| 12 April 2013 | |
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Update: From Paul Herscu You will very likely hear a lot about it as it increases or when the media pick up the story. The significance of the whole thing, however, will certainly not become clear. Allow me to pick up a few arguments I have made over the past years… |
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| Paul Herscu, March 2013 | |
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Hello, after an unusually long and difficult period, the flu wave is finally subsiding. Yes, people will still become ill in the coming months, but overall the highly epidemic nature of these illnesses is over. For me this is good news, as February is normally still a very busy flu month, in many ways the busiest flu month in North America. We are finally receiving fewer calls and fewer distressed patients. What continues to occur with the same frequency is the common cold. As I write this I must admit that I myself am sneezing. After so many sick people have shaken my hand or sneezed in my face, I have now become infected myself. Taking into account the most common symptoms of a cold you should now – if the patient does not need their constitutional remedy – consider Sulphur, Pulsatilla, Gelsemium, Nux vomica, Allium cepa and Euphrasia. Temperature differences and mood states are the best differentiation aids between the remedies on this short list. Finally, the dizziness epidemic also seems to be leaving us, thank God. Good luck! Hang in there! Just another one to two months until these epidemics are definitely over. Then we can think about seasonal allergies again! Kind regards Paul Herscu, ND MPH |
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| The flu wave is rolling. You can see on the maps at the following link that we are currently in the middle of it in Germany and where the highest incidence occurs: http://influenza.rki.de/MapArchive.aspx Case observations from the USA go back weeks (Herscu) and are supplemented by current notes from German practices about possible remedies. Main remedies are Eup-per (prostration), Bry (grumpy, withdrawn), Kali-cy (with heart pain and shortness of breath), Calc (tendency to relapse), Gels (with dizziness). |
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Observations by Dr Astrid Drescher |
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| Since the end of January increasingly severe courses and varying symptoms among patients, more bronchial courses or more gastrointestinal courses. At first different usual flu remedies were given with less long-lasting improvement (Hep-s, Bell, Caust, Ars etc.). Continuously good outcomes occurred since I have given only Eupatorium perfoliatum, whereby in the first and second weeks of February the C12, often repeated, led to a rapid cure, later the C30, and now the C200 is necessary. I always prescribe the aqueous solution of the remedy. If patients only present after a week since the onset of illness and are already very ill, with lethargy, weakness, loss of appetite, limb pain, cough etc., I preferably give Influenzinum C200 (Helios) as a water solution straight away, upon which patients recover within 48 hours. |
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Genius Epidemicus of the current flu with many faces |
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by Gabriele Spooren-Bunzel, SHZ-certified (17.02.2013) I had my first contacts with this flu weeks ago. A mother called completely desperate: her seven-year-old daughter had the flu and had been crying for almost an hour because of severe ear pain. She had already given her the constitutional remedy and Pulsatilla and nothing helped. When no remedy helps earaches in young girls, I like to give Calcium Carbonicum C30 or C200. The reaction was astonishing – within minutes the ear pain had gone! The following day the husband of a mother of three children called who had suddenly developed such migraine-like headaches with vomiting and because of dizziness, chills and fever was no longer able to care for the small children and call me. An hour after taking Calcium Carbonicum C200 the husband was to report back. After an hour the wife herself reported that she was already much better both circulatory-wise and with regard to the headaches; she could think again and already had an appetite. I observed this with all flu patients treated with Calcium Carbonicum: adults could continue to work, children played in good spirits despite fever (sometimes up to 40°C) and all had a good appetite and thirst. Interesting about this flu is also the periodicity. Patients turned to me desperately because they had already had the flu for the third time, every two weeks. Despite two courses of antibiotics including aspirin for the headaches they experienced recurrent sore throats, total weakness and had been unable to work for three weeks. |
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Repertorisation Calcium Carbonicum 1. General – Influenza 2. Fever – Sweat – Heat, with 3. Dizziness – Accompanied by – Head – Pain in head 4. Eye – Heaviness – Eyelids 5. General – Sleep – after sleep – aggravated on waking in the morning 6. Nose – Nosebleed – Blowing nose – Nose; of the 7. Eye – Photophobia – Light – Sunlight 8. Inner throat – Pain – chronic 9. Head – Pain – mental exertion – aggravated 10. Head – Pain – rises, sudden – falls – gradual 11. General – Periodicity – Week – every two weeks |
