Homeopathy Papers

Questions Patients Ask-27

Written by Elaine Lewis

Questions patients and students ask about homeopathy and natural healing

GAS ATTACK!

 

 Elaine, do you know of any natural remedy (not homeopathic) that can help with foul smelling gas and flatulence?  I am having a lot of hot gas pains which are driving me crazy.

Activated Charcoal.

 

New Remedy?  New Bottle!

 Elaine, I’ve heard you say: “When you’re finished with an RSB, 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 for remedy-after-remedy!

If you’ve got an RSB (remedy solution bottle; or, more simply, a water bottle) with Lycopodium in it, and you need to take Calc-carb next, don’t dump out your Lycopodium bottle, refill with water, and drop a Calc-carb pellet in it.  That bottle is STILL Lycopodium, even though you dumped it out!  Buy a new water bottle to start Calc-carb.

And you might say, “Who puts remedies into water bottles?”  Well, I do; and so does Hahnemann!  Hahnemann, in aphorism 247 of The Organon, is quite clear that every remedy should be succussed a number of times before each dose, and you can only do that if your remedy is in water.  (However, remember that you can’t succuss a full bottle; so, pour some off the top first.)

 

Speaking of Lachesis….

 Gabi, I’ve written an article called “Let’s Look At Lachesis”.  Since you told me your mother was a Lachesis, could you read my article and tell me if I’ve got it right?

I read the article complete now, Elaine.  Everything matches.  My mother was very psychic knew when I would be calling or guessed what people were going to do or were thinking.

Ugh!  I forgot to add clairvoyance, I’ll have to edit that in!

She was addicted to sleeping pills, she was an alcoholic.  She also had intolerance of heat.

I forgot about that too!

She was always too hot and only lived in an air conditioned room during the summer.

Incredible cruelty and lying yes…manipulative; will cry one minute and attack you the next.

Charming!  Yeah, that’s Lachesis alright!

She also choked often with these extreme air conditioning things and had pneumonia more than once.  I once treated her from Canada over the phone with Lachesis and cured her of many acutes although she called me a witch once when you and I were treating that man with the heart condition back home (you might not remember this).

You’re right, I don’t.

I eventually stopped talking to her.  She lured my daughter who now lives with her.  She put her against me…

They do that.

She would often surround herself with less educated and dependent people who were addicted to her money or her influence but everyone secretly hated her…

Sounds exactly like the sycophants in the Trump White House!

I could keep going…

Thanks, it’s been an education.

 

Root Canals?

 Can I ask your thoughts on root canals?

They caused me a lot of trouble!  All of them ultimately got infected and the infection spread to other teeth.  Lost a lot of teeth that way.  From what I read, it’s impossible to really clean the root of bacteria 100%, so, when the root is filled back in, it entombs the remaining bacteria; they somehow find their way out and into your system.  I can’t recommend it.

 

Disastrous Prescribing: A Case of Lyme Disease

Hello Elaine,

Hi “Mandy”, sorry you had to wait so long!  I had an unusual day, to say the least; came home and crashed on the couch!

I have been reading at your site for a couple of days, now and am seeing I made a bad choice of a homeopath.  I apologize if this is too long, but I wanted to be sure I was clear so that you could tell me if you could help me.

Well, it’s my job.  I don’t turn anyone down.

I recently started working with a practical homeopath…

What on earth is a “practical homeopath”?

…for chronic lyme disease and more.  She prescribes multiple remedies in 200c doses or higher to be taken 2 times a day on a daily basis.

Dear God!  What the heck????  There is literally no foundation for this kind of reckless prescribing!

The 200C potency is something that you’d take one time and wait for a result before doing anything else.  But you’d never start a Lyme case off with a 200C.  I don’t want to say categorically “never”.  You’d want to start with a 6C three times a day with the advisory that if there was an aggravation, you’d stop dosing right away.  Secondly, you give one remedy at a time, at least until such time as you’re able to ascertain whether or not it’s working before deciding what to do next.

A month ago I had a reaction to one of the remedies, I believe Lycopodium 200c that was mixed with Arsenicum Album 3c.

