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.
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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?
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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
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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.
The meaning of the word is ‘the agent of something’s down fall’ and this blog considers whether homeopathy is or is not a placebo. Emeritus Professor Edzard Ernst, who prior to his retirement was chair of the Department of Complementary Medicine at Exeter University, took a rather negative stance on complementary medicine and homeopathy in particular.
The biblical story of Daniel and King Belshazzar comes to mind (Daniel Chapter 5) where Daniel is summoned to interpret the words Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin that mysteriously have been written by a disembodied hand on the palace wall. Daniel reveals the meaning as, ‘God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting!’. Such was the view of Prof. Ernst on homeopathy.
In order to better understand the Professor and his thinking, my second 2023 holiday read was his autobiography A Scientist in Wonderland.
You might find it surprising that I found it rather a good book.
It is not appropriate here to drill down into the detail of the scientific method. Suffice to say that given funding constraints much of the research undertaken was systematic reviews and meta-analyses of previously published work. One problem here is the quantity and quality of the original studies. When it comes to meta-analyses (indeed everything) the quality of the input sets the quality of the output.
You may also be surprised to learn that it was not until 2010 that the Homeopathic Research Institute was established. Its aims are to improve the standards of reseach and its efforts are beginning to yield results. The debate surrounding homeopathy you can find here, and the current evidence here.
Research is an expensive business and mostly in the hands of pharmaceutical companies whose commercial interests lie elsewhere. Their influence is wide, not least in medical schools.
Returning to the book, I have little doubt that Professor Ernst was a caring doctor during his long career. His first job as a physician was in a homeopathic hospital in Munich. He observed that patients got better, but by inference he clearly had suspicions that homeopathy was a placebo effect (from the Latin piacere meaning to please). A suspicion that perhaps he wished to investigate once his career focus moved to reseach work. His appointment to Exeter University brought about that opportunity.
He comes across as a principled man. His career took him across European borders (mostly Germany, Austria and the UK – plus he has a French wife) and his insights into the characteristics of each nation are most interesting. He brought to light some uncomfortably history concerning medical practice during the Nazi era. An unpopular step with some of his colleages who preferred to leave ‘sleeping dogs lie’.
I can concur with his view that there is no such thing as ‘alternative’ medicine – simply good medicine or quackery, though I do not share his conclusions.
Patient safety also is one pillar of his arguments. Could following an alternative path risk the patient’s life? This is a subject I have written on before.
Still, he might well have reflected on the level of iatrogenic disease today (from prescribed medication). The opioid crisis in America is an obvious example. Just recently questions around anti-depressants have hit the news. Dr Malcolm Kendrick writes extensively on statins. And so on..
The jest that in allopathy (orthodox medicine) one dies of the cure; in homeopathy, the disease, comes to mind!
What is really interesting here is our ability to be truly objective. Professor Ernst clearly sought to distance himself from teaching complementary medicine to students in favour of objectivity in research. The importance he attaches to this is very clear. At face value, surely worthy of plaudit?
Yet retired GP and homeopath, Dr Bob Leckridge writes this most pertinent blog. Can anyone ever be truly objective? However hard we try somewhere along the line, self gets in the way.
In another blog, Dr Leckridge pens this (you can read it in full here)
In health care we should hold this knowledge [hazard of too narrow a focus] at the core. We need to start with this individual, unique patient, today, choose the best known, most likely treatment to help them, then follow up to see how it’s worked out for them. Because no treatments produce the same outcomes for everyone, no matter whether a drug is branded “evidence based” or not. Only this individual, unique patient can tell you if the treatment is helping them.
Human beings are not machine like, and health care shouldn’t be factory like. Because every patient is unique and every doctor, nurse and therapist is unique. We need a system built on the value of keeping uniqueness at the core.
Dr Bob Leckridge
Dr Leckridge’s picture of a rose symbolises that uniquess – no two roses are the same. Living things are not like machines. A car stays a car. You, on the other hand, are dynamic; constantly changing. A mysterious combination of the material and immaterial. A data based analytical approach takes you only so far. Valuable for sure – but it is not the whole story.
We may as yet not fully understand the mechanisms of homeopathy but the homeopathic approach has a long heritage. The placebo effect is real, but insufficiently so to justify two hundred years of effective homeopathic practice throughout many countries globally.
There is a little accronym TEETH (Tried Everything Else, Try Homeopathy). That homeopathy is often the last resort and proves beneficial is a point to reflect upon.
Homeopathy may be the ‘aunt sally’ of the medical world, but placebo it is not.
Somewhere in this realm is Professor Ernst’s nemesis.
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.
It was concerning to read about the quantity of pharma drugs in rivers today. This article considers the consequences and alternatives.
Back in February The Week published the following short article:
Pharmaceutical pollution is contaminating the rivers on every continent, a major study has shown. Scientists at the University of York measured the levels of 61 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in 258 rivers around the world, including the Thames and the Amazon.
Just two areas had unpolluted waters: Iceland and a part of Venezuala whose indigenous inhabitants don’t use modern medicine. The most common APIs were an anti-epileptic drug called carbamazine and the diabetes drug Metformin, along with paracetamol, antibiotics and caffeine.
