Homeopathic Remedies for Common Ailments

These are the remedies that I have used the most in my practice and at home with my children. Of course there are hundreds of homeopathic remedies, this is the minimum amount that I suggest you keep on hand so that you have them when you need them. Homeopathic Remedies are safe and non-toxic. They do not react with any other medications or herbal preparations. You do not have to wonder about drug interactions with homeopathics the way you do with herbal medicine and even nutritional supplements. Don’t be afraid to try them as they will not hurt your child. They do act on a very deep, energetic level and will affect the overall balance of your child’s body. Whether a child receives the right or wrong homeopathic remedy he will benefit from having taken a homeopathic medicine. You can experiment if you don’t get the right remedy the first time and try another one. Generally wait an hour or so between remedies and don’t give more than three different remedies in one day.

Aconite (aconitum napellis). This is the homeopathic remedy, next to Arnica, that you will use the most. With Aconite think: suddenness of symptoms, restlessness, fever, anxiety, agitation, thirst. Your child wakes in the middle of the night with a fever, earache or croup, go to Aconite first. Suddenly your child has a hot fever and is whiney and restless, think Aconite. After playing outside without a coat on an unpredictable spring day your child comes in complaining of not feeling well, is warm and can’t find a comfortable position on the couch, think Aconite. The fever can alternate with chills. Exposure to wind, cold or shock can precede illness. This remedy is only for the first 24 hours after onset of symptoms. After that try a different remedy.

Sudden onset of symptoms
Child goes to bed fine but wakes around midnight with a cough, earache, croup, cold or fever
Restlessness, agitation, anxiety, fear
Symptoms after exposure to cold, dry winds or in seasons when days are warm and night is cold
Asthma, bleeding, fever, cold, cough, influenza, sore throat, etc

Belladonna. Also comes on suddenly. There is a fever, red face, hot dry skin, sensitivity to light and jarring and headache. A very red sore throat, pounding headache, nagging cough or other throbbing and inflammatory symptoms. Hands and feet are often cold despite high fever. Chills and heat may alternate. Glassy-eyed. Over sensitive to pains, pains feel unbearable, then they disappear for a while, suddenly reoccuring. Pains throbbing, stitching, stabbing. All senses hypersensitive – noises too loud, light too bright, touch hurts, etc and this worsens pain. Starting, jerking, twitching, spasms even in sleep. Pupils dilated. Anger. May bite, hit, groan. See lights and colors, or monsters when eyes closed. Delirious. Wild dreams, restless, jerky sleep. Tends to be thirstless. (think: strep throat)

Mucous membranes dry and very red (angry red)
Very intense emotions: delirious, anger
Unbearable throbbing, stitching, stabbing pains
All senses hypersensitive
Usually thirstless but may desire tiny sips of ice water
Earache, teething, strep throat, headache, cough, (colic) etc.

Chamomilla. Irrepressible irritability associated with teething. Nothing but rocking and carrying child brings relief. One cheek red and hot, other cold and pale. Head warm and moist with sweat. This is the typical picture of the teething child/toddler where they are refusing sleep around 9 PM and are very fickle and capricious. Nothing pleases them. Very demanding yet fickle, you give them what they ask for and they throw it on the floor. Pointing at things they can’t have and having a tantrum when they can’t have it. Sour smell to sweat, body fluids. Don’t over prescribe (it works so well) because they can build up a tolerance to it.

Very irritable, capricious, fickle
One cheek red and hot, the other not
Angry/temper tantrum
Hypersensitive
Sleepless
Greenish stool that looks like spinach
Teething, toothache, anger, earache, (diarrhea, colic, indigestion) etc

Gelsemium Sempervens. For the very weak child who is content to lie still and has a mild fever with chills. Limp, listless, apathetic. Half-open eyes, eyelids feel heavy. Partially flushed face. Wants to stay in bed as much as possible, may be too tired to fall asleep and stay asleep. Hands, feet, tongue, voice may tremble. Chills up and down back. Profuse urination and feels better afterward. Symptoms come on slowly, unlike Belladonna and Aconite.