What?  A combo of Lycopodium 200 and Arsenicum 3C?  What on earth?!!!

I had skin burning, head burning, head pain (top and frontal), ear burning…

I’m not surprised!  Arsenicum causes burning!

…dizziness, gassy, loose stools…

Lycopodium causes gas.

…anxiety…

Arsenicum causes anxiety.  You were “proving” these remedies, meaning you were taking on their “over-dose” symptoms.

…chest tightness; just a very bad reaction.  Everyone says homeopathy is harmless.  I don’t know why they say that.  I guess nothing is harmless when used incorrectly.  Some of these symptoms I initially had and had been helped/lessened with treatment, but were now back all at once and in increased intensity.  She had me stop two of the remedies — Lycopodium 200c and Lachesis 200c.

Lachesis too?????

She had me take Camphor 200c to cancel it out, but I ended up with more burning and I needed additional remedies to get through it.  Weeks passed and things somewhat stabilized.

That’s a miracle in itself!

Just a couple of weeks ago I followed up with her and she made changes.  She decided to try Lycopodium again.

The same scenario played out with the above symptoms.  I do not know if the Lycopodium is the only one to blame as she had me on numerous remedies.

Oh dear God!  First of all, can I just state the obvious?  The homeopathic treatment for Lyme Disease is very simple.  The remedy is Ledum!  Why?  It’s our “Ailments from insect bites” remedy!  If only this were given right away, you might have been spared so much agony.  There were times that I alternated between Ledum and Hypericum, our other main insect bite remedy, when I saw symptoms that matched Hypericum better, such as shooting pains.

I started these last Friday:

  1. Ignatia 200C – Two doses every day *
  2. Rhus tox 1M – Two doses every day
  3. Symphytum 200C mixed with Calc phos 3X – Two doses every day *
  4. Hypericum 200C mixed with Arsenicum 200C – Two doses every day
  5. Lycopodium 200C – Two doses every day
  6. Merc viv 30C – Two doses every day *
  7. Nux vomica 200C – One dose every day *
  8. Calc carb 200C – One dose every other day *
  9. Sepia 200C – One dose every 3 days

Mother of God!  This is totally reckless, insane and arbitrary prescribing!  I hope you’ve stopped taking them.  You know, if you went to a doctor, and you said, “I have Lyme Disease,” and he said “OK, here are your prescriptions: Prevacid, Nexium, Myrbetric, Keflex, Amoxicillin, Prozac, Prednisone, Taltz, Lipitor, Bactrim, Xanax and Crestor, take two capsules every day twice a day and call me in a month,” you’d probably say, “Are you really a doctor?  Because this sounds like you’re simply playing one on TV!”  But somehow, homeopaths get away with this!  I have to tell you, Mandy, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this nonsensical, random prescribing.  It’s not as rare as you might think!  Someone once asked Julian Winston (editor of Homeopathy Today), “Don’t you think more people should prescribe according to the 6th edition of the Organon?” and Julian said, “I’d be happy if people prescribed according to ANY edition of the Organon!”

I have been working with her for 2 months.  The ones listed above are ones I started last Friday.  Some are carried over from mid May (the ones with asterisks); I also took Arnica 200C and Nat Mur 3x.

Might as well throw them in for good measure!

So, in addition to the above symptoms, I feel the stomach ones have been building.  The loose gassy stools are something I have never had.  I started burping just the other day.  My stomach has started to burn, which is something from my past.

I stopped all the remedies.

Good!

She wanted me to take Camphora again, but I am refusing to since last time I took the camphor, the burning got even worse.  I have been sniffing mint for 4 days now.  Not sure much is changing though, but a few more symptoms are popping up.  I am not totally sure which ones are contributing to this aggravation.

Well, like I said, burning sounds like Arsenicum and gassiness sounds like Lycopodium.

I apologize if I wrote too much, but I was wondering if you had any advice on my current situation.  Any advice you can provide me for handling what is happening, the burning especially, dizziness, head burning, and stomach issues, is greatly appreciated.

What homeopath did this?

The homeopath is ______________.

Yes, I know who she is.

