Homeopathy Papers

Soccer Moms, Heads Up!

Written by Elaine Lewis

Homeopathy can help with soccer injuries, according to Kelly, Queen of the Soccer Moms. Homeopathic remedies include Arnica, which is a specific for blunt trauma. French soccer team doctor Jean-Marcel Ferret: “The greatest value [of homeopathy] in sports? Its speed of action”

It has been brought to my attention that practically every child in America is playing soccer!

You have no idea how fraught with danger this sport is–according to Kelly, Queen of the Soccer Moms!  Kelly, where are you?

Right.  Ok.  Here’s what your little soccer player can anticipate–according to Kelly:

Heat/dehydration, heat exhaustion, asthma/breathlessness from too much running, ailments from high winds–hot or cold, high anxiety before games, injuries, broken bones, broken teeth, lips (taking a kicked ball in the mouth), bitten tongues, head injuries from falls and collisions with other kids’ heads, bee and wasp stings, sand in the eyes, fingers in the eyes, kicks in the shins, broken ankles, sprained ankles, and sprained hands and fingers from trying to break a fall…what more could you ask for?

And they’re not even being paid to do this, it’s all for “fun”!  Yikes!  OK, I don’t pretend to understand this–wait a minute, yes I do, I used to play soccer as a kid myself!  But luckily, homeopathy can help!  If you don’t believe me, ask the French soccer team doctor from 1993 to 2004, including the World Cup championship team of 1998, who said:

“The greatest value [of homeopathy] in sports? Its speed of action.  I can use homeopathic medicines like Arnica directly on the soccer field.”–Dr. Jean-Marcel Ferret./1

So without any further ado, what remedies should you have with you on the soccer field?  Well, obviously, do you have a homeopathy Emergency Kit?  If not, please get one!  Go on Amazon or just do a search for “Homeopathy Remedy Kits”.

We might as well start with Arnica, as, without a doubt, Arnica has almost single-handedly made homeopathy famous!  It’s our premier injury remedy; I would say seventy to eighty percent of the time, you’re going to give Arnica for sports injuries; that’s because Arnica is a specific for blunt trauma!

 

Every homeopath carries Arnica with him (or her) in his (or her) pocket or car or backpack or all three.  That’s certainly the case with me.  I have Arnica 10M in my pocket, Arnica 30C in my first aid kit in my backpack and Arnica 200C in my car. What can you do with Arnica?  Practically anything!  Think of it in car accidents, falls, head injuries, any blow, a sore bruised feeling from any cause–even a flu with a sore bruised feeling all over the body.

The worst head injuries where the person is seeing stars or has actually been knocked out can be brought back to health with a dose of Arnica. Post surgically, people who have taken Arnica have had no, or very little, need for morphine or other pain relievers; now that’s impressive!  And I was one of those people once, so I know it’s true.  But you have to have the right potency, for heaven’s sake!  I wouldn’t bother with less than a 200C for the soccer field; or, OK, let me amend that.  Give your Arnica 30C; but HAVE the 200C in your possession in case the 30C doesn’t act or hold!  200C is 6 or 7 times stronger than 30C.  Save it for your really serious injuries.

Some of you may be wondering what Arnica, or any homeopathic remedy for that matter, looks like and in answer, the remedies look like little sugar granules and you can drop them directly into your mouth and let them melt; or, drop a few of them in a bottle of spring water, shake it up and take a sip.  That’s all you have to do!  Always shake the water bottle before each dose.  An unconscious person can take the remedy by mere contact of the water with his lips, he doesn’t have to swallow it!

Arnica

Blunt trauma, pain from blunt trauma..

Wounds with a jagged surface, ragged wounds.

Bruises or bruised feeling.  Great soreness.

Broken bones, multiple fractures–give Arnica first; you may have to follow with another remedy.  In fact, an injured person may need many remedies in succession; a remedy for fright, followed by a remedy for blunt trauma and so on.  (Try to leave space between each remedy so that you can ascertain the effect of the remedy just given.)

Sprains.

Strains.

Falls, accidents.

Swelling from injury.

Injury to the throat, hoarseness, loss of voice from shouting, “Hey, I’m open!!!”

Nosebleed from injury.

Ailments from over-running/too much running–asthma, nausea, etc.

Head injury, any ailment after head injury.