Physical and mental weakness and exhaustion
Heaviness of eyelids and extremities
No thirst
Trembling and quivering
Listless, drowsy, apathy

Ferrum Phosphoricum. Good for initial stages of inflammatory conditions when you aren’t quite sure yet what is going on. Child is clearly not feeling well, may be slightly flushed, not themselves, but there are no outstanding features to describe how they are looking, acting or feeling. Throat may be a little sore, some fever. This remedy can either help the disease process along to the next stage or it can head it off at the pass.

Headache, fever, sore throat, cough, earache
Early stages of illness without outstanding features
Apis. Swelling. Think very boggy, swollen, red, shiny tonsils. Burning and stinging pains worse warmth and better from cold and cold applications. Hives and skin rashes relieved by cold.
Sore throat, conjunctivitis, chicken pox, allergies, hives, insect bites
Swelling, burning, stinging pain better cold applications

Oscillococcinum. A must for every medicine cabinet. As soon as one has the common symptoms of a viral infection or influenza: achiness, chills, throat becoming sore, becoming feverish, etc. follow the instructions on the box. This has been scientifically tested and it really works when used in the very earliest stages of illness. Can take preventatively after having been around people with influenza.

Early stages of illness with chills, fever, headache, stomach discomfort, achiness that you fear could become aviral infection or influenza

Pulsatilla. Child clingy, crying, wants to be held constantly and craving emotional attention. These kids are very sweet, not angry or irritable. Thick yellow or greenish discharge from nose worse at night or in a warm room. Nose gets congested when lying down causing child to breathe through mouth. Child feels better in open air, may ask to go outside or being outside improves symptoms. I have seen this remedy work great for kids in the early stages of congestion and cough when they are clingy and whiney. Also one of the first remedies to think of with earache. Symptoms often come on after consumption of very rich food (birthday party).

Lack of thirst
Whiney and clingy, want to be held
Congestion, cough, earache, common cold,
Symptoms better in open air

Arsenicum Album. The diarrhea remedy. Take with you when you travel if you could get Montezuma’s revenge. No trip to a third world country is complete without it. Frequent bouts of offensive-smelling, burning diarrhea and nausea with burning vomit. Child is restless and anxious with great discomfort and might exclaim that they are dying. This person is high strung and anxious about their condition and desperate to feel better. Also for watery, profuse nasal secretions that produce cold sores accompanied by sharp burning sensations of the mucous membranes of the nose, where the nose is blocked and sneezing does not bring relief (sinusitis).

Physical and mental restlessness with anxiety that condition will worsen (am I dying, I feel like dying, I am never going to get better)
Burning pains and discharges
Traveler’s diarrhea
Very chilly
Very thirsty but only for sips at a time
Diarrhea, influenza, food poisoning, sinusitis, fever, indigestion, anxiety

Spongia Tosta – for croup if Aconite doesn’t work.

Dosing suggestions:

1 dose= 2-3 pellets under tongue (can also dissolve in filtered or spring water and give by teaspoonful. Great for babies. The water just needs to touch the mucous membranes of the mouth. )

This is the hardest part of homeopathy as you will wonder how much to give and how often. Less is more. Please try to take remedies 15 minutes after or before eating to give the remedy time to settle into the body. I suggest using lower potencies such as 6x, 6c and 30c. Give a child a couple pellets under the tongue. If child responds to first dose but starts complaining again soon after, keep repeating the remedy every fifteen minutes until the response holds. Usually three times in the first hour is enough. An hour after the first dose you should have a good idea as to whether this remedy is having an effect on your child, the first place that you see this is usually on the emotional plane. A good remedy will help your child to become less restless, less angry, less clingy, less whiney, etc. A good sign that you have found the right remedy is if your child can sleep. Generally speaking if a remedy seems to be helping, give once every couple hours or when child appears to need another dose because symptoms that improved with remedy have reappeared. Don’t give a dose because it’s been a couple hours, wait until it is needed as often child’s state has changed and you won’t need to dose as often.

If new symptoms result, or if child is experiencing no relief, or the child’s overall symptom picture has changed greatly, try a new remedy. Or if the child says that the pain or discomfort is gone and that they are feeling better, stop giving remedies as the vital force is rebalancing itself and nothing more is needed. Good luck and happy healing!

