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October 22, 2022April 16, 2024

Homeopathy for Asthma

Breathing easily is something you probably take for granted. But if you’ve ever struggled to catch your breath…then you have gotten a little insight into what life with asthma is like! Loss of control over your own breathing is definitely very scary and many people with asthma live with that fear every day for many many years.

Asthma has unfortunately become a new “epidemic”, especially in children (in fact, asthma is the most common chronic disease among children¹⁾. It is far too common nowadays and many people suffer from it. It is estimated that almost 340 million people suffer from asthma around the world and it kills 1000 people daily².

Asthma is a chronic (long-term) lung disease. It affects your airways, the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. The air passages in the lungs become narrow due to inflammation and tightening of the muscles around the small airways.

Common asthma signs and symptoms include:

– frequent coughing

– a whistling or wheezing sound when breathing out

– shortness of breath

– chest congestion or tightness.

The symptoms are often worse during the night or exercise and can be triggered by a variety of triggers: cold, dust, smoke, fumes, changes in weather, pollen, animal fur, feathers, perfumes etc.

Asthma as a challenge! What can asthma teach us?

Breath! The “breath of life”! In the book of Genesis (Genesis 2:7) God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and only then the man became a living being. A balance between taking (inspiration) and giving (expiration). There may be an imbalance between taking and giving in asthmatic patients (or taking on too much and a consequent inability to give back sufficiently). Another theme may be a desire to close of and refusal to accept certain things in life, especially the “darker side of life”. Another variation may be a a desire for too much domination and power.

Someone struggling with asthma might want to ask himself/herself the following questions:

– what is it that takes my breath away and why?

– what is my approach to dominance and aggression?

– where is an imbalance between taking and giving in my life?

– which areas/themes in my life do I reject and why?

Every human life is unique and each of us has its own unique individual journey so consider this only as a “rough guide” only and you may need to ask some other questions too depending on your life circumstances, personality, character etc. Knowing where the problem is can be very helpful in our quest for a good enough (or rather precise enough) homeopathic remedy that can trigger healing.

Homeopathy & Asthma

Homeopathy can play a very important role in management of asthma and people with this diagnosis can benefit from homeopathic treatment in many different ways. I have seem many amazing results in homeopathic treatment of asthma. Of course results may vary from case to case and depend from many different things but overall I must say that many people (especially children) benefited from homeopathic treatment tremendously and the results were often more than satisfactory. In some cases only one or very few remedies were sufficient to help the struggling patient, in other cases it was a longer gradual process that required some patience and perseverance on both sides but the final results were well worth of the effort. Giving up too early in chronic conditions is always a mistake!

We have many fascinating homeopathic remedies that can help with the symptoms of asthma. Some of the most important rubrics in our homeopathic repertory that cover the symptoms of asthma are:

RESPIRATION – ASTHMATIC (585 homeopathic remedies);

RESPIRATION – ASTHMATIC – HAY ASTHMA (114 homeopathic remedies);

RESPIRATION – DIFFICULT (898 homeopathic remedies);

RESPIRATION – WHEEZING – WHISTLING (247 homeopathic remedies);

RESPIRATION – RATTLING (261 homeopathic remedies);

CHEST – CONSTRICTION (526 homeopathic remedies);

CHEST – OPPRESSION (600 homeopathic remedies);

COUGH – SUFFOCATIVE (245 homeopathic remedies);

COUGH – ASTHMATIC (152);

… and many more rubrics…

As you can see we have hundreds of homeopathic remedies that can help people suffering from symptoms of asthma. The most commonly used homeopathic remedies in asthma (depending on the specific symptoms and their totality) are:

Aconite, Antimonium tart., Aralia, Arsenicum alb., Bacillinum, Blatta, Calcium carb., Campora, Carbo veg., Causticum, Cocculus, Cuprum, Drosera, Hepar sulph., Ipeca, Kalium bich., Kalium carb., Lachesis, Lufa, Lycopodium, Medorrhinum, Moschus, Natrium suplh., Nux vomica, Passiflora, Phosphorus, Psorinum, Pulsatilla, Sambuca, Silicea, Spongia, Sulphur, Sulph-acid., Thuja, Tuberculinum, Valeriana…and a good few more…

