HOMEOPATHY IS FOR FLU

One of homeopathy’s greatest - and least known- successes is in the treatment of epidemic illnesses. 

This was true in the late 1800’s during several cholera epidemics. In the great Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918, homeopaths lost less than 1% of their patients while the deaths in those treated by conventional doctors were over 30%.  

The most well-documented current example is in Cuba, where homeopathic remedies are being given prophylactically during the Leptospirosis season, thus reducing the incidence of that disease dramatically.

Normally, homeopathy is known for its highly individual treatment - where a roomful of sick people with a similar disease may each require a different remedy.

In the case of a widespread epidemic, though, there are usually a few remedies needed by more than 90% of the patients.  We call this the genus epidemicus.

In the case of the 1918 flu, the genus epidemicus was the homeopathic remedy GELSEMIUM, made from yellow jasmine. In my own practice, it is the remedy I have used most often to treat the flu, as well as other conditions. 

Yellow Jasmine

GELSEMIUM’s homeopathic picture is of a patient who has heavy, drooping eyes, that are hard to keep open. There is general weakness and lethargy. On trying to stand, the legs feel like rubber and as if they can’t hold the person up.  The fever is moderate and the onset of the symptoms is slow (as opposed to states that come on suddenly with high fevers).

There is a feeling of complete exhaustion and of a complete lack of energy to do anything but just lie there. The person feels very chilly, though they have a fever, and often have the sensation of chills or even the delusion of cold water being dripped up and down the spine. Passing urine makes the individual feel dramatically improved, as does fresh air. 

Of course, there are hundreds of other remedies and flu pictures, but my experience is that giving Gelsemium to a patient with the above symptoms results in a quick and lasting recovery.

LINKS WITH MORE INFORMATION

1. Some history of the treatment of epidemics with Homeopathy
2. Large-scale application of highly-diluted bacteria for Leptospirosis epidemic control.
3. Successful Use of Homeopathy In Over 2.5 Million People Reported From Cuba

THE IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOW-UPS

When I was still a homeopathic student, I would sometimes hear my teachers use the phrase “lost to follow-up”.  It always puzzled me.  

Why would a patient put in the time and considerable money to see a homeopath and then not follow up with them?  

Why would a homeopath put all the effort into taking a first case, spend hours on end figuring out a remedy,  and then not do everything in their power to get that patient back into their office to figure out what happened? 

Sadly, however, 22 years later, I, too, have patients who are “lost to follow-up”.  

From the patient’s perspective, there are a few common reasons why this happens: 

1) The remedy has done nothing.

2) The remedy has made my condition worse.

3) The remedy has worked beautifully, and I don’t need you any more  

Here are my responses as a practitioner:  

1) The remedy has done nothing.

In fact, people often forget how bad they were feeling when they first came in. Pain comes and goes and we forget it.  It’s human nature. We all know the oft-repeated saying around childbirth: “If many women remembered the pain, they would never go through it again."  The same is true of all suffering. 

One of the reasons why I type out everything you say to me in an appointment is so I can feed those words back to you in your follow-up. This is a good indicator of any change that has occurred. 

My job as a classical homeopath (someone who prescribes only one remedy at a time) is to study, in depth, the effects of each of those substances I give my patients and to able to interpret the results accordingly. 

If, in fact, the remedy has done nothing, I want to figure out why - any factors that might have antidoted its action -  or to find a closer match to your state.

Your report of what has happened in the month that has gone by will tell me where I need to go next - repeat the remedy, give it in a different potency or form, or to change the prescription entirely. 

 2) The remedy has made my condition worse

In this case, the remedy is very often acting, and may, again, need to be modified. Another possibility is that the worsening is, in fact, pointing the way to a far more appropriate remedy for you. 

3) The remedy has worked beautifully and I don’t need you any more. 

Fabulous!  I need to know this too.

Studying your response to the remedy lets me know where I would go if you need help in any other area of your life and if not now, in the future. 

If you are considering not returning for your follow - up, please think again. You owe it to yourself.

And for all those patients who are “lost to follow-up”, it is never too late to come back and try again.  

HOMEOPATHY IS FOR KIDS

I got into homeopathy through my kids.

It was allergies - eczema, asthma, you name it - that got us through that door. After trying everything else, it turned out that homeopathy - our last ditch effort - was the one that clinched it.  We thought “if only we had tried this first! All that money, time, sleepless nights, pain and discomfort for nothing!”

Now, it’s my patients who are echoing this refrain. 

As a new homeomum, I discovered a few other things along the way.  

1) Homeopathy tastes better than drugs.

Banana - flavoured Amoxicillin?  Cherry - flavoured 

Tylenol? No way did my kids finally - tuned palates ever buy that stuff!  Those medications were spat out as quickly as they were doled out. Homeopathic remedies, on the other hand, are usually administered in the form of tiny sucrose or lactose pellets, which most children take to like....well, like candy!  This is so much so that I counsel parents to put the remedies somewhere that their children won’t find them.

2) Homeopathy works fast.

In an acute situation - a high fever, an excruciating ear ache, or red - hot teething, for example - the correct homeopathic remedy can bring relief within a few minutes.Pretty amazing stuff !  I have watched children - mine and others - go from A- to- Z in no time.

3) Homeopathy can treat things there are no drugs for.

Chicken pox ? Measles?  Hand, foot, and mouth? 

Sixth disease ? Whooping cough?  Conventionally, the only possible response to these situations is drugs to suppress the fever and pain and antibiotics to cover possible secondary infection and contagion.In homeopathy, there are remedies to cover all situations, bringing comfort to the patient and speeding up both the duration of the illness and recovery times. 

4) Homeopathy deals with emotions too. 

There is a kind of 2 for 1 effect when you take your child to see a homeopath. Usually, not only does the rash that you thought you had come about clear up, but suddenly, your child is happier and sleeping better as well. Homeopathy not only treats physical complaints, but mental and emotional ones as well - night terrors, crippling fears, behavioural problems - you name it! 

Like many mums, I quickly learned that my one stop shop was my homeopath.  Anything that bothered my children was worth running past my homeopath first of all. I was - and am - continually amazed by the results.