Potentially toxic levels of drugs were in a quarter of the sites, and the highest being in low-to-middle income countries such as India and Nigeria – possibly because their populations have encough money to by drugs but may live in areas without good sewage infrastructure.
The most contaminated site in the UK was the River Clyde in Glasgow.
The study, published in the journal Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences, warned that pharmaceutical pollution poses a risk to wildlife, and could also contribute more to antimicrobial resistance in humans.
The Week 26th Feb 2022
Previously on a BBC science programme I heard that the equivalent of 200 pills of Metformin pass under the bridges of the Thames every hour. Even the apparently pristine River Dee in Royal Deeside carries a significant pharmaceutical burden as this report shows. Hopefully the famous Deeside Water – highly regarded for its purity – is sourced well upstream!
The NHS Health Survey for England 2016 states that nearly half of adults had taken one prescribed medicine in the last week and 24 percent had taken three or more. The total cost at list price of prescriptions dispensed in the community in 2016 was just short of £10 billion. It is not an improving situation.
None doubt the value of medicines, but health impact both on the individual and the enviromnment of long-term use is a matter worthy of discussion.
For the first time since school days I read again Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World written in the 1930s. His vision was one where the highs and lows of human existence were under the control of a world state. With remarkable prescience Huxley foresaw the path we are on today. Elsewhere he remarked, “Medical science has made such tremendous progress that there is hardly a healthy human left”. I dare say there is a degree of overstatement here, but he had a point nonetheless.
It is a subject I indirectly blogged on previously
What is health? That is the question. During the first lockdown of the pandemic I cycled out into the New Forest and visited a couple of Churchyards. I was struck by the longevity even in an age of no medical care.
It made me think about the late Jan de Vries, a remarkable naturopath who ran a clinic on the west coast of Scotland until his death in 2015. He wrote many books amongst them 10 Golden Rules for Good Health. Attention to these basic principles would do much to reduce the burden on the NHS not to mention the individual.
I do not underestimate the challenge: a very rural 19th century New Forest is very different from modern city life.
Homeopathy, osteopathy, naturopathy and other forms of so-called Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) all seek to maintain the human organism in balance.
They are not always quick fixes. The saying “a stich in time saves nine” is very true – the longer things are our of balance the longer it takes to correct.
Sadly, CAM has been marginalised in the health service. Some argue that such approaches do not work and waste money. Yet, the long term cost of the current medical model is problematic.
Time for a rethink?
So what are Homeopathic remedies (medicines) and how do they differ from what we now consider to be orthodox medicines.
I had the dubious pleasure of a FB encounter with a person who was under the illusion that the homeopathic preparation Mercurius was a poison. Mercury – such as can be found in a traditional thermometer surely is a poison – hence the term “mad as a hatter”.
The origin of that saying can be found here. Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at normal atmospheric conditions. It was used in medicine for many years as this article summarises, and toxic is surely is. That dental amalgam still contains mercury to this day is perhaps a matter of concern.
The preparation of homeopathic medicines (potentisation) – a process of serial dilution with agitation at each step (succussion) – was developed by Hahnemann in order to eliminate any poisonous hazard yet maintain therapeutic benefit. This enabled many substances that were poisonous – be it plants, minerals or animal venom – to be safely used as medicines.
The bottom line is that you cannot poison someone with a homeopathic medicine.
But poisons, potentised homeopathically make some of the best medicines – see my earlier blog
The controversy in homeopathy is that the level of dilution is so great that no molecule of the original substance remains. From school days you may remember Avogadro’s number which defines the particles in a quantity known as a “mole”. Once dilutions exceed this number no atom of the original substance remains. Ultra-dilution is a key concept in homeopathy.
If you believe that all medicines must be material doses, then you will insist that all homeopathic medicines are placebo. The usual quip is “there is nothing in it” or “its a drop in the ocean”!
Fair enough, but two centuries of experience suggest otherwise.
You might have come across the concept of “hormesis”?
Hormesis is defined by toxicologists to describe a biphasic dose response to an environmental agent with a low-dose stimulation showing beneficial effects and a high-dose stimulation showing inhibitory or toxic effects.
from: The Science of Hormesis in Health and Longevity
Maybe hormesis extends to lower doses than we think?
Today we sit in our homes bombarded by information. For your grand or great-grand parents there came radio, then television and now all that feeds your mobile phones. This is “information” and that is most likely what homeopathic remedies contain also. The homeopathic remedy “informs”.
Human beings are many things. I have written on this before. For sure we are complex chemistry sets but also electromagnetic. Here is a little bit of pioneering science – a sort of electronic homeopathy.
So what of Mercurius solubilis – this patient is hot when it is cold and vice versa – like the mercury thermometer they are sensitive to temperature. It is useful for nasty sore throats, mouth ulcers, feverish colds with lots of catarrh and more besides.
Homeopathy means “like” “suffering”. If the Mercurius “picture” matches your “symptoms” it will speed your recovery.
But the homeopathic remedy Mercury will never, ever, poison you!
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…!
Do you have a first aid kit of homeopathic remedies?
I dare say that those of you with young children have spent some time at the bedside when they are sick.
What to do? Give TLC and Calpol?
But have you thought about homeopathy as an alternative?