The most effective way of dealing with asthma or any chronic (long lasting or recurring) ailments is constitutional prescribing/constitutional homeopathic treatment. It takes into account not only the patient’s current symptoms of his diagnosis (health problem) but also the patient’s individual way of coping with the disease. A homeopath will select a homeopathic remedy for the patient during a homeopathic interview/consultation. The homeopath will ask many questions about the patient’s medical history and all relevant and related symptoms, but will also ask about the patient’s life style, medical history, appetite, digestion, dreams, relationships and emotional state and many other aspects of one’s life. Homeopaths try to look at the whole picture (all pieces of the mosaic) so they are interested in many various symptoms and details. This helps them to select a precise remedy called – similimum – a deep acting remedy that should help to alleviate the patient’s discomfort and improve his overall health and wellbeing.

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References:

WHO: Asthma – https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/asthma
The Global Asthma Report 2018 – http://globalasthmareport.org/
Ruediger Dahlke – Disease as a symbol.
Complete Repertory

December 15, 2021April 16, 2024

So what is Homeopathy?

A brief history of Homeopathy

Homeopathy was developed and founded by a German physician Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), who grew up in Meissen. Hahnemann was dissatisfied with the medical practices of his time. He discovered that illness could be treated with very small amounts of the substance that, in larger quantities, caused it. Although the idea that “like cures like” (similia similibus curentur) can be traced back to the Greek physician, Hippocrates (460-377BC), it was Hahnemann who developed it into a system of treatment. The term “Homoeopathy” originated from the Greek words “Homoeos” and “Pathos” which means “similar” and “suffering or disease” respectively.

Homeopathic remedies

Homeopathic remedies are made from natural sources – animals (milk/venom), plants, minerals, gem stones… But they can be also prepared from synthetic materials (drugs etc.). Homeopathic preparations are made by using a process called homeopathic dilution/trituration and succussion. Soluble substances are dissolved in alcohol and then repeatedly diluted and succussed (shaken). Insoluble substances are triturated (ground up) with lactose/sucrose. We have now more than 8000 homeopathic remedies at our disposal to help suffering people and animals.

If you want to know more how are homeopathic remedies made then please watch this interesting short video:

So what is that thing called “Homeopathy”?

The most sincere answer to this question would be: “We don’t exactly know yet because we are only somewhere at the beginning of our exploration of this mythical and fascinating art of healing called “Homeopathy”.
Homoeopathy is 200 years old and is one of the most widespread non-conventional approaches to treatment known to the world. Homeopathy is definitely one of the most popular healing systems in the world and its popularity is growing – more than 200 million people worldwide use Homeopathy on a regular basis*. It is because Homeopathy is all-natural, safe, effective, non-toxic, gentle, it has no harmful side effects. It is not tested on animals and is environment-friendly. It can be used also in pregnancy and during breast-feeding. No wonder it is so easy to fall in love with Homeopathy.

So what is Homeopathy? Although there is no simple answer to this question I will do my best to explain and give you at least a rough idea about Homeopathy and to keep it very simple and short:
Homeopathy is a healing system that stimulates your own abilities to heal. The most important thing to note is that Homeopathy is not a physical medicine! Homeopathy is in fact an information-energetic medicine that acts deeply at all levels of health. A homeopathic remedy triggers the body’s own healing forces (vital force). Of course, this is a very simplified explanation – the theory and philosophy of homeopathy is far more complex. We don’t exactly know how the information from the remedy source is transferred to the remedy and then to human energetic system. We only have theories and the most recent one is very promising: nanoparticles. Please read more here if you like:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3570304/

Homeopathy is often wrongly labelled as non-scientific but that is not the case and in fact we have hundreds of scientific studies at our disposal providing sufficient evidence that Homeopathy works and is scientific:

https://www.hri-research.org/resources/essentialevidence/use-of-homeopathy-across-the-world

