Arnica After Surgery? Or Before?
If one has Arnica only in 200c and/or 1M to use after surgery, I assume it will need frequent redosing (if first dose doesn’t hold). Are you saying these high doses will need to be taken in water?
Yes, any time you plan to take repeated doses of a remedy, it should be in water so you can succuss a few times before each dose. This raises the potency so you won’t develop a “tolerance” to it or cause an accidental antidote. However, don’t repeat mindlessly. If the first dose has worked, no need to repeat unless you’ve started to relapse. It’s not like the more you take, the better you get! It’s more like, the more you dose, the more likely you are to aggravate or spoil the case! There has to be a reason to repeat a remedy. If it’s already working, stop dosing!
Is it helpful to take Arnica, for example, a few hours before the surgery?
No, I wouldn’t do anything knowingly that might keep the anesthesia from working — that would be a disaster!
And how soon after the surgery can the remedies can be taken?
Arnica as soon as possible.
Dishwasher Safe?
If you put a remedy in a glass of water, and the glass is washed in a dishwasher, would dishwasher detergent antidote or wash away a remedy?
We have no way of knowing if the dishwasher will de-activate a remedy! I think our pharmacies really need to step-up and develop a testing method, something that will “beep” if a remedy is active in a glass. Or litmus paper that will turn green if water in a glass has a remedy in it. (I hope our great scientific minds out there are listening! This is long over-due!)
The Cell Salts
I wanted to ask a quick question about cell salts – I have them in 6X but should I get them in 30X too? I also want to give a few to my best friend who has a 10 and 5 year old child – should I get 6X or 30X potency?
Cell salts are just basic homeopathic mineral remedies in the 6X potency. Most, if not all, of these remedies have their own provings, such as Calc-fluor., Calcarea phos., Calcarea sulph., Nat-sulph, Silica, Nat-mur, Ferrum phos., Mag-phos… and Mag phos., for example, as you know, is one of our main remedies for menstrual cramps. Ferrum phos. is often needed at the beginning of any cold to stop it in its tracks, especially if it’s a sore throat.
When I started in homeopathy, back in the ’70’s, the health food store only sold the cell salts–no other remedies! I bought 2 books on the subject…
…and took note that Ferrum phos. 6X was recommended to be taken every 15 minutes at the start of a cold. I found that this actually worked!!! But as time went on and I got a hold of the 30C’s, I found that Ferrum phos. 30C worked even faster than Ferrum phos. 6X, and that Ferrum phos. 200C worked fastest of all! Ferrum phos. 200C is now my go-to remedy for the start of any cold and I can’t even tell you when the last time was that I had a cold–that made it past the preliminary stage, thanks to Ferrum phos!
I say all this to point out that the so-called cell salts are really just 12 of our most common remedies! Now, I will say this, the lower your potency, (6X), the less “on-target” you have to be with your remedy selection; hence, a “cell-salt” can cover a wide variety of illnesses! So, when you’re not sure what remedy to give in a case, chances are a cell salt given 4 times a day has a good chance of being able to undo a person’s pathology; for example, Calcarea phos. 6X for osteoporosis, Silica 6X for thin, brittle nails, Nat-mur 6X for dry hair, and so on.
Dr. Schussler, founder of the cell salts, one day determined that when a body was cremated, the minerals left in the ashes were Silica, Calcium phosphate, Potassium phosphate, Natrum muriaticum, and 8 others, 12 altogether. Because of that, he concluded that these 12 “cell salts”, or minerals, were all you would ever need to cure a disease, so, he had a practice of using only the 12 cell salts.
I simply prefer to take a case and find out which remedy a person needs, rather than limit myself and ask only, “Which cell salt does this person need?” But I guess if you’re stuck in a case, you don’t know what to do, you can ask that question and give a cell salt rather than just doing nothing!
Your friend with a 10 and 5 year old needs a basic 30C Emergency Kit, which you can order from www.a2zhomeopathy.com, and an acute prescribing book. Maybe if she sees just once how Ferrum phos. 30C stops a cold right at the beginning, maybe she’ll want to learn more about homeopathy.
How to Give Your Symptoms to a Homeopath
Elaine, my mother has the same pain, the costochondritis is there. I can barely touch her sternum … it is not gone yet … so it needs to be resolved still…. lets get this pain away, I think this should be gone and if ongong assistance should be determined later…What do you want me to write so this can be effectively resolved?
I’ll tell you how things are listed in the repertory. In your mother’s case, I would go to the “Chest” chapter. The rubrics are listed by sensation first, then the location, then the modalities; so, for example, you’ll see: “Chest: cutting pain, sternum, motion agg.” Or, “Chest: dull pain, sternum, touch agg.” and so on; the idea being that you have to know the kind of pain (sensation) and what makes it better or worse (the modalities). So, this means I need to know the kind of pain or sensation she has (sharp, dull, achy, and so on), the location which we know is the sternum, and the modalities, such as “worse touch”, which we already know about, but there may be others that you haven’t thought of. And you will save a lot of back-and-forth time with me if you’ll just remember that for every symptom you give me, start with the sensation, then comes the location, then the modalities.
