the vital force.
In more general terms how we resonate with our environment can bring about ease or dis-ease.
In homeopathy there is a concept of NWBS (never been well since). Often that can be a traumatic life event.
Coming back to water and to quote the famous line from Coleridge’s The Rhime of the Ancient Mariner.
Hahnemann, nineteeth century, old hat. Look at the achievements of modern medical science. Maybe.
Yet…
The late Dr Masura Emoto in Japan did some interesting work on the affect of emotions on the crystalline structure of water. You can find many images on his legacy website here. Fascinating stuff.
Does this not suggest that our water full bodies do indeed resonate with our emotions? I think so.
Another scientist working on the properties of water is my near namesake and scientist Dr Gerald (Jerry) Pollack . He leads a team of researchers at the University of Washington
Smart guy. What a difference an ‘a’ makes! (Pollack/Pollock)
Water is a strange thing. A combination of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, it can dowse a fire. Yet as someone wryly observed, puting hydrogen and oxygen on a fire is – in contrast – not a good idea.
Back to Jerry Pollack, he and his team propose a fourth phase of water. The first three you know – liquid, solid (ice) and vapour (steam). The fourth is a liquid crystal like state which he terms EZ (‘ee-zee’ in US pronounciation) meaning Exclusion Zone. It does seem to act as a barrier, but there are wider discoveries.
Without going into detail, this fourth phase has properties that may have significant implications for health. You can get an idea here. Jerry Pollack concludes that EZ water is an energy store (battery) and energy delivery mechanism. Light in the infra-red spectrum (e.g. sun) is a key driver; one reason perhaps why we all feel better in the sunshire.
The potential of EZ water to store information through subtle changes in the lattice structure is an important area of current research. But information from where. I suggest it might be this enigma, the vital force.
Ancient wisdom from India and beyond, has long recognised centres of energy in the body. You may be familiar with is chakra, especially if you practise yoga.
The seven principal chakras are shown in this picture and they run along the spine (though most images are from the front of the body).
The word chakra means a disc. Each is a vortex of energy relating to nerve centres in the body. They are invisible yet they can be sensed by some.
Systems of medicine such as Ayurvedic (India) and aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (e.g. acupuncture) seek to balance these centres and maintain a free flow of energy.
There is as yet no precise meaning of the word ‘energy’. We’re not talking about coal! Einstein showed that matter is energy (E=mc2) and cosmologists like Jude Currivan present a good case for ‘energy’ equating to ‘information’.
From the above you can start to join the dots. We humans are mostly a column of water, nourished not just by food, but ‘informed’ by a type of energy; a life or vital force. This energy ‘informs’ may flow via the chakras. And the water of which we are made may receive and store this energy / information, rather in the manner of a software download.
Without the life or vital force we die. We are spiritual (immaterial) beings living a material existance for a while.
This is perhaps most apparent with the development of the foetus, which miraculously delivers a baby from the starting point of the simple division of a single dividing cell. In adulthood these same forces (call them what you will) repair our injuries and keep us healthy to the best of their abilities.
The flow of vital force when distrubed is dis-ease (two words). This disturbance may be transient and self-correcting. If not, in time physical symptoms may emerge.
Acupuncture seems to unblock pathways. Homeopathic medicines which are potentised ultra-dilutions (in water) are likely information carriers which act subtly on that water which is us.
Medicine today is focused on the biochemical. All well and good, but both emerging science and ancient wisdom suggest that there are other paths to healing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CopF5p9IP2N/
I heard someone on the radio saying that we are living healthier and longer lives than ever before. In fact it is a mantra that is often stated. We take such a statement at face value because it seems to make sense, after all the average lifespan in the UK is just north of 80 years which is a good deal greater than the Biblical “three score years and ten”. And of course childhood mortality is now very low. So far, all for the good.
On the other hand, back in ‘lockdown’ when I cycled out into the New Forest and took a wander round a few rural churchyards, I was rather surprised to see people living to a good age a century of more back. Some into their eighties, which I suppose – being the strongest consitutions – would be ninety year olds of today.
I find much the same in rural churchyards I have visited elsewhere, though my analysis is hardly comprehensive.
Curiously, 34 seemed to be a hazardous age in one cemetery in the Outer Hebrides, my guide – a local man – was 43, and so I congratulated him on his achievement!
But seriously, it got me thinking about health. Are we truly healthier? What is the secret to living longer and healthier?
One of the wonders of the internet age is the ability to do a little armchair analysis. The NHS statistics service (NHSBSA) tells us that the cost of medicines prescribed in primary care in England was £9.4 billion in 2020/21, 55% of the total drug expenditure (hospital prescriptions making up the other 45%).
Seems to me that if we were truly living healthier lives, that longevity would not come at this cost.
That my wanderings have been into rural cemeteries in Britian is significant. I suspect the story in the industrial cities would be very different. Factory life was harsh. Social class was and remains today an important factor in health and lifespan.
So, my hypothesis could stand or fall on the data I choose to select (a subtlety not lost on those who write ‘scientific’ papers today, by the way).
Still, I will hazard a guess that rural communities who lived by the seasons, in unpolluted environments, ate simply, and worked hard but suffered low stress, were quite healthy. At a time when there was not much medical intervention either.
We need to understand why our drugs budget is so high. NHSBSA have some revealing statistical collections that tell us that:
Needless to say, the most deprived areas received the higher proportion of the prescriptions.
Drug cost is just a part of the picture. The drugs are a short term fix. In the longer term health conditions become more complex and more costly, especially where in-patient care is required.
How do you react to these figures?
Cardiologist Dr Assem Malhotra has some interesting observations – here is a recent interview with Dr Ken Berry MD on YouTube. It is worth a watch.
It should not come as a great surprise that the Malhotra and Berry conclude that the fundamentals of health for most of us are quite simple
I have written before about colour and diet, here is a nice photograph to illustrate the point.
