Homeopathy for Hay Fever #3

The word homeopathy means “similar suffering” as its approach is based on the principle of “like treats like”. An example of this is the common usage of Allium Cepa, or onion in its homeopathic form to manage the watering and stinging eyes of hay fever. I’m sure we have all experienced those symptoms when cutting raw onion. Allium Cepa is one ingredient in the combination remedy I described in my post 2 weeks ago.

In a similar way, many clients of mine who come with hay fever symptoms are given pollen in its homeopathic form to take throughout the hay fever season to reduce their sensitivity to pollen in the air, and we get to work on combatting their actual allergy during the less troublesome winter months.

Please get in touch for more information about managing your hay fever homeopathically.

Homeopathy for Hay Fever #2

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

The flower Eyebright is so-called because of its resemblance to bright eyes, and it is used in homeopathy and naturopathy for complaints of the eye. It can be taken as a homeopathic remedy internally to help with those symptoms of hay fever which affect the eyes, and is beneficial too when used as a herbal tincture in the form drops. A.Vogel’s Moisturising Eye Drops contain Eyebright (known by its Latin name of Euphrasia) and relieves dry, irritated eyes. Visit your local health food store such as Herbie’s in Southsea or get in touch for further information.

Homeopathy for Hay Fever #1

Having the joy of Spring and Summer compromised by sneezing and itchy eyes just doesn’t seem fair. Hay fever is a sign that you have an over-reactive immune system, and a tendency towards this can be addressed more fully with professional homeopathic care. However, there is a lot you can do independently to alleviate your symptoms using a natural approach. Helios the homeopathic pharmacy’s Hay Fever 30c contains the following three remedies: Allium cepa, Euphrasia and Sabadilla, which are three of the major homeopathic sources for hay fever symptoms such as congestion, itchy eyes, and sneezing. Visit helios.co.uk or get in touch for more information.

Stress Awareness Month 2021

According to a survey conducted by stress.org.uk, 65% of a controlled group of adults in the UK have felt more stressed over the past year. Considering what we've been up against as a society, this comes as no surprise. But how people feel stress and what triggers stress in people differs massively from person to person. It is these differences which are so key to the homeopathic approach to helping you feeling less stressed and better managing any stress more healthily. One person will feel stressed at the prospect of leaving the house after these months of isolation, another will experience the stress of making ends meet. One person will develop gastric problems when under stress, another will get palpitations. A homeopath will want to know your individual experience of stress and will create a prescription to work for you in your uniqueness.

Pictured here are some of the many homeopathic remedy sources which can be of huge benefit in these trying times to enhance your wellbeing. Please get in touch for more information about homeopathic healing and visit stress.org.uk for some excellent tips and more about Stress Awareness Month.

Vitamin D and Long COVID

Maintaining good Vitamin D levels are another factor to consider in maintaining good health, and especially if you're coping with post COVID recovery. Vitamin D is perhaps best known for its regulation of calcium and phosphate in the body and therefore its importance for bone health. However, it is also vital for facilitating normal immunity, hence its importance in recovery post COVID to accompany your homeopathic treatment.

 Vitamin D is called the "sunshine vitamin" as it is produced in your skin when you're in sunlight. Therefore, this time of year, ensuring your Vitamin D levels are where they need to be in a great deal easier. If you live a very indoor lifestyle, or in your child's case, you find it nigh on impossible to tear them away from their screen, you can consider bolstering their Vitamin D intake through supplements or by increasing their intake of the following Vitamin D rich foods: salmon, sardines, fish liver oils egg yolk, some mushrooms, and fortified milks, vegan mylks, juices and cereals. Good quality supplements are also an option.

 I hope this was helpful. Do get in touch for more information.

Homeopathy Awareness Week

Hello all. This week, it’s Homeopathy Awareness Week, and 4Homeopathy have created a short film to give you an idea of what homeopathy can do for you. If you’d like to find out more, my Discovery Calls are a free, open, obligation-free way to see how homeopathy can benefit you and your family.

Selenium

Selenium is a trace element that is naturally present in food. Its antioxidant properties help to reduce oxidative stress in the body, which translates into reduced inflammation and improved immunity. If you do not have a nut allergy, it's really easy ensure you have enough Selenium: you eat 3 Brazil nuts every day. If your child doesn't like them or if you need to consider the choking hazard of nuts, you can obtain Brazil nuts in a nut butter. Just keep a tub of Brazil Nuts by your kettle and you'll remember your daily dose.