Another curious thing about Arnica is they won’t look well and will be dazed, but they’ll tell you they’re fine!  They don’t seem to know they’re injured!  When you see this, they need Arnica for sure! Furthermore, in a head injury, they may answer you correctly and then nod off. Arnica people don’t want to be touched, so they’ll send you away and they’ll be very adamant about it.

In counter-distinction to Arnica, we have another injury remedy that’s sure they are not fine!  In fact, they fear they’re going to die, and that remedy is…

Aconite

Fright, panic and fear are the main features of the Aconite injury–and that’s just the parents!  Yes, give the parents Aconite to calm them down!  You’ll look at the little soccer player after an injury and you’ll see that he’s frantic, groaning, tossing about, biting his fist in pain.  Notice your reaction, are you scared?  Then it’s probably Aconite.

Any ailment or injury with fear as a concomitant is Aconite.

Inability to act or think.

Fear, anxiety attacks, before an event (like a soccer game).

Sudden sore throat after being exposed to cold/dry winds.  (Or hot/dry winds too!)

Any ailment after exposure to cold dry winds (and even hot dry winds as I just said).

They call Aconite “The Arnica of the eyes”.  So, getting poked in the eye, corneal abrasions, sand in the eyes, “there’s something in my eye!”, etc., give Aconite.

And speaking of the eyes, for “black eyes” we have…

Ledum

Black eye, injury to the soft tissue around the eye.

Injuries with dark bruising that feel cold and are better for cold applications.  Bruises are very painful with pitting edema and a mottled bruise color.

Cellulitis that spreads upward.

Puncture wounds, animal bites, will prevent tetanus, with deep soreness and swelling of 2 or 3 inches, deep red and painful, needs ice.  The Ledum patient will be much worse if you remove the ice for even a second!

Any time an injured part feels cold, give Ledum.  In a Ledum wound, you will see redness at the site, but surrounded by a ring of powder, or a ring that’s bluish-white; it may feel cold and the injury is ameliorated by cold.

Speaking of black eye, we can’t forget…

Symphytum

If I could possibly quote from Dr. Robin Murphy here, “For blows to the eye, Ledum and Symphytum are the first two; Arnica is #3.  For severe aching in the whole eyeball that is dark blue and discolored. … For all the bone diseases, broken bones, fractures; osteomyelitis, bone ulcers, spinal diseases after trauma and injury.  If there’s bone pain, you gotta think of Symphytum!  The American Indians called Symphytum “knit-bone”.  Someone gets hit in the face on the cheek, that is not an Arnica case; it is a Symphytum or Ruta case.  Arnica is for soft tissue.  Arnica may help but Symphytum will cure. … You get hit in the abdomen or arm, that is more Arnica.  The chin, cheek, face or eye is more Symphytum.  The knee would be Symphytum or Ruta.  You can start with Arnica but a lot of times, that won’t finish it.  You may have to give two or three remedies in sequence to give rapid relief.  Give Arnica to remove the bruised feeling and the swelling and help with the discoloration, then it is time to go to another remedy, like Symphytum, to finish it. … Symphytum has a great affinity for bones…promotes healing; give Arnica first; once the [broken] bone is set, give Symphytum.  It helps remove pain, inflammation and swelling, good for injury to periosteum when Ruta fails and injury to coccyx when Hypericum fails.”/2

This just in from my friend Gabi:  She fell off her bike and fractured a rib.  Very painful.  She took Arnica.  When Arnica stopped working she moved on to Bryonia which worked great but it, too, stopped working despite raising the potency.  There was a lot of pain.  In desperation, Gabi moved on to Symphytum 10M and all the pain went away!

Order your high potencies, everybody, this is what they’re for!

Hypericum

This is the nerve remedy.  Have you ever dropped something on your toe or someone stepped on your fingers or the door closed on your hand and the pain shot up your arm?  That’s Hypericum! Injury to areas rich in nerves.  Someone steps on your toes, you bite your tongue.  The pain is sharp and shooting.  Injury to the nerves, inflammation of the nerves.  Falls on the tail bone.

Puncture wounds with sharp pains, animal bites, insect stings with sharp pains.

Numbness and tingling.

Injury to the spine.

Pinched nerve.

Crush wounds

Any neurological condition after injury to the spine like convulsions.

Person complains that he can’t raise his arms without pain.

