Tag: homeopathy

Natural Remedy for Hay Fever and Seasonal Allergies

March 18, 2011

For most of my life I suffered from seasonal allergies. But not anymore, since I found this amazing homeopathic hay fever remedy.

Sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes, fuzzy head making it feel like life is coming at you through a tunnel… As summer faded each year I would be burning through forests of tissue boxes until that first frost would thankfully bring it to an end.

Until the spring, when the flowering trees burst into bloom and it would start all over again.

The anti-histimine prescriptions would work to keep the symptoms at bay, but the side effects were unpleasant: drowsiness or jitters, dry mouth and nose, weird taste in the back of my mouth, etc. I really didn’t like the idea of being on anti-histimines most of my life, but they were necessary if I were to function at all during half of the year.

I tried some other natural remedies with some success, such as taking locally-collected bee pollen, and found them to be temporarily helpful and worthwhile, but needed to be taken frequently to maintain the effects. I foresee bee pollen becoming expensive, too (so sad that we’re losing our bees!).

That’s the way my life used to be. Then, a homeopath told me about a homeopathic remedy for seasonal allergies.

That first season I used the remedy once, and then again about a week later, and was symptom-free for the rest of the season. The second season, I found I needed just a single dose to make me forget I ever had seasonal allergies.

This year I didn’t even realize that allergy season had arrived until someone else mentioned they were suffering already. I was thrilled to offer up this Homeopathic Hay Fever Remedy and watch it start to work immediately to alleviate his symptoms.

But don’t let me gush too long about this remedy. To me, it feels miraculous not to be suffering from seasonal allergies anymore.

In case you don’t know, homeopathy is a healing modality based on using minute amounts of a like substance to help the body regain a healthy equilibrium.

When taking homeopathic remedies, don’t eat or drink for 15 minutes before or afterward. Succuss (slam) the remedy in one palm five times before using, and empty the dropper fully before filling for use. Drop 5-6 drops underneath your tongue. Repeat every 4 hours, if needed.

Homeopathic remedies will not interact with other medications and are safe to use when pregnant, nursing, or with infants and children.

To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate?

May 11, 2009

One of my favorite girlfriends wrote me recently concerned about giving a slew of vaccinations to her 15-month old daughter. “I know a mom with a daughter she is sure is autistic and who knows another mom who woke up to 2 of her 3 triplets rocking in there crib after vaccines, 1 now with severe autism and the other mild autism and 1 child with no problems.”

Here’s my very personal view that I will share with you and her about vaccinating my own children.

Although I chose our pediatrician in part because the practice would let us decide to vaccinate or not, I chose to vaccinate my children for a couple reasons.

First, while there is a lot of talk about the link between vaccinations and autism, particularly concerning the mercury (thimerosal) used as a preservative in the vaccines, there has yet to be definitive proof of the link. Still, I made sure our pediatrician was using thimerosal-free vaccines in single-use vials.

Thimerosal has been removed from or reduced to trace amounts in all vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Here’s my post on how I felt about flu shots this year.

Second, as a world traveler I believe it is part of my social responsibility to vaccinate my children against these particularly heinous diseases that have caused much death and disfigurement throughout history. The reason you don’t see more kids and young adults walking with braces and physically disabled from polio is due to the near-universal polio vaccination campaign in this country. I want my children to walk freely on this earth, wherever they please, as protected from harm as possible.

I found firsthand that vaccines are not foolproof when my son came down with chickenpox last year even though he had already been vaccinated against them. While the vaccine did not block the virus, it did mitigate the course of the disease so that he was merely uncomfortable instead of miserable, and he avoided the pox scars that we see all over his father’s torso.

While my heart goes out to those families affected by autism, and I know that many of them desperately believe the vaccines caused this condition, I am not convinced. Many pediatricians have told me, and I have seen with my own eyes, that babies who turn into autistic children usually show signs much earlier that “something is off.” These signs are visible long before the vaccination cycle begins but are often overlooked by exhausted new parents.

Even though I did vaccinate my children, I also wanted to help their bodies deal with the toxicity, so I administered Liddell Homeopathic Anti-Tox Vaccine afterward to help counter the negative effects and clear the body of toxins. This is an easy-to-use, under-the-tongue spray. Additionally, I requested the vaccines not be given all together in a single visit – 3-5 vaccines at once is a lot for a little body of less than 20 lbs. to handle! I would rather make more visits and spread out the vaccines then give such a megadose at once.

