Insomnia

Not being able to get to sleep has got to be the one of the most frustrating things.   Equally, getting to sleep relatively quickly but only to wake up during the night for hours on end can also be exasperating.  Sleep problems abound and for many reasons.  Consuming alcohol can disrupt the sleep cycle, as can caffeine and certain medications.  Depression, anxiety and stress are major contributors to sleep problems.  Not having or failing to be consistent with a sleep routine can further undermine one's sleep pattern.  But anyone who has suffered from insomnia already knows all this because they've already researched ad nauseam online all about it. Where homeopathy is significant in helping one to overcome sleep issues is that it addresses a person's individual symptoms as well as addresses the specific cause of someone's insomnia.

It is best to seek out professional help to effectively prescribe for chronic sleep problems .  However, there are a few homeopathic remedies that are effective for occasional sleep issues.  Remember that you need to find the remedy that fits the picture best.

I once prescribed homeopathic coffee "Coffea"  for an amateur actor who had trouble falling asleep the nights of performances because of all the excitement.  He said he had too many thoughts going through his head that he couldn't switch off and he was too excited to sleep.  This type of insomnia can feel like one is buzzing as if having consumed too much caffeine.

Another remedy I've used to successfully treat insomnia is Lycopodium.  It is for when one feels sleepy all day but is wakeful at night, often until the early morning hours.  This happens after long periods of stress.  It is useful for an overactive mind that is worrying about what happened that day.

Nux vomica is a useful homeopathic remedy for when there is great irritability and stress.  This type often wakes up between 3:00 and 4:00 and in unable to get back to sleep because of an active mind.  This person often is the type to overindulge in food,  drugs, caffeine, alcohol or other stimulants in order to maintain a busy, work-filled lifestyle.  This person is particularly sensitive to noises and light.

If the reason for not being able to sleep stems from an incident where someone felt humiliated or there is suppressed anger or grief then Staphysagria is the homeopathic remedy for you.  This is the case where you lie awake all night ruminating on what transpired, what was said, what should have been said etc.

If it is a child who is having trouble sleeping due to the pain of an earache or teeth coming in then Chamomilla is the remedy to try.  This child might cry out in the night and have anxious or frightening dreams.  Remember this remedy for children who can't sleep because of pain, excitement or irritability.

Cocculus is an important remedy for when one has lost sleep and that loss is creating not only a great sense of exhaustion but also light-headedness, weakness and giddiness.  This feeling can come about after having been up all night and for several nights looking after a sick child or caring for an ailing family member for an extended period of time.

These are only a handful of hundreds of possible homeopathic remedies.  If you don't find one here that sounds appropriate or if you try one or two and nothing changes then seek out professional homeopathic help.

Effective, natural remedy for a cough

I had a patient come to see me last week with a persistent dry cough.  She coughed all day long and all through the night.  She could hardly sleep for all the coughing.  In fact, it seemed worse on lying down.  My patient told me that she felt a tickle in her throat and that the coughing was worse when she was talking.  I took her case and prescribed homeopathic Drosera.  She did spectacularly well and finally found relief in a relatively short time after having had this cough for quite some time.  This is by no means the only remedy for a cough.  It is important to know that there are a number of different possibilities depending on the symptoms that are present.    Here is a table that you can consult and along with an introductory book on homeopathic remedies with a basic materia medica you should be able to successfully self-prescribe for your cough or that of your loved ones.  Consult your doctor if the cough continues for several weeks, or if you have thick green or yellow phlegm, you have a fever higher than 101F or you are coughing up blood.