But the most important thing for you is that Homeopathy can help and treat a huge variety of both acute and chronic diseased, including mental health complaints and emotional trauma. We don’t necessarily need to understand everything – in our homeopathic discoveries we are still at the very beginning of our journey…

The most effective way of dealing with any chronic (long lasting or recurring) ailments is constitutional prescribing. It takes into account not only the patient’s current symptoms of his diagnosis (health problem) but also the patient’s individual way of coping with the disease. A homeopath will select a homeopathic remedy for the patient during a homeopathic interview/consultation. The homeopath will ask many questions about the patient’s medical history and all relevant and related symptoms, but will also ask about the patient’s life style, medical history, appetite, digestion, dreams, relationships and emotional state and many other aspects of one’s life. Homeopaths try to look at the whole picture (all pieces of the mosaic) so they are interested in many various symptoms and details. This helps them to select a precise remedy called – similimum – a deep acting remedy that should help to alleviate the patient’s discomfort and improve his overall health and wellbeing.

Book Appointment

References:

Wikipedia

*https://www.hri-research.org/resources/essentialevidence/use-of-homeopathy-across-the-world/

December 4, 2020January 7, 2025

Homeopathy for Allergies

Allergies can cause huge discomfort and it is not easy to live with them. They can be imprisoning. Allergies have now become extremely common, especially in children. Nowadays, it is not easy to find a child which is completely allergy-free. On a material/physical level, we can attribute this to various different factors, like environmental pollution, chemicals in our food and water, junk food and excessive consumption of meat, genetic modifications, vaccination and conventional drugs and many others.

On a deeper (emotional/somatic/psychological/spiritual) level, we have lost connection with nature, ourselves and others too. We often need to ask ourselves and meditate on the following questions: What are we really allergic to? People? Behavior of others? What do we see in others that makes us so upset and irritated and do we not act often in the same way? What are we so fed up with and why? Theme of hidden aggression which is directed in the wrong direction (inadequate immune response as a symbol of it) – energy instead of allergy! Of course there are many more questions to ask…

What are allergies?

Allergies are a number of conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic dermatitis, allergic asthma, and anaphylaxis.

Symptoms may include red eyes, an itchy rash, sneezing, a runny nose, shortness of breath, or swelling. Common allergens include pollen and certain foods. Metals and other substances may also cause problems. Food, insect stings, and medications are common causes of severe reactions.

Conventional medicine often involves taking antihistamines or steroids to manage symptoms and this medicine can also have unwanted side effects.

Can homeopathy help with allergies?

Homeopathy is a natural and holistic system of medicine and aims at treating allergies by identifying the trigger point, thus providing sustained and long-term relief. Homeopathy sees allergies as resulting from an internal imbalance and aims to remove the individual predispositions that caused the problem with allergies. It activates and stimulates the body’s vital force – its own natural healing system in order to restore balance and vitality, it does not suppress the allergic symptoms like conventional treatment.

Homeopathy acts on a deeper level, it works on an energetic level. It can often bring true healing on various different levels, including emotional trauma. It does not go against our body (unlike medical drugs) but works with our body.

Homeopathy has a good track record of dealing with allergies so the answer to the question whether or not homeopathy can help is most certainly YES! Sometimes it can bring permanent, on other occasions temporary relief and healing.

Some of the most important and commonly used remedies for allergies with some key notes are as follows:

Allium cepa
Onions are known to cause tearing of the eyes and running of the nose, they are therefore effective in treating such symptoms when given in diluted doses.

aggravated by warmth (warm room), better on fresh air;
coryza with profuse, watery, and acrid nasal discharge;
smarting lachrymation;
hoarseness, tickling in larynx;

Ambrosia artemisifoliae

remedy for hay fever and whooping cough;
respiratory tract in its entire length stuffed up;
irritation of trachea and bronchial tubes with asthmatic attacks;
wheezy cough, smarting and burning eyes;

Apis mellifica

redness, inflammation and swelling or puffing up of various parts;
burning, itching and stinging eyes, sharp pain
very warm-blooded, cold ameliorates
one of the most important remedies for allergic reactions after insect bites