| Barking, irritating cough as well as recurring gastrointestinal symptoms after the flu Here I used a complement to Calcium Carbonicum, namely Cuprum-Arsenicosum. Characteristic were cramp-like abdominal pains or coughing fits and these often at night. One patient suddenly had such an irritating coughing fit at night which disappeared immediately after one dose of Cuprum-Arsenicosum C200. Very rarely I also used Drosera for paroxysmal irritating cough. |
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| Observations If patients had taken aspirin without my knowledge (e.g. for severe headaches), they later admitted that firstly it had not shown much effect and the course of healing had also been delayed by the suppression. As early as 1980 the epidemic control authority advised adolescents under 18 years not to take aspirin for flu, chickenpox and also colds (risk of Reye's syndrome; it is now known that this condition can also occur in older people). Further information about the aspirin connection and good nutrition tips during the flu can be found in the book “The Homeopathic Treatment of Influenza” by Sandra Perko. |
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Concluding treatment of the flu, if e.g. dizziness/weakness and/or a feeling of cold persist after the flu Done and dusted! Sulphur C30 twice daily, no longer than three days, made the remaining symptoms disappear. If the complaints recur, Sulphur C200 should be given to the patient. I personally consider this subsequent treatment extremely important for this readily recurring flu! |
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| The observations of various homeopaths such as Paul Herscu, Ulrich Welte and Markus Kuntosch have been summarised. | |
| Bryonia has already been confirmed by several large practices in the current flu epidemic. Especially for upper respiratory symptoms it helped strikingly well in a large number of cases. | |
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Summary of a report by Paul Herscu: Many people are currently only ill for a short time, a few days or a week. Then they recover partly, only to fall ill again for weeks or months, in a kind of ebb and flow. Many who now get a viral or bacterial infection do not actually have the flu. I regarded this as a smouldering symptom of a viral infection that was not recognised as such, because while some showed the full virus syndrome with respiratory symptoms, many others had only dizziness. Again and again new patients came with this complaint, and I began to take an interest in this dizziness.
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| The most important symptom that attracted my interest was dizziness that comes and goes. The most effective remedy used was Cocculus indicus and in some patients Conium. | |
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Current genius epidemicus: |
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Group 1. Some patients show the classic signs of influenza: weakness, trembling, headaches, chills and mild respiratory symptoms. In this group the four main remedies that helped were Nux vomica, Silicea, Mercurius and Gelsemium. Group 2. Here the gastrointestinal symptoms predominate. The most frequently occurring symptoms currently point to Phosphorus, Arsenicum album and Nux vomica. Group 3. Patients in this group have a bronchial cough as the central symptom and respond best to Belladonna, Bryonia and Drosera. Group 4. In others the main symptoms were heat, sweat, limb pain, mild respiratory symptoms and fatigue. In this group Sulphur, Mercurius and Bryonia helped best. Group 5. The most interesting group for me is that in which patients seem mentally indisposed. Here the main symptoms are pronounced weakness and lethargy, an aversion to or inability to stand for long periods, and the inability to provide a coherent symptom history. Generally markedly reduced cognitive abilities are noticeable, which is unusual. These patients have difficulty forming whole sentences. They are also lethargic, want to lie down or sleep. When trying to report their symptoms they very often forget the question, forget what they said or wanted to say. Suddenly the patient realises that he has not yet taken his temperature, he does not know what day of the week it is or whether he has eaten in the last few hours. It may well be that these patients also have chills, limb pain and mild respiratory symptoms. This group was helped especially by Silicea and Baptisia. Firstly, I am not sure what this patient group is suffering from, but I do not believe it is influenza. None of them had a short course. I saw them all again and again, and all had been ill for well over a week, which is unusual for influenza. Secondly it is interesting that their brains seemed to be more affected than their bodies. The nervous system and especially the brain were obviously attacked. Thirdly most of these patients had taken Gelsemium before my prescription of Silicea or Baptisia. And Gelsemium had not helped. I mention this because many of us are familiar with Gelsemium and its use in viral infections. Weakness is the keynote symptom of that remedy. In this case, however – unlike the group mentioned above – the nervous system was much more severely affected. Another differentiating point is that no other keynote symptoms of Gelsemium were present. |
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| >> to the original article by Paul Herscu | |
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Observations from the Kandern practice:
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Virus types of this influenza epidemic: |
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| Images: iStock.com, Fotolia.com | |
