Homeopathy for Allergies

Joette Calabrese,HMC,CCH,RSHom

Published in Wise Traditions, Summer 2010, “Holistic Treatment of Allergies”

The Jamisons are country folk with an ample vegetable garden, a small flock of chickens and a few milking goats. Their life, these days is their dream of freedom realized. But it wasn't always this way. Eric and Lucy used to live in Old Town, Chicago. When they first considered the idea of moving to the country, they were apprehensive since Lucy Jamison suffered terribly from pollen allergies as well as from sinus pain caused by weather changes.

Years ago Lucy had surrendered to allergy shots, but found that instead of improving her symptoms, they only worsened. It seemed the list of triggers continued to mount, too. “Every time we eliminate one allergen, another one pops up. I feel like a lab rat,” she said. Yet, Lucy's sufferings nudged Eric and her in new directions. Had it not been for this factor, they wouldn't have pursued self-reliance, self-care and self-empowerment. It was meeting the dead end on the road of conventional medicine that led them to their new life of authentic health.

That's often the way it is. Those who aren't challenged by health issues, simply don't seek alternatives. They're satisfied with the status quo. I guess it takes personal suffering to learn that our well being is dependent on deepened knowledge.

And so the decision to move to the country became the connective tissue that wove into every corner of their lives. Eric and Lucy read and studied. Can you imagine the library they eventually accrued? It contained a mass of books on nutrition, including Weston A Price of course, but also others before and after him. Volumes on the subject of small farming, botanicals, and a bulging section on homeopathy lined the walls. Lucy had found some relief of her symptoms after eliminating wheat and pasteurized dairy, yet a significant fragment of her allergies lingered nevertheless. So she often spent hours schooling herself on the medicine of the educated: homeopathy.

Lucy studied books and audio recordings, and she loved nothing more than to attend health fairs to check out the latest resources. One memorable fair offered information on nutrition, supplements and herbs, but she chose to focus on a lecture by a homeopath. This particular speaker blew her away. The homeopath said that particularly in allergies, homeopathy is the missing link between nutrition and inherited weakness. Further, illness is the result of a violation of nature and its laws. He sited allergy desensitization therapy (or allergy shots) as an example. Lucy certainly knew this first hand. The detailed information the homeopath shared on how to respond to this condition riveted Lucy's attention.

Most important, he presented the case of a woman who suffered from sinus pain that was ushered in by a barometric change. The pain began above the eyes and spread into the sinuses. “Wow! That sounds like the cluster of symptoms I suffer!” she mused. In fact, whenever the barometric pressure changed, or the cottonwoods released their fluff, her sinuses would become so painful she could barely function. The remedy the homeopath mentioned was Kali bichromium. Eric and Lucy had long ago purchased a homeopathy kit that allowed them to treat themselves for many ills. In fact, other than the time Eric broke his arm, treating themselves had worked so well that they hadn't made a visit to a conventional doctor for over thirteen years!

But the last frontier for Lucy to overcome was the sinus and allergy driven pain. Knowing that homeopathy is person-specific, not pathology-specific, she returned home to bury herself in Dr. Douglas Gibson's book, Studies of Homeopathic Remedies. This led her to a further understanding of the remedy Kali bichromium, the remedy the homeopath had mentioned. It described the pain above the eyes and sinuses as intense, becoming worse from stopping down. “That's for sure!” she said aloud. “This is the one for me.”

Lucy was excited because she now had a plan. She had the remedy in her trusted kit and anticipated the next episode of sinus pain.

So Lucy waited. Usually only a few weeks passed between each episode of sinus dripping, stringy mucus and the powerful sinus pain. And then one windy morning, a significant change in barometric pressure blew in and the tenderness in Lucy's sinuses returned with persuasive gusto. The first twinges settled above her left eye and when they blossomed into full sinus pain, she took four little pills of Kali bichromium. She repeated the dose in two hours. Her books had mentioned it might take a round of three to four doses before improvement ensued.

Just after the third dose, Lucy fell asleep for two hours. This was unusual for her. But more noteworthy was that the head pain wasn't minimized, it had vanished! And she was energized and pain-free of it even though the usual provocative conditions were at hand. Historically the pain and weariness lasted for days. Oh blessed relief!

A month later when the rain pelted after a long stretch of drought, Lucy got another characteristic headache. However, its intensity was uncharacteristically mild. Nonetheless, she took Kali bichromium again and promptly feel asleep for 20 minutes. When she awoke, the soreness again was absent, replaced by a sense of well being that was like an old friend returning. Many months later while feeding the goats, she noted another developing weather change and since she had had no pain for the last several months, she smiled to herself in a knowing way. No headache, no dripping sinuses, no fatigue. That was three years ago. Lucy had cured herself of a near life-long, relentless ailment, using tenacity and homeopathy.

Homeopathy has a reputation for addressing self-limiting illness and then putting to rest the tendency for its return. It's not unusual for it to resolve substantial and near chronic hay fever and sinus pain. To Lucy, this was a testament to the covenant of self-care that she and Eric had pledged. More important, it's one thing to be without illness and quite another to radiate authentic health. Lucy now knew that.

The Author ‘s Story

I know allergies. Much like Lucy, I know debilitating, segregating , lonely allergies. Twenty-seven or so years ago I suffered for a decade from the most trying years of my life. At the time I was an account executive with NBC, a director on the board of a world class orchestra. My life was in full gear when my health flew out of control. I could no longer work for the pain and fatigue, I had to sell my home and move back with my parents.

Having hailed from a large Italian American family, with a generous share of doctors, it was only natural to seek their care. However, it was as frustrating for them as it was for me, as my condition worsened . Each subsequent drug and procedure caused deepened pathology. Finally out of desperation, I too attended a lecture on the subject of homeopathy. The physician/speaker's words were logical, orderly and buoyed my spirits. Not long after, I found a lay practitioner who took my case and over many months cured me of asthma, chronic fatigue and multiple sensitivities.

Until that time I was limited to about ten foods that I could safely eat, and I was at the mercy of numerous chemical triggers. After years of this frightening and debilitating struggle, I began to study homeopathy with the hope of gaining an understanding for my family's care. So enamored by the powers of homeopathy while raising my family, I committed myself to a graduate program and earned my degrees as a classical homeopath.

The road hasn't been easy, but worth the effort, for today, instead of being a slave to allergies, I pop out of bed in the morning, walk up a steep ski hill for my daily workout and, although I prepare only my WAPF-style meals, I can indeed eat in restaurants without suffering. Best of all, my experience as a victim-of–allergies-turned-healthy-homeopath has helped me help others transform their lives as well. Not all illnesses can be handled without the aid of a homeopathic practitioner, but simple methods for at home use are within reach of all. Dr. Weston Price aptly urged, “Teach, teach, teach.” I say to my clients and students, “Learn, learn, learn.”