HEADLINE homeopathy

  This has turned out to be one of the coldest winters for many a long year and most of us have, at some point, been struggling to keep warm. Here, we take a look at a selection of remedies which are prescribed for people who feel the cold intensely - the walking snow men and snow women of the world!

Veratrum Album is made from the white hellebore, a plant which appears in our gardens in very early spring.   People who need this remedy feel so cold that they may say they have ice running through their veins. They can literally turn blue with cold. They develop cold sweats and may feel so weak that they collapse. Flu or gastroenteritis can bring on these symptoms  People suffering from Raynaud's syndrome - which results in cold, blue, numb fingers may also need this remedy.

  Arsenicum Album is another chilly remedy. People who need Arsenicum have to cover up and will pile on the bedclothes .However, they also need fresh air so they will turn up the central heating and open a window.  Ironically, they tend to experience burning pains which feel better for having heat applied. Those who need this remedy constitutionally are restless, anxious, compulsively tidy types who can worry a lot about their health. 

Putting the Boot In

You might have read in the papers about an anti-homeopathy society from Merseyside which has organised protests outside Boots stores throughout the country.  Protesters swallowed entire bottles of homeopathic remedies in  order to show that "they are nothing but sugar pills".  It's a shame that the protestors didn't bother to find out about the principles of homeopathy before their publicity stunt. If they had read a basic book on the subject they would have discovered that a remedy will not have any effect on a person unless that person is experiencing symptoms that relate to the remedy being taken.  Take a dose of Pulsatilla when you have no Pulsatilla symptoms and nothing will happen. Unlike conventional medicine, it's not the number of pills you take that counts in homeopathy. A child could swallow a whole tub of Chamomilla or any other remedy at one sitting and suffer no more than a possible upset stomach due to too much lactose. Homeopathic "over-dosing" can only happen if someone continues to take a remedy too frequently for much too long.  Protesters please note!

   Movie Medicine

Films, plays and novels are a great place to find classic depictions of  people badly in need of a homeopathic remedy.  In the film, Catch Me If You Can, Leo DiCaprio plays a con man whose pathological charm helps him to pose  as a Pan Am pilot, a lawyer and a doctor "earning" millions of fraudulent dollars.

The film's anti-hero, Frank Abagnale, is a chameleon-like character whose behaviour begins at his new school. He is anxious about not fitting in and so pretends to be a  teacher.  I think Frank needed Thuja.  People needing this remedy fear that people will not like them and so they hide underneath a veneer of social ease and charm.  Thuja can help encourage the real person to emerge. In Frank's case the only remedy turns out to be prison...

Animal Magic

Would it surprise you to know that one of the biggest growth areas for homeopathy in Britain is within farming?  Farmers are increasingly turning to homeopathic remedies to help with routine ailments amongst their sheep, cattle and pigs.  Courses are available where farmers learn the basics of homeopathic prescribing for the farm. Tony Pinkus of Ainsworth's Pharmacy has spent twenty five years in homeopathy and has a special interest in the treatment of animals.  He says over 5,000 farms in Britain are using homeopathy.  He has known homeopathy to be used on a bewildering array of animals including bats, llamas, chicken, mice, bees and pigs.  Britain's homeopathic pharmacies spend much of their time answering queries about the homeopathic treatment of animals mainly because there are still only about 150 qualified homeopathic vets in this country.

The fact that animals respond well to homeopathic remedies shows that homeopathy is not, as its critics often state, merely a placebo. Chicken and chinchillas do not get better because of belief. Pragmatic and down to earth farmers do not for the most part care about the reason why homeopathy works; they just know it does.  The principles of animal homeopathy are essentially the same as those for humans. However, observation of animal behaviour has to take the place of the verbal description of symptoms.  Is the animal sociable or fearful? How does it react to noise? Is it following you around the house, desperate for company? A well-known vet who works in Oxfordshire has developed an unusual way to observe and treat animals who cannot get to his clinic. Christopher Day of the Alternative Veterinary Medicine Centre in Stanford in the Vale is pioneering web-cam consultations.  This has the advantage of avoiding those horrible trips to the vet with a sick and anxious animal and it also allows the vet to see how the animal is behaving in his or her own home environment. A person I know whose cat had been very sick for months with gastritis and chronic kidney failure which was only partially responding to conventional treatment tried the web cam. approach. The tabby appeared on Mr Day's webcam and showed up her jealous nature by trying to whack her poor sister as she passed by.  She was given Lachesis.  This, followed by Phosphorus a few weeks later, has restored her to her former self.  An interesting idea.  Perhaps all we humans may have a web-cam link to our homeopath one day...

  Healing Quotes  
  The part can never be well unless the whole is well.  ~Plato
 

Carbo Vegetabilis has earned the nickname of "the corpse reviver."  It  has done wonderful things for people who are collapsed, cold, blue and seemingly lifeless. Even their breath feels cold. This remedy is now used by many farmers in Britain during the lambing season to revive lambs who are blue and unresponsive after birth. When used constitutionally, the remedy suits chilly people who need to keep warm but  also need air. They like to be fanned.  They can have dreadful circulation problems with varicose veins. Even circulating food is a problem. They suffer greatly from wind.

Nux Vomica is one of our most widely used remedies and it is also one of our chilliest. People who need this remedy are not only very cold, they also are hypersensitive to their environment and will complain about noise, smells, draughts - everything. Their chilliness comes with irritability.  All their symptoms tend to be worse on waking in the morning. Eminent Canadian homeopath, Paul Herscu, thinks Nux Vomica is the remedy which best deals with the characteristic deeps chills of swine 'flu.

Hepar Sulph is another remedy which can be used if intense chilliness in a sick person combines with a bad mood. They may complain of pains which feel like splinters. It is used for all sorts of problems from infections to suppurating wounds and abscesses.   They are so chilly they cannot even bear to touch something cold and will want to be covered from head to toe - exposing the smallest part of their body is intolerable to them. This is a good remedy for childhood ear infections - especially if the chilliness and the temper are in evidence..