Learn About Homeopathy

Hi! My name is Heather Caruso and I am a homeopath from Guelph, Ontario Canada. I have been in practice for almost a decade here. I wanted to talk a little bit about the principles of homeopathy. Homeopathy is medicine that's over 200 years old. It's popular, it's been used by the royal family and many other famous people. However, you don't have to be rich and famous to enjoy it's benefits. It's a system of natural medicine that is very gentle and diluted. It's a little different from vitamins and herbs because the remedies are usually matched to a person's symptoms which can be both emotional and physical symptoms. They can be used for all ages, all disorders and even on pets. Homeopathic remedies can be made from plant, animal, or mineral matter and they are very gentle, but they still pack a big punch when it comes to managing illness. They work because what they do is they stimulate the body to recognize abnormal symptoms. The substance, the original substance at homeopathic remedies are made from, can actually cause the problems that they are treating. So for example, when you cut an onion, you will have running eyes, they will be burning, you will have running nose, you might even cough, that sort of thing, but if you take a homeopathic remedy made from red onion called Allium Cepa, it actually treats those symptoms like allergy symptoms and cold symptoms. It is very good for helping your body to recognize what symptoms are abnormal and what it does is it stimulates our own natural healing mechanism. By introducing this strange substance, your body all of the sudden starts to think, these symptoms aren't normal, I should start working to get rid of them. Homeopathy is used all over the world. It's used in England. Doctors practice it in England. In France, it's very big. Almost half of all French physicians practice homeopathy as well. It's big in India. It's starting to gain much more popularity in North America as well. Homeopathic remedies can be single remedies which are remedies like Allium Cepa where you have to match your symptoms directly to the remedy or they can be complex remedies. Complex remedies are very good as well. What they are is, say for example, you want to work on your liver, you want to do some detoxification or stimulate liver function. They will put the top-ten, perhaps, remedies that are good for liver into one bottle, it's called complex. Usually, they will use for drainage. It just depends on what kind of remedy you are using. They can be for joints, skull, bladder, kidneys, hormones, thyroid, it just depends, but often it's the common remedies but it is very useful way of detoxifying the body. Homeopathic remedies that are singles tend to be match to the person's symptoms both emotional and physical and they can be called constitutional remedies which is suited to things to do with the person's personalities as well. There is a few great homeopathic remedies I think, everyone should have at home. The first one is Allium Cepa which is a good remedy for allergies. It's good for cold, the running, for watery nose, eyes, burning that sort of thing. Another great remedy is Arnica, Arnica Montana. If you have any injuries, if you had a surgery, if you have injured yourself even years ago, but never recovered, Arnica is a great remedy that you can take to help heal yourself and reduce inflammation and pain. You can also use Arnica cream or gel to rub directly into your muscles if you have aches and pains, muscle aches or joint aches, you can rub it on, it's not good for open skin, but it's great to rub in as well the internal and helps get to the inflammation and reduce it. Magnesium Phos is another great remedy also called Mag Phos. Mag Phos is a great remedy for pains, cramps, leg cramps, if you have leg cramps at night, if you have muscle cramps or aches that feel better with hot, you need a heating pad or hot bath makes you feel better, Mag Phos is your remedy. It's also great for menstrual cramps. Another good remedy is called Rhus tox and Rhus tox is great for those people who have, say, arthritis, or joint pains that they feel better once they limber up and get moving. They may get out of bed and feel little crippled and then once they get going, they feel great. Another great remedy for your medicine chest is one called Ignatia or Iamara. Ignatia is great for grief. If you have any sudden griefs or even a long-term grief, disappoint of some kind, heartbreak or broken-heart with love affairs, someone passes away. If you have symptoms from grief like for example, labored breathing, you feel like there is a pressure on your chest, or your throat has a lump in it, or it's difficult to talk or you feel the pressure there, ever since this grief, sleepless from grief, you feel moody, you might cry one minute, laugh the next, that sort of thing, that's an Ignatia type of profile. It doesn't take away, say the feelings around grief, however it makes you feel a little bit more grounded. I had given it to a family whose father was in the hospital and they were taking it while they were waiting in the critical care unit, and a few people remarked on who well they felt after taking it, and anyway, it turns out that all these different people that were in the waiting room of the critical care unit ask for them, so then I had to sell about six files to these people so they could distribute it among all those other people suffering and waiting for their loved ones to hear back and how they were doing. Nux Vomica is another great remedy and it's other name, Nux Vomica is also called Colubrina. Colubrina is a great remedy for those who over indulge, work too much, that sort of thing. Colubrina is good for heartburn. If you drink too much coffee, or drink too much alcohol, eat too much and you feel bloated, you stomach is upset, that sort of thing, Colubrina is a great remedy to help take the edge off. It's also great for those types of people who are workaholics, who tend to burn the candle at both ends and are sleepless. I had an excellent case of a Colubrina man who didn't sleep for almost two weeks solid and I had a real difficulty finding a remedy for him, but when he finally told me what he was thinking about the whole time that he wasn't sleeping. I discovered he was thinking about work, he was making plans for work and it's all about work and he didn't have his normal outlet at that time. It was winter, he didn't get to go out golf. So he had no physical outlet. So also, Colubrina types are Nux Vomica types. They tend to be cooped up physically. They really need some kind of outlet for their stress and they work a lot. They are very - they have a lot of priorities to do with -- Any of these remedies, you should be able to find at your local health food store. You can get them in like 30 CH potency and normal dose would be four pellets once or twice a day and they are perfectly harmless, but you have to take them between meals. If you would like more information on homeopathy or like to sign up for a free e-newsletter, you can go to www.carusohomeopathy.com and you can also check-out my new book called "Your Drug-Free Guide to Digestive Health: A Handbook of Homeopathic, Natural and Other Treatments for Common Digestive Disorders."