 Fall must be approaching. It doesn’t feel like it here in the desert southwest; we are still seemingly in the throes of straight summer with temperatures remaining 10+ degrees above average. In fact, it almost feels like we have hit the breaks on moving toward fall and reversed into actual summer. You see, we had a relatively humid summer. (See "12 Angry Homeopathic Remedies” if you care to know a bit more about our summer this year.) And, today, September 10th, 2026 (and 11th, I didn’t quite get everything finished yesterday), we finally have our normal sky — cloudless and bright blue. Boy, have I missed seeing that! A New Mexico 9% humidity sky. 😍 Even though we have been humid (for New Mexico), we have had no rain worth mentioning. Our trees are dying 😫. Rivers are just beds of stones. The monsoons never developed this year. Despite this lingering heat, autumnal bugs are beginning their march into town. The internet tells me October is the month where things really get going. However, this morning I saw in my email that Stanford University-run WastewaterSCAN program indicates that SARS-CoV-2 is currently “high” nationwide, with a significant upward trend in the last 3 weeks. I checked the WastewaterSCAN Dashboard and New Mexico doesn’t appear. However, a Today show article claims it is increasing nationwide. Cold, Flu, Covid, the Crud, the Suds** — whatever seasonal ailment is getting you, homeopathy is a good place to start. It’s important to remember that homeopathy doesn’t care the name of what ails you — homeopathy is (for the most part) only interested in your symptoms. With that, let’s look at a few remedies to have handy. As Benjamin Franklin taught us, an ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure! All of these homeopathic remedies work really well when taken at the first sign of any symptoms. Repeat every few hours, or, follow the manufacturer’s direction.
So far this month, I’m seeing a bunch of throat stuff and huge fatigue, in addition to milder cold-like symptoms and one person with some stomach issues thrown in for good measure. For what it’s worth, Gelsemium has been helpful for a couple of people I have encountered. Why Gelsemium? Gelsemium symptoms (keynotes from Morrison are bolded):
When the stomach plays a larger role, consider Arsenicum album. A quick comparison between Gelsemium and Arsenicum for cold/flu symptoms:  These early days of flu/cold-like symptoms mark the beginning of what could be a long season of yuckiness. Homeopathy may just be able to set things right before they are able to take hold.
Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits *I have no affiliation with this or any other company — I just like their stuff! **Spongebob Squarepants gets the suds — Good stuff!
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 I have written specifically about the Banerji Protocols and the Narayani combinations (here, here, and here. The Boiron over-the-counter combos are sprinkled throughout my articles. I have mentioned the BHI combos only once in my Digging Deeper article about hemorrhoids. Perhaps it’s because I don’t see these too often any more that they are not front and center in my mind. BHI/HEEL — I’m honestly not certain what the technicalities are between these/this company/companies. MediNatura (maker of Traumeel,) is another name that is part of this company puzzle. I do know they at least were based in New Mexico - maybe that’s why I saw their products on the shelves. Not so much these days, though. They are still out there, however — for purchase through the internet. What are they? They are a smaller line of homeopathic combinations, compared to the Narayanis and they do not use the mega potencies that some Narayanis do; in fact, most (all?) of their combos are made using low x potencies. You may be familiar with their T-Relief and Traumeel (a personal favorite combo of mine). What else do they have? In addition to the Hemorrhoid combo listed above, to list just a few more:
Since we are in the middle of cold and flu season, let’s take a very quick (and by no means complete) look at BHI’s ReBoost combo and why they have included the remedies they have (including one I have never heard of so let’s learn together):