I had reached a real desperate state.  I happened on her some years back, but for some reason did not go with her and chose a different homeopath _____________, instead.

I know her too.

She used liquid remedies, but more than one at a time and suggested supplements.  Again, there was aggravation and I was again on my own with aggravation as she was hard to get a hold of.

Well that’s just great!

Some years before her (close to the beginning of my whole illness), I worked with a local classical homeopath.  He spent a good 2+ hours for the initial visit.  He prescribed one remedy at a time and I would come back in a month for a followup and get a new remedy.  At one point I had a UTI.  He tried multiple remedies to clear this, but none worked and ended up suggesting I go to urgent care and I ended up with an antibiotic to clear it which aggravated my Lyme terribly.

Just a heads-up: Vitamin C is great for UTI’s, high doses, at least 2,000 mg.  I wouldn’t be without vitamin C, so valuable!  But go on.

I sensed frustration from him at this point.  This is the same frustration I sensed from __________ and _________.  If things go wrong, they seem to want to blame me even though I was doing what they suggested.

“Blame the patient”; gee, I can’t find that in the Organon anywhere!

I never blamed them, although this time around I am blaming __________.  Even though she finally got back to me on Tuesday this week, she has been no help.  I feel like I am talking to someone who has nothing to offer me.  She has no idea how to fix this other than camphor and I will not do it.  I feel like one of these times I am going to mentally become incapacitated from the level of panic/anxiety that happens from these aggravations.  Anyway, back to the UTI – it became a chronic problem.  Every time I had sex, I got a UTI.

That’s Staphysagria.

Before that, I think maybe I had 1 UTI in my life, if that.  I have not had sex since then because I do not take prescription medications.  At this point, even if I could have sex, there has been too much damage to my marriage from being sick and I don’t have the energy, but I am pretty sure another UTI would occur.  Got off on a tangent there – sorry.

So, I think out of desperation I chose ______________.  You asked what “practical homeopathy” is?  This is a direct quote from her: Practical Homeopathy™ is based on the Banerji protocols.  It uses specific medicines for specific diseases, which are diagnosed by using conventional diagnostics.  Although she says specific diseases, she was insistent she did not believe in chronic Lyme.  I told her my concerns about aggravation and she was adamant there would be no aggravation…

What???  Is she psychic too?  That’s amazing!  Well guess what?  That’s something you can never know!  It’s absurd to make the statement “There won’t be an aggravaton.”

There would be no aggravation, according to her, because I would take a dose in the morning and just as things would start up again…

Things?

…the second dose in the evening would stop it.

Would stop the “things”.  OK, I think I’ve heard just about enough.

I tried to get across to her how sensitive I was and my concern about using 200c’s, but she was confident things would be fine.

But things have already not been fine!

The first week things were promising.  Symptoms were decreasing and some were going away, like the daily rib pain, just gone.

You know, Mandy, it could be because one of her many remedies on that list was Hypericum, which I’ve said before is one of our main remedies for Lyme Disease, that alone could explain the improvement you had.  But the only way to describe this kind of prescribing, at best, is “hit-and-miss”.  Unfortunately, along with the improvements came the proving symptoms from all the other random remedies.

Head pains decreased.  I could bend forward without intense pain.  Anxiety reduced.  I drove a car for the first time in 5 years.  I was about 5 days into it, then I got my period, and everything just went bad.  Some symptoms were exacerbated, some new ones were appearing, and some old symptoms were coming back.  From there on, it was a new remedy here to try to fix this, a new remedy there to fix that….  Some stabilizing, but mostly chaos; I just stopped remedies on my own and minimized what I was taking that I would get some relief.

What a shame!  No hope of managing a case when you’re using so many remedies, you can’t say what’s working and what’s not.  If she had thought to stop her remedies and treat your period symptoms, you might not have tanked.  Can you imagine?  A simple case of Lyme disease.  Rx: Hypericum.  Patient’s symptoms change to PMS; stop Hypericum, switch to Sepia or other appropriate remedy; then return to Hypericum after PMS has resolved.  This is how comprehensible it should be.

