Remedies
Homeopathy and Other Gentle Remedies
Pellets, drops and salts, all highly diluted, each with its Latin name and its portrait. Here is how they are read, taken and stored according to their own tradition, for the small moments of every day. Anything strong, lasting or worrying goes to a health professional.
How a homeopathic remedy is taken
To follow the rules this tradition keeps for taking its pellets and drops.
- You need
- A tube of pellets or globules, or a bottle of drops, bought at a pharmacy · A glass with a little water, if they are drops · A notebook
- When
- With a clean mouth: fifteen minutes before eating or an hour after. Away from coffee, mint, tobacco and mint toothpaste.
- Time
- Two minutes
- Choose a single remedy. The tradition takes one at a time.
- Read on the label how many pellets or drops to take at one time. With tubes it is usually five pellets.
- Turn the tube upside down and let the pellets drop into the cap. Don't touch them with your fingers.
- Tip the cap under your tongue.
- Let them dissolve on their own, without chewing or swallowing right away.
- If they are drops, count them into the glass with a little water and hold the sip in your mouth for a moment before you swallow.
- If it is a small single-dose tube, empty the whole thing under your tongue.
- Close the tube tightly and put it away.
- Write down in the notebook the remedy, the time and how you feel.
- Take it again only as the label says, or as the person who suggested it told you.
- When you feel better, stop taking it.
Care: It is a companion: it does not replace medical care or anything you have been prescribed.
Reading a remedy's label
To understand what the name, the number and the letters on a tube or a bottle say.
- You need
- A tube of pellets or a bottle of drops · Good light
- Time
- Five minutes
- Find the Latin name: it tells you which plant, mineral or animal it started from.
- Find the number: it tells you how many times the preparation was diluted and shaken.
- Find the letters after the number and look them up in the table: they tell you how each step was done.
- Remember that here “high” means more diluted, not stronger.
- See whether they are pellets, globules, drops or tablets, and how many you take at one time.
- Check the expiration date and the other ingredients: sugar, lactose or alcohol.
- If the label isn't clear to you, ask at the pharmacy before you open it.
| On the label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Arnica montana, Sulphur, Sepia and others | The Latin name of the starting substance |
| 9, 15, 30, 200 and so on | The number of steps: at each one it is diluted and shaken |
| CH or C | Centesimal: one part in a hundred at each step, with a fresh vial every time |
| DH, D or X | Decimal: one part in ten at each step |
| K | Korsakovian: centesimal, made in the same vial every time, emptied and refilled |
| LM or Q | Fifty-millesimal: one part in fifty thousand at each step |
| D3 to D12, 4 or 5 CH | Low dilutions |
| 7 to 9 CH | Medium dilutions, the most common in a home kit |
| 15 CH, 30 CH, 200 K and higher | High dilutions; from 200 up, a homeopath usually chooses them |
| Pellets | Little balls you count out: a tube holds about eighty |
| Globules or single dose | Very tiny balls in a short tube that you take all at once |
| TM | Mother tincture: the undiluted extract. Not something to take on your own |
Care: Low dilutions and mother tinctures contain real substance: don't take them without asking at the pharmacy.
The best-known remedies and their portraits
To get to know the twelve classic remedies and the moment or temperament the tradition associates with each one.
- You need
- A notebook · A pencil
- Time
- Fifteen minutes
- Read the table slowly, one portrait at a time.
- Notice that each portrait describes a person in a moment, not an ailment.
- Think of a small, passing moment in your week: a bump, a case of nerves, a bad mood.
- Write in the notebook how you are: what happened, what you want, what bothers you, whether you want company or would rather be alone.
- Look for the portrait that most resembles what you wrote. The tradition chooses by likeness.
- If none resembles it, don't choose any.
- If you choose one, buy it as pellets at a pharmacy, in a medium dilution, and never make it at home.
- Write down the portrait you chose and read your description again the next day.
| Remedy | What it is made from | Its portrait: it is associated with |
|---|---|---|
| Arnica montana | Arnica, a mountain flower | After a bump, a fall or a big effort; someone who says “I'm fine” and doesn't want to be touched |
| Aconitum napellus | Aconite, a mountain plant | A sudden fright; restlessness that arrives all at once |
| Chamomilla | Chamomile | Irritability and impatience; asking for something and pushing it away when it comes |
| Nux vomica | The seed of the nux vomica tree | After too much food, coffee or work; hurry and a short temper |
| Pulsatilla | Pasqueflower, the windflower | Changeable moods and easy tears; looking for company, comfort and fresh air |
| Ignatia amara | St. Ignatius bean | A recent sorrow or a disappointment; sighs and a lump in the throat |
| Gelsemium | Yellow jessamine | Nerves before an exam or before speaking in public; weak knees |
| Arsenicum album | An arsenic compound, always highly diluted | Restlessness and a need for order; wanting everything in its place and someone nearby |
| Sulphur | Sulfur | An independent temperament full of ideas, warm-blooded and no friend of tidiness |
| Lycopodium | Spores of club moss | Low confidence before a challenge that then turns out fine |
| Sepia | Cuttlefish ink | Tiredness and indifference toward what used to matter; wanting to be alone |
| Natrum muriaticum | Sea salt | An old sorrow kept inside; reserve, and little liking for being comforted |
Care: If sadness, fear or tiredness lasts or weighs heavily on you, talk to a health professional.
