Best of Health

People often ask if they can use homeopathy at home. The answer is yes. But illnesses and injuries happen at unpredictable times, usually when you can’t get the homeopathic remedies that you need. The pharmacies sell kits but if you haven’t got one, start your own. Store them in glass bottles, not plastic. They last for years. I’ve used a bottle of Nux Vomica that was 100+ years old with immediate good effect. Get 30 potency which is widely available and the most useful strength. You can buy them in many non specialist shops but to be sure that you have a good source of well cared for remedies, buy them from a homeopathic pharmacy like Helios or Ainsworth’s. See below for details.

1. Aconite for Sudden things
The keynote word of this remedy is SUDDENLY. If you SUDDENLY feel like you’ve got a cold, cough, fever, headache; if you SUDDENLY have a shock or fright. It is a remedy to use when the onset is quick and the reaction is strong.

2. Apis for Hot, Stinging, Swollen things
Made from a bee sting so it is not surprising that the symptoms it is used to treat are of affections which are SWOLLEN, HOT and STINGING. Affections that feel better for cool or cold applications and worse for heat. It doesn’t matter if these affections are on the skin (like a sting or rash) in your throat (like tonsillitis) or in your eye (like oedema or conjunctivitis). Wherever there are those symptoms Apis is your remedy.

3. Arnica for bruised things
If you are only going to have one remedy make this your homeopathy at home choice. The remedy everyone knows about, Arnica is the first remedy to think about after a fall or accident when someone has a BRUISED or beaten pain and when their initial response is ‘keep away from me’. But it is also a good remedy for jet lag, that NOT-QUITE-HERE feeling that some people get when they travel across several time zones. I’m one of those people and I take one Arnica 200 every hour while I’m flying.

4. Arsenicum for Restless Anxious people
Arsenicum Album is white arsenic and it is used when, whatever the situation, food poisoning, colds or flu, diarrhoea, aches and pains, the sensation is a burning pain and it is better for warmth (hot drinks, warm applications), accompanied with ANXIETY, RESTLESSNESS, a need for order and a desire NOT to be left alone.

5. Belladonna for Very Hot people
As fever and sunstroke remedy Belladonna more often relevant for children than adults because there has to be a high degree of fever. People who need it might be hallucinating with fever. They are going to be very red, VERY HOT (you can feel the heat coming off them) and glassy eyed. It is well-known for the symptom of enlarged pupils. And it was used to create this affect in times gone by.

6. Hypericum for super painful injuries
A remedy associated with a lot of pain or injury to a nerve-rich area of the body like finger nail beds. The degree of pain experienced often feels OUT OF PROPORTION to the injury done. It is often needed in lacerations or puncture wounds.

7. Gelsemium for Fluey Droopy symptoms
Sometimes thought of as the number one colds and flu remedy, Gels has some typical flu symptoms like shivering up and down the spine, dull headache, HEAVY EYELIDS, achy joints all over a DROOPY feeling. (If you symptoms come on like a steam train, this is NOT your remedy.) It is also a great remedy for exam nerves and STAGE FRIGHT.

8. Ignatia for Emotional Shock
This is a remedy for people in shock. Not a physical shock that you might see in Arnica or Aconite, but an EMOTIONAL SHOCK. The feeling of this remedy is disbelief. And disbelief leads to experiencing the shock again and again. Crying and sighing. People needing it often can’t swallow properly because they have the feeling of a lump in the throat that is obstructing everything.

9. Ledum for Cold Puncture Wounds
Another puncture wound remedy. This time for PUNCTURE WOUNDS that do not bleed much or sufficie ntly. That can become BLUISH, PUFFY AND COLD. The odd symptom that is a keynote of this remedy is a cold wound that feels better for cold applications.

10. Nux Vomica for Irritable people with Upset Guts
Known as a HANGOVER REMEDY, I think that is misleading. Nux Vomica is for use when you feel very unwell as a result of overdoing it or food poisoning. Often there is a feeling of needing to ‘get rid’ of what you’ve eaten. Like food poisoning when you can’t throw up or you don’t get diarrhoea. So all this turmoil is going on inside and you know that if you could get it out you would feel better. NB in the case of Arsenicum there might be similar symptoms but everything is coming out (vomiting and diarrhoea) and where Arsenicum feels frightened and wants company, Nux Vomica is IRRITABLE and wants to be left undisturbed.

I hope this is useful. There are plenty of books that can tell you more about how to use homeopathy at home and cover in more detail how to choose and use remedies. If you don’t react to the remedy you’ve selected, please go and see a professional. It’s not the remedy not working, it’s just the wrong choice.

What’s your experience? What do you think?

Helios Pharmacy
89-97 Camden Rd
Tunbridge Wells
Kent
TN1 2QR
Opening times
Monday to Friday: 9:30am-5:30pm
Saturday: 10am-2pm
Email
order@helios.co.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)1892 537254 (14 lines)
+44 (0)1892 536393 (24 hours)

Ainsworth’s Pharmacy
36 New Cavendish Street
London
W1G 8UF
Opening times
Monday to Friday: 9am to 6pm
Saturday: 9am to 4pm
Email
london@ainsworths.com
Telephone
+44 (0)20 7935 5330

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