What else about the BHI combos? If you want to spend a little time searching the internet, you can find old copies of their manuals. Apparently, they used to make an awful lot more combinations. Alas. Like the Narayani books, I find these BHI guides helpful for learning remedies. As I have said in previous articles about combos which are no longer available, you can make your own. You don’t have to be perfect. If their combo calls for a potency that is not readily available to you, choose the nearest potency you can find. For instance, their old “Exhaustion” combo contains Sepia 12x — not so easy to find. Sepia was also used in the Hyland’s no longer available combination called “Awake” in a 30x. But, if you were making your own combination reflecting these remedies, a 6c would be a good substitution. (Margriet Plouvier-Suijs equates 12x-14x to a 7c**, another not so easy to find potency, but we can be pretty sure a 6c is pretty close to a 7c in it’s action.) When I first really got interested in homeopathy, years before becoming a homeopath, I had a whole line up of Heel containers on a spice rack shelf in a kitchen cupboard. It was so nice to have an alphabetical line up of go-to remedies: Headache, Nausea, Spascupreel, Traumeel… The names may change but the idea remains the same — an excellent way to cover lots of homeopathic bases right there at your fingertips - no thought required! Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits *I have zero affiliation with any of these companies — I just like their products. ** France seems to use odd numbers, the rest of the world even🤷♀️ Reference list
Plouvier-Suijs, M., 2014. About potencies. Emryss Publishers. Sadeghsoltani, F., Mohammadzadeh, I., Safari, M.-M., Hassanpour, P., Izadpanah, M., Qujeq, D., Moein, S. and Vaghari-Tabari, M., 2021. Zinc and Respiratory Viral Infections: Important Trace Element in Anti-viral Response and Immune Regulation. Biological Trace Element Research [online]. How much of a remedy should one buy at a time?  I used to routinely suggest people pick up their Boiron* remedies from Whole Foods, but they yanked them😖. And, I learned just the other day that they no longer carry colloidal silver, either. Alas. Moving on. !!!UPDATE: A kind and astute reader just reached out to remind me that Sprouts carries Boiron remedies. Yes, they do! As does Natural Grocers. With that, it’s time to turn to purchasing homeopathic remedies directly from the pharmacies. However, this article isn’t really about where to purchase the remedies. It’s more about how much of a given remedy to purchase. Thinking back to my early days of homeopathy, my first remedy from my then homeopath/MD was given to me in the office. As I recall, it was just one dose right there and that was it. Yes, it was amazing. Then, when my DOM suggested Belladonna for my ear infection, I had someone pick me up a tube (back when Whole Foods carried them). But, when I was finally going to do this homeopathy thing on my own (see: Thankful for a Yeast Infection), I purchased a few tubes because the article said it may take 3-5 months to fix that problem. I would be willing to bet that all of those original tubes are still in my stash because I never needed to repeat that remedy for that problem. That problem never returned.🎉 Have I used that remedy since then? Yes. I think I gave a couple of doses to my son once and I used it again for myself for an separate issue. I think we have been trained into purchasing large quantities of supplements and medicines. When we’re told something will take 3-5 months to fix (as above), then my brain just assumes (well, used to assume) I’m going to be taking that suggested remedy/supplement/medicine for months — probably every day, too! Generally speaking, this is not the case with homeopathy. As I mentioned above, “one and done” can certainly be a thing when the remedy is well chosen. Unlike allopathy (conventional medicine as we know it), homeopathy is not looking to make a life-long customer of a single homeopathic remedy. The homeopathic remedy is meant to help spur your body into fixing itself and often is never even repeated. There are schools of homeopathy where daily or frequent dosing is required, but even then, it’s extremely common to be “finished” with “a” remedy after about 4-6 weeks. I have had multiple conversations over the last couple of weeks with clients who “stocked up” on a particular remedy.** In fact, I still have a few extra tubes of a few extra remedies which I purchased when I first began learning homeopathy. I assumed I was going to need them. (They were so amazingly helpful, I didn’t ever want to be without them!!) Guess what? Those clients I mentioned, and I, didn’t need all those tubes. The doses we took did what needed to be done and now we are left with a handful of a certain remedy that we may or may not need again in the future. Is it always just one tube that is needed? One tube is an excellent place to start, if, for no other reason than most often 1 tube is our only minimum purchasing option. (Keep reading for other smaller options.) This is a good place to remind ourselves that one dose is one dose. Generally speaking, it doesn’t matter if one pellet is taken (regardless of size) or the entire tube is taken all at once. As long as the pellets are taken at the same time, that is most often considered one dose. Let’s take 5 pellets from any tube as an example.