Were it possible to go back in time and apply a light touch of modern medical practice, I rather think the longevity of our ancestors would match that of today, with better underlying health. By light touch, I mean simple steps to reduce infant death, handle trauma, and acute life threatenting conditions.
Towards the end of the interview Dr Malhotra explains the true cost to health of poor diet.
In this topsy turvy world is it not strange that ultra-processed food is cheaper than fresh simple food? Deprivation and disease go hand in hand.
I suppose this blog should be about homeopathy, yet no mention thus far. Well, here is a snippet.
Last month I wrote about Dr Samuel Hahnemann, generally considered the founding father of homeopathic medicine, who makes it very clear in his profound book, The Organon of Medicine that removing obstacles to cure is the first step to health. Here are his words written in the early 1800s:
It is obvious that every reasonable physician will first of all remove the causa occasionalis; after that the indisposition usually disappears on its own.
Organon of Medicine, Aphorism 7 footnote (in part) – Dr Samuel Hahnemann
It’s the old saying “a stitch in time saves nine”. So what might you sew (or sow) in 2023?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnMSdUPo5JW/
This blog argues that both allopathic and homeopathic medicine have a place in medicine today.
I am not a musician, but I am told that a good violinist can – within limits – continue to play on three strings should the fourth break. The words of the song “three wheels on my wagon and I’m still rolling along” come equally to mind.
What I wish to argue is that modern western medicine is playing on three strings. There is a missing dimension. Substantially this comes about because the entire focus of medical science is on the material world. Consequently most people today perceive the world only in material terms. All things can be seen, we just need the right technology (e.g. electron microscope and beyond).
Of course there is an obvious flaw here as our emotional life which finds expression in beauty or grief or love is anything but material. This is resolved by stating that our feelings are derived from a material source, such as variations in brain chemistry.
The three major strings (therapies) of modern western medicine are surgery, chemotherapy (all drug therapies) and, radiotherapy. Put crudely it is cut, poison or burn. That there is huge competency in these therapies is not in question; after all billions of dollars are spent annually in pursuit of refinements.
This philosophy is clear: the solution to disease is fundamentally surgical or chemical (drug). There is a material problem that needs a material solution.
Let’s consider the matter of joint replacement.
Friends who have had hip replacements or such like are justifiably impressed with outcome. The diagnosis from patient and surgeon alike is that hip was “worn-out”. A bit like some component in your car.
This is interesting because living bone is not the dessicated remains found in an archeological dig, but made of living cells; were it not so, broken bones would not heal. In fact your cells are in a continual dynamic state of death and renewal. So it is not the hip that is “worn-out” but the ability to self-repair. What drives that? And who is researching this? [answer: barely anyone]
Materialist science is not without its critics and I have mentioned the Galileo Commission before. In my March 22 blog I quoted a notable American homeopath in the early years of the 20th century:
Most of the conditions of the human economy that are called diseases in the books are not diseases, but the results of disease. To call a group of symptoms a disease of one part, and another group of symptoms a disease of another part, is a great heresy….. Organic disease is the result of disease
Lectures in Homeopathic Philosophy, Lecture IX Dr James Tyler Kent
This is a little challenging, but what he is saying is that your pathology (organic disease) is the result of a non-material disturbance (untuning) of the life force that animates you.
So long as science has a purely material focus, the ultimate potential of the healing arts is constrained.
Last month I introduced you to Dr Samuel Hahnemann. He set out the principles of homeopathic medicine and the monument in his honour in Washington was the first to a non-American. His genius has been rather forgotten.
photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Hahnemann’s most famous work is The Organon of Medicine a book still in print some 180 years after his death in which he writes:
When I speak of disease as a tuning or untuning of the human economy, far be it from me to attempt a metaphysical explanation of the inner nature of disease in general or of any particular case of disease. I am merely pointing out that the diseases obviously are not and cannot be mechanical or chemical changes in the material substance of the body, that they do not depend on a material disease substance, but are an exclusively dynamic, spirit-like untunement of life.
Organon of Medicine, Dr S Hahnemann. Footnote to aphorism 31
Such is the title of a well know BBC television series. It is a good question and one I touched in my blog of June 2021 which I illustrated with an image of another BBC icon of years past Mr Blobby.
We are in fact mostly water – at least two-thirds. And when you add in the rest of the ‘soup’, we are really more fluid than solid.
Dr Rudolph Steiner – a notable polymath from the early years of the 20th century – described the human being as a column of water. He is probably best known today for his views on education (Waldorf / Camphill schools).
Everyday – though we are oblivious to the fact – thousands of cells die and thousands of new cells replace them.
We are as a stream flowing through life.
Something must drive this.
The vitalist philosophy – to which Hahnemann, Steiner and others subscribed – perceives a life or vital force as the ‘driver’, though it is invisible.
Without this the body reverts to the elements (death).
Which is the latin for “not welcome”, nicely encapsulates the scientific materialst view on the concept of any vital or life force. Francis Crick (co-discoverer of DNA) assuredly was not a fan:
Exact knowledge is the enemy of vitalism
Of Molecules and men (1966) Francis Crick
None doubt his brilliance, but Hahnemann, Steiner and others were brilliant also.
So you just have to choose your ‘poison’, but…
A familiar phrase from BBC’s Dad’s Army. Unfortunately, there is a tendancy today to denigrate by name calling fine minds past and present who do challenge conventional wisdom. In short, “permission to speak” is denied.
Here are some examples:
Steiner’s views get a pasting on Wikipedia (Anthroposophy)
Dr Malcolm Kendrick, discusses the death of medical research in his recent blog.
And finally:
Dr Tom Cowan MD from over ‘the pond’ who challenges convention and is shunned in equal measure (see quote below).