Keeping the Swine Flu in Perspective

I have never been comfortable being a "dissident" and I don't identify myself as one. It isn't my nature to be comfortable standing out in a crowd because my beliefs differ from those of the majority. Those who know me would say that I am usually most comfortable blending in and making my waves behind the scenes.

At this moment, however, I find myself sticking my neck out during the biggest mass-vaccine campaign in American history with the counter-message of "Make your own decision." Is that really so radical? And while there is some discomfort for me personally in being identified as one who is sharing a message that is not universally held, my need to educate and assuage fear is overpowering my need to protect my ego.

I have been immersed in research about the Swine Flu steadily for a month now. I have read scientific studies, watched television reports, followed the CDC and WHO, read mainstream medical advice, read alternative medical advice, read articles and interviews, and personally interviewed medical professionals whom I trust. In my post of Oct. 5 on the Swine Flu I made a blanket statement that one should not get the swine flu shot. Due to my continued research on the topic I feel the need to qualify that statement for several reasons:

1) Squalene is not present in the swine flu shot in the US although it was present in the trial vaccine and is present in doses in Europe. The presence of squalene was one of my reasons for cautioning against the Swine Flu shot. There is Thimerosol present however, a mercury-based preservative, in the multi-dose vials of the H1N1 vaccine. It is not present in single dose vials. People who want to avoid thimerosal-containing Swine Flu and seasonal flu vaccines must get the FluMist or the single dose shots. medicinenet.com While everyone should have this choice, single dose vaccines may not be available for every person in every location during every week of the vaccination campaign. The FDA has stated its continuing efforts to remove thimerosol from all vaccines, in particular for children under the age of 6. The reason that it is present in the H1N1 vaccine, and in the regular flu shot in general, is due to expediency of vaccine production.

2) The uncertainty of this disease is more than some people can take. Will I get it? Will I not? What if I do? What if I don't get the shot but I get really sick or make someone in my family really sick? How do I best protect my family and who will take care of the kids if I am sick? The list goes on and on. I feel that for many people their belief in and sense of security around vaccines can outweigh the "what-if's" of developing the disease, and in these cases the ease of mind that comes with the belief system "I am vaccinated therefore protected" can mitigate a lot of stress which could make one more susceptible to illness. These are people who, after doing their work around the safety and efficacy of flu shots, may consider getting a vaccine simply to ease their mind. I have great concerns about children under the age of 9 receiving two Swine Flu shots, which is what has been shown in trials to be necessary for an immune response for that age group. Especially if they are also receiving 2 regular flu shots this year. I would caution parents to exercise their right to request thimerosol-free vaccine, and to ask their doctor a lot of questions, including seeing the package insert that comes with each vial of vaccine and making note of the company who makes the vaccine, the lot and batch number, date of production and any other identifiying information, a list of all ingredients, and possible side-effects, in case there is a vaccine reaction.

3) I can be naive when it comes to the general health of most Americans. While the optimist-naturopathic doctor in me would like to think that most folks take probiotics, Vitamin D3 and cod liver oil every day, stock up on Zinc and Vitamin C, eat whole foods, exercise, rest, drink water and generally pay attention to their overall health and well-being (see my blog posting of 10/5/09), I know that most do not. So perhaps it was irresponsible of me to suggest that one not get the vaccine without better knowledge of the immune and overall health status of my readers. I do believe that one can turn one's health around quickly by making simple dietary and lifestyle changes and this is ultimately what I urge my readers and my patients to do, but if one isn't willing to do the work, perhaps they should protect themselves and those around them with a vaccine.

4) I have since learned more about why pregnant women are especially vulnerable to the flu. In addition to being generally immune compromised there is an increase of blood and fluids in their bodies everywhere including the lungs. As well the diaphragm pushes up on the lungs during pregnancy causing compression and decreased lung volume, decreased lung function and compromises the lung's ability to clear out pathogens leading to a greater possibility of secondary infections. Keep in mind that these physical conditions are present for all pregnant women whether or not a flu epidemic is brewing.

