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Influenza

Colds can be left to cure on their own. In fact it’s an opportunity to “clean house” and as long as the loved-one experiences colds infrequently, it’s an opportunity to gain better health on many levels. My clients often report that their children have made physical, emotional and mental leaps after a completed cold. I have noted this in my own children. Unless there is a strong justification for treating colds I generally don’t treat them homeopathically. Instead, I resortto enforced rest, good bone stocks, plenty of water, raw garlic, raw milk and homeopathic cell salts.

Influenza is another concern. It, too, can be left to cure itself, however for many people the flu is a more trying illness and has the potential for greater discomfort and/or danger. Sometimes the flu can be cured with the use of one well-chosen remedy. Other times one following another is a better course. In any event, when there is an epidemic, the community at large begins to represent an entity as a whole and often a remedy that is useful to one member is the best suited for the whole. In other words, if one finds Gelsemium curative during a flu epidemic for one member of the family, it is likely it will be curative for the others. This includes neighbors and friends, too; watch for similar symptoms. In fact, the curative flu remedy can be used prophylactically for those not yet affected. Give a dose of the chosen remedy to those who might contract the flu 1x/week until the threat is eliminated.

Nine Leading Remedies for Colds and Influenza

1.) Aconitum

  • Use when symptoms come on quickly, especially after exposure to cold weather
  • Use for first 24 hours of illness
  • Very ill within a few hours
  • Anxiety
  • Sensitivity to light
  • Thirst
  • Feverish but not delirious
  • Watery, runny nose
  • Strong headache
  • Use when illness has suddenly appeared as cough in early stages, especially croup
  • Cough with sensation of choking, causing panic
  • Dry cough or with some watery mucous

2.) Oscillococcinum

  • Quick onset of influenza or cold
  • Best utilized during cold, damp weather
  • Aches and chilled

3.) Gelsemium

  • Symptoms come on gradually
  • Low energy for several days while experiencing tickling in back of mouth
  • Runny nose with watery and irritating discharge
  • Lots of tiredness and heaviness
  • Chills in back
  • Headache above the neck

4.) Bryonia

  • Common for coughs

Indicated by cold that has moved into the chest

  • Cough is dry and with spasms
  • Worse with deep breathing and after eating and drinking
  • Open air is relieving, as is warm water
  • Cough is painful, resulting in soreness throughout the body
  • Pain from coughing can trigger the instinct to restrain head or chest during coughing
  • Putting pressure on sore areas is relieving
  • Desires to breathe deeply but pain prevents this – short, panting breaths
  • Little mucous, but what there is, is yellow or with some blood
  • Often thirsty and can’t find the right temperature
  • Likely to look sick with dusky complexion
  • Irritable and want to be alone

5.) Nux vomica

  • Good for colds brought on by cold, dry weather
  • Symptoms have slow onset (opposite of Aconite)
  • Dry tickling sensation in nose
  • Later, stuffy nose with watery discharge and sneezing
  • Stuffy at night, runny in the day
  • Eating aggravates symptoms
  • Cough can be worse in morning
  • Warm drinks help coughing
  • Body is chilly and has hard time getting warm even with lots of covers and in warm room
  • Personality is irritable and over-sensitive

6.) Rhus tox

  • Stuffy nose with thick yellow or green mucous
  • Red throat
  • Dry cough
  • Hoarseness
  • Cold room aggravates
  • Worse at night
  • Cough prevents sleep or triggered by sleep, causing awakening
  • Movement is relieving

7.) Eupatorium

  • Coryza, with sneezing
  • Hoarseness and cough with numbness in chest; must support it
  • Soreness of muscles and bones
  • Chronic loose cough
  • Worse at night