DRY COUGH  Aconite           Bryonia Nux vomica    Phosphorous Rhus tox       Spongia	DAMP CHESTY COUGH (mucousy)  Antimonium tartaricum Hepar sulph Ipecac         Kali-bi	DAMP or DRY depending on time of day Pulsatilla
COUGH WORSE in EVENING Antimonium tartaricum Belladonna	COUGH WORSE at NIGHT Drosera Rhus tox Rumex Spongia	COUGH WORSE around MIDNIGHT  Arsenicum Drosera
COUGH WORSE in COLD, DAMP CONDITIONS Rhus tox	COUGH WORSE for COLD, DRY WIND Aconite Bryonia Hepar sulph Rumex Spongia	COUGH WORSE for CHANGE in TEMPERATURE Phosphorous
COUGH WORSE LYING DOWN Antimonium tartaricum Belladonna  Phosphorus (lying on right side)	COUGH WORSE for SLIGHTEST MOVEMENT Bryonia	COUGH WORSE for LAUGHING or TALKING Phosphorus Rumex Spongia
COUGH WORSE in WARM ROOM  Aconite Bryonia Ipecac (warmth in general) Pulsatilla	COUGH with TICKLING IN THROAT Drosera Phosphorus (<talking) Spongia	COUGH with HEADACHE Belladonna      Bryonia Nux vomica
COUGH with VOMITING or RETCHING  Drosera Ipecac Pulsatilla	COUGH with THIRST Belladonna       Bryonia Hepar sulph      Phosphorus	COUGH with no THIRST Pulsatilla

Hay fever and homeopathy

There are 250 homeopathic remedies specifically listed in the homeopathic literature for seasonal allergies / hay fever.  Although there are in fact thousands of remedies that could be used to treat someone who has allergy symptoms.  A homeopathic remedy is chosen according to the symptoms that the sufferer is presenting.   Each person who has hay fever has their own individual, unique set of symptoms.  For example, a hypothetical "Fred" is allergic to ragweed,  he suffers terribly with itchy eyes that tear up and burn, his nose runs (but the nasal discharge doesn't burn.) Even his breathing is affected and he can start wheezing and coughing. Fred feels better out in cold air and worse in a warm room. Fred should try homeopathic Ambrosia.  Meanwhile, hypothetical "Harry" has itchy, red eyes and even the roof of his mouth and inside his nostrils are itchy.  He has a runny nose and has lost his sense of smell and is sneezing a lot.  Harry feels worse in the evenings. He might do well to try homeopathic Arundo.  Choosing an effective homeopathic remedy requires observing closely what are the exact symptoms as well as what makes the person feel better or worse. You can get a homeopathic book and self-prescribe.  Here are two that I like very much:

Miranda Castro's The Complete Homeopathy Handbook

http://www.mirandacastro.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=6

Laura Josephson's  A Homeopathic Handbook of Natural Remedies

https://www.amazon.ca/Homeopathic-Handbook-Natural-Remedies-Effective/dp/0812991885?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

If you have no success self-prescribing then you can always consult with a professional homeopath to get a constitutional remedy.  Constitutional remedies are chosen not just for your acute hay fever symptoms but are based on your entire self - physical, mental and emotional.  A constitutional remedy helps to boost your immune system and to help you rebalance holistically.

Homeopathy and fertility

Homeopathy is based on the premise the body has the ability to heal itself - it just sometimes needs a nudge in the right direction to rebalance itself.  A well-prescribed homeopathic remedy is that catalyst.  I have seen a homeopathic remedy help a couple conceive when they had previously had
issues doing so.  Homeopathy works gently and naturally to help reinstate a healthy foundation so that chances of conceiving are increased.  More and more, people are becoming aware of the risks of IVF.  Therefore, if you are looking for a safer and more healing route to take in your quest to conceive perhaps you should look into homeopathic treatment.   Here are a few links to some articles, if you are looking for more information.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-133564/Complementary-therapies-help-boost-fertility.html

http://gaia-health.com/natural-health/homeopathy/price-fertility-avoid-ivf-homeopathy/

http://www.britishhomeopathic.org/bha-charity/how-we-can-help/articles/fertility-problems/

Fifth Disease (aka Slapped Cheek Disease)

Fifth disease seems go be going around these days in Ottawa.  The official medical name is erythema infectiosum.  It is a viral infection caused by parvovirus B19 and is called fifth disease because it was the fifth on the list of common childhood rashes - the others being rubella, measles, scarlet fever,

chicken pox and roseola infantum (sixth disease).  It is also known as Slapped-cheek disease because of the characteristic initial symptom of a red cheek (or two).