Other than homeopathy, I did antibiotics, but it was in the very beginning when I was diagnosed with Lyme and was uninformed, but even though it was only for a couple of months, I accumulated symptoms during that time and still have to this day that come and go, may be here for a week or a month or a year or years, resolve, then come back.  Just very unpredictable.  From there, I did the Buhner herbal protocol and got the most results from that, but never free from it.  I continued with different herbs and supplements to manage things with new diagnoses being added, EBV, CMV, etc.  Upon starting with _________, she asked me to stop everything and expressed her negative views on vitamins and supplements.  I don’t know what made me put my confidence in her other than desperation, but I wish I could go back 2 months!

As far as the Lyco and Arsen given together – this was a Banerji protocol.  The first time she did the Lyco, it was mixed with Arsen; the second time it was just the Lyco.

I had found the information online that you mentioned about what Lyco and Arsen cause and figured they might be the culprits.

I thought it was just me – could homeopathy be harmful?  You are the first homeopath that I have talked with to admit that it can be.

In the wrong hands and with hyper-sensitive patients?  Yes, I’ve seen some very bad reactions.

The first classical homeopath that I saw was very much like that – homeopathy could do no harm.  I could feel the blame when he looked at me if I did not respond to the remedy the right way and I felt his frustration with trying to understand my symptoms.

“Brash beginners” is what Hahnemann called them.  And “half-homeopaths”.

He was also very secretive about the name of the remedy and I used to have to try to see what he was writing down to know what it was, but I never saw the dose but just the name.

Even medical doctors now know that they have to tell the patients what they’re taking.

____________ tried to call me Wednesday night.  She left me a voicemail.  I had sent her an email Sunday, middle of the night in a crisis situation, and now she has the time to call me, literally days later.  When I email her, it has to go through her assistant who forwards it to her who then forwards her response back to me and they are meaningless responses.  Yesterday, I told her I was discontinuing treatment and there was no reason to call me again, and I would appreciate if she would consider refunding my money as it has been a week since I started her suggested remedies and I am worse, not to mention the money spent on a bag full of remedies who knows if I will ever use.  Later that day, I get an email saying she will refund my money and wishing me well.  I guess we will see if she keeps to her word on the refund.  Oddly enough, last night she called again, left a voicemail saying she understood I did not want to do any more remedies but that she wanted to help me fix this and would call again tomorrow, meaning today.

All of a sudden she has the time to talk to me.

And she wasn’t clear about whether the offer of the refund still held.

I have no idea how she can possibly fix this, but I know that I don’t care because like you said, at this point I believe she is dangerous to my health.  I think she knows she screwed up badly.

The burning I do not think is at baseline – too many areas of my body are involved at once.  The stomach pain/burn, like an extreme hunger feeling – started this way years ago and then became constant burning.

OK, here’s what I would suggest.  It seems like the Lycopodium remedy mixed with Arsenicum is the main culprit, right?  I would do the “Aggravation Zapper” in the 24th cup with that remedy.  (Go to my website and click on “Aggravation Zapper”: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com ) Quick instructions: Get a medium-to-large plastic cup, fill it with cold water from the sink, drop in one pellet of the remedy, wait a few seconds, turn on the cold water, dump out your cup and refill 24 times and take a small sip.  Yes, the pellet will get dumped out too, that doesn’t matter.  Wait an hour.  Let me know what happens.

The mixed one was the first time she gave me remedies — it was Lyco 200 with Arsen 3c.  I don’t even have that remedy anymore because the reaction scared me so much that I threw it out.

Oh, I have heard that many times!  “I threw that remedy/medicine away, I was so scared of it, I hated it, never wanted to see it again!” and of course, that’s the very remedy I need to make an antidote!

With the latest set of remedies, it was Lyco 200 not mixed with anything.  The Arsen 200 was mixed with Hypericum 200 and that is also what I took.  I almost threw all the remedies out that she recommended, but I did keep one of the Lyco 200 and one of the Hyper 200 mixed with Arsen 200.  I also thought I might have Arsen 200 all by itself.

So, is that what I do, one pellet of Lyco 200 and one pellet of Arsen 200 in the glass?