Progress cannot be made in biology, Cowan argues, until we recognize the fact that our cells are composed primarily of structured water, and that water is subject to influences from outside the cell: “. . . light and all the various frequencies, energy forms, wavelengths, sounds, colors, thoughts, emotions and other emanations that come to us from the universe.” Wellness occurs when we provide our cells with all that is noble and perfect—nutrient-dense food, sunlight, clean air, pure water, a coherent and native electromagnetic atmosphere, truth, freedom and love—not by poisoning them with vaccines and drugs.
https://www.westonaprice.org/book-reviews/breaking-the-spell-by-thomas-s-cowan/#gsc.tab=0
Allopathic AND Homeopathic Medicine: Time to replace the fourth string on the fiddle?
Just a thought…
Have a good Christmas
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl62o1Vo8fQ/
This blog is about remembering the past and specifically the benefits of homeopathy.
The thing is we do forget. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month is soon upon us and it serves indeed as a reminder of past conflicts.
But I suspect for most youngsters the two world wars might as well be the Battle of Hastings or Waterloo, though surviving film footage does resonate across time. My late father served in the western desert and Italy in WW2. Were he alive he would be now 106!
Of course it is not just about conflicts distant in time. I read this weekend the report of a recent train derailment (2001) in Scotland, fortunately without casualties. The investigators found that it had much in common with the 1988 Clapham rail disaster (wiring error) which cost the lives of 35 people.
The late Trevor Kletz, whom I once met in my Chemical Engineering days, wrote many books on the theme of “What went wrong” – to quote one title. It had a sequel, “Still going wrong”, reminding readers of the shortnes of corporate memory.
I recall him quoting a boy on the radio who notably said that “he didn’t have a memory only a ‘forgett-ory'”. Quite.
Alas, we forget the past and consequences follow.
Not all amnesia is entirely accidental. All too often the past is denied; inconvenient truths and wisdom brushed aside. The reasons are mixed, there may be gain (corporate or personal), or maybe just a biased manner of thinking.
Just over a century ago John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were the equivalent of today’s Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and more. Through their wealth they funded various charitable foundations that had great influence.
I don’t wish to say that they were bad people. Carnegie, whose humble beginnings were in Dunfermline, Scotland funded many public libraries throughout that land and beyond (the link opens with a picture of my local library in Rutherglen, where I was born).
However, what the poweful have is influence to move society in the direction they believe is best. In this towards what we know as western scientific medicine or allopathy (not that homeopathy is unscientific – anything but).
The gentleman was an a academic engaged by the aformentioned to look into medical training in the USA.
Here is a nice summary of his contribution.
Medicine is generally recognised as a balance between art and science. Science today is solely focused on the material world, a subject I have touched on before. However, human beings are more than a bundle of molecules.
There is a growing concern today that the application of science is too narrow and you may care to read the Galileo Report of the Scientific and Medical Network.
The picture below is of a monument located in the centre of Washington D.C. The first monument in that city to a non-US citizen (he was German). Who was this man to get such a grand monument?
Hahnemann (1755-1843) is considered the founding father of homeopathy. A scientist before the term was in general use and polymath (he knew many languages). His medical work was of huge significance. Here is a short summary from the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Yet you wont find mention of him in western medical schools today.
Homeopathy was a major force in America at the start of the twentieth century. It’s demise stems from the influence of Abraham Flexner and his sponsors.
Medicine was set a path to that which we see today. There have been many benefits, but all in the garden is not rosy as the burden of prescription costs to the NHS might attest.
I suggest – well obviously I would! – that we need to look again not just at homeopathy, but naturopathic, and medicine in all its forms practiced throughout the world.
Medical science today is too narrow in its application and the ‘art’ has all but disappeared (though many physicians still recognise the art in what they do).
Hahnemann’s seminal work is the Organon of Medicine, which is still in print. The opening aphorisms shown below speak to us through time. The rest is not bad either – actually, very profound.
Aphorism 1: The physician’s highest calling, his only calling, is to make sick people healthy – to heal as it is termed.
Aphorism 2: The highest ideal of therapy is to restore health rapidly, gently, permanently; to remove and destroy the whole disease in the shortest, surest, least harmful way, according to clearly comprehensible principles.
Dr Samuel Hahnemann, Organon of Medicine
This week a letter came through the door from the NHS inviting me for a Covid booster jab. I still await guidance on building natural immunity to Covid. Having all become armchair epidemioligists / virologists in the last few years, I find this approach fascinating. By now we all know how much of a ‘shape shifter’ this virus is, and no sooner have the scientists unraveled the code of one variant, then another pops up.
Then we infer boosting is all benefit without risk which would appear to be a subject worthy of discussion. Just last night GB news ran this interesting news item. I will leave you to make your own assessment. What worries me is the lack of informed consent.
However, the good news is that we do know that the virus is now milder and with some sensible precautions you will survive. My father-in-law at 88 returned from an overnight hospital stay with a farewell gift (Covid) and coped fine.
I want to talk about self help. A little refresher from what I penned almost a year ago. Let’s start with Vitamin C, which is has excellent anti-viral properties
You should all have a pot on your shelf at home – NOW. I favour this one. And no I don’t have shares in the company! Vitamin C being water soluble is removed from the body in the urine, so overdosing is not really possible. A clear sign of saturation is a loose bowel, at which point (obviously) you pull back. But as the body needs more vitamin C when fighting a virus you are unlikely to come to grief. Dr Sarah Myhill in her book Ecological Medicine suggests taking Vitamin C up to bowel tolerance. My personal approach is to go high (maybe 10g +) on day one and then tail off. But we are all different and you can experiment. Some Zinc will not go amiss either – just for a few days. She also favours 2 drops of 12% Lugol’s Iodine in a little water as a gargle (+ inhale the vapour) every hour. I haven’t tried this myself but again you have to have it on your shelf (I now have) so you can try it out when you need it.
