There are few people who haven’t experienced the morning
after the night before feeling. It seems a good idea at the
time, the company is convivial, the food good and the wine
and beer keep flowing. But the next morning is a different
story.
That pounding head, the sensitivity to noise and light, the
irritability, the desire to go back to bed, in the dark and
quiet. We know all those signs are from excess alcohol, but
why?
When we take in too much toxicity (drugs, medicine,
alcohol, etc) the first place the body sends them to is the
liver. The liver is the main organ to detoxify the body.
Once the body is detoxed, the liver returns to its normal
day to day functions.
Our language can give us a clue to our ailments. We know
that people who are described as liverish are irritable.
Irritability is one of the first signs of a liver
struggling to work.
To help the liver detox the body rapidly is a gem of a
remedy called Nux vomica. Only a few doses are needed for
the irritability to melt away, the pounding head to vanish
and for noise and light to become bearable again.
Not only does it help with the acute effects of excess
alcohol and drugs, by taking it regularly (6c twice a day,
30c once a day for a week or two), will cleanse a highly
toxic liver. However, guidance from a practitioner is
recommended for the chronic effects of toxicity, as taking
too much of an inappropriate remedy can give you more
problems.
If you know you’ll be drinking a bit too much, take a dose
before you go out, then when you get back. You’ll be amazed
as how little you suffer. It’s wonderful for those
celebration and Christmas parties.
When our body is too toxic (from regular excess alcohol or
drugs), the liver never gets a chance to recover, so the
person remains in a state of irritability and anger.
If the liver doesn’t work properly, our whole digestion is
compromised. We can’t digest food properly, so commonly get
cramp, digestive spasms and colic. While there are hundreds
of remedies for the liver, the key to Nux vomica colic is
the desire to stretch or arch the back. This affords some
relief.
A crying baby with colic who tends to stretch back to gain
relief, is likely to respond well to Nux vomica. A horse
with colic from overfeeding and a tendency to arch the
back, as much as is possible, will respond well to Nux
vomica. It’s difficult for a horse to arch their back
effectively, so they roll instead. If the horse rolls on
their spine, trying to arch the back, that’s Nux vomica.
Those with sluggish livers tend to live off stimulants -
coffee to get going in the morning and during the day,
recreational drugs to stir them up in the evening, alcohol
to get to sleep at night. There is a depressed appetite,
with a desire for spicy and oily food, but it ends up being
pushed around the plate.
Constipation is common, particularly when our eating habits
are disturbed, such as on holiday.
Another symptom of a disordered liver is the inability to
get warm. You feel cold to the bone, just can’t get warm
enough. Freezing feet and hands are common in winter (even
in summer).
It’s a great remedy for period pains too, if other symptoms
agree.
Nux vomica is very much a remedy for today, with busy
working people who have no time to look after themselves.
They can be workaholics. And they can be extremely
competitive. They rely on getting quick fixes for ailments
that get in the way of their working lives. They need
stimulants to keep them going. All very artificial. All
very typical of today.
impatient, wants quick fixes, don’t look after themselves
colic with a tendency to arch the back, which brings some
relief
wakes around 3 am and can’t get back to sleep again
constipation especially in travellers
Nux vomica is made from the poison nut, also called
Strychnos Nux vomica. It’s poisonous because it contains
strychnine. It’s a medium sized tree, a member of the
Loganiacea family and commonly grows in China. Strychnine
causes convulsions, which is a nerve problem. You can see
the strychnine part of Nux vomica in the digestive spasms.
A question comes from Maureen.
There's one thing I don't understand. The more the
remedies are diluted, the stronger they becomes. You can
buy 6 or 30 or 200, and 30 is stronger than 6. Why can’t we
just dilute 6 twice to get 12, then twice to get 24 and so
on, and do it ourselves?
To make a homoeopathic remedy, we both dilute it and
succuss it. Succession is vigourous shaking. The dilution
removes the physical properties of the remedy, (thereby
allowing us to use poisons with total impunity and why we
don’t get side effects). The succession releases the
energetic properties of the source, the key to the remedy.
Without succussion, the remedy would just be the
alcohol/water mix or sugar pills, with no healing
properties.
The dilution and succussion has to be done in a certain
way. For example to get a 6x potency, one drop of the
source material is mixed with nine (x indicating the
decimal scale) drops of alcohol and succussed. This makes a
1x potency. Repeating the process six times gives us a 6x
potency. To make a 30c potency, we take one drop of the
source material and add it to 99 (c indicates the
centesimal scale) drops of alcohol, then succuss. This
makes a 1c potency, so has to be repeated 30 times to get a
30c potency.
That probably makes it as clear as mud! Be more concerned
about the right remedy than about how it works. We, as
humans, know so little, but seem to focus on wanting to
know how and why. I prefer to focus on what does work,
rather than the how or why. I have no idea why I’m here but
am determined to enjoy the ride!