The first thing you will need is a small first aid kit of homeopathic remedies. Forearmed is forewarned as they say.
These are shown in the picture and available from homeopathic pharmacies such as Helios or Ainsworths
You cannot phone a pharmacy in the middle of the night or Sunday (which according to some unwritten law is of course when your child takes poorly!).
Because there are many remedies, homeopathy can seem complicated. For First Aid, things can be kept simple.
You know when your child is sick because they are out of sorts.
Years ago I remember taking our young son to Disneyworld. He didn’t seem as excited as you might expect. Next day, up come the spots – chicken pox!
This demonstrates a pattern in childhood illness (ssh..Covid too): a period of incubation with no symptoms, then recognisable symptoms and finally convalescence. Most childhood ailments are like that.
However, do see your GP if your child is getting sicker – first aid, homeopathic or otherwise, is not for everything. Yet, even here homeopathic first aid can buy time whilst you seek help.
Homeopaths speak of a vital or life force. It is beyond the physical (meta-physical) and I wrote an earlier blog on this. In brief, it keeps us alive.
Children have loads of energy – you may have noticed – because their vitality is so strong. However, their immune systems have a lot of learning to do in order to cope with the world at large.
Homeopathy informs the vital force; gives it a helping nudge; educates.
On my shelf is this little book from the pen of the late and wonderfully initialled Dr RAF Jack. He was a GP in the Midlands in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Dr Jack supplied every family with young children on his list with a good starter first aid kit of just four homeopathic remedies:
Aconite, Belladonna, Ipecachuana and Chamomilla
He explained five features – sufficient to get the mother’s confidence:
(point 5 may may puzzle you? Quantity is not important in homeopathy, but repetition of dosing is. By analogy, imagine 2 people ask you to turn left at the same time, you will turn left once; but if the instruction is separated you will turn left twice – too many doses risks getting you in a spin!)
Let’s look at one remedy Chamomilla. That is the herb Camomile prepared homeopathically.
This is a remedy for PAIN, unbearable pain often associated with anger. Famously useful for the teething child with hot and red cheeks or one hot and red and the other pale and cold. The child cannot be comforted, asking for a toy and then hurling it across the room.
Here is a nice little image from Homeopathic Remedy Pictures:
A dose is usually one sugar pill, but as said above, quantity is not that important (except on your wallet). For a baby you can put a couple of pills in a small amount (5cm in a tumbler) of boiled cooled water – stir well and give two teaspoons.
Repitition depends on the seriousness. Maybe every 10-15 minutes to start with, but reduce to half hourly or longer if the symptoms start to improve. Do not continue to give the remedy once there is clear sign of improvement.
And if you see no improvement after a couple of hours, stop, it is the wrong remedy.
Next time we will look at Aconite and Belladonna – swords to ploughshares…
Prompted by the name on the door lintel in the photograph – this blog considers the role of the homeopath.
“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake; eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog…”
Shakespeare’s Macbeth Act IV
Well you get the idea….
I was intrigued – maybe a little taken aback – to read a recent editorial in The NewHomeopath (the Journal of the Society of Homeopaths) that homeopaths were the new witches!
True enough, the gender of the Homeopath today is most likely to be female; the mix for must be 20:1 in favour of women. Yet, none I have met would meet the picture of a witch.
Permit me a brief digression here. Bring to mind the stereotypical image of a witch and compare it to the male equivalent, the wizard. I suggest that one is artistically treated rather more favourably than the other, which might tell you something.
So, what has all this to do with the picture? Well it was the words “The Good Intent” above the door lintel that caught my eye as I walked past
I will explain…
Now, I happen to be a Church goer, and come across some fellow attenders (very genuine people) who treat homeopathy with great suspicion; possibly even a dark art.
You can guarantee, that any opinion goes no further than that; an opinion without much knowledge.
Still, to my mind, very strange.
The keyword is “Intent“. Otherwise put, what is one’s intention? In children’s Sunday clubs I have heard taught, “What would Jesus do?“, which rather hits the same mark.
It is our intention that is most important; in all things. And, I have to say from my experience of the many homeopaths that I have met, that their intentions are solely to help their clients to the best of their ability. And certainly not to engage in sorcerery!
Homeopathy does pose some interesting questions about who we humans really are. Are we just a bundle of molecules dancing in some sort of harmony? I touched on this subject before.
Our current understanding of the human body is remarkable tribute to modern science, but there are many mysteries still, and over time these mysteries tend to multiply rather than diminish. Who are we? What does it mean to be conscious, to be alive? These are big unanswered questions. Take a look at the work of the Galileo Commission here.
Complementary medicine in its various forms may not provide all the answers, yet its strength is in its recognition of both the material and non-material nature of man. This is the holistic perspective.
Returning to the matter of intention, a cursory recollection of recent news stories, will bring to mind plently of examples of bad intent. Sadly, all too often from within organisations that are held in high regard.
So, in short, I rather liked the name of the house in the picture.
Does it reflect the spirit of the owners, or is it two words to make those crossing the threshold pause for thought?
The Society of Homeopaths sets down clear requirements of its members which can be found here. Complaints upheld against practitioners are very rare.