Euphrasia officinalis

inflammation of the conjunctival membrane, profuse lachrymation;
catarrhal affections of mucous membranes;
cold affecting the eyes with excessive watering, burning and extraordinary redness, sticky mucus on cornea;
extreme hypersensitivity to light;

Natrium muriaticum

profuse egg-white nasal discharge;
swollen eye-lids, itchy corner of the eyes;
loss of smell and taste, tongue mapped;
depression and sadness
worse/better at sea-shore

Nux vomica

stuffed up nose, especially in the night, sensitivity to odours;
smarting, dry sensation in the inner canthi, photophobia;
allergy to rice or meat;
treatment of asthma due to hyperacidity;
symptoms worse in the morning, better after nap

Sabadilla

violent fits of sneezing, spasm;
hay fever improves in warm room but worsens in open air and cold;
itching, tingling and tickling, must rub;
history of worm infestation;
coryza with severe frontal pain and copious nasal discharge;

… and so many more remedies…

In fact, we have hundreds and hundreds of homeopathic remedies which could be used for all kind of allergy symptoms. To demonstrate this, if we just take one of the many rubrics in our repertory, which could be used for allergy symptoms: NOSE – HAY fever, annual coryza – we have 229 remedies in this rubric.

So this gives you a rough idea that we could be dealing with so many homeopathic remedies when treating allergies.

The most effective way of dealing with allergies is constitutional prescribing. It takes into account not only the allergic symptoms but also the patient’s individual way of coping with the disease. A homeopath will select a homeopathic remedy for the patient during a homeopathic interview. The homeopath will ask many questions about the allergic disease and all relevant and related symptoms, but will also ask about the patient’s life style, medical history, appetite, digestion, dreams, relations and emotional state and many other aspects of one’s life. Homeopaths try to look at the whole picture so they are interested in many various symptoms and details. This will help them to select a precise remedy called – similimum, which should help to alleviate the allergy symptoms and often other health problems too.

Another option/strategy is to use a system called local or symptomatic prescribing and it is based solely on the patient’s allergy symptoms.

An experienced homeopath is able to determine which tactics is better, so it is definitely worth consulting a homeopath when dealing with allergies. I have special interest in allergies and asthma so feel free to get in touch should you require my expertise.

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References:

Wikipedia

Complete Dynamics Master Edition

Roger Morrison (1993): Desktop Guide To Key Notes and Confirmatory Symptoms.

William Boericke (1906): Pocket Manual of Homeopathic Materia Medica

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (2005): Homeopathy “Like cures like”

December 4, 2018July 20, 2024

Cramping from all sides

A case of Cuprum metallicum by Peter Matu published in a prominent International Homeopathic Journal INTERHOMEOPATHY.

A fifty-six-year-old woman has been suffering for two years from chronic muscle cramps in her legs. The doctors recommended taking magnesium supplements but her condition did not improve at all and it was gradually deteriorating. The sudden spasms often occur just when she is falling asleep or they wake her up during the night. She describes the pain as almost unbearable and sometimes she even cries from pain. The cramps started two years ago, at first only twice per month, then increasing in frequency until she woke up every night. The pain is almost paralyzing and she cannot move; nothing seems to ameliorate her condition. She only obtains a few seconds of relief if she draws her toes down, but this only works for the cramps in her feet.

Initially, the cramps affected only the calf muscles of both legs. Later on, the cramps moved into her toes and pulled them upwards. Gradually, the attacks intensified and finally also affected the thighs. The pain is described as a drawing pain. The attacks always come in the night around 9 or 10 pm but never in the day.

Other complaints: bone spurs (osteophytes), bloating after heavy and fatty food, liver complaints (poor liver function test results), thyroid cysts (the patient is monitored by an endocrinologist), recurrent bronchitis, chronic rhinitis, weakened immune system, chronic fatigue, nervousness.