And don’t forget rest, drink plenty of fluids and eat light (“starve a cold, starve a fever” says Myhill). The worst thing you can do is try an keep going. At the height of Covid, PM Boris Johnson paid a heavy price (hospitalised) for doing that, though one can sympathise given his role at the time. And, please , lay off the Paracetamol – when fever is suppressed, you hamper the natural immune response.
Can homeopathy help? Yes it can, but only to the extent of boosting the immune reponse, shortening the duration of illness, and reducing the risk of complications. Again you need to have a kit on your shelf and know how to use it. Both Helios and Ainsworth’s Pharmacies have their own versions:
Top remedies are Aconite at the time of onset – if sudden – with fever and restlessness. This is a remedy for the first 36 hours only. The Arsenicum Album picture is also one of restlessness and anxiety with amdesire for company. The is exhaustion and thirst for warm drinks in small amounts. The Bryonia parient on the other hand must lie still, has a very dry mouth (hence is very thirsty – usually for cold drinks), a dry cough and assuredly wants to be left alone, being very irritable. Gelsemium like Bryonia has a slow onset (contra-indicating Aconite for example) but has the classic ‘flu like picture of weakness, achiness and chilliness. The Gelsemium patient also wants to lies still but is not as irritable as the Bryonia type. In Phosphorous there is oppression of the chest and a racking cough, anxiety and a thirst for cold drinks. Consequently it is bit like a mix of Arsenicum and Bryonia.
These are some of the most pertinent remedies in the homeopathic first aid kits. Prescribing may seem a little confusing, but the good news is that the remedies mentioned overlap to some degree, such that some benefit will accrue even if your choice is not perfect.
The point is that we all have to live with nature in which viruses play an important part. You have a symbiotic relationship with viruses and carry many hundreds if not thousands within you. We have to respect the virus and work at our general health. Pasteur’s germ theory only goes so far. His contemporary Bechamp, recognised the compensating importance of ‘le terrain‘ – our general health. Both men were right. Look after your body and it will look after you.
We all know many friends and relations who have had Covid without great incident. Quite possibly you have had Covid yourself. In the past we were used to winter respiratory infections and we need to get used to coping with them again. And we need to relearn how.
My wife and I just spent a week touring the Western Isles. I didn’t take this photo as a substitute for a tree (its a blowy place in winter and the soil is shallow, so trees are few) but it got me thinking about power and the messages we receive.
Holidays give you time to catch up on some reading. Sad perhaps, but the book I first chose on my e-reader was by Dr Suzanne Humphries and Roman Bystrianyk, titled Dissolving Illusions, Disease Vaccines and the Forgotten History. It was rather good.
Now I have to tread carefully here, as the Society of Homeopaths is precise on its guidance to members.
“The Society does not permit RSHoms to provide advice on, or participate in a patient’s decisions regarding vaccination. In line with current UK law, they may signpost patients to information on vaccination from reliable sources, including the NHS, so that they can make a fully informed decision. Homeopaths will support patients in their decision.”
Source – Society of Homeopaths Website
So, in line with the above, I simply draw to your attention some of the themes in the book which I found interesting, and hope you might also.
The opening chapters consider the nature of transmissible disease and the epidemics that often result. It is a remarkable fact that God, Nature, Evolution (you may choose one or more) has gifted us with a remarkable physiological system, that by means of innate and adaptive immune response protects us from innumerable bacteria and viruses. Actually our bodies contain trillions of these and it is only a very few that bring us to grief.
It should than come as no surprise that a healthy nourished body fights infection best. I have written on this general topic before. Nothing controversial here, I hope.
These opening chapters describe the lives of the poor in Dickensian times and up until the early years of the 20th century. This short passage serves as a brief summary:
‘Among the labouring classes, life expectation remained low – little more than thirty years – and the 1930s photographs show working people looking old by their thirties abnd forties, as poor nutrition, illness,bad living conditions and gross overwork took their toll.’
Humphries, Suzanne; Bystianyk, Roman: Dissolving illusions (p32) Kindle Editions
‘Bad living conditions‘, is rather an understatement: overcrowding, foul air, polluted water, vermin and running sewage etc. The silver vinaigrette was of doubtful value
By chance we passed through a cemetery in North Uist, and it is remarkable how many lived to a good age in a rural setting in contrast to the industrial cities. You might care to wander through a churchyard in the New Forest, a very rural part a century of more ago, and see if you come to the same conclusion.
The simple fact is that by improving nutrition and living standards, lifespan increased dramatically during the twentieth century.
The ‘illusion’ referred to in the title of the book is the extent to which advances in health are attributed to advances in medical therapeutics. That is not to deny the advances in medicine and surgery during the 20th century, just that they tend to take too much of the credit.
The second half of the book focuses on the principal diseases, smallpox, diphtheria, polio, whooping cough, measles and so on. The general theme was that each had declined significantly before medical intervention (usually vaccine).
As a Glaswegian this statistic struck me:
‘Before the general nutrition status of European children reached the high level it is today, measles infection was something to be feared… measles accounted for 11% of all deaths in Glasgow in the years 1807-1812.‘
Humphries, Suzanne; Bystrianyk, Roman. Dissolving Illusions (pp 328-329). 2013 Kindle Edition
My generation caught measles as a matter of course, and with some sensible nursing from Mum, we survived unscathed.