Unfortunately, complaints of a vexatious and mischievous nature are significantly more common these days, often orchestrated by a small number of people whose world view is dominated by a rigid scientific materialist model (which roughly put says if you can’t see it it doesn’t exist).
They are entitled to their opinions of course. However, whilst constructive criticism can often be of good intent; destructive criticism rather suggests the opposite.
None are forced to try homeopathy, but it offers a different perspective on health which has proven to be of value for many.
Wishing you a good Christmas and good health. Next month, I will return to less combatative territory and consider homeopathy as first aid in the home.
Here are some ideas for self help with colds and flu. And little about homeopathy which can help too.
I caught a cold last week – in common with many others, it seems. Well, it is that time of year. Pre-pandemic, colds and flu were not newsworthy – but they are now. I shall not labour the point, but the media doom and gloom is not particularly helpful.
As we have all learned during these past months, respiratory infections are caused by viruses and viruses that tend to mutate.
The characteristics of the various offending bugs we can leave to the scientists, but when it comes to the counter attack, respiratory viruses seem to be rather slippery characters.
Fortunately most respiratory infections are self limiting – even Covid. Being sensible makes a significant difference to the outcome.
So what are the tips for self help with colds and flu? And what should we not do?
I just penned a short editorial for the The Herald (issue 414 p38). What could be said in 300 words is limited, but I emphasised the importance of good general health in building immunity.
Modern life with its cities and technologies is about as distant from the natural world as you can get. One of the gains from the environmental movement is a reawakening to that lost connection.
Here are three simple steps to reconnect:
Firstly, get a good night’s sleep. As the hours of daylight shorten, you don’t need to be a genius to infer that this is suggestive of more sleep. Sleep is a health regenerating process and a lack of sleep increases our vulnerability to infection.
Secondly, consider your eating habits. Eating may be pleasurable, but its real purpose is to supply the body with the necessary nutrients. The gut flora is known to be important in immune health. It is common sense then to focus on healthy fresh food.
Thirdly, get outside into the sunlight as much as you can. Living by the New Forest and the coast, there are plenty of options. Not only is exercise good for the body, it is good for the mind also.
Whilst nutrition should be the main source of vitamins and minerals, there is a logic to vitamin D (specifically vitamin D3) supplementation during the winter months.
Otherwise known as the sunshine vitamin, it is made by the action of sunlight on the skin. Reduced daylight and overcast weather mean that vitamin D deficiency is common in winter.
Vitamin D has many functions which you can look up online, but of particular relevance is its role in maintaining respiratory health. It is generally anti-inflammatory.
Daily supplementation in the range of 2000 to 4000 IU (international units) or 50 to 100 micrograms should be perfectly safe for adults (half the dose for under 12s).
Start low and increase as winter progresses, then tail off again as the days lengthen. As ever, take advice if you have particular health conditions.
Theoretically excess vitamin D can be toxic (elevated calcium levels and intestinal symptoms) but such events require massive doses over extended periods. In short, sensible supplementation is safe.
The supplement is mostly available as tablets or capsule of 1000 to 2000 IU tablets which is itself a guide to dosage.
You may recall a time when Mums gave cod-liver oil to her school age kids? Guess what, it is Vitamin D rich. Two teaspoons is about 1000IU
Here is a selection of articles / videos. The NHS dosage guidelines (just 400IU) seem to be rather conservative.
NHS Vitamin D Healthline Vitamin D Dr Seheult Medcram John Campbell PhD Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D
We all do, and it may even be necessary that we do so in order to keep the immune system in trim. Or it could be a reminder to slow down, and metaphorically ‘recharge the batteries’.
So, here are the tips for self-help with cold and flu. What should you do? Or not to do?
In short:
When we get a cold it is popular to reach for over the counter medicines most of which contain Paracetamol or aspirin (pain / fever relief), and other ingredients like Pseudoephedrine (decongestant) that relieve your symptoms.
Strange as it may seem, your symptoms are your body’s curative reaction to the virus. Unpleasant, these may be, but they have a purpose. Fever, for example, stimulates the immune system into action.
Here is a short quote from Dr Russell Malcolm a medical doctor and homeopath in Scotland:
“avoid Paracetamol and Aspirin completely …. [they] have no curative power at all … there is evidence that interfering with this process can lengthen the illness and increase the incidence of complications.”
On my bookshelf is a small volume that I bought when my son was a baby 30 years back – in the chapter on respiratory infections, sore throats, colds and flu the author (American, Dr Leo Galland MD), puts it simply:
“I recommend rest, chicken soup and TLC (tender loving care). For severe infections with fever, lots of aches and/or uncomfortable congestion, I find short megadose therapy of vitamin C helpful.“
I’ll come back to vitamin C shortly.
Dr Malcolm also states “Flu is not a headcold”. As the old joke says, if a £50 note blows into the garden when you have a headcold, you’ll wrap-up and go out to catch it, with flu you surely will not!
Half a century earlier, Dr Dorothy Shepherd (1888-1952) said this:
“It is the fashion to call every slight feverish chill influenza; but if after the temperature has come down, the depression, exhaustion and weariness is such that it is too much effort to do anything, that life is really not worth living, you know you will have had influenza; after a mere feverish chill you will feel as well on getting up as you did before the attack.