I have to find out if the Lycopodium/Ars. 3C was the only or main remedy that caused the aggravation.  3C is a very unusual potency!  Very low to be made from a poison like Arsenic.  The truth is, Ars. 200C might have been safer to use than Ars. 3C!  Can you possibly get another dose of that from __________ ?

Elaine, I searched the house and I found the remedy in the trash outside, and I did the lyco 200 and arsen 3 Aggravation Zapper around 2:30.

At this point, there is some heat in the shoulders area with a slight burn (baseline symptom), but no bad exacerbations!  There was some on and off chest tightness and teeth clenching for about an hour, and then I became sleepy and gradually dozed off.

OK, there ya go!  That’s what we often see after the correct remedy has been given—the patient falls asleep!  Now listen, here’s what I want you to do.  I want you to make a remedy bottle out of your zapping cup.  That means, get a medium sized bottle of water, pour half out, add an ounce of your zapping cup water to your bottle.  Label it “Lyc 200/Ars 3C 24th cup”.  Now, if anything that improved comes back, succuss this bottle 3 times and take another sip.  I have high hopes for this Aggravation Zapper!

***

OK, people, listen up; I truly hope you’ve all learned something from this case:  For starters, look at all the damage that was done!  This lady went to 3 homeopaths, and they all got ticked off at her for not getting better!  None of them thought they had done anything wrong!  None of them thought remedies could do any harm; none of them had any antidoting methods other than the usual mint and Camphora, and what else?  They were all, for the most part, unavailable when needed!  Two of them wouldn’t respond to the patient directly, only through an assistant; at least one of them wouldn’t give out the remedy name or the potency and when the patient tried to explain that she was hyper-sensitive, no one thought that was important; not to mention the ridiculous  and baseless “protocols” and high potencies in frequent repetition, none of which is supported by our classical literature.

Now, to better manage your cases, I suggest that everyone read “The Aggravation Zapper”, because you’re going to need it:

https://elainelewis.hpathy.com/the-aggravation-zapper/

And no excuse anymore for not reading the Organon by homeopathy’s founder, Samuel Hahnemann, MD; the Kunzli translation is very easy to read and very inexpensive!  You can’t say you’re a homeopath if you haven’t read the Organon!  (Oops!  This just in.  I think the Kunzli translation is out of print!  I can’t find it anywhere!)  OK, in that case, I’m opting for the Mueller translation, it’s new, it’s in “simple, modern language”, and what more could you ask for?  And it’s not expensive.  Check Amazon.com.

Another suggestion for you is a great and essential textbook, the very easy to read:

Hahnemann Revisited by Luc De Schepper, MD

See you again next time!

_____________________________

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.

Elaine takes online cases and animal cases too!

Write to her at [email protected]

Visit her website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com

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

10 Comments

  • DEAR DR,
    WHILE READING THIS ARTICLE I THOUGHT I AM READING BOOK ON JOKES. AFTER READING THE WHOLE CASE, I THOUGHT THAT BY READING A DICTIONARY, ONE CANNOT BECOME A POET. I REMEMBER A SCENE IN WHICH FAMOUS COMEDIAN CHARLIE CHAPLAIN POSED A S AN EFFICIENT WATCH MECHANIC AND HE BREAKS ALL PARTS OF WATCH OF A CUSTOMER AND LATER HE COLLECTS ALL THE PARTS OF THE WATCH IN ONE CLOTH AND RETURNS THEM TO THE CUSTOMER WITH ADVISE TO TAKE THE WATCH TO OTHER MECHNIC FO REPAIR. THE CUSTOMER WEEPS ON THE CURRENT CONDITION OF HIS WATCH. TO SUM UP” ORGANON” IS THE SOUL OF HOMEOPATHY, IT IS NOT TO BE READ BUT CHEWED AND DIGESTED BEFORE ONE STARTS PRACTICE.
    REGARDS
    DR C S GUPTA

