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Hay Fever

Spring is such a welcome time of year for most of us –the days get longer, the sun starts to show its face again and the garden begins to stir. However, those who suffer from hay fever have learned to dread the oncoming Spring as it heralds the season of itchy eyes and nose, constant runny or blocked nose and lots and lots of sneezing! Homeopathy can offer great relief from these distressing symptoms!

Hayfever, an allergic condition, is a sign of imbalance in the immune system. In homeopathy we approach this in two ways:

Constitutional treatment is aimed at restoring balance in the immune system to resolve the allergy. This type of treatment is offered by trained homeopaths and requires longer-term treatment.

Acute treatment is where only the symptoms of the allergic reaction are prescribed on.

In my practice, I see a lot of people suffering from hayfever and usually, I take a double fold approach – dealing with the acute symptoms whilst also working to balance the immune system.

Here are some of the leading remedies for an acute attack of hayfever:

Allium Cepa is a key remedy for hayfever which manifests in the following ways:

Eyes –

• Itching
• Burning
• Sensitive to light
• Flow of tears

Nose –

• Burning watery discharge
• Sneezing

Throat –

• Tickling in larynx
• Hoarseness

Ears –

• Itching in ears

Arsenicum:

Eyes –

Hot, burning tears
Intense photophobia

Lungs –

Breathing restricted by allergies.
Shortness of breath.

Nose –

Watery, burning, itching discharge/sneezing without relief.

Natrum Mur:

Nose –

Streaming, bland discharge with lots of sneezing
Loss of taste /smell

Headace –

Sun headaches

Nux Vom:

This is one of the best remedies for when there is lots of sneezing, streaming from the eyes & nose. Cross, cranky mood.

Euphrasia:

Lots of sneezing with streaming eyes and nose. The key to this remedy is – the water from the eyes can burn the cheek but the discharge from the nose is not to bad!

Sabadilla:

Eyes –

Burning, red eyelids
Streaming eyes during sneezing

Nose –

Spasmodic sneezing with running nose
Oversensitiveness to odours (esp. flowers)
Tickling/itchiness of nose

These are some of the remedies that can help relieve hay fever symptoms. Homeopathic treatment can also help to reduce your susceptibility to hay fever in the longer term.

To discuss how homeopathy can help, you can contact me at:

Grainne Adams 086 2600893

grainne@homeopathyforhealth.ie

Hand foot & mouth disease

Hand–foot-and-mouth disease, or HFMD, is caused by a virus. While it’s not pleasant, it also isn’t serious. Anyone can get the disease, but children under age 10 are most likely to catch it.

The symptoms include the following:

• Fever
• Sore throat
• Painful, red blister like eruptions – usually on the tongue, gums and inside the cheeks.
• A red rash (not usually itchy) but sometimes with blisters on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.
• Irritability in toddlers & infants.
• Loss of appetite

It has an incubation period of 3 – 6 days and children are usually most contagious for the first week.

Mercurius Vivus (Merc. Viv): is the leading homeopathic remedy to help with the symptoms.

Eruptions will be large and easily infected.

Child very sensitive to temperature changes.

Feels worse at night.

Perspiration during sleep.

Offensive breath

Heavy salivation

Apis:

The skin around the eruption is pink and puffy and often itchy.

Eyelids may be swollen

Irritabilty

Not thirsty

Rhus Tox:

Intense itching that is worse from scratching and relieved by heat.

Very restless both physically and mentally.

Eyes may become inflamed and sticky

Pulsatilla:

Child needs a lot of comforting and attention

Itching is worse from warmth

No thirst even with fever.

Has the vomiting bug hit your house?

It’s here!! I have had a good few calls lately looking for remedies to help with the symptoms of the vomiting bug.Although it is usually short lived, the vomiting bug is very distressing and it often spreads through the household rapidly.

Here are some remedies to help with the symptoms and to shorten its lifespan.

Ipecac:

• Persistent nausea
• Retching
• Lots of saliva
• Usually patient has a clean tongue

Arsenicum:

• Frequent/forceful vomiting
• Diarrhoea (watery)
• Sweating while vomiting
• Cramping

Veratrum Album:

• Stomach feels cold
• Violent vomiting
• Cramping pain
• Violent diarrhoea (sometimes involuntary)

If one child has the bug it is a good idea for everyone else to take a single dose of the remedy to help prevent it spreading.

Remember to keep fluids up – small sips are often the best idea.

Back to school – Coughs and Colds

It’s back to school time and the weather is changing. For lots of families with young children this often means the onset of coughs and colds.Obviously prevention is better than a cure so here are some tips for warding off the winter bugs.

When my boys were small a very wise Indian homeopath told me that when the weather is changing to put my boys on a course of Vitamin C and Cod Liver Oil. Over time I changed the Cod Liver Oil for Udo’s choice oil.

I did this every September and January and the number of ‘legitimate’ days they needed were very very few. However there was no cure for the number of ‘fake illnesses’ they managed to pull over on me!

A course of Echinacea is also a wonderful immune system booster. I believe it is a good idea to give either of these as a course for a month and repeat a couple of months later rather than being permanently on them and allowing the body to become resistant.

If your child does develop a virus here are some remedies to help relieve the symptoms:

Aconite

This should be given at the first sign of a cough or cold that has come on suddenly – often from getting very cold. The cough usually sounds croupy.

Arsenicum

Common cold with burning nasal catarrh – a profuse, watery discharge. Often the skin below the nostrils will be red.

Bryonia

The Byronia cough is dry; in fits and is exhausting but little or no mucous is produced. The child will often be in bad form – bear with a sore head comes to mind!