Unfortunately many people take no notice of the danger signals of weakness and prostration, and insist on getting up, even returning to work before they are fit, thus laying themselves open to broncho-pneumonia…and sudden death’
‘During the feverish period the patient should be allowed nothing but raw fruit and fruit juices, and not synthetic bottled juices. Fresh oranges, lemon juice, apple drinks, grapefruit drinks at frequent intervals will cleans the system and prevent any undue strain being thrown on the gastric organs. No meat juices, no milk, are permissible. After the temperature is down, the diet may be increased and may include vegetable broth, Yeastrel drinks ( Marmite?), wholemeal toast. Gradually other foods may be added…“
No.1 rule then is REST. You may recall what happened to PM Boris Johnson when he tried to keep going through his Covid infection … viruses don’t respecter rank!
Modern society tends not to permit absence from work or school, which is a pity and probably counter productive …Covid, might remind us of old wisdom.
Vitamin C has a direct anti-viral effect that has been well researched.
Dr Leo Galland mentioned above, continued:
“To treat severe colds, viral infection such as sore throats or bronchitis, and flu, I find megadoses of vitamin C very effective…I recommend the highest dose you [or your child] can take. 1000mg an hour, until he begins to get loose bowels (Excess vitamin C…draws water into the intestines). This will establish [the] saturation point.
Stop the vitamin C until the next day, when you [or your child] should [take] 1000mg every 2-3 hours until the bowels become loose. Stop the vitamins again until the third day, when you should give 1000mg every four to six hours. Maintain this dose until the cold is over, then gradually cut the dose back over two weeks to 1000mg a day.
The anti-viral effect of vitamin C depends on getting the highest level possible into the tissues.
Is it safe? Very: not only against viruses but also acute allergic reactions. When should you not give vitamin C? If you [your child] has kidney disease or is too sick to take food and liquid along with it.“
This is the protocol I follow myself. Loose bowels do not result in my case, but they may for you, everyone is different.
Zinc has a important function in supporting immune health. A healthy diet should suffice for daily needs, but supplemention at 20-40mg per day when you are sick can be helpful.
The herbal remedy Echinacea can also help on first signs of a cold or flu. But Echinacea should be taken for only a few days (say a week) as thereafter it can be counter productive. Follow the manufacturers guidance on dosage.
Most respiratory infections are self limiting and are more likely to be so, if you follow the good advice above. Homeopathic medicine can undoubtably speed recovery but selection of the correct remedy takes a little skill, but can be learned. First aid kits are available for home use.
Should you have a viral respiratory illness that is lingering on uncomfortably, and wish to try a homeopathic approach please call and leave a message or text (see Contact) and I will call back – the ‘Discovery Call’ arrangement is for clients with longer term issues. (Expect a nominal charge of around £10 for any remedy sent).
However – and very importantly – seek immediate medical help (GP or A&E) if your condition is getting worse and especially if you have breathing difficulties.
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!
Isn’t this a fantastic looking flower? It is an ornamental hybrid of the common onion from which the homeopathic remedy Allium Cepa derives.
The name which may derive from two Celtic words “all” and “cep”, meaning “hot” and “head”. In full bloom the flower is indeed like a head – a big beautiful sphere.
The onion family includes garlic and leeks. Plants used nutritionally and medicinally for centuries. Today the medicinal benefits are still recognised – here is one article – read more
In folklore, even in the 19th century, placing sliced onions around the home, or in a bag worn around the neck was considered to protect against contagion during epidemics.
Perhaps we should revisit past wisdom, given the current (Covid) challenges? But I suspect sending your children back to school with a bag of chopped onions around their neck might not be popular?
When chopping onions for the cooking pot streaming eyes and runny nose is all too familiar! This is “coryza” or “rhinitis” in medical parlance.
As a homeopathic medicine, one paarticular use of Allium Cepa is in the treatment of an attack of “hay fever”, whose symptoms of coryza, as you all know, are rather similar to those from chopping onions. The nasal discharge is acrid and that from the eye bland.
The homeopathic core principle is “like cures like”. This means giving a medicine that mimics the symptoms suffered.
Homeopathy supports the body’s attempt to cure. It helps it over “the hill” that needs to be climbed.
As I wrote last month “Jaw Jaw is better than War War”
The body speaks its language – it informs; we must listen and act accordingly.
The runny nose of the common cold can be similar to the characteristics of Allium Cepa, but in this case it may be best to suffer the inconvenience as the discharge from the nose has a purpose – namely to eliminate the virus.
Sometimes it is best not to supress symptoms. That includes the use of over the counter remedies such as LemSip and so on. Yes, you feel better but you are hampering the healing.
Symptoms, from a homeopathic perspective, are not just an inconvenience – they point the way to cure.
They inform.
Cutting edge Quantum Physics tells us that our entire universe is “informed”. Indeed, it tells us that we are “informed” – right from the moment of our birth to our last breath.
Current thinking is that the brain is a sort of transmitter / receiver, as much as a pseudo computer for processing our thoughts and bodily signals.
So, the brain may be receiving “downloads” – something like the downloads to our electronic gadgets. Fascinating.
Last night, courtesy of the Scientific and Medical Network I listened to Dr Doug Matzke talk about his research into quantum computing.