In the UK measles vaccination commenced in 1968 and the chart below is quite interesting. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Considering the theme that underlies all the diseases covered in the book, the lines below from a book by Daniel M Davies, Professor of Immunology at Manchester University came to mind:
‘We are at the dawn of a new health revolution. But the elephant in the room is global poverty. Nearly half the world lives on less than $2 a day, and the economics of making and providing new medicines is another kind of tragedy…..Though it deals with matters of life and death, the pharmaceutical industry is a business not a charity and when deciding research priorities, the potential for financial gain is a critical factor if not the decisive factor…’ Davis D, Beautiful Cure (p195), Bodley Head, 2018
So is it new medicines we really need, or better living conditions? Returning to Humphries and Brystianyk:
‘The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $10 billion over the next decade to research new vaccines and bring them to the world’s poorest countries… they said the money will produce higher immunisation rates and aims to make sure that 90 percent of children are immunised against dangerous diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia in poorer nations.
“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” Bill Gates said in a statement. “Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before”.
Perhaps a $10 billion decade of sustainable farming, nutrition, and sanitation would have a long-lasting impact on saving the children under discussion?’
Humphries, S; Bystrianyk, R. Dissolving Illusions (pp. 290-291). Kindle Edition
What do you think?
Vaccines using attenuated / live viruses yield a better immune response that those using inactivated material. In technical terminology they are more antigenic.
The feared disease of my generation was polio, and you’d think it would be a heroic story (I did too). In fact it is complex, and you’ll have to read the book if you wish to know more. Suffice to say that inadequacies in diagnostics, treatment, vaccine development, and environmental factors all underminine innate immunity. Add to this the media generated climate of fear mean that polio continues to cast its shadow. A fear, the authors argue, that is disproportionate to risk.
The polio vaccine story is interesting.
The polio vaccine comes in two forms. The live / attenuated Sabin vaccine – (that given orally on a sugar lump in my day) and inactivated vaccine (Salk), as used in the DTP jab – the P being polio. The former (Sabin) being ‘live’ – as mentioned – is more antigenic.
The problem with the ‘live attenuated’ Sabin virus is that it can be excreted in faeces. Latterly this proved to be a more significant cause of polio outbreaks than the ‘wild’ virus (vaccine-derived-poliovirus or VDP).
The vaccine used in the UK today is the inactivated version for that reason.
In some parts of the world the live / attenuated form is still used. The source of the polio virus recently identified at a sewage treatment plant in London is thought to be India or Pakistan. Two countries that still use the live / attenuated vaccine.
(Somewhat similarly, the book tells the tradgedy caused by inadequate viral inactivation in the original Salk vaccine, which resulted in significant viral spread – here is a paper on the story The Cutter Incident. Though the currently used vaccine is a version of the Salk type it has obviously been modified to ensure no repeat of the Cutter debacle.)
Moving onward…
I am a bit of a fan of fellow Scot, Dr Malcolm Kendrick, GP and author. As an insider, he can better observe the medical system than most.
Dr Kendrick is the author of an excellent book titled Doctoring Data. In this book he shows you how numbers get manipulated to justify decisions.
His particular interest is heart disease, and he questions the high cholesterol hypothesis in cardio-vascular disease. Consequently, he challenges the current enthusiam for ‘statins’ – a profitable business.
He has a new book on the subject.
There is one other topic which he observes to be off limits: vaccination. Just in the last week or so he penned a very interesting blog titled Vaccines – how did they come about?
And lo, homeopathy gets a mention…
‘Homeopathy is mocked’.
‘Vaccination is venerated’.
Yet, as he elucidates they have a common ancestry. How interesting.
The original use of cowpox virus to protect against smallpox actually follows the homeopathic principle of “like cures like” (law of similars). Today, the term vaccination has taken on other meanings.
Back to Humphries and Bystrainyk for clarification:
‘Vaccination: From vacca, the Latin word for cow: Inoculation of cowpox virus (orthopox vaccinia virus) with the intention of protecting against smallpox virus. Also known as cowpoxing.
Today the term has been used to describe many other types of inoculations: A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen, such as a bacterium or a virus, or of a portion of the pathogen’s structure that, upon administration, stimulates antibody production or humoral immunity against the pathogen.‘
Humphries S; Bystrianyk R, Dissolving Illusions (p22). Kindle Edition
As an aside, the Covid mRNA “vaccines” are further removed still from Jenner’s “vaccine” concept. Ne’er a cow in sight.
I return to the strange photo at the top of this blog, which shows a power line.
As Prof. Davis noted the pharmaceutical industry is a business and power and money as we all know are close bedfellows.
Alas there is not a lot of transparency (nor science) when power and money are involved. The issue reaches well beyond the matter of vaccines as comedian Russell Brand entertainingly explains on YouTube here.
Next time I’ll return to homeopathy with a reflection on the second book I read on holiday. Is homeopathy placebo or not?
By the way, if the subject of childhood vaccination interests you, I commend Dr Richard Halvorsen’s well researched book.
Finally, to do justice to the people of the Western Isles, there is rather more to see than power lines. Here is Tarbert (Harris) on a beautiful sunny day.
I was rather struck by these colourful beach huts (and the price of them!) which brings me to write again about Homeopathy and nutrition.
Last week I was in Chelmsford to attend the Allen College of Homeopathy Summer Conference to learn from a master prescriber, Dr Subrata Banerjea.
Dr Subrata Banerjea who runs the Allen College is the fourth generation in his family to practice homoepathy and his son, who now runs the Calcutta Clinic the fifth. Quite a dynasty.
I understand that in India today there are some 300 thousand medically qualified homeopaths. Interesting, given the tendency to dismiss homeopathy these days in the UK.
On the day off, I visited Frinton-on-sea, and took the picture. Most of the huts which stretch for miles are not triple or quadruple deckers (pleased to say), but it makes for a fun picture. Frinton is one stop up the line from the better known Clacton-on-sea. There was a musical hall quip “Harwich for the Continent, Frinton for the incontinent” which rather betrays the average age of the residents!
Seeing the colours brought to mind the core subject of this blog; not just homeopathy but also nutrition and its importance, which I will come to in a moment.