Drosera

The cough is barking, deep, dry at night, violent fits of coughing. It is worse for lying down and often children will wake at midnight with the cough.

Gelsemium

This is a great remedy for those flu like symptoms – heaviness and aching all over, chills, head aches, eyes ache, flushed feeling in the face.

Natrum Mur

Discharge from eyes is watery. Nasal catarrh drips down the back of the throat – profuse, white or watery and this alternates with a blocked nose. There can be lots of sneezing and the lips dry and cracked.

Pulsatilla

A keynote of the Pulsatilla cough is dry at night and loose in the morning. It can be an exhausting cough and it is difficult to cough up any mucous. The child often sits up to cough. Often the child needing Pulsatilla will have an offensive smell from their breath, especially in the morning.

I hope this helps keep your family fit and healthy in the coming months! If coughs and colds are a recurring professional you could consider making an appointment to address the underlying problem.

Gráinne Adams – 086 2600893

Homeopathic Detox Therapy

I recently travelled to Delft in The Netherlands to attend Ton Jansen’s Homeopathic detox therapy course.It was truly inspiring.

Even with all of the marvellous advances in our knowledge of health, medicine and diet people are becoming more chronically ill year on year.

Today it is commonplace to have food intolerances, asthma, diabetes, eczema, IBS, sinus problems, hay fever, autism and the list goes on.

My first career was as a teacher 33 years ago and I taught primary school children for 20 years. During the first 15 years, I had one child in my class who used an inhaler, no allergies, two children with eczema and no children with a diagnosis of Autism!

Today we take ill health for granted. I see tiny babies on a daily basis who are suffering with colic, reflux, constipation, eczema, asthma, ear infections – babies who need medication from such an early age just to be able to digest their food which is supposed to be nourishing and sustaining.

I see so many women unable to conceive and women struggling through menstruation and the menopause. The list goes on!

We live in an increasingly toxic world and are becoming dependent on more and more medication just to function

Homeopathic detox therapy isn’t a new diet, although it does encourage as clean a diet as possible, it is about addressing the root cause of ill health. What brought you to this place of discomfort or illness? It addresses the root cause, helps the body to detox and restores the body to balance. Homeopathy is never about keeping a person dependent on homeopathic remedies – they are used as a vehicle to restoring balance.

Homeopathic detox therapy is a wonderful approach to help restore balance to the body to allow the body to do what it is designed to do – to digest, to repair, to replenish, to detox and restore balance – to allow the body to do its work in order that we can thrive and grow.

‘Human Chemistry is a revolutionary way to understand and treat human beings at a deep level. It is about working with the whole human chemistry using the most appropriate treatment for the patients. This includes: “detox”, constitutional treatment, treat the reason of the visit of the patients, treatment for bringing the balance of body substances, vitamins, hormones, new homeopathic remedies…..

Homeopathic Detox Therapy is a part of Human Chemistry and is also a new way to tackle health problems and is aimed at the detoxifying and recuperative process of the body at a cellular level. The treatment is mild and can offer a quick and lasting recovery.’ Ton Jansen

If you would like to see if HDT can help you please feel free to contact me on 086 260 0893

Childhood Asthma

Increasingly I have parents bringing their children to me as they are unhappy with the regular use of antibiotics, inhalers and steroids – often with only a minor reduction in their child’s symptoms.

It is a dilemma. On one hand nobody wants to see their child suffer the distress of not being able to breath properly or coughing their way through their early years.

Often these children also suffer with associated symptoms such as tonsillitis, ear infections, constant runny nose etc. and end up repeatedly on antibiotics.

As a homeopath, when I am treating a child with asthma I work to figure out the root cause. Very few babies are born with asthma. It is, in my experience, something that develops as they grow. I begin by making a of timeline of the child’s health.

This history or timeline often looks like this:

• Child presents with asthma/chest infections
• History of eczema (often needing steroid creams)
• History of constipation and or colic/reflux

I take a detailed history of a child’s health, as well as all of their other details e.g. sleep; diet; thirst; personality etc. This information is then collated and matched to a remedy that would best suit each individual child.

The purpose of a homeopathic remedy is to help restore balance. When we are in balance we do not suffer symptoms The body is always trying to recover and maintain balance. The remedy helps it to get there and then the immune system takes over – remedies are no longer needed!

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Often people come to me for help with symptoms of IBS.

• Bloating
• Diarrhoea
• Constipation
• Flatulence
• Cramps
• Nausea

Homeopathy works to restore balance to the body. Carefully chosen symptoms are used to select a remedy which best matches the person on all levels. On taking this remedy the body starts to gently move you back into balance.

People suffering with IBS have reported a decrease in their symptoms, a return to normal bowel function, a decrease in bloating, wind & pain.

If you would like to see if homeopathy might help you please feel free to call me on: 086 260 0893

Does your baby suffer from colic?

Life is so much easier once we get a night’s sleep. Unfortunately lots of babies struggle with colic and we struggle to try to help them through it.

Here are some remedies that may help:

Colocynthis:

This remedy helps when the tummy is bloated and the baby draws up the knees for relief.
There can be diarrhorrea or they bring their food back up.
The pains are better for pressure.
Fruit can cause the colic.

Dioscorea:

This remedy helps when the tummy is windy and rumbles a lot.
Babies needing this usually get relief from stretching out or arching back (as apposed to drawing up the knees)
They are better for being held upright and don’t want to lie down.

Mag-M:

This remedy helps when milk causes the colic.
Often the baby is constipated and when they do go the stool may be green.

For further help you can contact me Gráinne Adams 086 260 0893