In my last post, I mentioned 7 remedies which may be good to have around as the cold & flu season approaches.

Here’s a quick rundown of why they’re good to have nearby, focusing especially on fevers.

Baptisia for fevers with profuse sweat, intense thirst; fevers with lethargy — no energy. Those who may benefit from homeopathic Baptisia may be suffering from bad breath or other foul smelling discharges. The bed may feel too hard and going outside and getting some fresh air does not sound like a good plan to them. There may be some mental confusion or they may even feel as if they are intoxicated. There may be copious, (often) smelly stool. Throat may appear dark red.

Bryonia. Homeopathic Bryonia may be an excellent remedy for a flu that creeps up on you… when you haven’t quite been feeling yourself but you wouldn’t necessarily call yourself “sick” yet, either. A dry fever with a great thirst for a lot of liquid; chills are more likely not a part of this picture. Dryness, however, is a key part of Bryonia… you may see constipation or a dry cough or dry eyes, dry skin, dry mouth. Someone benefitting from Bryonia may prefer to be still and quiet with movement resulting in discomfort, including when moving their eyes. They may prefer to be by their grumpy selves.

Eupatorium feverish people may find themselves shivering, especially after drinking any liquids. Aching pain anywhere in the body, but specifically pains in the legs - terrible pains in the bones themselves and may even feel as if one is broken. Big chills. Unquenchable thirst. Pulsating pain in the back of the head.

Gelsemium has little or no thirst at all and the 4 Ds: Droopy, drowsy, dizzy and dull. They feel their eyelids are too heavy to keep them open. Shivering and weak with coldness down the back. May feel faint. They may feel a dull, bruised pain all over and are worse from physical exertion. There may be a headache, beginning in the neck and moving up to the top of the head and feel as if there were a band or hoop around the head. Headaches may be relieved to some degree when urinating. 

Mercurius sol is often worse in the night, where a fever may drive them from their bed. There may be shivering and shuddering with this fever. There may be bone pains, but more so at night. Discharges from the ears and the eyes. Fevers with profuse perspiration, again, worse at night or diarrhea at night. Headaches may be worse on the sides of the head and extend to the ears and the teeth.

Nux vomica flus may have pain in the lower back during fever. Shivering with perspiration. Thirsty but not wanting to drink anything. Very chilly and worse for cold air or drafts and may have a cough which starts when becoming cold. Nux vomica is well known for its digestive issues and may experience stomach pains during fever. They may find themselves oversensitive and emotional during a fever. 

Rhus tox is most likely mentally restless during a fever. Chill plays a big part in a Rhus tox fever: chill, followed by heat and perspiration; thirsty during the chill; they feel worse when chilled and may develop a tickling cough during the chill. Drinking cold drinks may bring on stomach pains. They may feel they have a lump or plug in their throat and swallowing may feel good on the throat. They may feel better lying on their back and worse lying on the sides.

Here's wishing you have a happy and healthy winter season!
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Julia Coyte, CHom
Classically Practical homeopath

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#wellnessawaits

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.
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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!

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Julia Coyte, CHom
Classically Practical homeopath

#wellnessawaits


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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. ​