Dr Samuel Hahnemann (he who set down the principles of homeopathic medicine in the 19th Century) made clear in his seminal work, The Organon of Medicine, is that healthy living conditions – fresh air, fresh food, clean water are the key to good health. First address the fundamentals!
As I write, I observe a flight of ants from a nest under a flagstone in the garden. Interesting. Then my wife returns from a Rainbow Guide group she leads and reports flying ants around the WI Hall where they meet. Interesting again. Now a reasonable assumption is that they are not the same ants..so how come ants decide to fly today at 6pm? How does the message go out? What form is the message? I guess we don’t really know.
The sun rose and set for millenia without explanation, but that it did so was sufficent for mankind to sow and reap.
My point is that there is a lot we don’t really know. As best we can judge, homeopathic medicines communicate a message also, as yet don’t know precisely how.
Without question homeopathic medicines work differently to conventional medicines – as I said last month, the domain of action is more bio-physics than bio-chemistry. So the work goes on…
The challenge is to understand how homeopathy works – which rather suggests that we are clear on how conventional medicines work. This is not always correct, despite the billions spent on pharmaceutical research.
However, there is now a Homeopathy Research Institute based in Bern, Switzerland and last month was their annual conference also. Although funding is modest, Institute Director, Dr Alex Tournier, in his closing remarks, noted the increasing good quality evidence from many countries.
Even the topic of nutrition causes much discussion. The full process of digestion and assimilation is not wholly understood. Is it just about carbohydrates, protein, minerals and vitamins? Suffice to say there are sound principles which we should try and follow.
Just look at this picture taken from just round the corner from where I live. Quite stunning – so much so that I got off my bicycle and reached for the camera on my phone.
Colours tell us something and it is well known today that different colours in our food impart different benefits. The flavanoids are found in fruits and vegetables and are well known to have anti inflammatory properties. Herbs and plants have been used to treat disease for many centuries. It is only recently that synthetic drugs (often synthesised from plants) have existed. All well and good (sometimes..) for the treatment of disease, but less ideal for prevention. And as we all know, prevention is better than cure.
Dr Paul Clayton in his book Health Defence notes that the NHS “is really an ‘illness service’ – treatment after things go wrong”. This is costly – according to Dr Clayton £750 (in 2000) for every man, woman and child. Personally, I doubt this is affordable in the long term.
Alliance for Natural Health International (ANH intl) and I see they have a book on dietary matters. The chart below also comes from ANH Intl. and make its point colourfully (if you forgive the pun). So add some colour to your diet, its a good investment in your future.
This year has been particularly good for azaleas and rhododendrons. The photos here were taken in Inchmarlo near Aberdeen just a few weeks ago. Exbury gardens locally are a similar example.
The colours brought to mind advice for an anti-inflammatory diet given at a recent Pharma Nord presentation I attended. Here is the key slide:
“Let food be thy medicine..” are words attributed to the Greek physician Hippocrates (460 to 375 B.C.E) – he of Hippocratic oath fame. Whether or not he actually penned these words is open to question, but he surely recognised the value of diet in health as is nicely summarised here.
At any rate we should not underestimate the importance of diet, a subject I have touched on before.
Here is a nice website that allows you to explore the nutritional values of common foods, should you be interested.
Unfortunately it seems that the micronutrient content of our soils is not what it once was, though there are counter arguments. This short article from Scientific American makes the point. Selenium is but one of the micronutrients that are in short supply.
In the USA – home of ‘fast food’ – there is also a counter culture, and the Weston A Price Foundation is a well established example. You could spend quite a while on their website.
Simply put, there is a food chain from the soil via plants and animals (vegeterians excused) to our own tissues. Important? Well, obviously.
The homeopathic pharmacy is built on the energetic qualities or essence of the natural world.
Around two-thirds of homeopathic remedies are potentised ultra dilutions of plants. Some from plants we eat and some from plants that are poisonous (but no longer so when prepared accouding to the homeopathic pharmacopaeia).
The emerging evidence is that the nutritional value of food extends beyond the biochemistry into what might be described as bio-physics. That such view challenges conventional science is not in doubt…and much argument will result.
Be that as it may, we’d do well in the meantime to look after the soil and in so doing it will look after us.
I was once asked if homeopaths make a diagnosis. A good question and I fear my answer was not as concise as it might have been.
The simple answer is that by law only your doctor or specialist can make a formal diagnosis. This is with good reason, because he / she can arrange blood tests, X-rays or refer you for further investigation. This is outside the capability of the professional lay homeopath.
There are medically qualified (doctor) homeopaths who needless to say have a foot in both camps.
In fact, it is fairly rare for someone to seek a homeopathic consultation before they have seen their GP or specialist. For one thing the NHS is a free service, so your doctor is the obvious first port of call. That said, complementary therapists learn about “Red Flags”. These are warning signs indicating that further investigation by your GP is needed to rule out any risk of a serious underlying condition.
Here is a picture of the cover of an excellent little book that I have on my shelf:
In the UK medical records are by and large held centrally, but this is not the case elsewhere. When I sat in on homeopathic consultations in Calcutta, it was normal for patients to carry with them the documentation from whatever investigations they had undergone. This is quite common in many countries. All this was very useful to the homeopathic doctor (in India there are two equivalent paths in medicine – orthodox western and homeopathic). Needless to say your diagnoses from the NHS are equally of value to the professional lay homeopath here.
Diagnostic tests indicate what is going on: what is as it should be, and what is not. They are not always fullproof. Results can range from the possible to the definite. Referral for further investigation may be necessary.
Accuracy and speed in diagnosis is a big topic in academic circles should you care to look into the matter. Artificial intelligence is the new frontier it seems as this article describes!
An important outcome from diagnosis is the likely trajectory of the condition. Will it get worse, stay the same or get better with or without treatment? Hopefully it is not “how long have I got doc?” as the sit-coms or “soaps” sometimes have it, but fair to say none of us live for ever!
