I am starting a series of posts about alternative healing methods that I often reach to before I go to my family doctor. Methods that have a much higher success rate and little to no side effects. I started this series talking about my decades long trial trying to resolve my migraine headaches. Well, lets start with Homeopathy and then go to flower essences, which is a shoot off of homeopathy working with the same philosophy.
Let me state clearly that I am not a doctor of homeopathy. I am a student, and as I find success I am energized to learn more. I have taken a course and attended several seminars, but still so much to learn. I am currently learning how to use homeopathy in the garden as well, helping to heal the plant diseases and strengthen their system.
Hippocrates, the 'father of medicine' found through his studies that there are two methods of healing: by 'contraries' and by 'similars'. Allopathic medicine (or often referred to as Western Medicine) choose to follow the 'contraries' method of healing and totally ignored the 'similars' path of healing. Contraries means healing with the opposite of the symptoms patient is experiencing, or use of an antidote type medicine. For example, if you are experiencing constipation, 'contraries' tells you to treat it with its opposite, so a laxative that often creates diarrhea. With 'similars', we let like symptoms be cured with likes. For example, suppose you are suffering with allergies from goldenrod. You would treat with a diluted tincture of goldenrod. I will explain that in more detail later.
In the 15th Century, Dr. Hohenheim, the 'father of chemistry', also discovered and believed in 'like curing like'. He based his pharmaceutical studies on observation of plants, animals and minerals. Unfortunately, his learnings on similars and germ theory were not taken up for over two hundred years.
Samuel Hahnemann, known as the 'father of homeopathy' really dove into the studies of similars and started doing "provings" of how like cures like on his patients. It wasn't until about 1810 that homeopathy got its foothold in the medical field, but not by Allopaths, they still refuse to study it, work with it and in fact, the Pharmaceutical industry has been lobbying so hard with the FDA that the FDA is now proposing putting homeopathic medicine under their purview as a "drug" and limiting its availability to citizens. This would be devastating and many of us are actively communicating that to the FDA. Homeopathic medicines have been around and widely used (especially in Europe) for over 200 years and now they want to treat them as drugs? There is no physical compound in them. But I diverse.
Homeopathy strengthens the body's vitality and its ability to respond to stress without recourse to other medicines. The basic law of homeopathy is "any substance that can make you ill can also cure you." The other basic law of homeopathy is minimum dose. The more a remedy is diluted and successed (vigorously shaken), the stronger it becomes as a cure. A very small dose will actually stimulate those same life processes as that which is making you sick, to get the body to heal itself.
To make a homeopathic remedy, a plant (usually) is weighed and placed in water. 10 grams plant matter into 990 ml water. This is succussed and then 10 ml of this solution is diluted into 990 ml of water, succussed and so on. A typical homeopathic dilution is 30x or 30 of these dilutions. As you can see, there is no plant matter left when we do this, only the energy of the plant stored in the water crystals. For children a lower dosage is used, typically 6 x or diluted 6 times. Remember, the more it is diluted, the stronger it is. Some remedies come as 200x, so that is 200 of these dilutions and used for acute situations.
New discoveries in physics are beginning to explain this phenomenon. One theory is that the succussion creates an electrochemical pattern which is stored in the diluting and which then spreads like liquid crystal throughout the body's own water. The other theory is that the dilution process triggers an electromagnetic imprinting which directly affects the electromagnetic field of the body.
It is a truly amazing study and I recommend, if you are interested that you join a class to learn more. I studied under Mary Aspinwall and she offers on line homeopathy basics (free) and beginner and advanced courses (around $50). I also recommend the text, The Complete Homeopathy Handbook by Miranda Castro.
Homeopathic remedies are safe, even for children and infants. For infants, the nursing mom takes the remedy and it is delivered to the baby in the breast milk. The remedies are small sugar globules that melt under the tongue, so most children have no trouble taking them. These remedies can also be placed in bath water to calm a fussy or colicky child, or an anxious mom. They can be placed in your drinking water making a remedy mix like I do before going to the dentist or you can do before surgery.
Learning homeopathy can be a little tricky at first, but once you get a hang of how to choose the right remedy, it is amazingly simple. Remedies are chosen based on physical symptoms as well as mental and emotional symptoms and on what makes you feel better or worse. So let me give you an example based on my migraine headaches we started out with. I know that my migraines have several causes - stress, emotions, structural issues, hormonal, etc. So, I sit with my pain and pay attention to where it hurts, what kind of pain, when did it start, how am I feeling, what has happened recently that might be related. Then I choose a remedy if appropriate. Obviously, if it is structural, I will make an appointment with my functional chiropractor. Let's go through my choices.
Learning homeopathy can be a little tricky at first, but once you get a hang of how to choose the right remedy, it is amazingly simple. Lets go through my choices.
1. My migraine is at my temples and squeezing my head all around like a tight band. It feels like my head is going to burst open. It started kind of sudden, I am anxious and sensitive to noise. Maybe I have had a fright or shock recently. For this headache, I would take Aconite. Aconite comes from the poison Wolf Bain and the symptoms of this poison are similar to the symptoms of my headache.
2. A migraine started suddenly and violently. It hurts all over my head, I feel hot or overwarm and it is throbbing and pounding. It feels better if I rest in a dark room and worse with light or bending over or walking. It may often feel like the pain is more right sided on my head. For this headache, I take Belladonna, from the deadly nightshade family that causes dry mouth, red face, nausea, difficulty thinking and so on as it starts its affect when used as a poison, which is similar to my symptoms that it will heal.
3. This migraine feels like my head is in a vise being squeezed from the top to my temples down to the base of my skull and upper neck. It is bursting and my head and neck are tender. My eyes hurt, I can't focus and my neck is tight and sore. I feel slow and headache is worse if I am doing any physical exertion. I can often associate this headache with bad news or emotional over something I cannot control and worry over. For this headache, I reach for Gelsemium, which comes from the yellow Jasmine plant, which is poisonous in large doses and can cause poor vision, lack of balance, mental and physical sluggishness and convulsions when used as a poison, but curing when used in dilution.
4. Lastly, let's consider a headache that hurts all over the head. A splitting headache with nausea and feel very irritable. My head feels heavy, sore, may be dizzy. Feels better if wrap my head or put on ice. This headache usually comes after lack of sleep, mental strain, or for some people after excess eating or drinking. For this headache I take Nux Vomica.
So I encourage you to learn what you can about homeopathy. Take a class, read books and purchase some kits. The remedies are fairly inexpensive, anywhere from $7-$15 for a tube of 100 pillules. You can also consult a homeopathic practitioner in the area and they can guide you through what remedies you might need. There are no side effects and if it works, the headache is gone and now I can work on my emotional health.
I use homeopathic remedies for headaches, acid reflux, food poisoning, allergies, vertigo, anxiety and you name it. Sometimes it is the right course, other times I find an herbal tea is more comforting. You'll figure out what your body is calling for as you start learning, listening and practicing. If you take the "wrong" homeopathic remedy, no problem, there is no danger in using these.
Next we will talk about the power of flower essences, which is also based on the law of dilutions and energy but is more focused on mental and emotional health. They are pretty amazing as well.
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