Medical history: pancreatitis, joint pain and musculoskeletal system problems, recurrent bronchitis, herpes, fever of unknown origin
Family anamnesis: cancer, epilepsy, diabetes, kidney stones, depression

Generalities
Temperature/weather: in her youth she used to be sensitive to cold, but now she is mildly warm and does not cope well with heat.
Time: < evening, < night, < 10.pm
Desires: smoked meat products, potato mayonnaise salad, fried cauliflower, sweets, coffee, cigarettes
Aversions: sea food, tripe, onion!
Menses: no problems
Sleep: in the past, she had good and deep sleep but in the past few years, it is not so refreshing

Dreams: she has a recurrent dream about a house which is not entirely completed and on which she is working and furnishing.
The patient is a smoker and she is overweight.

Mind
The patient lives in a village in the countryside. She comes from a humble background; her parents were labourers. She also works as a labourer in a factory. She likes her job very much. She is hardworking and looks after her family well. She is not very sophisticated and is not interested in spiritual or philosophical issues. She did not continue her studies at a university level.
She has a serious problem in her marriage; she does not get on well with her husband but she has become used to this unpleasant situation and learned to cope day by day. Her husband is seriously ill and the poor relationship with him has now been pushed aside and is not a major issue at the moment.
In the past few years, the most bothersome problem in her life is a long-lasting issue with her parents, who constantly interfere with her life despite her age. Her children are already grown up and have left home.
She is more fearful than courageous and I can sense some kind of anger and resignation because of her family problems. She lacks self-confidence and is somewhat unsure and undetermined.
She loves dogs, looks after them very well and is quite sensitive to the suffering of animals.

ANALYSIS
The fundamental question that must be addressed in every case is whether to prescribe a homeopathic remedy for the recent (or momentary) situation / pathology of the patient or to look for a constitutional remedy. I now had to face the same situation. When we look at the medical history and the number of health problems that the patient is suffering from (not to mention the problems in her personal life) and the number of chaotic and seemingly unrelated symptoms (furthermore, the situation is complicated by health problems related to smoking, being overweight, lack of exercise, and bad diet), I came to conclusion that it is better to look at this case from the perspective of a very clear two-year old physical problem, the muscle cramps, and to take it from there.

The first remedy which comes to my mind is Cuprum. It is one of the most important remedies for violent muscle cramps at night, especially in the calves. We could think of this remedy even without repertorisation, based only on knowledge of Materia Medica, but the repertorization confirmed this remedy with key indications.

Repertorization

Prescription: Cuprum metallicum 30C

My prescription was based on repertorization and key symptoms of Materia Medica. However, when I took a closer look at the psychological situation of the patient, the overall picture of this case emerged. She has deeply suppressed her emotions (this is in accordance with the picture of Cuprum in Robin Murphy´s Materia Medica) and is “under the scrutiny” of her parents, who constantly interfere in her life. Looking at this case from the perspective of Jan Scholten´s system, Cuprum is aggravated by being observed/watched and is sensitive to criticism. The Iron series could be confirmed by her industriousness and village life, and stage 11 could be explained by the patient´s “convulsive” attempts to hold on to her privacy and to keep control over her private life.

Follow-ups
The first follow up was after four weeks and I was surprised how well the remedy worked. The attacks of cramping subsided swiftly after administering only one dose.
After six months, there still has not been a single night with cramps, though there were a few “attempts”, which never turned into real cramps, and it was enough for the patient to think of the administered remedy (here, I must emphasize that the patient did not know the name of the remedy given, she only thought of the white homeopathic globules), and the signals of the approaching attack and the muscle tension immediately disappeared, so there was no need to repeat the remedy. I find this really fascinating and somewhat shocking. Homeopathy never ceases to surprise me. It just shows how little we really know about how homeopathy works and that we are only somewhere in the beginning of our voyage into the depths of homeopathy.

It is possible that I might need to repeat the remedy or change to potency later on, but so far so good and at the moment the patient is happy and satisfied with the results and with the fact that she can peacefully sleep without painful cramps.
She also mentioned that she is no longer so anxious in relation to her parents; she has become much more relaxed and does not take their “caring” approach so seriously. In other words, she is less “convulsive” in her relationship with parents.

Keywords: muscular cramps, bone spurs, thyroid cysts, bronchitis, suppressed emotions, sensitive to criticism