The above would all seem positive and in many ways it is, but there is a hazard in diagnosing a condition, which usually means giving it a name. Thus people will say I have X or I am Y. The problem here is that once you have been put in a box with a classifcation X or Y it is easy to be resigned to the label. It becomes part of you.
In homeopathy disease symptoms have a wider meaning. No two persons with the same diagnosed condition will be treated in the same way. Dr James Tyler Kent one of the most notable American Homeopaths the early part of the twentieth century wrote this:
Most of the conditions of the human economy that are called diseases in the books are not diseases, but the results of disease. To call a group of symptoms a disease of one part, and another group of symptoms a disease of another part, is a great heresy….. Organic disease is the result of disease
Lectures in Homeopathic Philosophy, Lecture IX Dr James Tyler Kent
Ok, the language is old fashioned, but what he is saying is that your true dis-ease is something that is prior to the symptoms that cause you make an appointment with your doctor. I touched on this subject before.
So the question is what underlies the child diagnosed as ADHD or a skin condition, or an adult with rheumatic pains or digestive problems or whatever?
Sometime that cause is apparent from orthodox investigation, but often not. The long term management of the symptoms is the best that can be done. In contrast, homeopathy looks at patterns in health, mental physical and emotional. It is sideways look that can find a solution to an intransigent problem. It is not boxed-in by labels.
This month I wish to share with you two homeopathic remedies for fever that are particularly helpful in children with fever – a common state of affairs
Last time I introduced the topic of homeopathy as first aid in the home, and the value of having a small first aid kit, and without doubt these two remedies will be there.
Fever is not a bad thing. Every symptom has a purpose; illness has a purpose. And the purpose of a fever is to fight infection – it is a natural response of the immune system. So try and not suppress fever with paracetamol containing over-the-counter medicines.
The latest NHS guidance is here. And yes, the use of paracetamol is permitted if the child is in distress but you might try some homeopathic first aid as an alternative first.
They work for adults too.
The two remedies are Aconite and Belladonna. Both have their origin in poisonous plants, but remember the potentised homeopathic remedy is an ultra-dilution and non toxic. Explanation here.
The challenge in homeopathy is to recognise the different characteristics in your child and to match them with the correspondingly remedy picture. There are fevers and there are fevers!
Here are some basic pointers for these two homeopathic medicines with two nice cartoon images from the book Homeopathic Remedy Pictures by Vicki Matheson and Frans Kusse.
The aconite child is fearful and anxious and doesn’t want to be touched. The fever is dry and comes on quickly within a few hours and is worse between 9 and 11pm. Coldness and heat alternate. The child is chilly and wants to be covered. He or she is thirsty. It is a good remedy for shock also.
It is a short acting remedy – if the fever persists much beyond a day then another remedy should be chosen.
The belladonna child also comes down with a sudden fever but there is a slightly slower onset than with the aconite patient. This child is burning hot and hypersensitive. There is violence and agresssion rather than fear. The pupils may be dilated – in contrast to aconite (constricted). The fever can be worse at 3pm or 3am. The patient may be delirious. Despite the heat, the child may not be thirsty. It is a useful remedy for sunstroke – the pounding head and red face gives you the picture. Dr RAF Jack also had this remedy as No1 for earache.
Belladonna is a somewhat longer acting remedy – about 72 hours.
Just a small introduction, but it might get you some sleep…!
Homeopathy explained simply is not so easy. It is so easy to disappear down the proverbial rabbit hole.
Here is a picture I took in Aberdeenshire – Deeside water, which runs down from the Cairngorms is known for its clarity and purity. Crystal clear!
My first encounter with homeopathy was as a child. Our family doctor used homeopathy. I got better and didn’t think much about it…well, I was a child after all.
That is just how it was for me. But a seed was sown, a seed that lay dormant until a memory is stirred….
What stirred that memory was the my ignorance, now the parent, with a sick child…
My son was aged 3 or 4 at the time (he’s now the wrong side of thirty) and he’d gone down with something as kiddies do … virus probably…
Fingers crossed he’ll just get better (usually that’s so)..just wait and see. But sometimes not…
Of the shelf comes Dr Andrew Lockie’s book The Family Guide to Homeopathy, and a little homeopathic first aid remedy kit that I had bought.
Aconite seemed a good place to start but no change whatsoever….
Let’s switch to Belladonna (excellent for fevers in children, Lockie says)…still no change…
Actually, he’s getting worse. Might need the doctor…it’s Saturday…hmm
Back to the book…l’ll try Gelsemium (drowsy, dull, shivery) ….
And that within a few minutes his demeanor changes….
Beginners luck – but wow I was impressed*.
(*n.b. the reaction to a remedy in an acute illness should be fast especially in children with good vitality – long standing, that is ‘chronic’ complaints take longer to resolve)
Like Deeside water my experience was crystal clear. Gelsemium worked where Aconite and Belladonna didn’t…
And, no way was my son getting better without some intervention.
In homeopathy** the picture of the remedy must match the picture of the symptoms..that is the rule. His picture was that of Gelsemium.
(**Homeo-pathy means “similar-suffering” or “like cures like” – known as the law of similars)
Some say homeopathy is pseudo-science.
How often do your hear the phrase “The Science ..”? But science is dynamic not a tablet of stone. There is no “The”. It’s a means to understanding; it’s never constant and ever changing.
How about margarine or butter?…We still cannot decide (unless you sell butter or margarine)!
[Just to emphasise the point, listen to Dr Chris Knobbe ]
What’s fashionable in science (or medicine) today, may not be fashionable tomorrow.
A notable scientist, the late Stephen Jay Gould, argued that: the role of Science was to establishing facts; the role of Religion, values. He spoke of non-overlapping magesteria.
Put another way, science considers the physical or material world, and religion that which is immaterial or metaphysical.
