Autumnal Woes are helped by Homeopathy

Goodbye Summer 2023! It is with much sadness that I see you give way to autumn.

In homeopathic repertories, you will find symptoms for "aggravations in autumn." They can be very general symptoms, meaning that multiple body systems are affected in the autumn, or very specific, such as asthma is worse or constipation arises or neuralgia in the arms happens every autumn. Of course the other seasons are covered in the repertories as well — winter, spring and summer. Not everyone is affected by seasons, but take a minute to think about your own body. Does periodicity play a role in your symptoms? Do you dread certain seasons and, if so, why?

Homeopathy is all about taking notice. Forget diagnostic terminology because what are those terms but manmade labels that distract us? Instead, place focus on what your body is actually doing. Instead of saying, "I have eczema," consider saying something like "a rash appears on my hands and is very itchy in the morning. It is worse (meaning itchier or redder or more scaly, etc.) from being uncovered, and it feels better (meaning symptoms improve) when I use ice cold applications - either cold air or cold water." These details are called "modalities" and homeopaths need them to come to the correct remedy for your specific condition. A person whose eczema is made better by heat, and whose itchiness is worse in the evening would need a different remedy than one whose eczema is improved by cold and itches more in the morning.

Being observant is the key to finding a good remedy. And understanding what is different or unique about your symptoms is also important. For instance, everyone who has eczema has an eruption, so using the symptom "Skin, eruptions" is not overly helpful. It can be taken, but the more detailed symptoms are needed too, especially since "Skin, eruptions" in the Complete Repertory 2023 has 1,217 remedies in it. How would you decide which of those 1,217 remedies is needed if you do not get more details? The good news is that the symptom "Skin, eruptions, cold washing/bathing ameliorates" only has 12 remedies in it (in the Complete Repertory 2023), and when you combine that symptom with a few other highly focused symptoms, about the itching or the scaliness etc., you can find the remedy that is the best fit.

Focused observation is the "art" of homeopathy. Some homeopathic practitioners—the most successful ones—intuitively know which symptoms are critical to choose, and therefore pick the most fitting remedies for their patients. Although I have my CCH (Certificate of Classical Homeopathy), and therefore have good knowledge about the science of homepathy, the art has been more difficult to master. I write about homeopathy since I haven't yet found a level of consistency with its art that satisfies me.

Autumn and winter are my least favorite months. I recently noticed that all three books in the Castlewood series take place in the spring or summer, so autumnal woes are very real to me. It's funny how our preferences come out in so many ways!

Start learning homeopathy

I encourage everyone to start learning homeopathy because it's a great way to take charge of your health. But which book should you buy first? The question is daunting because there are many homeopathic books, some better than others, so I'm happy to make some suggestions.

Learning homeopathic first aid is a wonderful place to start. It's relatively easy and comes with an added bonus: You can buy many of the first-aid remedies in your local heathfood store. I recommend getting Dr. Dorothy Shepherd's Homœopathy for the First Aider. (*) She not only covers every concievable remedy for first-aid situations, but she also shares cases from her many years in practice.

But if you're ready to go beyond first aid, what then? You will need to understand the philosophy behind homeopathy. George Vithoulkas' Homeopathy—Medicine of the New Man (*) is a concise but thorough introduction that is written in easy-to-understand language. Vithoulkas is still alive today, so the antiquated language of the 19th century homepaths is bypassed, removing that barrier to learning.

Once you understand homeopathic philosophy, you will be ready to get your first repertory so that you can begin to group symptoms and see which remedies fit that grouping. Which Repertory should you buy? I personally love Boericke's Homeopathic Materia Medica and Repertory since it contains not just symptoms, but a detailed description (materica medica) of each remedy. It also contains a therapeutic index, connecting ailments to remedies to consider, and so much more! The book was written in the 19th century, which means that it doesn't contain the newer remedies—those that have been added to the homeopathic materia medica since then. But it contains hundreds of remedies—all those tried and true remedies of Hahnemann, Hering, and Lippe's time, which successfully treated a multitude of conditions—everything from toenail fungus to tumors.

What do you do with the symptoms that you gather from the repertory for a particular case? If you're not ready to invest in a software program that will organize the symptoms for you, you will need to enter your gathered symptoms into a chart by hand. I have a chart that I used before I got a software program, and I'm sharing it with you HERE (you will need to print it out). The "Case" is the name of the person for whom you are repertorizing; the "Rubrics" are the symtoms you have found to use for the person's particular problem.