Lacerations.

Excessive painfulness.

Foreign body in the eye.

Calendula

A partner with Hypericum, often you’ll see the two of them sold together as “Hypercal” cream.  They’re both for cuts, open wounds, deep abrasions, multiple abrasions, chapping, chafing, bleeding, stabbing….I think you get the idea that Calendula is an Antiseptic!  Pour Calendula water (that’s a cup of water with a pellet of Calendula dropped in it) on an open wound to clean it out.  Drop some calendula pellets in a plant sprayer and spray the whole area that’s been abraded. Take the remedy internally as well.  It stops bleeding, stops the redness, puffiness and pus formation at the site of a wound and stimulates healing, soothes the pain.

Redness, rawness.

Abrasions in the eyes, foreign body in the eye, but give Hypericum if there is a lot of pain!

Prevents sepsis from setting in after being wounded and even if it already has set in, Calendula is still the remedy, but also consider Pyrogen.

Another good use for Calendula is the ruptured ear drum you might get from the coach yelling in your ear!

Staphysagria

It can be hard to decide when to use Staphysagria and when to use Calendula.  Both are wound remedies.  But with Staphysagria there is more pain, exquisite pain!  In fact, do you know where I use Staphysagria?  At the dentist’s office! Scraping the plaque off of sensitive teeth can cause a patient to hit the ceiling!  For this I take Staphysagria 10M right as I sit down in the dentist’s chair; and as homeopathic remedies don’t create the “drugged” feeling you get from pain killers, you can think that the remedy’s not doing anything, that the dentist just hasn’t gotten to your sensitive teeth yet; but, when the whole thing is over and you haven’t felt any pain, that’s when you know it really did work!  But back to sports injuries….. With Staphysagria, there is deeper infection than in Calendula, there is more pus and more pain.  The wound seems to affect the whole person.

Bryonia

Whatever the injury may be, whether it’s a broken bone, (and Bryonia is the #1 remedy for acute fractures), a bruise or a sprain, the reaction of the Bryonia person is always the same:  He can’t move!  Even the slightest movement causes a sharp pain!  Even breathing might make the pain worse, so he is breathing very shallowly.  Firm hard pressure gives him relief, an ace bandage gives relief.  He will want the area immobilized.  If for some reason Bryonia isn’t helping sufficiently in fractures, go to Eupatorium perf. for severe pain, or Symphytum.  (Eupatorium perf. is also a flu remedy where the main symptom is that the bones feel like they’re broken.)

Bryonia’s opposite is…

Rhus toxicodendron

(“Rhus tox” for short.)  Unlike Bryonia, Rhus tox has to move!  They cannot sit still!  They must stretch, walk about, squirm in their seat.  Usually with Rhus tox the injury is a sprain or strain.  They feel terrible stiffness, which is relieved by stretching, moving and is worse as soon as they sit for any length of time or lie down.  Moving helps them enormously, so does heat, hot bathing and massage.

Ruta

Ruta is an awful lot like Rhus tox.  Ruta has strains and sprains, an affinity for the tendons, and a feeling of stiffness and is also worse cold and better heat; but, Ruta wants to lie down and is better for lying down, which Rhus tox certainly is not; plus, Ruta’s stiffness is extreme; they’ll say it’s like being encased in cement!

Also, what Ruta is famous for is injuries to the shins and other areas that are thinly covered, like the forehead, chin, elbow, cheek bone–the periosteum, in other words.

Lachesis

Compound fractures, tremendous bruising which is black, or near black with oozing of dark blood, threatened infection, severe pain, burning pain, worse heat, worse pressure.  Do not even think of giving an ace bandage to a Lachesis patient!

Natrum sulph.

“Nat-sulph” is needed for the chronic syndrome following head injury or spinal injury which will almost always include severe depression.  Also, headache after head injury.

There may also be amnesia about the event.

Helleborus

Following head injury, a slowness or sluggishness, poor concentration, a lack of comprehension; the patient is in a mental fog; he may have a furrowed brow and a rolling of the head from side to side.

Apis

Bee stings, wasp stings.  Penetrating wounds that burn and sting as if they were bee or wasp stings.

Carbo veg.

The person is passing out from the injury.  Also, altitude sickness, when your team is traveling to areas of high altitude.