He has a new book titled “Deep Reality” – tad over my head mathematically – but the fundamental role of “information” in nature is becoming clear.
Homeopathy is information medicine, born ahead of its time.
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…)
I recently listened to a fascinating talk by botanist and homeopath Michal Yakir about the plants used in homeopathy today. She recently published a magnificent book titled Wondrous Order.
Her thesis is that plant families (known as Orders) have meaning in mankind’s evolution and the application of homeopathic medicine.
More than 50% of homeopathic medicines are of plant origin. Most of the rest originate from minerals or elements.
Over millions of years new Orders of plant life have evolved, from simple plants like mosses and ferns, to ever more complex flowering plants.
Michal perceives that each “Order” represents a theme in our development from infant to adult. These correlate with our psychological maturity. This is somewhat age independent. Maturity doesn’t always come with age!
Similarly within each Order sub-classes have evolved. Here Michal perceives stages of emotional and physical development. In contrast, this is generally age dependent.
A a homeopath she finds that these patterns can help her to find the best medicines for her clients.
In a similar manner another well established Dutch homeopath Jan Scholten has found symmetry in the elements of the Periodic Table. These elements are the basis of the second largest class of homeopathic remedies, the minerals. He too has studied the plant kingdom https://janscholten.com/
Extraodinary work by two great minds.
Let’s take a couple of examples:
Calendula (Marigold), belongs to the Aster family. It has healing properties and as a herbal product it can be used as a mild antiseptic cream to heal small wounds.
However, homeopathy considers not just the physical but also the emotional / mental. The wound doesn’t have to be physical, so (to quote Michal) a person could be “as if of a wounded person”; “don’t touch me!”
Symphytum from the Borage family, is better known to gardeners as Comfrey, and in olden times as “bone-set” because of its use in helping broken bones to heal.
Both the above plants are in the same plant Order (Asterideæ). In both there is a theme of avoidance of touch, of being hurt – obvious with a wound or broken bone, perhaps less so in the emotional sense. Such emotional oversensitivity might suggest an impediment to inner growth
Over the last century or so, the objectivity of science – for all its benefits – has set humankind apart from nature, rather than being a part of nature. This is unfortunate as we are subjects not simply objective observers in the story as Michal and Jan both suggest.
Environmental crisis, forest fires and a pandemic, should be timely reminders of our true origins. But re-discovering our roots is a challenge be it at the personal or collective level.
All a little complicated? But is it so surprising that our story depends on the plants we eat, and the minerals from which they grow. They tell our story…
If you are old enough to recall TV from the 1990s, you doubtless remember Noel Edmonds and the pink character with yellow spots called Mr Blobby which he introduced to viewers. Clearly, Mr Blobby still has his fans as you can see from this website https://www.mrblobbycollection.com/.
Mr Blobby even has a Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Blobby Here is the image from that page:
Suffice to say, I do not seek to extol the virtues or otherwise of this icon of 90’s British humour, but would simply like to suggest that the human being is more “blobby” than perhaps you might think.
Don’t worry, this is not going to be a blog on the matter of expanding waistlines, rather it is about our true nature.
You see, our bodies appear solid, but this is somewhat an illusion as water makes up about 60% of our weight. Hydrogen and Oxygen are the elements of water (H2O), and these together with Carbon, Nitrogen, Calcium and Phosphorus add up to 99% of human body, the remainder being trace elements.
The human body comprises some 75 trillion cells apparently (who counted?) each of which doing what it needs to do: building; replicating; communicating; dying etc. Some cells last for just a few hours others for years, but no typical cell lives as long as a typical person. Unbeknown to us, our body is continually being replaced. It is estimated that it takes around 7 to 10 years to complete the make-over. Amazing!
So in fact we are more fluid than solid. Which is what brought the “blobby” term to mind.
The question is what happens when we get sick? Dr James Tyler Kent was a notable American homeopath working in the early years of the twentieth century, and his “Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy” remain important to this day. In the first lecture he considers the “The Sick”. He notes that medicine is mostly concerned “with the ultimates”, that is to say the visible results of disease which, he argues, is only a part of the story.
It is “the real nature of man” that must also be considered, says Dr Kent. But what is this “real nature”?
Kent suggests that Man (in the generic sense) is “will and understanding” and the physical body is just the house in which he or she lives. Our “real nature” then is much more than the physical body, indeed our “will and understanding” may be what first and foremost needs attention before physical healing can take place.
Since Kent’s time science and technology has advanced our understanding of body biochemistry and delivered many new therapeutics. Yet the concept of “will and understanding” remains somewhat unexplored in mainstream medicine. How a person sees, feels and interacts with their world remains at the core of homeopathic practice, which is why it is termed holistic medicine.
Bowel Nosodes in Homeopathy are serial ultra-dilutions of bowel flora. They have a wide range of uses and not just in bowel related problems. Though almost consigned to history, modern orthodox medicine is slowly coming to the conclusion that the bio-chemistry of our guts may have wider implications. You may have heard about the microbiome?
“So far as orthodox medicine is concerned relatively few of the treatments that were in vogue before about 1950 have much importance today. The medicine of the 19th and even the first half of the 20th century, though no doubt fascinating from a historical point of view, has been almost entirely superseded by later developments; few books go out of date as medical texts“
Quote from “The Two Faces of Homeopathy” by Anthony Campbell
This comes from a book published in 1984. Given the speed of progress, today we can say that anything much before the year 2000 is medical history.
