Prescribing Homeopathy at Home for Acute Complaints
Acute complaints include coughs, colds, bumps, bruises, sore throats, tummy upsets, bites, stings, fevers, emotional shocks and traumas.
The more you use homeopathy, the easier it gets. Do not attempt to prescribe for chronic conditions at home.
As you practice it, gain experience and with time you become more confident, increase your knowledge leading to more empowerment to take charge of your health and have less fear of acute illnesses. Practice and time is all you need.
A homeopathic prescription for acute complaints is only really homeopathic when is based on three (out of eight) homeopathic principles:
1.The Law of Similars (Like cures Like)
2.One single remedy at a time
3.The minimum dose (single dose and potency)
Law of Similars
For a remedy to work well you need to match as accurately as possible to your illness/complaint picture. The patient collections of symptoms have to match the remedy picture (collection of symptoms produced by the remedy in its provings as set out by the Materia Medica).
Note that it doesn’t have to be identical, but just similar. This is the first homeopathic principle – Like cures Like – The Law of Similars.
For example, take the homeopathic medicine called Coffea Tosta (coffee) which is sometimes used to treat insomnia. We all know that Coffee produces feelings of exhilaration and artificially high energy levels making sleep difficult or impossible.
That is because Coffee tosta is able to produce these effects in a healthy person it can also be used to cure them. It will not work for all cases of insomnia.
The symptoms/suffering of the patient must be similar to the symptoms which Coffee Tosta produces in a homeopathic proving for it to work.
It may be indicated where someone is over-excited and over-joyed about something, perhaps a forthcoming event, and unable to sleep because of it. That’s the premise of ‘like cures like’ – the Law of Similars.
The Observations of the Prescriber
The most important step to home prescribing for acute illness in order to find the most similar remedy is your first impressions and observations about what has happened to the person with the complaint/illness.
Your observations are important since you are not looking for aches and pains but gaining a picture of the differences from the normal state of health.
Always look for strong , clear, marked symptoms. Vague symptoms or answers such as “Well sometimes”, are not useful.
What do you see? (note the colour and expression of the patient face). Look at the patient’s face expression. Look for clues: has the drink given to them has been drunk? Are they showing restlessness? Are they groaning?
What do they feel? Are they sweating? if so, is the sweat hot, cold, clammy or profuse? Which parts of the body is sweaty? Does the patient tell you that he or she feels a burning heat but when you touch their skin it feels cold to the touch?
What do you hear? Some people moan while sleeping, others grind their teeth. Do they whine to get attention? What is the tone of their voice? If the patient is old enough to talk, let them talk without any interruption. For instance a Bryonia patient will not want to talk while a Lachesis will talk non-stop, changing the subject constantly.
After observing the patient you can ask questions. It is best to ask general questions rather than specific ones.
Example of general questions:
How are you feeling?
How painful is it?
Describe the pain?
Does heat or cold help or make it worse?
What else makes the main complain better or worse?
What about position, motion, eating, drinking, time of day etc?
Is there a nose discharge? If so, what colour and consistency it is?
Is the patient bringing up phlegm? If so, what colour and consistency?
How sudden was the onset of the complaint? Was it very quick? Or Did it develop over days?
Specific questions examples:
Are you sad?
Does it hurt a lot?
Is it throbbing?
Is it better for heat?
When a patient only answers yes or no, this will not give you any individual characteristics of the patient.
You are looking for individual symptoms for that patient with the complaint. You are trying to individualised the case.
Symptoms are divided in three categories: General, Mental/emotional and physical.
You will need one or more of each category of symptoms.
For instance a barking cough which is worse at night and better for sitting up. The complaint is the cough and the symptoms are worse at night and better by sitting up.
Next step is to try to find out the aetiology(cause) of the complaint. It is a very important part of case taking, for the individualised homeopathic picture of the patient, to understand the cause of a complaint.
So one should identify the cause(or stress) or aetiology that affected (or affects) the patient and the patient should avoid this cause or act upon it before the patient fall ill. We are all individuals. People are sensitive to different causes/stresses at different times in life.
Going back to the barking cough example mentioned earlier, we might note the following: The child became cold after being taken for a walk in the cold wind. The child then developed a barking cough which is worse at night and better for sitting up. The child wants to be left quiet, lying still on bed.