A homeopathic travel kit
To keep on hand, at home or on a trip, a few well-stored remedies and a record of what you take.
- You need
- Four or five tubes of pellets, bought at a pharmacy · A case or small box that closes well · A notepad that fits in the case · A pencil
- Time
- Twenty minutes to put it together
- Choose a few remedies, the ones you already know by their portraits. A common kit holds Arnica montana, Nux vomica, Gelsemium, Ignatia amara and Aconitum napellus.
- Ask for all of them in the same medium dilution, 9 CH or 30 CH, or whichever the pharmacy suggests.
- Leave each tube in its package, with its label and its date.
- Put the tubes in the case, next to the notepad.
- Keep the case somewhere cool, dry and dark.
- Keep it away from the heat of the car, the sun in the window and strong smells: perfume, camphor, menthol and scented oils.
- When you travel, carry it in your carry-on, apart from your toiletry bag.
- Every time you take something, write down the date, the time, the remedy, what was going on and how you felt.
- The next day, write down how you are.
- Carry your regular first-aid kit and any prescribed medication separately, unchanged.
- Once a year, check the dates and hand in the expired tubes at a pharmacy.
Care: Keep it out of the reach of children; if something is strong, lasts or gets worse, see a health professional.
Seeing a homeopath
To arrive prepared for a first visit and know what you will be asked.
- You need
- A notebook · The list of the medications and supplements you take · A good hour, or two
- When
- During the week before the appointment.
- Time
- Ten minutes each day that week; the visit lasts one to two hours
- Look for someone with training that is recognized where you live. Ask whether they are a medical doctor.
- Ask beforehand how long the visit lasts and how much it costs.
- During the week, write down how you sleep and what you dream.
- Write down which foods you crave and which you turn away from, and whether you are very thirsty or hardly at all.
- Write down whether you run cold or hot, and what weather suits you.
- Write down your fears, what makes you angry and what makes you sad.
- Write down what you want to ask about, in your own words: what it is like, what time it shows up, what makes it better and what makes it worse.
- Bring the list of what you take, and tell them what your doctor has told you.
- At the visit, take your time answering. They will ask about your whole person, not just one matter.
- Ask how to take the pellets or drops they suggest, for how long, and when to come back.
- Keep up your regular medical care, and tell your doctor what you are taking.
- Don't stop or change a prescribed medication without talking to the person who prescribed it.
Care: During pregnancy, with children or if you take medication, first ask the person who looks after your care.
The twelve Schuessler tissue salts
To get to know the twelve tissue salts by number and by what their tradition associates with each one.
- You need
- Tablets of one salt, or its pellets, bought at a pharmacy · A notebook
- When
- Half an hour before eating or an hour after.
- Time
- Five minutes
- Read the table. Each salt has a number, and at the pharmacy you ask for it by that: “number five.”
- Choose just one salt to start.
- Look at the letter and number on the package: D6 or D12 (6X or 12X on some labels) is its decimal dilution.
- Put one tablet in your mouth.
- Let it dissolve slowly, without chewing and without water.
- Take it again only as many times as the package says.
- Write down in the notebook the salt, the day and how you feel.
- Stop when you feel well, or after a few weeks.
| Number | Salt | The tradition associates it with |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calcium fluoratum (calcium fluoride), D12 | Elasticity: skin, tendons and connective tissue |
| 2 | Calcium phosphoricum (calcium phosphate), D6 | Bones and teeth |
| 3 | Ferrum phosphoricum (iron phosphate), D12 | The body's defenses |
| 4 | Kalium chloratum (potassium chloride), D6 | The mucous membranes |
| 5 | Kalium phosphoricum (potassium phosphate), D6 | Nerves and mood |
| 6 | Kalium sulfuricum (potassium sulfate), D6 | Purifying |
| 7 | Magnesium phosphoricum (magnesium phosphate), D6 | Muscles and their tension |
| 8 | Natrium chloratum (sodium chloride, table salt), D6 | The balance of water in the body |
| 9 | Natrium phosphoricum (sodium phosphate), D6 | Metabolism and the balance of acids |
| 10 | Natrium sulfuricum (sodium sulfate), D6 | Inner cleansing |
| 11 | Silicea (silica), D12 | Hair, skin and nails |
| 12 | Calcium sulfuricum (calcium sulfate), D6 | The joints |
Care: The tablets are almost all lactose: if you can't tolerate it, ask for the pellets; they do not replace medical care.