Reach for a Remedy: Homeopathic Home Prescribing for First Aid and Minor Ailments

By Clodagh Sheehy and Svetlana Pavlova

Make homeopathy easy with this refreshingly simple guide to choosing the best possible remedy for everyday ailments. From coughs and colds to toothaches or tummy bugs, this book will help you find relief for minor health conditions.

No previous knowledge of homeopathy is necessary. The book will quickly point you to the best match between your individual symptoms and the remedy you need. It also features a rapid first aid section and advice tailored to busy mums, babies, tots, teens, and adults.

Homeopaths Clodagh Sheehy and Svetlana Pavlova Heywood Jones have distilled a wealth of information down to the essentials required for accessible and safe home prescribing. They also alert you to more serious conditions where you may need to consult a doctor or go immediately to hospital.

Enhance the health of all the family by adding homeo­pathic remedies to your home medicine cabinet, so you can …
… Reach for a Remedy

“Reach for this easy to read informative guide for all your homeopathic needs. This book is a must on every family shelf beside the first aid kit.
From a simple bee sting to the complexities of grief, this easy to use guide is ideal for those starting off using remedies as well as those who already have a well stocked cupboard. An invaluable aid to maintaining family health.”
– Ann O’Loughlin, bestselling author of The Ballroom Cafe, The Judge’s Wife and
The Ludlow Ladies´ Society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Narayana Verlag GmbH
• Release date: May 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9783955822699

Book preview

Introduction

WHY HOMEOPATHY?

If you’ve heard of Arnica, you’ve heard of homeopathy.

If you’ve used Arnica, the top choice remedy for bruising, you have used homeopathy and you know that it works.

Homeopathic remedies are powerful, gentle, inexpensive and safe. They have no toxic side-effects and so can be used for babies, tots, teenagers, pregnant mums, busy parents, in fact by all age groups from birth to the golden years.

The integrated approach to health and wellness is a fast growing trend. Homeopathy is part of this trend. The remedies can be used on their own but can also be used side by side with conventional treatments.

Worldwide, homeopathy is regularly used by 200 million people and is included in the national health systems of countries like Switzerland, Brazil, India, Chile and Mexico. Almost one in three EU citizens uses homeopathic medicines in their day-to-day healthcare.

WHAT IS HOMEOPATHY?

Since ancient times healers have recognised that the body has a life-force or energy running through it. The presence of this life-force marks the difference between a living person and a deceased one.

Illness is seen as a disturbance or blockage of this vital energy. Homeopathy uses remedies to unblock the obstruction.

Homeopathy does not ‘treat’ specific conditions. It works with the energy of the whole body to stimulate the body’s own healing ability.

Homeopathy, like Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicines, supports the delicate energy balance between the mind, the physical body and the spirit.

Experience over thousands of years has proven the effectiveness of this approach.

MATCHING MEDICINE

The symptoms of an illness are like flashing lights on the car dashboard telling you there is an issue you need to address.

In homeopathy these symptoms are used as a guide to select a remedy. A match is made between the person’s unique individual symptoms and the remedy. The remedy then supports the whole body to heal itself.

How does this matching work? A few examples will give you a better idea.

Too much coffee can keep you awake at night. A remedy made from coffee can be used to help sleeplessness when you are wide awake and tense and your mind is racing – the matching remedy is Coffea.

Cutting onions can make your eyes water and sting. Hay fever can also make your eyes water and sting. A remedy made from onion is good for hay fever – the matching remedy is Allium cepa.

If you are stung by a nettle you may break out in a red, itchy rash. A remedy made from nettle can ease hives or a red, itchy rash caused by an insect bite – the matching remedy is Urtica.

HOW TO PICK YOUR REMEDY

Every single homeopathic remedy can help a wide range of conditions and there are volumes written about each remedy. We have condensed this knowledge to make your choices easy.

This book is about everyday first aid emergencies and minor day-to-day illnesses. It cannot be used to treat serious or complex conditions which would need professional treatment.

You must decide first if the condition can be helped at home or if you need professional help. If you decide it is a minor health issue which could be treated at home then check the relevant section of the book – Cough, Sports injuries, Emotional trauma, Digestion etc.

ALERT

We have used this box throughout the book to warn you that serious conditions need medical help. In these situations you should contact your doctor or the emergency services or go straight to hospital.

To pick your remedy follow these easy steps:

1. Identify the condition and find it in the book.

2. Pick your most important symptoms, both physical and emotional.

3. Match these symptoms to the most appropriate remedy description.

Then Reach for a Remedy.