The complaint is the cough and the symptoms are: worse at night, better by sitting up and wanting to be quiet, lying on bed. The cause was becoming cold.
An easy, clear and effective way to select an effective remedy is to vertically write down the word CLAMS on a sheet of paper and then fill it in as per the patient’s symptoms.
This method helps you to identify the most similar remedy to the patient’s symptoms pictures, the closest matching remedy.
Clams stands for:
C – Concomitant
L – Location
A – Aetiology
M – Modalities
S – Sensation
For example:
C : Concomitant – What is the main complaint or symptom? What secondary symptoms accompany the main one? For example, main complaint is a headache but the person also has a runny nose.
L : Location – What is the exact location of the main complaint? For example, the pain is mainly on my left side but shoots over to the right sometimes.
A : Aetiology – The cause of or circumstances present at the time when it began. For example, a sudden shock, death of a loved one or a car accident.
M : Modality – Anything that causes the presenting complaint to get better or worse. For example, it is better for heat, worse for when I walk or sit, better outdoors in fresh air or in a warm room.
S : Sensation – How the person is actually experiencing the complaint. For example, Is the pain dull, throbbing, aching, stabbing, twisting, etc.
A child has a barking cough after being exposed to cold wind. It is better by sitting up and worse in the night. The child desires to lie down. The child also has a flushed face and a runny nose. The child wants to be left quiet and wants to lie down.
C – Flushed face and runny nose.
L – Chest, cough.
A – Cold Wind, Becoming Cold
M – Worse at night, better sitting up, desire to lying down, want to be quiet.
S – Barking.
Sometimes the illness is at the beginning and there are no clear symptoms. It is best to wait for a clear picture to emerge before trying to match a remedy or begin prescribing a remedy.
If for instance the cough is mild and unremarkable, the mucus is clear and ordinary, and there is no clear mental or emotional state, then use other home treatments to start with.
One Single Remedy at a Time
Next, refer to your homeopathic home prescribing book. You must acquire one if you want to prescribe at home for acute complaints. When you look through the cough remedies, select the one that matches the symptoms on your list. By looking at the characteristic symptoms, you will find that Bryonia is the closest matching remedy to those described above. Always remember that the patient doesn’t have to have every symptom associated to that remedy. If three symptoms fit a remedy, and it is the best match then try it. Choose the remedy that most closely match the symptoms mentally, emotionally and physically. It is important to take only one remedy at a time. Taking multiple remedies can muddy the picture and delay healing.
The Minimum Dose (single dose and potency)
Next step is to decide the dose, the minimum dose. The minimum dose is about the single dose and potency of the remedy.
The single dose is a very important aspect of the Law of the Minimum Dose.
Classical homeopaths who closely follow the teachings of Hahnemann, apply the Law of the Minimum Dose not only by using potentised remedies, but by administering them according to the same principle.
Potency: For home prescribing a 30C potency is a safe potency for anyone to use and It is also a potency that works well for first aid and minor illnesses. 30C is also the potency used in first aid homeopathic remedies kits.
Single dose: A single dose of the medicine is given and then its action is assessed some time later. If it is working, no more remedies are given unless the improvements experienced either stop completely or are reversed.
If the remedy works, you only repeat it when the symptom improvements cease, or the symptoms are returning. If remedy worked, then STOP taking the remedy when the patient is 90-95% back to normal. (If symptoms begin to worsen, the remedy can be resumed).
You will know if the correct remedy is working pretty quickly in an acute situation. Listen to your body, and it will tell you what you need to know. The child patient will settle, the cough will diminish and the child will fall soundly asleep.
If there is no response to the remedy after 24-48 hours, consider another remedy and/or seek help from a professional homeopath such as myself.
Finally, if you tried 2 remedies without improvement, you are having trouble working out the most suitable remedy for an acute disease, symptoms do not clear within 3 weeks from a bout of an acute illness or home prescribing is not helping and you or your child’s symptoms are becoming worse I strongly advise you to seek the help of a professional homeopath.
The reasons for this are explained in this blog article of mine: click here
Furthermore if symptoms are worrisome you should also consider whether you need to consult a doctor.