Homeopathy: Just Good Medicine

Janey Lee Grace

Testimonial from a very happy mother

ASTHMA, ALLERGIES AND ECZEMA
At around the age of 4, my youngest son started developing signs of Asthma in certain circumstances. Sadly, these circumstances included the fact that any problem would go to his chest.  He has had allergies and Eczema from infancy and the doctor said this was to be expected.
When spring came and with it the various pollens, he wheezed almost all the time unless on antihistamine medicine. During the summer, the heat and the dust would bring on the same symptoms and the once regular trips to a local open farm were stopped due to his reaction to the animals.
Finally, when he was prescribed inhalers by the doctor, I insisted in him seeing a paediatrician.
Whilst waiting for the appointment, I spoke to Debbie about his problem. She agreed to take on his case. She asked many in depth questions and made her decisions about his treatment. She was confident she could help him.
That was in March of this year (2006.)
It is now September. He has had no need to touch the medicines prescribed by the paediatrician, (who did know I was treating him homoeopathically and was fine about it).
But added to all this is the other things that have improved for him.
He used to sniff all the time due to large amounts of mucous, which was starting to drive me mad. This has now stopped completely. He is calmer in himself and more ready to listen. He eats better than he had been doing and he sleeps longer too. He seems more tolerant of raw eggs, which before he could not touch at all without coming out in a rash.
I am amazed and thrilled by the results of his treatment. No-one likes to see their child in discomfort or with seemingly endless illnesses. Neither would we choose to have them on medication if it is not necessary.
Debbie’s consultations are always carried out with the utmost care and in a calm and professional way.
I would not hesitate in recommending her to anyone. It is with grateful thanks that I write this, on behalf of my little boy and the whole family.

Homeopathy in Kolata

A Trip to Kolkata, January 2005

In July 2004 I completed 4 long years of studying homoeopathy at Allen College in Chelmsford. Two of my fellow students and I promised ourselves that if we survived this arduous course we would treat ourselves to a trip to India to see how homoeopathy is practised there and in January of this year the promise at last became a reality!

We arrived in Kolkata at 4 am to be welcomed in traditional Indian style by our friend Dr Banerjea from the Bengal Allen Medical Institute with garlands of fragrant jasmine. This first early morning sight of the city which was to be our home for 3 weeks was the first of many shocks to the senses. A huge yellow moon hung luminous in the night sky and through the dark gloom of the dilapidated city streets it was clear that there were many homeless people sleeping on the streets which at that time of night were relatively empty apart from wild dogs, goats and even the occasional stray cow. The car, obeying no obvious traffic regulations, followed a zig zag path to the hotel through the myriad of potholes.

In the morning we were woken at 5am by the call to prayers at the local mosque, ‘Allah akbar’. A significant proportion of the population is Moslem, the remainder being Hindu (the largest group), Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain. The streets soon filled with the soon to be familiar sounds of daily life in Kolkata: stall holders setting up their little kiosks selling drinks, tobacco, betel leaf, sachets of mouth cleansing spices and seeds, rickshaw pullers ringing their hand bells, dogs barking, people chatting, working, singing, laughing and always the sound of car horns beeping. During the day time there is never more than a 2 second gap of silence between one car horn sounding and the next.

We fell into a routine of either walking to the institute every day or taking a taxi on lazy days at a cost of 50 rupees (about 70p) for a 10 minute journey. The walk took us through the poultry market where the pavements are crowded with coops of chickens. Small boys wheeled bicycles festooned with live chickens hung by their feet from the handlebars while beautiful women in their saris looking like birds of paradise against the grey asphalt squatted in groups by the kerb plucking, cleaning, dressing the dead ones. No part of the bird is discarded: even the feathers are washed and sorted and dried.  Further on there was a fish market and fruit and vegetables all laid out on the crowded pavements in the busy rush hour full of commuters, schoolchildren walking to school by themselves, chai sellers, sugar cane juice sellers, coolies bearing huge circular baskets on their heads. The volume and diversity of traffic on the streets is incredible and crossing the road is fraught with peril as cars, trucks, taxis, buses, trams, motorbikes bearing whole families of four, bicycles, rickshaws and handcarts all jostle for space in this crazy city. One day I had been trying to cross the road unsuccessfully for several minutes when a traffic policeman took pity on me and stopped the traffic dead for a few seconds so I could cross. It could only happen in India! We witnessed several accidents in the brief time we were there, fortunately none serious.