Then, if you can remember this too, the concomitants, meaning there may be something “along with” the symptom, possibly a mental, like “crying” or “anxiety”, or “restlessness”. If it’s a discharge of some sort, always say what’s striking about it. It could be that it’s yellow or watery or stringy or that it itches or burns. A lot to remember, I know, but, imagine how much time we’ll save if I don’t have to ask any follow-up questions because you’ll have said it already the first time. Also, if you gave a remedy, don’t just say you gave a remedy, say what it did, what the results were. Then I won’t need to follow up with, “What happened after you gave the remedy?”
Miasms
Elaine, what can be the reason/cause behind a quick relapse of symptoms in 2-3 hrs after my daughter takes the remedy?
Reasons for possible relapsing of remedies after short intervals:
1) Potency too low.
2) Complaint is very aggressive, virulent.
3) The remedy is close-fitting but not spot-on.
4) You’re treating a layer that’s not the top layer.
5) There is a “maintaining cause”; for example, what causes the complaint is constantly being reintroduced.
6) Miasm layer needs to be removed. What is a miasm, you ask? It’s a complicated question as there is no easy answer. Easiest answer: A suppressed infection/ a subclinical infection. Classic example in homeopathy: the gonorrheal miasm or what we call “Sycosis” (a Greek word meaning fig wart, meaning this miasm is noted for a tendency to form warts). Here we have a gonorrhea patient who is treated with antibiotics; the gonorrheal discharge disappears and all seems to be well; BUT, now the patient is said to have the gonorrheal miasm; namely, gonorrhea without any of the outward signs!
Here’s what you would look for: a tendency to get warts and moles, discharges (runny nose, sinus infections, post-nasal drip, etc.), a tendency to confusion of mind, inability to pay attention, erratic behavior, craving for sweets and ice cold drinks, lax morals, hedonistic lifestyle, etc. You would have to figure that if the right remedy was given for this, the original discharge would come back; but, the post nasal drip, confusion, lax morals, etc. would all go away.
So, in conclusion, a suppressed infection or suppressed eruptions, etc. can lead to a sub-clinical state called a miasm. Another definition of miasm–simply stated–would be an infectious disease. They call these “acute miasms”, any communicable disease like measles, chicken pox, etc. Suppressed gonorrhea, as described above, would be called a “chronic miasm”. Chronic miasms do not resolve as acute ones do. They just grow and grow, worsening and worsening with only the correct remedy as a way of stopping it.
So, OK, having said that much, getting back to the original question of why would a case contantly relapse after a few hours, it’s like a person with a sinus infection takes Kali bich and it works great but there is constant relapsing. It might suggest the need for a dose of Medorrhinum for the underlying miasm, then finally Kali bich might cure the case, because the case was REALLY one of suppressed gonorrhea and not chronic sinusitis, per se. Kali bich. may have matched the totality of symptoms, but didn’t take into account the cause, and therefore, the case keeps relapsing. SO………..you might say, in all cases, you’re better off if you can determine the actual cause of the complaint and make sure the remedy covers that. OR, that eventually, down the line, you know that the layer that embodies the cause will surface, and you can be ready for it when that happens, with your dose of Medorrhinum, for example. Oh, and I may not have mentioned that Medorrhinum is a homeopathic remedy made out of a gonorrheal discharge.
Don’t Reuse Your Remedy Solution Bottle!
Hello Elaine,
I would like to comment on your article “Before Starting Homeopathy, Read This”
OK.
You say: “When you’re finished with your RSB (remedy solution bottle, meaning any water bottle you dropped a remedy into), throw it away and start a new remedy with a new bottle.”
I simply mean, don’t use the same bottle over and over again! If you’ve got an RSB (water bottle with a Lycopodium pellet in it, for example) and you need to take Calc-carb next, don’t dump out your Lycopodium bottle and refill with water, figuring you’ll use it for Calc-carb now! That bottle is STILL Lycopodium, even though you dumped it out! Buy a new spring water bottle to start your Calc-carb.
And P.S. Some people have actually said to me, “What is spring water?” All I’m saying is, you need a water bottle. Maybe it’s not “spring water” per se. I simply want you to go to the store and buy a small bottle of water, something like this:
Pour some of it off the top to make room for succussion. Drop a remedy pellet in it, and voila! you’ve got an RSB!
____________________________
Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.
Elaine takes online cases! Write to her at [email protected]
Visit her website: https://elaineLewis.hpathy.com
I loved your article, especially your answer about miasms. You have a way to explain simple and to the point the most difficult things!
I just love this!
Thanks, Maria!!!