Over the last months I have watched many well qualified doctors and scientists on YouTube speaking about the Sars-Cov-2 virus and its treatment. Few scientific papers quoted date before the turn of the millenia.
Of course, it was barely a decade earlier that the information age began when British Scientist Tim Berners-Lee conceived the world-wide web in 1989. Since then, more than medical texts have gone out of date. Almost everything seems history!
Perhaps there is a hazard here? One problem is that for anything to be valid in medicine today it has to be supported by peer reviewed evidence and so forth. This tends to invalidate past wisdom, unless it is studied and rediscovered anew according to current standards. At face value, this is all well and good, but alas outcomes and conclusions are influenced despite claims of rigor and impartiality.
I truly recommend Dr Malcolm Kendrick’s book “Doctoring Data” https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/ if you wish to understand the use of data in medicine today. His blogs are excellent also.
Since writing this blog I have penned another, which you may care to read, explaining how what we now call othodox medicine came to dominate titled the History of Homeopathic Medicine.
Last month I shared with you a rather long YouTube video by Dr Zach Bush. From the same source I have now found a shorter piece (and nicely illustrated) titled Chemical Farming and the Loss of Human Health, where he reminds us of our past. Zachary draws our attention to our hubris and the short sightedness of our actions. In short, we have bought into a narrative over the last century that ignores the wisdom of past millenia.
Looking down the microsope has taught mankind many things, but however well meaning, we have – alas – lost sight of the bigger picture. This bigger picture is one of connectivity between all things in the natural world; every action has a reaction. Everything has a purpose.
Dr Bush teaches us that the quality of the soil in our fields matters. So too the soil – or le terrain (sounds classier in French!) of our gut. Both are teeming with viruses and bacteria, all of which have a purpose. In balance health results; with imbalance illness.
Dr Edward Bach (1886-1936), was a bacteriologist working just before the First World War at University College Hospital London.
He observed a connection between gut bacteria and health. At the time he studied the use of bacteria in vaccine form to treat patients suffering from chronic (long term) disease.
Later when continuing his work at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital he found that homeopathic preparations were as effective as the vaccine form. Known as the bowel nosodes they continue to be a useful tools in the medicine chest of the homeopath.
In the late 1920s Dr Bach moved on to work on the flower essences, and the Bach Rescue Remedy mixture may be familiar to you (you can buy it still at many high steet pharmacies).
The work on the bowel nosodes passed to a husband and wife team, Dr John and Elizabeth Paterson at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, who by all accounts undertook meticulous research adding to the knowledge base begun by Dr Bach, up until the 1950s. Their work was then eclipsed by the advances in antibiotics.
Is it not interesting how quickly we forget?
I am watching an interesting YouTube clip by Dr Zach Bush https://youtu.be/f6zb5rXgRvs. I say ‘am’ because it is quite long and I am taking it in bite size chunks. Quoting from an online version of the Oxford Dictionary he observes that the definition there in of ‘nature’ is the natural world around us; something rather apart from man. Dr Bush draws our attention to the fact that man is actually fully part of nature not ‘apart’ from it. We have long tried to control the natural world, but current crises from pandemic to environmental, suggest a need to better understand our limitations. He is all for science, but points out that science is not a fixed body of knowledge. It is an ongoing endeavour.
Isle of Wight from Lepe
I took the above photo on a blowy day about a month ago. It is hard to say what early man made of such a scene, and science brings its explanation of light reflected and refracted through water droplets. Nonetheless a rainbow still makes you stop a while and watch. The scientific analysis is good but I bet many at Lepe that felt the colours a omen for better times after a tough year.
A relatively recent scientific endeavour is the micribiome. That is to say, the gut. Dr Bush tells us that our guts are full of viruses and bacteria; many billions of them in fact. The same is true of the soil, the sea and the whole of the natural world. The living world adapts to viruses and bacteria; it has done so from the beginning of time. You might wonder then about our strategies concerning SARS-Cov-2; certainly Dr Bush does.
Complementary medicine has long taken and interest in diet and hence the gut, and on that I will say a little more next time.
“Due to overconsumption of de-natured food, and a lack of exercise and fresh air, many people, especially in the second half of their lives, often become caricatures of themselves … Nowadays we rarely see a really beautiful and healthy looking person … we are either too far or too thin .. or legs are swollen, our feet flat, our backs, bent, our necks stiff. We lose our hair, suffer from dental decay, headaches, flatulence, constipation and depression; we tire quickly and worst of all, many of us no longer enjoy life. Many people never feel really well“. Naturopath, Jan de Vries, from 10 Golden Rules For Good Health (2nd edition 2008)
Not a very welcome message, perhaps, but a well meaning one from one of the most notable Naturopaths in the UK and beyond in recent years.
Alas, he is no longer with us, but for many decades Jan de Vries had a clinic in Troon, Ayrshire and people sought his advice from near and far.
He even had a slot on Gloria Hunniford’s BBC Radio show. He worked a 90 hour week which included writing many books!
