Wise Traditions Spring 2010

Travis the Teenager Loves Nightshades Belladonna for Illness

Joette Calabrese,HMC,CCH,RSHom

Published in Wise Traditions, Spring 2010, “Plants Bite Back”

“Sweet!” swooned Travis, the sixteen year- old, as he rose one morning with renewed strength. Just the night before, he had suffered from a 104-degree fever, thrashing anger and ruthless ear pain. After three doses of the homeopathic remedy Belladonna and much needed sleep, this pale, emotional adolescent was made whole. Since it was Saturday, this meant he would be able to go to his school dance that night. His parents had no reservations about his intentions for the evening. They knew from years of using homeopathy that when the remedy is correct, there is no need for a relapse. Regardless of the intensity of his illness, they recognized that their son had recovered fully.

When properly administered, homeopathy is an unparalleled form of medication. It matters not that it's medically documented, nor that it's accepted as the norm by medical doctors in England, Germany, France and India. What matters to Travis and to thousands of other teens throughout the world is that it works.

How can something so inexpensive and gentle make such a difference in a high fever, or in any illness? The efficacy of homeopathy has been evidenced in medical journals throughout the world. It has been shown clinically for more than two hundred years to resolve illness such as the one Travis suffered, without side effects and within remarkably short order. These results are to be expected because homeopathy stirs the person's own ability to bring illness to a natural close. If, in the case of Travis's fever, an antibiotic and analgesic had been administered instead, Travis would have experienced a false sense of wellness, propped up by powerful drugs, which have a list of side effects as long as his texting buddy list. For many who are dosed this way, such an illness turns into repeated episodes over a period of months. This is a common outcome in ailments that have been suppressed by conventional pharmaceuticals.

Belladonna, or deadly nightshade, was the remedy Travis's parents chose because his fever was high, his eyes had a glassy look, and his ear pain was severe. And the illness came on with a fury. These are the keynotes of symptoms that need to be present for Belladonna to do its good work. If the fever had been low, accompanied by chills, and presented in an irritable teen, the remedy choice would likely have been Nux vomica. Or if Travis's earache appeared with a medium fever, he was fractious, and with one cheek red while the other pale, he might have been given Chamomilla.

This is how patient-detailed and individual the selection must be. No other medical paradigm incorporates the individual into the remedy choice. In fact, one of the common criticisms of modern medicine is that it treats all of us the same—not so with homeopathy. And perhaps even more important, had Travis's parents succumbed to the conventional medical treatment of their son, the infection might have been subdued, but we would have been left with the angry teen. Is it no wonder that parents who use homeopathy find that their children are often less disruptive to the family after the well chosen remedy is administered? The illness actually becomes an important opportunity to tender the proper remedy for deeper issues.

Homeopathy's role in the health of teens offers more than meets the eye. A medicine that addresses a noteworthy fever and earache as well as the accompanying anger is the role of a dynamic medical model. Yet Travis doesn't need to be convinced of homeopathy's ability to do the job. His only concern is how to persuade his parents to let him borrow the car for the dance.

The scientific statute of “like cures like” is the foundation upon which homeopathy is girded. Homeopathy employs plants that often have poisonous characteristics and transforms them into submissively curative agents. Although the remedy Belladonna is made from deadly nightshade, it's a powerful healing ally. In fact the use of this homeopathic is so effective that even doctors without homeopathic medical training recall its ability to cure such ailments.

Here's the inherent wisdom that makes homeopathy fascinating and profound: the very symptoms that can be caused by a substance in its gross form, as it is found in nature, can be antidoted when formulated into a homeopathic medicine. This is because the method of making the remedy is a mathematical nano-dilution that renders the poisonous effects neutral while allowing the curative aspects to appear. In this way we can use a substance that would be detrimental or even noxious in its gross form, diluted according to the International Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, and it will become a medicine of vast power. It has the unique ability to restore physical wellbeing as well as balance the emotional or mental aspects of the individual. After all, isn't genuine health the restoration of the entire human—not just the physical aspect? Why of course!

Thus the rogue category of nightshades that might be a trigger for inflammation can actually become a curative agent when properly harnessed. The very cluster of symptoms marked by dilated pupils, red cheeks and high fever is what would be caused by ingesting this poisonous nightshade berry. (The common name for the plant, belladonna, or beautiful lady, refers to the historic cosmetic use of the berry juice to dilate the pupils when instilled in the eye.) Yet because of this cutting edge scientific method and Travis's well-read parents, Belladonna set him on his way to the Saturday night dance. Indeed, Travis might recognize someday the fact that nightshades are scoundrels until tamed by homeopathic methodology. Sweet! Until then, what better way to embrace teenagers and otherwise ill-intentioned plants! Moms like Travis's use Joette Calabrese's book to determine the correct remedy for fevers. Want to know how to do this, too? Joette is offering a FREE download of the fever and ear infection chapter from her book Cure Yourself and Family With Homeopathy. Try your hand at this safe and empowering medicine. Visit www.homeopathyworks.net and click on “Free Fever Chapter Download.”

SOME STUDIES ON HOMEOPATHY

The European Committee for Homeopathy (address: Chaussee de Bruxelles, 132, B-1190, Brussels, Belgium) conducted a review of human trials using a Quality of Life questionnaire, and found that in evaluating the treatment of 6,915 patients, 70 percent experienced significant clinical improvement by using homeopathic medicines (this percentage was even higher in children receiving homeopathic medicine) (Van Wassenhoven, 2005). They also found a 75 percent improvement in homeopathic patients (versus 65 percent improvement in conventional medical patients) for hyperactive children. In addition, they found a 67.3 percent improvement in respiratory tract infections (versus 56 percent with conventional treatment). Of note is the fact 22 percent of the patients receiving conventional medical treatment reported side effects, while only 7.8 percent of patients receiving homeopathic treatment reported side effects.

One of the few studies that compared homeopathic treatment versus conventional medical treatment of a specific condition with a single conventional drug versus a single homeopathic drug (a homeopathic formula product) was published in an AMA journal (Weiser, 1998). This study compared results in the treatment of vertigo, with half of the subjects given a homeopathic medicine (a combination of four homeopathic medicines mixed together) and half given a conventional drug (betahistine). The study showed that those given the homeopathic medicine experienced at least as good results as those given the conventional drug, though the homeopathic medicine was considerably safer and less expensive.