Zinc and COVID 19

Zinc is a key nutrient for recovery post COVID. It is essential for multiple biological reactions including immunity. As zinc is used to build hormones, its supplies are often especially diminished in tweens and teens. Foods that are rich in zinc are the following: seafood, nuts (the cashew nut is pictured here), seeds and green veg, but do try to avoid having these foods in conjunction with too many cereals as this will inhibit the absorption of zinc. If you are struggling for energy post-COVID, ensuring sufficient intake of zinc would be an essential adjunct to your homeopathic treatment. Feel free to get in touch for further information.

Gut Health and COVID 19 Recovery – Eat a Rainbow

Although we know that COVID 19 primarily affects the respiratory system, it also affects the gut in many people. Additionally, as the gut is the body’s biggest immunological organ, its importance in the body’s ability to fight the virus and its aftermath cannot be understated.

Signs that the health of your gut might be compromised are constipation, diarrhoea or tummy aches, perhaps with a history of IBS.

Improving your gut health and therefore your immunity, is mainly through nutrition. Here the symbol of the nation’s response to COVID, the rainbow, should be borne in mind. Eat a rainbow – eat a wide range of brightly coloured fruit and veg as diversity of nutrients is hugely important. Probiotics and Kefir are wonderful for the biome too, but cannot be tolerated by everyone’s systems, so if in doubt, eat a rainbow.

Helping home-schooling kids: Kapok Bush Flower Essence

The pandemic means that a huge number of the country’s children are sitting in front of screens for hours at a time, if they are lucky enough to have devices available. Learning difficult subjects is very tough in these circumstances, leading to feelings of discouragement, apathy and a loss of belief in oneself to be able to progress. The Flower Essence Kapok Bush helps restore a sense of willingness to have a go and enough persistence to get there in the end. Please feel free to get in touch for more information.

Carers Essence – to calm an emotional overwhelm

There are many people who are currently stretched to their absolute limit. The demands placed on us by the pandemic and its repercussions are huge and sometimes unmanageable. This essence, which is easily obtainable online, combines a number of Australian Bush Flowers to help us bear the weight of onerous responsibilities. It helps lift the spirits, renew energy, restore calm and reroute energy back to the self. Please feel free to get in touch to find out more

Flower Essence to restore energy

The flower essence Swamp Banksia is very restorative at times of temporary tiredness and/or setbacks. The remedy suits people who are ordinarily full of life but due to an illness or burnout have been laid low in energy and enthusiasm. They’ll say: “I don’t feel like used to.” Swamp Banksia is wonderful for recharging batteries and setting you back on your feet.  This remedy would certainly form a valuable part of a homeopathic recovery prescription for Long COVID. Please feel free to get in touch for more information.

Flower Essence for Motivation

The pandemic has of course had far-reaching effects and touched almost all areas of life. In the midst of this, maintaining motivation for study or work and keeping a firm eye on your life’s direction is extremely tough. Silver Princess Bush Flower Essence works to assist with just this set of issues. It helps counter despondency and aimlessness to restore a sense of direction. Silver Princess would also be just the right remedy to help find direction if you’ve lost your job and feel you’re drifting. Don’t hesitate to get in touch for further information.

Flower Essence for anxiety

As the year has got off to such a tricky start, here is the first in a series of posts designed to help you self-heal emotionally and therefore keep on going as we must.

This Australian Bush Flower Essence Crowea is for times of continual worrying. Crowea has the capacity to bring strength and calm to restore a more centred sense of wellbeing. This plant also has an affinity with the abdomen, so would be of especial help to those of us who feel worry or stress in our stomachs.

As with all Bush Flower Essences, take 7 drops morning and night under the tongue or in a small glass of water for 2 weeks. Don’t hesitate to get in touch for further information.

Image from: https://www.fernview.com.au/online-nursery/all-varieties/shrub/crowea-saligna_53ff42b8ac073-detail

Christmas 2020 #4

Australian Bush Flower Essence – Tall Yellow Top for loneliness.