While pregnant women are, along with other immune-compromised folks, or perhaps more importantly their family members, the only people on my list who might consider the swine flu vaccine if this pademic ever really gets off the ground, I feel very strongly that these populations (and anyone at all receiving a Swine Flu Shot) request a vaccine WITHOUT THIMEROSOL.

Having said that, the H1N1 vaccine has not been tested on pregnant women, nursing women, and children according to vaccine package inserts. Also according to flu vaccine package insert, immune compromised folks and those taking immunosuppressive drugs may not have a beneficial and protective immune response from the vaccine. Yet children, pregnant women and immune compromised people are the populations being targeted by the H1N1 Vaccine campaign.

Getting a vaccine does not guarantee prevention of the flu. A vaccine will help the body launch an immune response which may be enough to prevent one from getting sick or it may give the body's body's immune response a head start so that symptoms are lessened; you get sick, but less severely and for a shorter duration.

Yet in July the CDC stopped tracking the spread of Swine Flu and created a new reporting system. The rationale was: why waste resources testing for H1N1 flu when the government has already confirmed there's an epidemic? The new reporting system, up and running as of Oct. 1, lumps together all influenza-like illness including influenza A (of which Swine flu is one) pneumonia, and influenza B. As an example: I was looking at the U.S. statistics for the week of Oct 10-17 on the CDC website. There were 12,943 cases tested for influenza nationally, 4,844 were positive for H1N1, 11 were Influenza B, the rest (8,000) were undetermined. If 8,000, or 2/3, of tests performed were negative for Swine Flu, where is the epidemic? And why are we lumping together all influenza-like illness (ILI) when we haven't even hit the high season for Influenza B yet? And what about the other 8,000 unidentified illnesses? Aren't they the cause of most illness?

A study released by Purdue University Researchers and published in the Oct. 15 edition of the European Scientific Journal Eurosurveillance, claims that at this point the vaccine will have little effect on the number of infections because as much of 60% of the population has already been infected. The researchers went on to report that up to 60% of seasonal influenza infections are asymptomatic. That means that one may not present with classic flu symptoms, or have any symptoms at all, but will still be building antibodies against the seasonal virus.
Yet, although the CDC is no longer counting cases, they are recommending that anyone with "presumed" H1N1 without a lab test, even if diagnosed by a doctor, still get the H1N1 vaccine.

So let me make sure I got this right: the CDC stopped counting H1N1 cases in August saying that it wasted too many resources to keep up with the mounting pandemic, so they suggested that all influenza-like-illness be lumped into one category. Many, including CBS news after three months of investigation, believe that H1N1 numbers are overestimated as the cause of most ILI this fall. And the Purdue researchers say that most folks have already been exposed to H1N1 and as a result the timing of vaccine so late in the pregression of the epidemic may not prove to help quell numbers at all. The CDC says that Swine Flu numbers are underrepresented due to the small fraction of cases being tested and reported, suggesting that much higher numbers have been infected, yet still recommends mass-vaccination except in cases where one has had a positive H1N1 test.

If your head isn't spinning by now you aren't paying attention!!

Many scientists believe the cause of death in the Swine Flu pandemic of 1918 was primarily bacterial due to secondary illness, not viral. The theory is that the swine flu weakened the immune system making it more vulnerable to further attack by the regular slate of opportunistic pathogens such as respiratory syncytial virus, bocavirus, coronavirus and rhinovirus that cause the symptoms known as "influenza-like illness". It is common, in a flu season, to have no known cause for up to 2/3 of "flu" cases.

The other thing that really concerns me about this supposed epidemic and its relationship to the vaccine, is the protection, or immunity from liability, that the American government has granted the five vaccine manufacturers. If we are so certain about the efficacy and safety of this vaccine that we are putting our pregnant women and children on the front lines, why then aren't the vaccine manufacturers held responsible?

Ultimately I believe that the public health goal is a noble one, to protect the rights and lives of all people. I believe that individuals, under expert advisement, should make their own decisions about their health, not the government. I believe that there is no better way for the American Government to ensure the safety of the American people than by educating them about their health options and empowering them to choose what is best for themselves and their children. So far we still have that freedom despite the current pressure of the U.S. vaccine campaign. Let's stick our necks out and make ourselves uncomfortable to keep it that way.