  • Hi Dr. Gupta. I’m afraid I’m not understanding your comment. What were the “jokes”, exactly? I didn’t see any. And what you learned from reading the case on Lyme Disease was that The Organon cannot simply be read but digested? I don’t think the practitioners in the Lyme case read the Organon at all. And the reference to Charlie Chaplin posing as a watch maker, was that meant to be symbolic of homeopaths who have not read The Organon and consequently make a mess of people’s cases? Actually, this case fits in nicely with another article in this issue of the ezine, “A Cry For Unity In Homeopathy” where the author laments all the bizarre prescribing methods and all the excuses for not reading the works of Hahnemann. I know it’s not enough to “read” The Organon, but, I sincerely doubt that people have done even that much. Ideally, you would have a teacher who would explain the aphorisms to you. I was lucky to have had such teachers–Robin Murphy, David Little–and I read Luc De Schepper’s book, Hahnemann Revisited, which I heartily recommend to everyone.

  • Many believe natrum phos bio 6x tds works like combination of arsenic alb plus lycopodium mitigating both mind anxiety and gastric irritation with also improving fat metabolism thus correcting bone weight ratio.Being engineer by profession deep interest in homeopathy tricks tips plus rural Punjabi Indian back ground best advice of mine proved quite effective cocculus200 one dose per week plus fivephos3x bd atleast for innocent villagers.Clever metropolitan lookout not satisfied less than lachesis platina helonias etc left to professional homeopaths.Kindly make convenient set of simple medicine for rural indian subjects self help.With regards.

  • DEAR DR
    I HAVE ALREADY READ DAVID LITTLE MY COMMENTS ARE BASED ON CHANGING THE REMEDIES FREQUENTLY. YOU TOOK MY COMMENTS SERIOUSLY. IT IS ALL HUMOUR. THE EMPHASIS IS ON ;ORGANON.
    REGARDS
    C S GUPTA

  • human nerves conductivity level matters.most conductive is silver then copper and cheap best aluminium used in tons by electicity boards and india household utensils.homeopathy is holy science.argentum chap high neuron conductivity level plus troubled by moon tides with anticipatory anxiety core symptom lends in diarrhea further complicates by eating sweats.further he or she visits allopaths, that after diarrhea stops but over time this constipated person develops vague alumina type symptoms.indian grandmothers knew that costipation is root cause of all diseases kabji is code word and one jamalghota or senna are king ayurvedic remedies.they also understood diarrhea is mind vary thinking,will advise do path puja religious routine morning evening but also knew that daytime do hardwork. great intution which homeopaths have also recognised calc carb reads bible all day to console bagful fears.elizabeth adalian has done best research alumina if given early can save a person going insane and removes fear of knife.for anticipatory diarrhea gelsimium not bad choice.problem is now we do not listen to grandmothers and take them as spent force indians call it chalahua kartoos.continue at mercy of allopaths because it is modern medicine.homeopaths at large so far have not been able to convince large community except bengali people who swear by bishamber das book select your remedy.till change of mind comes atleast constipated types can benefit from kayam churna.those inbetween constipated and diarrhea both trouble in alternate, homeo podo30 can be tried.

  • Thank you for posting this article Elaine. People should know when seeing this prescribing behavior from a doctor, to look for another one immediately.
    You would be surprised to see how many homeopaths here in Greece prescribe like they have a crystal ball telling them exactly the remedies the patient will need. For example take X remedy every 6 hours for 3 days and then Y remedy every day for 4 days and then Z remedy after 3 weeks. Of course all these are dry doses…
    Really!!! I guess they have magic powers. Of course you cannot find them if something goes wrong and no mention of returning the fee.

    Here is another example, one homeopath before 20 years, gave me a secret remedy, to take one pellet everyday for a month. It did nothing at all and when I told him that, he replied angry that I antidoted it because I used perfume twice on my skin. Really! No coffee, no mint, no nothing, just perfume twice.

    If only there was homeopathic police! 😀

    • Thanks, Maria, there should be “homeopathy police”! The abuse in this profession on all levels, due to practitioners never having read or understood The Organon, is overwhelming; and then saying, “Hahnemann was the great experimenter! He would have wanted progress!” as an excuse for their lack of study is very disturbing. All I can say is, I wish there was some way to warn the public about them.

  • Thanks for posted this blog it will helpful for all. Can you post an article on Fungal infection? what is it, how to solve this problem with homeopath and naturally.

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