*Homoeopathy in general* > Reviews > "It CAN'T work- but my headache's gone!"

Author's product rating:   

Side effects	None
Effectiveness	Good

Advantages:	It's worked for me and my family .
Disadvantages:	Expensive consultations, can take time to find the right remedy .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The title of this review is a quote from my highly sceptical husband, whom I had rescued from a heatwave-induced headache that had him literally crying with pain, by giving him the homeopathic remedy, "Nux Vomica"!

However, let me start at the beginning of my experience with homeopathy, nearly 9 years ago now, when I was pregnant with our second son and suffering all day morning sickness that had me off work and unable to move round the house without a handy bucket clutched to my chest so I could throw my guts up every ten minutes. I got to the point where I was going to have to think about paying for help with our 2 year old and with cooking, cleaning etc, and that made me wonder if it was worth trying an expensive, alternative treatment. My mother in law had seen a homeopath about her arthritis, and while it wasn't cured completely, it had improved quite a lot.

So I looked through the Y P for a registered homeopath close to home (do go for a qualified, registered person as you should be able to trust them) and made an appointment for the next week. She suggested that in the meantime I might like to try Nelson's Travella, a homeopathic travel sickness remedy available from Boots. I got my husband to pick this up for me and tried it. The next evening we went round to friends' for tea and I actually didn't need the bucket, also I managed to eat the best meal I'd had for weeks. I was still sick every day but not as many times.

I duly kept my appointment not having a clue what to expect. What I got was a very thorough 90 minute consultation discussing everything from my dreams, my food preferences and whether I liked the seaside, to the colour of my tongue and what my personality was like. Finally I was given a small bottle with a tablet dissolved in distilled water in and told to try 5 drops every day.

(This is where the squeamish might get put off, but please bear with me and I'll explain why it was OK a bit later.) I asked what the remedy was and the homeopath was a bit cagey, but in the end I told her I would have eaten a cowpat if it would stop me being sick, so she said its origin was very much diluted gonorrhea!!!!

It took a leap of faith to take it after that, but I'd paid a lot and I was desperate so I did as instructed and lo and behold, in a few days the constant sickness became morning sickness and it was literally get up, be sick and get on with the day. It wasn't ideal but I could cope with it after the previous horror. I went back about once a month till the baby was born, then made appointments as necessary.

Since then, my older son has been saved surgery by homeopathy. He had umpteen ear infections every winter from being a baby and had to see a consultant who wanted to remove his adenoids and put in grommets. We didn't want him to have surgery at 3 years old, and what clinched it for me was that he would have to go to the hospital where I had last been to visit a friend the night before she died of cancer, and daft as it sounds, I couldn't bear to think he would be in there. So we postponed the surgery and let the homeopath try to treat him. This was in December, and by May the audiologist said his ears and his hearing were improving, and by August he said they were clear and his hearing was within the normal range. He's never looked back!

I attended a homeopathic first aid course run by my homeopath for people wanting to know more and use it to treat minor ailments, and have used it as an amateur with a lot of good results. My younger son takes Travella in the car, my husband frequently finds Nux Vomica helpful for headache and sinus pain, I use Kali Bich for sick headaches and we all use arnica for bumps; I tried it on my 4 year old nephew and watched the bump on his head go down before my eyes. I have a "first aid kit" (available from Helios homeopathic pharmacy online, cost about £35 for 36 remedies when I got it about 6 years ago) and a few books on using remedies, and I have a go at most things. The beauty of trying homeopathy is that it has no side effects, it either helps or does nothing.

It's difficult to explain in great detail and for anyone interested I would suggest going to the website of the Society of Homeopaths which explains it in much more detail than I can. However I'll try and give a brief outline of its principles.

Homeopathy was started by Samuel Hahnemann in the 18th century when he wondered why quinine bark was used to cure malaria. He tried eating some and realised it gave him the symptoms of malaria. From this discovery came the principle that "like cures like". This basically means that to cure a condition you use something that could cause it, so for insomnia you could use coffee, for fever you use belladonna which causes fever, etc.

However, Hahnemann became ill from eating quinine bark and obviously you can't give a feverish patient neat belladonna, it would probably kill them!! So homeopathy dilutes the original substance so much that apparently no trace of the original substance shows up if the remedy is analysed. It supposedly leaves its imprint and energy in the water, a concept which I find hard to understand and which my sceptical husband denies is possible, yet we have seen it work! (This is how I was persuaded to take a remedy made from gonorrhea!!) There is an argument that it just helps because the patient thinks it will help, but it is used successfully on animals; my cat Emma had a bad eye and I used homeopathy to heal it successfully. Emma didn't know she was taking medicine but it worked!

Another principle is to use the minimum necessary dose. Unlike prescription drugs, homeopathy does not need regular doses. My homeopath told us on the course to try a remedy, if it helped, not to take it again unless the symptoms returned, and if it hadn't helped after an hour or so, to try something different. This is the advice I follow, safe in the knowledge that I can't harm someone by doing it . Most over the counter remedies say "take 2 three times a day" but this is rarely necessary in my experience.

The thing I like most about the homeopathic approach is that it is holistic, ie, it treats the whole person rather than just the symptoms. For example, my husband has a headache, and he is also tall and dark, prone to irritability and likes strong coffee. So I try Nux Vomica first because these are classic indications for that remedy rather than just looking at the headache. It doesn't always work but probably 80 % of the time it helps him. This is called a constitutional remedy and is really best prescribed by a homeopath, it's better to stick to the immediate problem when you're an amateur.

The remedies come in a wide variety of forms, usually in sugar pills or diluted in a bottle if you're taking a few drops every day. The potency (how much they're diluted) goes from 6 to 1m which is 1000 times to my knowledge and might go further; paradoxically, the more times it's diluted, the more potent is the remedy so you usually only get 6 or 30 for non-homeopath's use. I think these are around £5 from Boots etc. and they last for ages.

I should add that homeopathy is more than just a treatment for physical illness. It can be used for emotional and mental illness too, stress, bereavement, anxiety etc can all be helped, not by stifling the natural process but by helping you get through it quicker. Howevr you really need a qualified homeopath for this, I wouldn't try it by yourself.

Sometimes it doesn't seem to work. This is probably because there are so many remedies to choose from and it takes a while to get the one that best fits the picture. This is a difficulty which is why I've rated it 4 rather than 5 star, but when it works I'd give it 5 every time.

I've probably not described this brilliantly, it's quite hard to explain, butI would really recommend this form of medicine and suggest further reading or a visit to a homeopath if you want to learn more. Apparently the Queen uses it so it can't be bad!!