Fifth disease is usually mild and is spread by coughs or sneezes through respiratory droplets.  It poses little risk to healthy children and adults.  Those who are more at risk of complications are pregnant women and people with certain types of chronic anemia.  (See your doctor if this is your situation.)

Symptoms include:  low-grade fever; chills; headache; body ache;  sore throat; cold-like symptoms; runny nose. There can also be an upset stomach and diarrhea. These aforementioned symptoms usually appear first.  Then the rash appears.  The rash can appear first on the cheeks and then it spreads to the torso, arms and legs. The rash can be itchy.  The rash can last for up to six weeks but generally only lasts for about two weeks.  Adults are less likely to have the rash and more likely to have swollen painful joints.  By the time the rash appears the child is no longer contagious.  The incubation period is usually anywhere between 4-14 days and can on occasion be as long as 21 days in length.

Here is a table of useful homeopathic remedies for fifth disease.

Natural treatment for ear infections

I got an email late last Saturday afternoon from a distraught parent.  He had just been at a walk-in clinic with his daughter who had been found to have not just one, but two ear infections.  The doctor wanted this baby to take a ten-day course of antibiotics to which the father inquired as to the necessity of antibiotics in this case.  The doctor was adamant that the baby needed antibiotics.  Given the father's reluctance to put his daughter on the antibiotics, unless absolutely necessary, he contacted me - hence the email late on a Saturday afternoon.  I had already treated this child in the past so I already had some knowledge of this patient which made treating this child quickly on an acute basis easier.  I took down the details of this baby's particular symptoms and as I have a well-stocked homeopathic pharmacy in-house I could provide the father with the remedy that best fit the unique and specific symptoms this baby had in relation to the ear infections.  I gave the man two other remedies to hold, just in case the first one didn't do the trick.  With homeopathy it can at times take a few tries to get the right remedy so it is good in an acute situation like this to provide a second and perhaps third option to have on hand.  I asked the father to let me know on the Sunday morning how the baby was doing.  I didn't hear back so in the afternoon I emailed to inquire about the baby.  The father said they had been out all day and that the baby seemed fine.  No other remedies were needed. This was a great case of being able to help a patient to heal naturally from an ear infection without having to resort to the use of antibiotics.  I am certainly not against the use of antibiotics when necessary.  However,  I would prefer to try to help a patient using homeopathic remedies as the first form of treatment and to reserve antibiotics as a last resort.   There is, in fact, evidence that the effectiveness of antibiotics for ear infections is very limited - despite this fact, they are far too often prescribed when they are not necessary.  Furthermore, the side-effects of such medications can lead to undesirable issues such as diarrhoea and skin rashes.  Why not avoid these possible side-effects unless absolutely necessary?  I told the father, on I agreeing to take his daughter's acute case, that he would have to observe the child closely and be responsible to administer the antibiotic if the homeopathic remedies weren't helping and if he observed a worsening of the situation.  Fortunately this baby rebounded quickly with the aid of a well-prescribed homeopathic remedy and she could avoid taking an unnecessary course of antibiotics.

A Natural Alternative for ADD and ADHD

I have just finished creating my first "PowToon" to raise awareness that there are natural and effective treatments for ADD and ADHD.

A Swiss pediatrician, Dr. Heiner Frei, conducted a double-blind study to determine the effectiveness of homeopathic treatment for ADHD.

 In the Swiss ADD / ADHD double-blind study, our research team proved under rigorous scientific conditions that homeopathy is effective in hyperactive children [Eur J Pediatr: 164 (2005): 758-767]. Furthermore, the long-term follow-up of the study participants over five years shows that 75% of all patients can be treated adequately with homeopathy alone, and that prolonged homeopathic treatment reduces the symptom intensity by about 50 percent, even after treatment is stopped.  [ http://www.heinerfrei.ch/add-adhd/ ]

I use Dr. Heiner Frei's Polarity Analysis treatment method and have seen great results.

Understanding Homeopathic Treatment

I created this Prezi for my website.  It is useful for anyone who wants to understand more about homeopathic treatment and how to get the most out of it.  I hope you enjoy this.  (You will have to copy and paste the link below to access the Prezi.)

http://prezi.com/thr2jyv980fw/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share