So this is my very personal take on why I chose to vaccinate my kids. I’d love to hear your thoughts about vaccinating and what you decided to do.

Natural Remedies for Hay fever

March 25, 2009

It’s spring and that means hay fever season.

I used to only suffer from pollen-related allergies in the fall, when the weeds and grasses are at their peak. But, in my early twenties I lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a time, and when the yellow chamisa bloomed in the spring, my nose would turn into a faucett.

Runny nose, frequent and unstoppable sneezing fits, red and itchy eyes… those are just the most obvious symptoms that I’m suffering. The most annoying ones include the irritating itching on the roof of my mouth, right on the palate, and how the skin on my face constantly tickles, begging to be scratched at a deeper level at risk of permanent scarring or at least visible damage. With my body in histamine overdrive it’s no wonder hay fever makes me feel like I’m interacting with the world through a thick pillow and leaves me wiped out by mid-afternoon.

For years I seasonally took prescription anti-histamines like Zyrtec and Claritin. They took away the itching, sure, but left me dehydrated, wired, and chemically-dependent. Now, I try to manage the hayfever with natural remedies instead of drugs.

My first line of offense is the locally collected bee pollen I find in the refrigerated section of my local Vitamin Cottage. (Check with your local health food store, or look for bee pollen collected in your area online.) An 8-oz. baggie runs me about $3.20 and may last me almost the entire season. I start each season slowly, with just about 1/8 teaspoon of pollen dissolved into a few ounces of juice or lemonade. Since bee pollen is like concentrated honey, it makes a sweet drink and I start to breathe easier quickly.

Once I’m sure I tolerate the pollen again this year, I gradually increase the dosage up to an entire teaspoon, if needed, as frequently as required. True confession: I don’t always wait for the pollen beads to fully dissolve before drinking them down. What can I say, allergies make me desperate!

This year, my homeopath also recommended a homeopathic remedy for hay fever that seems to be effective as well: Sabadilla. With homeopathy, you take a dose in an empty mouth and see what happens. If it works and the symptos abate for a while then return, take another dose. Discontinue when symptoms disappear or are not affected at all (which indicates you’re using the wrong remedy). While you can get a good selection of homeopathic remedies at a good health store, this one is hard to find and may be best ordered online.

Another homeopathic remedy for histamine reactions that may not necessarily be from hay fever is Histaminum. This was the only thing that worked to end my two-year old’s lifelong runny nose problem.

Natural first aid for bee stings

September 24, 2008

Last weekend, my 36-year old sister got stung by a bee. It was in my house, of all places, where a bee had landed on the back of a chair as we were going in and out to a block party all afternoon.

My sister has been stung twice before, and each time had a reaction of increasing severity so she was terrified to have been stung. The danger with bee stings, of course, are that they can trigger anaphalactic shock quickly, and each incident can be worse than the previous.

After removing the bee from the house, I moved quickly and gave her 3 pellets of homeopathic Apis underneath her tongue. We coated the sting area with calamine lotion, though mud works just as well, if not better, and let it dry to leach the toxin out. About 15 minutes later I gave her 3 pellets of homeopathic Ledum as a follow up. (I also keep Benedryl and an EpiPen in the house, just in case, but they weren’t needed.)

The result of our homeopathic first aid? No breathing difficulties, no swelling in the throat, not even any swelling at the sting site. She was amazed.

I was up on my bee sting procedure as the week before my 3-year old daughter had been stung while on the slide in a playground. We were lucky because it had rained the night before and we found some great mud in the baseball diamond in the park. We packed it onto the sting sites and it gave her some immediate relief. We were not home until an hour later, at which point I gave her an Apis pellet shortly followed by a Ledum. She was able to sleep comfortably that night, and by the next day had no swelling at all.

I find this Basic 36 Homeopathy Kit at HomeopathyWorld.com handy to have around for times like these.

Tag: homeopathy

Natural Remedy for Hay Fever and Seasonal Allergies

To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate?

Natural Remedies for Hay fever

Natural first aid for bee stings

Check out my Book!

Effortless Topics

Recent Posts