 I'm a mom of 3 (now grown) boys. Generally speaking, I’m pretty good with noise.
A couple of days ago, I suddenly couldn’t tolerate noise any longer. My change of heart on noise may be me entering a new phase of life, or, more likely, it’s a temporary condition resulting from what I imagine it must feel like living inside a dentist’s drill. You see, we have had all new windows put in our house. I must admit I had not given any thought to how noisy a process this would be. My nerves were frayed. My tolerance was shot. I startled very easily. What did I do? Nothing, homeopathically speaking, that is. At first, I thought my headphones were enough of a buffer. (In hindsight, playing music to cover up the noise may have made the whole thing a little worse.) I really just needed a break from the noise. I drove to the grocery store (and back!) in silence. Unheard of for me. I basked in my newfound appreciation of silence, whenever I could find it, which was just about impossible. Homeopathically speaking, what could I have done about it? Coffea cruda would be my first stop. Coffea is an excellent remedy for oversensitiveness. When noises evoke emotions such as anger and annoyance and irritability. When noise worsens existing pain… Coffea. When noise even causes pain… Coffea. From Dr. Robin Murphy: “Coffee increases the sensibility of nerves, making them over excitable and over sensitive, special senses become over acute, emotions especially joy and pleasurable surprise, produces dangerous symptoms.” Sidebar: Who knew joy could be a problem? That was certainly news to me when I first learned that little tidbit when first learning homeopathy. Ailments from excessive joy — Coffea cruda is bold, capital letters and underlined! Back to Dr. Murphy: “Extreme sensitiveness characterizes this remedy. Hyperactivity of mind and body. Neuralgia in various parts, always with great nervous excitability and intolerance of pain, driving to despair.” I have to say, this last bit pretty much sums up how I felt. I was jumpy, annoyed and restless. I was also pretty excited about our new windows which had been a long time in the coming. However, I don’t think joy played much of a part in how I was feeling for the last couple of weeks. What would be my second homeopathic stop for intolerance to noise? Nux vomica. Nux vomica is the other all caps, bold and underlined remedy for being oversensitive to noises. It, too, would be indicated for irritability from noises. Let’s go back to Dr. Murphy again for a minute, this time about Nux vomica… Nux vomica has an “overactive mind. Nervous and excitable. Very irritable, sensitive to all impressions. Cannot bear noises, odors, light. Angry and impatient, cannot stand pain, so mad, he cries.” There’s a lot of similarity and overlap between these two remedies and how they react to noises. How to choose? Quite honestly, it’s a bit of a coin flip between Coffea and Nux vomica when it comes to noise issues. If this noise sensitivity is particularly acute during menses? Nux vomica. If it’s voices which are irking you… Nux may be more indicated than Coffea. If hearing noises in your ears is part of the problem… Nux may be a better choice. For a little more information on Coffea, check out “Stolen Sleep.” For a little more information on Nux vomica, check out “Too Much.” The windows are pretty much complete now. How is my newfound need for silence? Earlier today, I was really enjoying listening to the birds. This evening, the lone cricket is fine (so far). But in the very near future, demolition begins on our bathroom renovation. Rest assured I will have Coffea close at hand this time around (and I know exactly where to find my tube of Nux, if need be). Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits
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 So I was just driving home from the grocery store and a song came on that I like to whistle along. I couldn’t whistle. I mean, at all. It was weird. I then tried to sing along instead and my voice was all gravelly. I was having a very challenging musical moment!
I called my son, who is a whistling aficionado and asked if his whistler ever just stops working. His response: “You gotta lick the lips, dude.” I had licked my lips already. It wouldn’t work. At all. I told him it was like my lower lip and/or jaw was stuck. It was kind of uncomfortable, actually. I got home, put away the groceries and thought that my lower lip and chin felt like I had had dental work - like numbing that was wearing off. So, I tried some Hypericum. Nothing. Then I sat down at my computer and I saw the new flavor of kombucha that I was drinking. One of the ingredients is yuzu. I’ve never knowingly had yuzu before so I looked it up. Stylecraze.com (no idea what it is, but it was one of the first things that popped up) tells me that it’s rare, but that yuzu may cause allergic reactions and other symptoms like… (first thing listed) itchy lips, tongue and throat. That changed my choice of remedy. I went to the kitchen and grabbed my handy dandy tube of Apis that sits ready on the counter for any allergic reactions to bees (which has been known to happen in my house). It has been about 10 minutes. I’m drinking lots of water. The tingling is disappearing. My whistler is returning. Phew! Who knew?!? Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits  “'Nerves of the foot” an illustration from the encyclopedia publishers Education, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire 1896." I used to love riding horses. Sometimes I think about maybe doing it again one day, but I haven’t done anything about that. (I think I’m OK with that. I think. We’ll see. I digress…)
Once upon a time I was out for a little horse ride on a dirt road. My husband showed up in the car with his sister and her young children. One of them loved loved loved horses and jumped out of the [stopped] car and ran up to pet the horse in her bare feet. The horse stomped on her little foot! Needless to say, the tears came and they hopped (literally) right back in the car and headed to urgent care for an X-ray. Fast forward to this week and a homeopath friend texted… wondering if I had any remedy suggestions to add for her niece who just had her foot stepped on badly by a horse. They were already on the Arnica and Aconite and the other usual trauma remedies but she wanted to make sure she wasn’t overlooking some potentially useful remedy. (See "Remedies to consider following a major accident" for more ideas.) I immediately thought of Hypericum perforatum. Back in the early days of learning homeopathy, I was taught Hypericum is one of the first remedies to consider for a crushing injury and I figured a horse stomp to the foot has to qualify for that description. The average weight of an adult horse is between 900 to 2,200 pounds (Johnston 2023) and when they decide to stomp, that has to be some serious weight/pressure in a concentrated area. In particular, Hypericum is noted (bold and underlined) for crushed nail injuries. Why? Because there are a lot of nerves in the tips of fingers and toes. You see, Hypericum is known as “the Arnica of the nerves” meaning it's the go-to remedy for any injuries of nerve-rich areas. In addition to all those 26 bones in the foot, there are a lot of nerve endings in the feet, in general, not just in the tips of the toes. A quick look at the internet tells me there are many thousands of nerve endings in the feet. That makes sense… how many people do you know who don’t have ticklish feet? All these foot nerves play an important role in sending information to the brain about the world around us — assisting us in balance and controlling the muscles in the feet and detecting hot and cold, to name just a few. Sore feet can radiate up your legs and into your back and up to your neck. Or, conversely, foot pain can be caused higher up and radiate down and end up in the feet. (The all too painful sciatic nerve goes all the way from your buttocks down through the back of your thigh and into your foot. Sometimes this sciatic pain can be confused with plantar fasciitis.) Where else other than a foot stomp might Hypericum be useful?
What is it with homeopaths and their nieces getting their feet stomped on by horses? 🧐 I’m happy to report that neither horse stomp resulted in any broken bones. I wish I had known about Hypericum for my young niece all those years ago. Alas. Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits |
Julia Coyte, CHomI am passionate about homeopathy and I love sharing this passion. Having a working knowledge of homeopathy shouldn't be kept a secret. If people have the ability to help themselves, their children and their friends when they have minor ailments, life just gets better for everyone. That is the purpose behind Ruminating on Remedies. Archives
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