 The pavements are also the home for many people especially newly arrived refugees from rural areas who gravitate to the city to find work. Whole families live, eat, and sleep on the pavement and in the day time can be seen washing themselves and their children at standpipes preserving their modesty by washing with their clothes on. Although such people are usually desperately poor they rarely ask for money and seem at pains to preserve their standards of hygiene and self respect. Small children are often cared for by older siblings while the adults try to earn some money to provide food for the family, playing happily only yards from the busy traffic.

At the institute the days were spent seeing patients either there or travelling to the clinics in various slum areas. One of the slums was in Arpuli Lane not far from the Institute in Creek Row. There has been a free homoeopathic clinic here for several years and the Institute also provides  milk to the children funded by donations raised in England which provides essential nutrients for families who may be lucky to get one meal a day of rice and dahl. The slum is an area of concrete dwellings divided by narrow alleyways. A typical dwelling is roughly the size of a large broom cupboard, about 6ft square divided into an upper and lower area by a wooden platform. The upper area is for sleeping and the lower area is for cooking and preparing food. For cooking people either use little portable cookers called chulas or simply dig a hole into the earthen floor and fill this with live coals. Whole families are expected to share this cramped space. Washing and toilet facilities are communal for the whole slum and men and women have to learn to avert their eyes from each other to avoid embarrassment.

Seeing patients was a revelation. For a start there is no concept of privacy in India  When we saw patients there would be at least 10 other people standing at the doorway to watch and listen. No one seems to mind! In India people go to see the homoeopath as here we would go to our GP. It is a very popular form of health care because the medicines are so much cheaper for patients to buy and as in the UK it also attracts people who either have not responded well to conventional treatment or who don’t want to take medicines with harmful side effects. We saw an incredible range of health problems being treated by homoeopathy alone including asthma, diabetes, cancers of all kinds, depression, head injuries, TB, arthritis, psoriasis, ovarian fibroids, angina and hypertension and even a patient suffering from schizophrenia. Many of the patients suffer from varying degrees of malnutrition and diseases such as rickets and parasitic infections eg worms and scabies are common. TB is very prevalent also The majority of patients had  responded really well to homoeopathic treatment including the lady with schizophrenia who had managed to drastically reduce the conventional medication which she had been receiving for several years to control her psychotic symptoms.

At the Institute clinic we saw patients who had travelled hundreds of miles to see Dr Banerjea due to his reputation for treating very difficult cases. These included a woman who initially came in 1987 with a diagnosis of incurable brain tumour. She had become progressively more and more disabled experiencing typical symptoms of loss of sensation down one side of her body, severe headaches and blurred vision. A scan had shown the existence of large tumour which would be very difficult and dangerous to remove with poor expectations of recovery. This I found of especial interest as I have seen first hand the damage that such  life saving surgery can do as my sister was operated on to remove a benign brain tumour six years ago and has suffered a permanent degree of disability as a result.

The patient opted to try homoeopathy. Within a few months of beginning treatment she had begun to show good signs of improvement and eventually made an astonishing, full recovery. She has since become the proud mother of two children and makes an annual journey to see Dr Banerjea for a check up and to thank him for the miracle of her life.

For me Kolkata  was an extraordinary  and unforgettable experience; I had expected to feel  pity for the poor people who live in these conditions but seeing the excited, smiling faces of the children, the strong sense of community and belonging, the depth of  faith and hope in the slum and the warmth of the welcome which we received  I wondered how much their lack of material wealth mattered to them. And what was so extraordinary about this beautiful country was that the less people appeared to have the more they were willing to share.

Written by my dear friend and Homeopath Zoe Bethall

Arnica montana Stimulates Extracellular Matrix Gene Expression in a Macrophage Cell Line Differentiated to Wound-Healing Phenotype

This is an interesting read

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0166340&utm_source=Feb2017Practice&utm_campaign=February2017-medicines&utm_medium=email

Autism and ADHD

With Autism, ADHD and Asperger's now being recognised in todays society.  Homeopathy is becoming more an influential complimentary medicine and is being used more for the support and management of these conditions on a daily basis.

From my own  experiences as a Homeopath I am pleased to report that  I see improvement in communication and personality when a patient is being supported with homeopathic remedies.

When you see a Homeopath many different aspects of your general life and well being will be assessed to understand your lifestyle and the symptoms your body and mind are portraying. The Homeopath will endeavour to treat the underlying cause and not just the symptoms of the problem.  

The immune system is saturated with many chemicals and toxins from birth which myself and patients feel is attributed to many of these illnesses and Homeopathy tries to eliminate these harmful toxins within the body allowing the immune system to work naturally