I once had a consultation and his busy clinic was like a hospital out patient dept. He was much loved and is sadly missed.
The Naturopathic approach to health is focuses on the basics, recognising that the self regulating nature of the human organism works best when treated with respect. His five pillars to good health were nutrition, digestion, elimination, circulation and relaxation.
The 10 Golden Rules expand on the five pillars to include such as sleep, and mental health and mental attitude. Top of the list, always, comes nutrition. He tells us that the diets of western industrialised countries – especially the USA and Europe – have changed more in the last 100-150 years, than across millennia before.
Processed foods, sugar, excess alcohol, industrial farming and so on, are not what the body needs. Instead seventy percent of our diets should be of plant origin, and raw fruits and vegetables should be an important part of daily nutrition. Medical science has also come to appreciate the relationship between a healthy immune system and a healthy gut.
Obesity seems to have become rather an epidemic these days. In the past the poor were thin, as is still the case in the developing countries but the opposite seems to be the picture in the western world. And it is the western world that has suffered the most in this Covid-19 pandemic. Food for thought?
Flu medicine in homeopathy – they were once in common use. Pandemics of the respiratory sort are not new, there were at least three in the twentieth century (1918, 1957, 1968). The good news is that they did not last very long (but I imagine – as now – that it seemed so at the time). Even the infamous 1918/19 epidemic passed into history after a year.
I was born in Glasgow and my paternal grandfather was a victim of that pandemic. Here is a nice article from the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh which you might care to read. https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/college/journal/exploring-scotlands-influenza-pandemic-1918-19-lest-we-forget
Compared with medical knowledge today, facilities were modest; in 1918/19 there was no NHS, and many doctors were on active service overseas. Yet the basics of good health were known: nutrition, fresh air, rest, good habits were and still are fundamentals. Fundamentals that we forget amongst our busy lives.
My maternal grandmother also caught the misnamed 1918 ‘Spanish flu’ but survived thanks to good nursing at home. Fundamentals make a difference.
Dr Dorothy Shepherd 1885-1952 was in practice in London back then, and her little book on epidemics, which is still available, makes interesting reading. It is not a scientific text but contains some sound advice that is pertinent today:
‘It is the fashion to call every slight feverish chill influenza; but if after the temperature has come down, the depression, exhaustion and weariness is such that it is too much effort to do anything, that life is really not worth living, you know you will have had influenza; after a mere feverish chill you will feel as well on getting up as you did before the attack. Unfortunately many people take no notice of the danger signals of weakness and prostration, and insist on getting up, even returning to work before they are fit, thus laying themselves open to broncho-pneumonia…‘
‘During the feverish period the patient should be allowed nothing but raw fruit and fruit juices, and not synthetic bottled juices. Fresh oranges, lemon juice, apple drinks, grapefruit drinks at frequent intervals will cleans the system and prevent any undue strain being thrown on the gastric organs. No meat juices, no milk, are permissible. After the temperature is down, the diet may be increased and may include vegetable broth, Yeastrel drinks (Marmite?); wholemeal toast; gradually other foods may be added…’
Dr Shepherd was a medical doctor and homeopath, but foremost she recognised the importance of good self-nursing care.
The benefits of homeopathy are increasingly forgotten as I explain further in this related blog
That Winter is the cold and ‘flu season and as we know “coughs and sneezes spread diseases”. No surprise. It is the time for boosting immunity.
Some scientists suggest that fine aerosols suffice for transmission and not just droplets. Though the deluge of conflicting scientific data in the main stream media risks the conclusion that “to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail”.
Consequently, be it droplets or aerosols, “social distancing”, wearing masks when in proximity, and washing hands seems like common sense. What then, cross fingers and hope for the best?
Simple self-help and low cost measures are drowned out in the clamour for vaccines and novel treatment. Let’s start with sleep. The body reinvigorates itself after good sleep. As you know, you are more at risk of catching a cold or worse when get tired from over work (or play), then you catch a ‘cold’ or worse.
Vitamins and minerals support the immune system. The protection offered by vitamin D is important, because sunlight is key to its availability, and there is not much sun to be had at this time of year. Here is a guide on dosage: How much vitamin D to take
So what if you go down with a respiratory infection?
Let’s start first with the basics: rest and take plenty of fluids.
In your cupboard have to hand some Echinacea and most certainly vitamin C (maybe in combination with zinc). Echinacea has benefits in the early stage of infection, just follow the instruction on the bottle. Vitamin C and Zinc both have strong anti-viral properties.
Being water soluble, Vitamin C does not accumulate in the body so is very safe (some looseness of bowel indicates saturation, at which point dosage should be reduced).
On day one take up to 1000mg per hour, then cut back to the same dosage every four to six hours. If zinc is not taken in combination with vitamin C, a safe dosage is 25 mg per day*.
Paracetamol or aspirin are common in cold and ‘flu preparations but best avoided, as they only provide symptomatic relief and do not improve resistance. They also suppress fever, which is the natural defence of the body to viral or bacterial attack. Importantly, give yourself time to recuperate (especially after a proper ‘flu).
*the doses suggested are for young adults upward, please check labels for guidance for younger children. Vitamin C is safe for all ages using the ‘loose bowel’ guidance above.
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