Gelsemium

The little soccer player is so nervous, so anxiety-ridden, before the game that he’s trembly, feeling weak, may have diarrhea and thinking that he’s “coming down with something” and not well enough to play.

Belladonna

The problem here is the heat.  Heatstroke, sunstroke, heat exhaustion.  The two back-up remedies for Belladonna in heatstroke are Glonoine and Natrum carb.

Bellis Perennis

Bellis is a back-up for Arnica.  They are both daisies, but Bellis is a deeper Arnica; it’s for bruised organs.  Imagine being kicked in the stomach or a female hit in the breast!  This would be Bellis.  There may also be lymph node enlargement after a trauma.  Bellis will ask for cold applications and is worse from heat.

Opium

You can only get Opium from Dana Ullman at www.homeopathic.com, though you can try Amazon.com and Ainsworths in London.  Every once in a while I find a remedy on Amazon that I can’t get anywhere else.  And P.S., by “Opium”, I mean Opium 30C, or 200C.  After Arnica, Opium is the most common remedy for head injury.  The person will have pin-point pupils, will be stuporous and unresponsive.  Face will be flushed, bloated, heavy, red, hot with an imbecilic look.

Ferrum phos.

Nose bleed of bright red blood.

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Potencies: Homeopathic remedies come in different potencies, generally the potencies go like this, from low to high:

6C, 12C, 30C, 200C, 1M, 10M, 50M and CM.

The idea is to match the potency to the severity of the injury.  A person who has been knocked out needs at least a dose Arnica 200C; but, for severe injuries, Arnica 10M may be needed and repeated as often as needed until the patient appears to be back to normal and out of pain; whereas a person with a bruise to his knee might just need a dose of Arnica 30C.  Even the 200C can do great work in a head injury; I once had a head injury where I was seeing stars and Arnica 200C brought me back to normal within five minutes, so this gives you an idea of how potent the 200C is.

So, you Soccer Moms should get together and pool your money, and I would buy at least a 30C remedy kit; though a 200C emergency kit might be better; and don’t worry because no one’s going to be without a remedy!  Homeopathic remedies clone themselves easily just by dropping a pellet into a bottle of water and voila! you’ve got a brand new remedy bottle! Yes, I know it doesn’t seem possible but it’s true!  Go to Natural Health Supply http://www.a2zhomeopathy.com/ or Amazon.com to buy remedy kits, dropper bottles, remedy boxes … they’ve got everything there.

Now the next thing you’re going to need is an acute prescribing book like this one, available at Amazon.com:

There’s a lot more to be said about these remedies than what I’ve listed here; for instance, Staphysagria is also for the resentment one feels after a game, making it hard to fall asleep.  (“No one ever passed me the ball!”)  And remember Coffea for inability to sleep due to excitement!  (“We won!!!!  We won!!!!”)  Plus there are other remedies I had to leave out because of limited space and time, but you’ll do well with what’s here.

Does everybody know what to do for an injury now?  Good!  (Just don’t tell the other team!)

 

News Flash!  This Just In!

Well, I had no idea!  Thousands of athletic fields in the country are made out of artificial turf!  This doesn’t surprise me, really; but, artificial turf isn’t the same as it used to be!  It is now “cushioned” with ground-up pieces of tire called “Crumb Rubber”.  The problem is, this stuff is toxic and contains carcinogens like arsenic, benzene and cadmium.  Record numbers of soccer players are coming down with cancer, especially lymphoma and especially goalies who are more likely to be rolling around on the ground and getting the “crumb rubber” in their mouths, noses and in open cuts.  I always found the idea of “plastic grass” to be horrifying; but, I never thought it could possibly get any worse.  I would suggest you soccer moms start organizing for a return to good old GRASS! 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/how-safe-artificial-turf-your-child-plays-n220166

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1. Homeopathy Today, Aug. 2005, p. 54

2. Robin Murphy, ND; Fundamentals of Materia Medica, p. 515-517.

About the author

Elaine Lewis

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.
Elaine is a passionate homeopath, helping people offline as well as online. Contact her at [email protected]
Elaine is a graduate of Robin Murphy's Hahnemann Academy of North America and author of many articles on homeopathy including her monthly feature in the Hpathy ezine, "The Quiz". Visit her website at:
https://elainelewis.hpathy.com/ and TheSilhouettes.org

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