(*) If you don't feel like buying a book, you can also search the internet to find information about homeopathic first aid and philosophy. There's a lot of free information to be found.

I hope you have fun exploring homeopathy! If you have even half as much fun as I've had over the years (and continue to have), it will be well worth your time and effort. And don't hesitate to write to me if you have any questions about anything you've read here today.

Table salt vs Natrum muriaticum

James Compton Burnett, homeopath

James Compton Burnett is one of my favorite homeopaths from the 19th century. He attended medical school in Vienna and Glasgow, graduating in 1872. Four years later, he turned to homeopathy after observing a peer who used homeopathy at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, and after conducting his own experiments. He wrote:

"Those ignorant of homœopathy laugh at it: the writer went through this laughing stage of ignorance, but did not find it very blissful, and so was constrained to put the doctrine of similars to the test of scientific experiment, and found it a true one of great practical value. Almost all homœopaths have come that way. Hence disbelieving a thing does not disprove it."

The homeopaths of Burnett's day were bitterly divided. They all believed in the fundamental philosophy of similars, or "like cures like," but there were those who could not believe in the need for dynamization—the process of dilution and succussion (shaking) that takes a substance to its infinitesimal state. The disbelievers of dynamization gave remedies that were not properly diluted, and even spoke against dilution. Burnett quotes Dr. Kidd, who infamously said, "Truth is greater than Hahnemann (*), and of late years his speculations about ... infinitesimal doses have been tacitly given up by all the most skilful and intelligent of his followers." Burnett rebutted with, "We are very apt to lose sight of the fact that our beliefs have nothing to do with truth. Truth is truth whether it be believed or not."

Burnett has written many books, one of which is a book on Natrum muriaticum (Nat-m), which is a homeopathic remedy made from basic table salt. In the book, he not only gives clinical observations about the curative effects of the remedy, but he also makes a strong case that it is the dilution of the substance—the infinitesimal dose—that brings about the cure.

He describes one case of a woman, aged 50, who had the hiccups morning, noon, and night—attacks that were very distressing and would last ten minutes at a time. They were brought on by quinine, a drug she had taken for a complaint ten years previously. The woman regularly salted her food, so had had plenty of exposure to the undiluted substance. Burnett prescribed homeopathic salt—Nat-m—since it is known to antidote the effects of quinine. By the third day, the hiccups of ten year's duration had stopped completely. Burnett comments in his book that the dynamization process "does so alter a substance that it thereby acquires a totally new power."

Burnett gives other examples of cures from Nat-m in his book, and below I've listed three more to give you a little insight into the remedy, which covers many conditions. I also want to point out that table salt (Nat-m in its raw form) is pretty much used by everyone all the time, whether they are actively salting their own food or eating a dish that someone else has salted.

Case one: A man in his mid-thirties had poor circulation (which led to chronic chilliness), sleepiness after eating, a sour taste in his mouth and black spots before his eyes. He was cured of all by Nat-m in about two weeks.

Case two: A boy, 12, had "caught a cold" in his eye and it was still painful and inflamed a month later. He had photophobia (could not look at bright light) and lacrymation (watering of the eyes). Nat-m was given three times per day and the eye was completely healed in a little over a week.

Case three: A woman in her 60s had chronic gout on her left big toe and foot. Nat-m cured her gout in four days. She was very fond of beer, and Burnett asked her to limit it, which she didn't do. But she kept the Nat-m powders on hand, and called them her "gout powders." Burnett learned from her daughter that they promptly relieved two or three similar attacks that occurred afterward, probably due to her inability to limit the beer.

Nat-m covers many conditions and has been a widely recommended homeopathic remedy since Hahnemann's time (*). Like all homeopathic remedies, it has certain characteristic keynotes that guide a homeopath to choose it over another remedy that covers the same condition. Some of the most common characteristics of Nat-m are feeling WORSE between 9-11 AM, in the sun, at the seashore, lying down, from mental exertion, and/or from consolation. The person can feel BETTER in open air, with cold bathing, going without regular meals, lying on the right side, having pressure against the back, and/or from tight clothing.

*Hahnemann is the father of homeopathy, and it would not be in existence today without him. His first book, "The Organon of Medicine," was published in 1810.

Interested in homeopathic treatment? Please seek a professional homeopath for chronic and complex issues, and do not interpret anything read here as a recommendation to take Natrum muriaticum.