Top Hangover Remedy Has Many Other Uses
Thought of the Week
Adverse Drug Reactions
Calcium Enriched Food
After Arnica, probably the most widely used remedy by you, fair home prescriber, is Nux vomica. Most of you know that it has the amazing ability to cure hangovers.
Other uses extend to any liver problems. The connection with drinking here is obvious. (Hangovers are more about toxic livers, less about dehydration.)
But, it has other uses too.
And one of those is fever.
While you read this, keep at the back of your mind the liver connection. A compromised liver is serious. It makes you irritable, if not downright angry.
It can also upset your thermostat so you’re cold most of the time. So cold, that when you stir in bed, the air movements make you colder.
It can also make you slow to get going in the morning.
And finally, a compromised liver tends to make eating fatty food painful - often thought of as a gall bladder problem. But in homeopathy, the liver and gall bladder symptoms can merge.
So your check list of a compromised liver is:
- irritable or angry
- cold
- slow to get going in the morning
- can’t tolerate fatty food, but loves them
So you’re in bed because you’re weak and have a fever.
Flu!
Because Nux vomica has a lot of digestive issues (liver connection), this flu is likely to be stomach flu, with nausea, vomiting, retching. Unlike Ant tart discussed a few weeks ago, the vomiting occurs several hours after eating.
You have a high fever with violent chills. You may be very hot, but can’t bear the thought of being uncovered.
Generally, you’re not a very nice patient to nurse. Apart from your irritability, you’re very sensitive, too. Oversensitive might be more appropriate. Oversensitive to substances (like alcohol), but also coffee, fatty foods, most stimulants which you crave. And oversensitive to those around you.
The stomach pain makes you arch your back, for a bit of relief.
But oversensitive to noise, to light, to everything, too. (Ring any hangover bells?)
Although your abdomen feels sore and achy, your limbs are more likely to feel weak.
You might not have an abundance of flu like symptoms. Just sneezing and a stuffed up, congested feeling which is worse at night or outside. And maybe a cough which brings on a headache. And your breathing may be shallow. Symptoms, but relatively minor.
One other symptom of Nux vomica is the insomnia, especially around 3 - 4 am. Eventually you might fall asleep at about 5.30, only to be woken by the alarm at 6.
No wonder you’re irritable!
Although all remedies have a de-toxing effect, when they are suited to you, this one is perhaps the best broad spectrum one.
So let’s recap
- the top four liver symptoms
- stomach symptoms which come some time after eating, and arching your back provides some relief
- very sensitive to outside influences (food, stress)
- very cold and better warmth
- insomnia especially around 3 - 4 am
- desire stimulants but worse from them (coffee, drugs, tobacco, etc)
This is a common baby colic remedy when the baby stretches backwards.
This is a particularly good remedy for straight forward colic in horses. Most horses get colic from a stressful situation or getting into the food store and gorging. The stomach pain is relieved somewhat by arching their back or rolling.
Cats and dogs might exhibit an unusual testiness or irritability when they need this remedy. And they’ll either search for the warmest spot or shiver a lot.
This is a must in every first aid kit.
**********
Thought of the Week
But where was I to start? The world is so vast. I shall start with the country I know best, my own. But my country is so very large. I had better start with my town. But my town, too, is large. I had best start with my street. No: my home. No: my family. Never mind, I shall start with myself.
Elie Wiesel
**********
Adverse Drugs Reaction
Medical drugs all come at a price. Not the money price (although that can be steep enough). No, the price I’m talking about here is the price your body pays.
It is generally considered that one in four people suffer an adverse drug reaction and I’m quite sure that’s a conservative figure. But it’s not necessarily a direct drug reaction, although that’s common enough. It’s more likely to be because the drug robs your body of vital nutrients, so you suffer a nutritional deficiency.
Or the drug inhibits the absorption or transport of essential nutrients. Either way, you get sicker.
But it is not a requirement of drug companies to gather this information. So your doctor or chemist are probably unaware that this can happen.
And doctors and vets just don’t admit there could ever be the possibility of a bad reaction to a drug or vaccine.
This is why homoeopaths are so useful. We are always interested in finding out when a problem occurred and what was happening in your life at the time. If you had recently started on a new medication, we will make a connection.
Try to do the same yourself. Perhaps even keep a health diary - such as dates you started a new treatment, dates worthy of noting down a health issue and dates when this health issues disappeared. Although you’ll probably forget to record the last item, as when you get better, you don’t generally notice. You just get on with life.
**********
Calcium Enriched Food
Have you checked out the ingredients on any packets of food you buy? For instance, many milk and milk substitute products as well as many cereals have added calcium phosphate. Now you may think that’s great.
Well, I’m telling you it’s far from great.
Added minerals are practically always isolated and synthetic minerals. The nutrients you need aren’t in isolation. And they certainly aren’t synthetic. Instead they come from a complex substance called food. Nutrients that are found in food are always in balance and in combination with all the other nutrients required for proper digestion, absorption and transport.
It has been suggested that isolated and synthetic calcium additives cause kidney problems (eg kidney stones) and joint problems (eg stiffness).
Check what you eat. Don’t rely on others to make the best decisions for your health. They’re likely more interested in making the best decisions for a healthy bank balance.
**********
Nature’s Wonders
A walnut looks like a little brain, with a left and right hemisphere, upper and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. It is now know that walnuts help develop more than three dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.