Science likes things that can be ‘measured’; it is not too keen on the metaphysical. The scientific mind tends to bind to the physical, and some scientists can be so sceptical about the metaphysical that they reject such concept. In their own way they keep things simple … that too is crystal clear!
But much of that which is important to us as humans is beyond the physical; is metaphysical – our emotional response to each other, to art, to nature and so on.
Guess what, homeopathy, with its potentised (ultra dilute) remedies likely straddles the metaphysical and physical worlds. Just as we human beings do.
Up to a point, it is good to be sceptical (or ‘Skeptical’ in the USA). But maybe its time to be sceptical about the “Skeptics”, expecially the more aggressive ones.
They pun there is “nothing in it” … the pharmaceutical industry agrees “there is nothing in it”.
It is quite a battle out there, I can tell you. Here is a nice blog from Scientific American
Evidence is suppressed…
Academia..fearing loss of funding…backs away from research
Governments are lobbied..
You won’t have heard, but many volumes have been written on homeopathy for over two centuries.
Including some stunning new work like that from Michel Yakir
A senior clinician once remarked to the effect that “if only five percent of what has been written on homeopathy was valid it would still be worth looking at”
Remember the late Donald Rumsfeld words:
“..There are things we know we know. … But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know, we don’t know”.
We may laugh but it is so true.
Those are the opening words of The Gospel of St John. Quite powerful, and worth reflecting on..
Though these words come from a religious text, science has for some time recognised the correlation between matter, energy and information (i.e. The Word).
Homeopathy cannot be about chemistry. It is true, there is ‘nothing’ (material) in a homeopathic remedy except the sugar pill used as a carrier for the remedy).
But what about physics, especially quantum physics? The non-material remedy may be a form of energy or information. Something metaphysical; a transfer of thought. A bit like a software download; so commonplace to our generation but quite bizarre to our grand-parents and those long passed.
Recall that out bodies are two-thirds water.
The preparation of homeopathic medicines is a process of serial dilution and agitation, termed “potentisation”. Therefore some aspect of the original material substance is transferred. But what?
The late Dr Masura Emoto, experimented with the influence of thought on water. Here is just one picture from his website from the water at Lourdes
Prof. Jerry Pollack in the USA has discovered a fourth water phase which has potential implications
Links in the chain of the homeopathy puzzle? Maybe.
And highlighting the importance of crystal clear water
Most folk drive their cars with (increasingly) little knowledge of what is happening under the bonnet. Your auto-engineer does, true, but cars are man made.
Humans are neither machines, nor man made.
Despite advances in medical science there is still much that is unknown, and if a little homeopathy keeps you ‘running smoothly’, in homeostasis (harmony), why not use it?
There are “known knowns”….homeopathy works.
And “unknown unknowns” … we don’t know everything.
Open minded scientists will bring understanding in time.
Homeopathy explained simply!
Symptoms are key to treatment in Homeopathy just as they are in orthodox (allopathic) medicine, but the interpretation is different. Winston Churchill once said that “Jaw, Jaw is better than War, War” and I suggest that his sentiment has some relevance in the practice of medicine.
Symptoms are symptoms but the interpretation can be different.
Take a look at any text on modern drug classes and you can clearly see that modern western medicine is on a war footing. There are anti-biotics; anti-depressants; anti-fungals; anti-inflammatories; anti-virals…just as we have anti-aircraft; anti-tank; anti-personnel and so on.
This is “War, War”.
Clearly modern pharmaceuticals are effective, but they are not always curative in the long term. There is quite a queue in my local chemist for repeat prescriptions ..
Most modern drugs have not been around that long, the first antibiotics only appeared in the 1930s. We tend to forget that.
Yet mankind has suffered sickness, for thousands of years…and been healed. Naturopathic and hydropathic “cures” were once the norm..at least for those who could afford it. Not that such treatments were always successful either.
Let’s be honest, symptoms are inconvenient at best, and often worse – so a magic bullet has much in its favour – especially in an impatient age.
The trouble is that the “enemy’s” protest may have virtue. Perhaps a little “jaw jaw” might bring about a longer lasting peace?
Of course to “jaw jaw” you have to understand the language.
Symptoms are the body’s language. The attempt of the body to cure itself.
Easier then to shoot first, and ask questions later! This is suppression.
But what if the “enemy” regroups and shoots back. An uneasy truce might be the best result.
Homeopathy is “Jaw, Jaw” medicine. It is guided by the “Law of Similars” – often simplified to “like cures like”. Homeopathically this means finding the medicine that best imitates the symptom picture.
The subject is covered in more detail in this article by the late Dr Stuart Close:
The general philosophy in homeopathy, naturopathy, and other traditional / complementary therapies is that the body tells you what it needs to cure itself.
Therefore, rather than supressing the symptoms, they should be encouraged. A sort of swords into ploughshares approach!
Here is a simple example:
Gelsemium, homeopathically prepared from a plant of the same name, has particular characteristics that come from “proving” the medicine on healthy people, knowledge of its herbal properties, clinical experience and so on.
Students of homeopathy learn the phrase “droopy, drowsy and dull”, as the Gelsemium symptoms are just that:
It is one of a number of medicines that have helped Covid patients – but ONLY if their symptom picture matches. The remedy stimulates an immune response that reinforces the action of the body and speeds up cure.
It is a useful remedy which you will surely find in any homeopathic first aid kit, such as shown in one of my recent blogs
*Interestingly it is said that, Gelsemium – presumably in herbal form – was once used to instil fearlessness in soldiers . In truth this “courage” was more likely to be loss of fear through instilled apathy (what do I care if I live or die…)
Disclaimer: I am a qualified professional homeopath and not a medical doctor. The NHS has many resources, and seeking the opinion of your GP is always of value.
Dibden Purlieu, Southampton