8.) Arsenicum

  • Used for head colds and coughs
  • Lots of watery, nasal running that burns
  • Nose is runny but feels stuffed
  • Lots of sneezing that does not bring relief
  • Mucous becomes thick and yellow over time
  • Dull headache in forehead
  • Good for all kinds of coughs: throat or chest, loose or dry
  • Worse at night (midnight to 3 AM)
  • Cold air aggravates
  • Cough is better with warm drinks
  • Sometimes has wheezing and burning chest pain
  • Very chilled but can be relieved more easily than Nux Vomica patient
  • Restless temperament with anxiety
  • Even though ill, sensitive to messy areas

9.) Belladonna

  • Symptoms come on suddenly
  • Important to take early in illness
  • High fever
  • Red, dry face
  • Hot skin
  • Pounding head with visible pulse in head and neck
  • In early stages, easily aggravated
  • Sensitive to light
  • Mentally dull from illness
  • Delirious and anxious about imaginary things
  • Differs from Aconite, in that patients are not as sharp mentally
  • Dilated pupils and dry skin
  • Thin, watery nasal discharge
  • Dry, hot throat
  • Raw, sore throat with bad earache
  • Coughing in upper chest or throat
  • Painful cough
  • Croupy, barking cough that is worse at night

Fevers

Fever is not always a cause for a remedy. In fact it is often better left to complete itself because it is a valuable cure. Fever “cooks off” a viral or bacterial infection more effectively than any external means. When we reduce a fever via medications it keeps the body from healing properly. The body has the additional burden of processing the unnatural drug. Although advised by medical doctors for years, aspirin is a particularly dangerous drug when given during fever. It is only recently that doctors have shied away from this practice. Now Ibuprofen is prescribed, and again we are learning of the toll this practice takes on our families.

Throughout history, homeopathy has maintained the same position: let a fever run its course, augment the nutrition and fluids and make the person comfortable. This is a rather sweeping statement and circumstances will determine the strength of this guideline. Yet there are occasions when it may be valuable to treat fever. When a high fever, of approximately 103-106° continues for days without interruption, the concern generally is not for fever but for dehydration. To minimize dehydration, coat the palms of the hands and bottoms of feet with olive oil and insist on fluids. Homemade popsicles are considered fluids and are more accepted by children. Dehydration can be dangerous, and if it goes too far, may require immediate hospitalization for treatment with an IV. In any case, long lasting high fevers should be treated homeopathically as well as painful or spasmodic coughs with accompanying fevers.

If you give the chosen remedy and the patient falls asleep, consider this a good sign. The best healing is done during sleep. If in the morning the fever and its accompanying symptoms are gone, you have chosen the correct remedy. If the same symptoms return, repeat the same remedy. If this does not result in increased health then it is time to try another remedy. A useful sign is to see vitality returned to a languid sufferer and peace restored to an agitated one. When a crying child who is clinging and feverish stops crying yet the fever and clinging remain, consider this a move in the right direction. Do not repeat the remedy until a positive direction ceases. The mental or psychological presentations are often our most accurate indications of pathology.

Homeopathy requires the art of observation and hones skills of interpretation. Finding the right remedy is a crucial step in healing someone, but what to do next can be perplexing if these rules are not adhered to.

Three Leading Remedies for Fever

1.) Belladonna

  • Best remedy to try first
  • Give during early stages
  • Most commonly given for fever
  • Red face
  • Hot skin
  • Glassy eyes and dilated pupils
  • Restless and agitated
  • Can be a bit incoherent
  • Nervous excitability

2.) Nux vomica

  • Extremely chilled – worsened by moving or removing blankets
  • Symptoms can be triggered by overindulgences
  • Can be accompanied by digestive symptoms or heaviness in head
  • Can be worse in morning and in the open air

3.) Pulsatilla

  • Give when fever is the only symptom
  • For persons who have classic Pulsatilla emotion symptoms – weepy, clingy, craving affection … changeable moods, whiny-type irritability
  • Do not like external heat and do not like to be covered
  • Triggered by overeating and worse at night
  • Often not thirsty

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