Of course there is a caveat, though: some homeopathic pharmacies claim that every pellet has been medicated with the homeopathic remedy, making one pellet one dose. Other homeopathic pharmacies say, for instance, that one in four pellets have been medicated, thus 4 pellets equals one dose. However, those pellets roll around in the tube together and one would think that the medicine rubs off on the other pellets while they’re mixing and mingling in there. Having said that, follow the manufacturer’s directions to get the best results. How does one actually take the remedies? In an ideal world, the remedies will not be touched with your hands. For Boiron and Olloïs and Helios, twist the cap until the required number of pellets have fallen into the cap and throw them under your tongue directly from the cap and allow them to dissolve for about 10 seconds or so -- don't swallow them with water. For other brands with a standard cap, pour 1-3 pellets directly into the cap and toss them in your mouth from the cap. Why not touch them? Because the homeopathic medicine is on the outside of the pellets and they begin dissolving pretty much immediately on contact. If the pellets are placed in your hand, any oils or other substances on your hand may interfere with this process. Pellet sizing: Let’s take a look at the size of pellets. Unfortunately, I struck out on searching for a nice image to compare pellet sizes and the corresponding numbering system, but it seems to me that #20 = 2mm; #30 = 3mm, etc.) Using Boiron* as the most readily available brand in the US, their pellets, (according to Grok), are often referred to as size #30 or #40 and are medium sized pellets between 3-4mm in diameter. (Boiron also uses much smaller pellets or “granules”, 1-2mm in diameter, for their Oscillococcinum, in which case Boiron recommends using the entire single dose tube at a time. Here is where it gets tricky again. I don’t think it’s the fact these pellets in the Oscillococcinum tube are smaller that they recommend the entire tube as one dose because other homeopathic pharmacies will advise one single tiny pellet to be used as one dose. Perhaps we are back to the idea that not every pellet has been medicated with Boiron? Or, maybe because Boiron is so commonly found in the west that they are simply standardizing the dosage to avoid any confusion? But, as mentioned above, as long as the pellets are taken at the same time, that is one dose. Now for the packaging: Staying with Boiron, their average tubes are 2-dram. According to this site, a 2-dram vial is about the size of a AA battery or an average adult-sized pinky finger, or 2-1/2 inches. 2 drams — the size of the standard Boiron or Olloïs tubes. Depending on the size of the pellets that are used, a filled 2-dram tube of a homeopathic remedy could last a very long time, indeed. Liquid Remedies Liquid remedies have become a favorite method of dosing for me if I’m going to be taking the same remedy for a while. It’s fast and it’s easy — no waiting for the pellets to dissolve. And, technically, when you give a shake or succuss (bang it from the bottom), you are raising the potency with each dose. NOTE: don’t bother with “medicating potencies” — that’s a whole other ball game for homeopaths who dispense their own remedies in their clinics. The options are many. When ordering directly from homeopathic pharmacies, it can be a little confusing at first. Using Arnica 30c as my test remedy, here are the options available:
 click here for Helios’ description of what they offer
Are there other purchasing options out there? You bet, but these are the most common pharmacies that I use that are available for the general public to purchase their own remedies.
That was a lot of information. Summing up:
Happy shopping! Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits * I have no affiliation with any of these or any other companies. ** What to do with all those extra tubes of remedies? Share them with your homeopath friends. A number of clients have found willing takers of extra remedies in various online homeopathic groups. I bet they, too, have some extras they are willing to swap! ‡ I have found as people get a little older and their hands may shake a little bit and their eyesight is not quite so crisp up close that pouring little pellets into caps can be difficult. This tablet option (available primarily from the UK) can solve that problem. *** How Helios’ 4g and Ainsworth’s 7g both seem to equate to the 2-dram I have no idea. But, the actual tubes are very similar in size. 🤷♀️ So, I looked into it. According to Brave AI:
 Flu season has returned. Well, colds, flu, Covid, influenza, whatever you want to call it — it’s back.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - homeopathy doesn’t give a hoot what you call it. Homeopathy only cares about the symptoms you are experiencing. Here is a short and sweet list of remedies to keep handy - to take at the first sign of feeling unwell; whether that be cold symptoms or fatigue setting in or aches or sneezing.
Not homeopathic but pretty impressive… Last December while traveling in England, everyone around me was coming down with whatever it was everybody was coming down with. I was in Helios pharmacy picking up some remedies and I saw A. Vogel Echinaforce tablets on the shelf. I took these, as well as Ferrum phos 6x and never had so much as a sniffle. I would use that combination again in a heartbeat. If you don’t get there in time with the above remedies and the yucks have made themselves at home, see Flu Remedies to Consider. With all of these remedy suggestions (unless otherwise noted), take a dose at the first sign of feeling unwell. Repeat every 3-12 hours. When feeling better, stop the remedy. If the symptoms return, start the remedy again. Now, go out there, make merry and celebrate the joyous season like you used to! Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits  I learned this trick from Pinterest years ago. The crud has hit my house. It entered surreptitiously on New Years Day and didn’t let itself be known for a few days after that. I helped my son through it, homeopathically speaking, and then it was my turn. In general, it is much harder to help yourself, homeopathically speaking, than it is to help someone else. When you are helping someone else, you are logically interpreting symptoms. When you are trying to interpret your own symptoms when you’re not feeling your best, you’re lucky to have logic still involved in the process at all! Anyway, I am unofficially on day 8, though I didn't test positive until 2 days ago. I don’t feel terrible, but I don’t feel great. I certainly have felt much worse in my life. The low-grade fever doesn’t want to budge. I have a terrible smell/taste in my nose. (I didn’t lose my sense of smell/taste — in fact, they have become highly sensitized.) I do not love the lack of energy, mental or physical. I know people who currently have “it” or just had “it” and they took the Ivermectin or the HCQ and some felt better immediately and some are still struggling to feel better. It was this last piece of information that made me realize that I’m doing pretty well with my remedies. I have not had the “painful shivers” or the loss of smell; I have been sleeping like a baby. I don't have a painful, rib-breaking cough. Aches have been minimal and are now completely gone. I have a lot of snot but I don’t have that bursting headache that some people are getting. (My left eyeball was tender when I moved it for a couple of days, but it was annoying, not unbearable.) I am now coughing a bit, but it feels like a forward movement — clearing that stuff out. I can breathe just fine and my lungs aren’t involved. (I did turn into a mouth breather for a couple of days, but that’s gone now, too.) Everything has stayed from the neck up and I appreciate that fact! What remedies have I used? I’ll be completely honest — everything! If a symptom appeared, I tried a remedy. Sometimes the remedies felt futile (like for the fever that won’t budge) and sometimes they seemed to help pretty quickly. To keep this article brief — and so I can get back to the business of getting well and kicking this garbage to the curb! — I will list a few remedies that have been very helpful for me and for my son and friends. My son started out with extreme restlessness and low/mid back pain: Nux vomica. (In hindsight, Rhus tox could have been helpful here, too, but it wasn't presenting that way at first.) He had the painful shivers and very painful skin. Fortunately, his skin wasn’t so painful that he couldn’t have anything touch it (Krajewski et al. 2020), but it was uncomfortable for him. He found great relief from hot water: Rhus toxicodendron. He had some dizziness for a quick minute but an old bottle of Heel’s “Lightheadedness” quickly cleared that up. We used a few other remedies for him here and there, but these were the big movers for him. That’s the thing with acute diseases — you have to chase the symptoms. A symptom shows up, a remedy helps it and another symptom moves in to take its place. It’s not like clearing up a chronic condition where you want to stick with A remedy or a group of remedies for a while. You have to react quickly with the changing symptoms of an acute. My yucks started out with severe dizziness and nausea and vomiting: Ipecac. After 2 days, everything was very much improved and I thought I was good to go and then the new version of symptoms set in a few days later. Oscillococcinum — the Flu remedy. I literally have not yet figured out the low grade fever thing. (Very frustrating!) But, it’s not terrible and I guess I have to let my body do what it’s doing and trust that it knows what it’s doing. Generally speaking, though, Ferrum phos is an excellent remedy for low-grade fevers. I have also tried fever combination remedies, to no avail. Eyeball that hurts when moving it: Bryonia. Bryonia on its own wasn’t doing the trick, but mixing Aconite with the Bryonia did do the trick. [Aconite/Bryonia is a Banerji Protocol to ward off the yucks of any kind, but homeopathic legend has it that when you add Aconite to a remedy that should be working, but isn’t, it’s like a power boost and it certainly seemed to be for my painful eyeball.] That moment when the bed felt too hard to get comfortable: Arnica. This, too, can be Bryonia, but given that I wasn’t having the eyeball luck with that remedy, I moved on to Arnica. Last night, when the coughing started in the middle of the night: Boiron’s Chestal Cold and Cough. I haven’t had to repeat it yet, so that must have done the trick. [note: having combination remedies available are extremely helpful in the middle of the night when you can’t get your brain to figure it out!] Nux vomica helped with my stuffy nose and gas. Arsenicum album helped early on with a burning sensation deep in my nose. For the most part, however, I have now accepted that perfection really is the enemy of the good. I don’t feel great, but I am thankful that I have a lovely husband and sons who are keeping the home fires burning, literally and figuratively. On that note, my husband has yet to succumb. Hopefully, he is that rare breed that is not susceptible to this virus. Or, it could be that he has religiously stepped up his supplement routine — he said he feels better than he has in a while as a result! — and, at any little hint of anything, he turns to his tried and true: Boiron’s Cold Calm. Who knows? They say children experience positive growth after an illness — we certainly noticed that when our little fellows got sick — maybe that can be true for old homeopaths, too! I have come to the conclusion that my body just needs to experience this sickness for whatever reason. I’m not sick in bed. I can even still beat my husband in gin rummy, and he's no slouch at the game! I am tired and don’t feel great, but I am not down for the count and I believe it is homeopathy that is responsible for this small blessing. It just is what it is. I haven’t been sick in many years! I guess it was just my time! It was Voltaire who proclaimed, “Perfect is the enemy of good.” It has been so very many years now that I have avoided getting really sick. My remedies have always stepped in and fixed everything right up for me in very short order. I now expect perfection and that’s not a reasonable goal. I will keep on keeping on and I know one day soon, this will all be behind me and I can get back to the business of life! Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits Krajewski, P. K., Szepietowski, J. C., and Maj, J., 2020. Cutaneous hyperesthesia: A novel manifestation of COVID-19. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity [online], 87, 188.
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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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