A Complete Guide to Homeopathy

Effective, safe, affordable, and free of chemical side effects - the benefits of homoeopathy are truly amazing. Already established in the national health care systems of England, France, and the Netherlands, over five hundred million people worldwide use homoeopathic treatments. Homoeopathy discusses the history and science of this holistic healing approach and provides a comprehensive A to Z list of proven remedies that are safe for people and animals. It is unique in offering remedies to prevent and alleviate both common and serious ailments.

This easy-to-use handbook features remedies and instructions for nearly two hundred illnesses, injuries, physical conditions, and health care needs, including headaches, colds, arthritis, food poisoning, insomnia, pregnancy and birth flu, antibiotic-resistant infections epidemics, wounds, and fears.

This book presents a variety of methods for finding the right remedy based on ailments and symptoms, specific organs, and even the needs of particular occupations.

ALAN V. SCHMUKLER, (Philadelphia, PA) taught homoeopathy at Temple University and has been lecturing on the subject for over a decade. He founded the Homeopathic Study Group of Metropolitan Philadelphia and was editor of the newsletter Homeopathy News and Views.

About sixteen years ago I developed an abscess in the root of a tooth. Both a dentist and a doctor insisted on antibiotics, in spite of the fact that I do badly on them. A friend suggested I try a homoeopath. The homoeopath was not alarmed and handed me some little pills made from oyster shells. In a couple of hours, the pain was gone, and in a few days, the infection disappeared.

Millions of people are suffering needlessly because they don't know about homoeopathy, or don't believe in it. or because it isn't covered by their health insurance.

Every day people die from falls, auto accidents, allergic reactions, heart attacks, or shock. Many of those lives could have been saved for eight cents' worth of homoeopathic remedy, administered by someone who has read this book.

I've taught homoeopathy to hundreds of people, most of whom had no medical training. They can now cause pain and suffering in many instances, without rushing to a doctor.

My mother is ninety years old. About ten years ago, I bought her a kit of remedies. For the first couple of months, she would call and ask what remedy to use. Now she calls to tell me what she took and how great it worked.

Laypeople can use homoeopathy for treating injuries and acute ailments, and for preventing illness. By following a few basic rules, anyone can use homoeopathy safely. (See "Rules for Using Remedies" in Chapter 2.) Selecting the remedies for injuries is incredibly easy. Each type of injury has one or two remedies that are specific to it. You just look it up. A dose of Arnica after a bruising blow, Hypericum after a spine injury, or Ledum after a puncture wound can mean the difference between a quick recovery and long-term suffering, or even death. Using homoeopathy for minor ailments doesn't require any medical training or a brilliant mind. Each remedy is associated with a particular set of symptoms. If the patient has those symptoms, the remedy can cure them.

It doesn't matter what the name of the disease is. You don't need perfect knowledge for good results. This book takes the reader one step further, by including remedies for serious diseases such as cholera and anthrax.

It also describes how you can use homoeopathic remedies to prevent illness during an epidemic. One wouldn't ordinarily suggest that laypeople attempt such a feat, but these are not ordinary times. In the next ten years, we may find ourselves in survival situations either as a community or as individuals.

This book was written to provide laypeople with a means to treat injuries and acute ailments where conventional care is either not available or not effective. It is for situations involving pain, threats to life, or problems that might become serious if not treated. It is not meant as a substitute for professional medical care when that care is available. There is also a section specifically dealing with preventing illnesses, such as epidemics. Homeopathy has a long history of success in that area.

I don't mean to imply that this book will make you an expert in cholera or anthrax, nor are most doctors experts in those exotic ailments. But with the information in this book, you will be able to act even if imperfectly. In a critical situation that makes all the difference.

If you have a chronic health problem, such as diabetes, arthritis, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, ulcerative colitis, or functional heart disease, then you need to see a professional homoeopath. These conditions are treatable but require considerable experience. However, this book will offer remedies for the acute phases of some chronic ailments (e.g., asthma, arthritis).

I call this a handbook for survival, because in the coming years, we may find ourselves in survival situations for the following reasons:

1. Natural disasters: Weather cycles, disrupted by global warming, are becoming increasingly extreme. Natural disasters, such as droughts, severe floods, snowstorms, and heat waves, could easily disrupt everyday medical services.

2. Terrorism: We live in an age of increasing unrest, where terrorism always looms as a possibility. A large-scale attack in a crowded urban area could temporarily overwhelm the medical system.

3. Antibiotic-resistant infections: For the last several decades, antibiotics have been overused. This has given rise to infections that are more virulent and transmissible while being resistant to all or most antibiotics. Pharmaceutical companies will not be able to keep up with this rapid escalation in antibiotic resistance. Bacteria can produce a new generation every twenty minutes. The world's leading experts in antibiotic-resistant microbes have predicted that it is just a matter of time before killer strains develop for which there will be no cure.

At the 1994 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Alexander Tomasz, a leading authority on antibiotic-resistant bacteria, stated. "In the postan-(None world, the simplest infections could quickly escalate into fatal illnesses. It would be nothing short of a medical disaster."

The medical system could easily be overwhelmed by thou- 6. Genetic e sands of cases of untreatable infections.

Staphylococcus aureus is the leading cause of infection in animals hi hospitals. It can be fatal in up to 40% of cases. Recently has been the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found strains that on supern were resistant to all antibiotics. This is so serious that the safety: CDC has a task force developing contingency plans for the dies are id outbreak.

Enterococcus: In 1996. the federal government reported 7. No medic that 14% of all hospital-acquired Enterococcus infections insurance

Pneumococcus: Many strains of it are resistant to all antibiotics except vancomycin. It's just a matter of time. Tuberculosis: There are now strains that resist all known treatments.

Plague: There are now strains that resist all known treatments.

Group A streptococcus (toxic shock syndrome and necrotizing fasciitis, popularly known as flesh-eating infection): In 1993, 5% of cases were resistant to erythromycin. Two years later, 30% of cases were resistant to erythromycin.

Exotic diseases, such as Ebola and Hantavirus, can be expected to occur more often due to the destruction of rainforests, overpopulation, increased trade between nations, and global temperature changes. Global warming allows vector insects carrying these diseases to travel farther north.

Chemical or drug sensitivity: More and more people have become allergic to conventional drugs. When that happens. the side effects of the drug can be more dangerous than the disease itself. If you are allergic to the drugs you need, the doctor may have nothing more to offer you. Homoeopathic remedies are effective for most conditions now treated conventionally and are without any side effects.