Christmas can be a lonely time for many, but this year that loneliness is hitting more people much harder than ever. To help take the edge off these heartbreaking feelings, the Australian Bush Flower remedy Tall Yellow Top can be extremely useful. Its flowers rise high and alone above others around them; the essence made from these flowers helps ease feelings of loneliness and isolation, enabling us to keep on going to find better times. Please get in touch if you require any further information. A lovely Christmas to one and all.

Christmas 2020 #3

Bach Flower Remedy – Wild Oat for when the future seems uncertain.

2020 has been a year of seismic change for the world and for us as individuals. Though there is little to compare with the pain of grief or sickness, many people’s jobs are very insecure or they have lost their jobs already, which is also the cause of huge suffering too. In this atmosphere of deep uncertainty, the flower remedy Wild Oat can be of great help. Wild Oat suits those who have plenty of skills and talents to offer but do not have a sense of direction, leading to feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction. Wild Oat can help clarify the mind and bring a stronger sense of purpose and positivity. Feel free to get in touch for more information.

Christmas 2020 #2

Bach Flower Remedy - Oak

As you would expect when you think of the tree from which the remedy is prepared, people who would benefit from Oak are very strong when they're in good health. Oak people are dutiful, hard-working and loyal, and they soldier on even when they really ought to take some time out to look after themselves. The result can be fatigue, depression and other symptoms of stress. At this time, there are many people soldiering on towards Christmas and beyond: NHS workers, carers and teachers to name a just a few. If you know someone who keeps on working through exhaustion think of this flower remedy for them. Oak can restore the energy and help bring recognition that looking after oneself has got to come first sometimes. 

Christmas 2020 #1

Christmas is never just stars and tinsel for many of us, and this Christmas brings new challenges that none of us have navigated before. Homeopathy and flower essences can be powerfully restorative emotionally and physically, enabling us to keep living life with more joy and less anxiety.

Red Chestnut

This Bach Flower Remedy is for people who are depleted by their over-concern for others. These are selfless people who care deeply for their nearest and dearest and who constantly fear the worst for those they love. It is a remedy that would benefit people who are in perpetual state of concern for others in relation to COVID 19. The remedy helps restore balance and the energy lost through worry.

Please get in touch for further information.

Constipation #2

Being able pass stool 1-2 times a day ensures that no waste products are stagnating in your bowel. Stagnation can result in a changed behaviour of your all-important intestinal flora and is very much best avoided to keep good health in flow. Homeopathy and home-healing measures can restore the flow to keep your system clear and clean.

A  glass of prune juice in the morning can be enough to give your body a gentle shove in the right direction. If your body needs more than simply a gentle shove, however, the following recipe which I learnt from the incredible homeopath Hilery Dorrian can work wonders for a sluggish bowel:

Take black sesame seeds and walnuts in equal proportions and dry roast them. Cool then crush them. Have one tablespoon of this mix daily with half a pint of water to follow and wait and see!

Bryonia, or Wild Hops

This homeopathic remedy made from Wild Hops is really helpful in addressing constipation when the system is really dry and the stools are hard, dry and burnt looking. There can be burning pains around the anus when trying to pass stool. The abdomen might feel sore and there might be stabbing pains in the back passage. There also might well be a thirst for long drinks. Bryonia is a great remedy for constipation when you’re on holiday and also during pregnancy.  

Constipation #1

Modern living is often at odds with good bowel health. Our diet can often be lacking in fibre and water, and it may be hard to find the time and energy to get enough exercise. Having said that, even when your diet, hydration and activity levels are where they need to be, constipation can still be an issue.

1-2 bowel movements per day represents a healthy frequency; anything less long-term represents a lack of flow and is a sign that the body is struggling to detoxify, which can have a good many knock-on effects on your health and well-being.

Aluminium and the homeopathic remedy Alumina

Aluminium is added to an incredible amount of the food we eat and the water we drink, and because it is a desiccant, it quite literally dries out our system. Aluminium is added to dried foods, salt, flour, toothpaste, tap water and importantly if your baby is constipated, to powdered baby milk and food.

As homeopathy is the medicine of treating like with like, the remedy Alumina, which is the homeopathic preparation of Aluminium, is a primary remedy for constipation and can be very helpful in getting things moving again.

Next week we’ll look at other ways of getting your bowels moving more effectively and therefore keeping your system clean and clear.