How to pick your most important symptoms

Your symptoms are the signposts to the best remedy. Learning to pay attention to your strongest symptoms will help you to reach for the right remedy.

Homeopathy works on both the mind and body so remember to look at both physical AND emotional symptoms.

You could feel angry, sad, irritable, jealous or fearful. These emotional symptoms matter just as much as the physical ones.

Symptoms to look for

Specific information about symptoms is very important in homeopathy. The choice of remedy can be influenced by things like thirst, food likes and dislikes, your mood, the side of the body that is affected and sometimes the specific time of day or night that the symptom is worse or better.

This is a simple guide to help you know what to look for.

Matching your symptoms to the remedy

To make the matching easy we have arranged the information in each section to guide you through the choices.

On the left hand side of the page we list the most commonly used remedies for the condition.

On the right hand side we have descriptions of the remedy.

Make a match between your symptoms and the descriptions of the remedies on the right hand side. You will find the name of your remedy on the left.

This is an example of the layout:

ACONITE

Take at the first sign of a cold from exposure to cold air.

You may have a stuffy nose, be restless and anxious and thirsty for cold water.

Where we use the label Top choice for we mean this remedy is the one most likely

to suit the particular condition.

You still have to make sure, however, that it matches YOUR particular condition.

TAKING YOUR REMEDY

The remedies mentioned in this book are readily available in health food shops and online from homeopathic suppliers.

Remedies do not interfere with conventional prescription drugs and can be taken side by side with these medications.

The ideal way to take your remedy is to drop a single pill out of the container into the container lid or onto a clean spoon.

Then pop it into your mouth and let it dissolve under your tongue. You should not have any food or drink in your mouth when you are taking the remedy.

REMEDY STRENGTH OR POTENCY

The strength of a homeopathic remedy is referred to as the ‘potency’ of the remedy. All of the remedies listed in this book are recommended in the 30C potency.

This particular potency is at the lower end of the scale and most suitable for self-help and repeated dosing.

The ‘C’ potencies are also the strengths you are most likely to find in your health store or in the kits sold by homeopathic suppliers.

Professional Homeopaths use a whole range of potencies from very low to very high. Considerable skill is needed in the choice of both remedy and potency for more serious or chronic conditions and it is advisable to consult a licensed practitioner in these cases.

The potency of a remedy is indicated by a number and a letter. Examples of different potencies are:

▶ 6X (D) ▶ 12X (D) ▶ 30C ▶ 200C ▶ 1M ▶ 10M ▶ LM 1

The ‘C’ potencies are most commonly prescribed in Ireland, the UK and the USA. In Europe the ‘D’ (X) potencies are also frequently prescribed.

We have used a guide box like the one below for each section. It will help you decide how often to give the remedy. It also reminds you that all remedies mentioned in this book are in the 30C potency.

REMEDY KITS

The remedies we talk about in this book are basic common remedies. You can buy all of them singly or a selection of them in a remedy kit box from homeopathic suppliers.

A kit can be the cheapest way to buy remedies and is also a practical way of storing and carrying them. The box can easily be taken in your bag or in your car or even on holidays.

Professional consultations

Complex, chronic or long-term conditions like arthritis, chronic fatigue, depression, or some skin ailments require assessment by a professional homeopath.

They are not dealt with in this book and you should not try to treat them using this book.

If you have a more complex or long-term condition and decide to go to a professional homeopath, the practitioner will take a full medical history and the details of your condition.

They will ask you all kinds of questions about things like sleep patterns, dreams, food likes and dislikes, mood, energy and temperature.

There are no right or wrong answers. The homeopath is simply trying to match the best possible remedy to your individual condition. The more information the practitioner has to work with, the easier it is to make a good match.

First visits tend to take an hour or more. Subsequent visits are slightly shorter.

You can also discuss with the homeopath how many consultations you might need.

Some health insurance providers will cover the cost of homeopathic consultations with a registered homeopath.

You need to consult your own health insurance provider for full details.

Creams, flower essences and tissue cell salts

We have made some suggestions about creams, tinctures, flower essences and tissue cell salts you could also use.

They all aid healing and give additional support to the homeopathic remedies.

The creams, for example, could be used on cuts, burns or cracked skin. The flower essences can support you emotionally and the tissue cell salts can support you physically.

There are 12 different tissue cell salts which are used to re-balance essential mineral salts in the body. They can be taken on a daily basis, as necessary, either as single salts or in combination, depending on the condition.

The tissue cell salts were developed by a German doctor, Wilhelm Heinrich Schuessler, in the 19th century.