A warm 'Hello' to all of you out there!
This text will be a little longer than usual, which doesn't happen to me very often. But I want to send you an article I recently wrote for Energy Magazine.
Homeopathic alternatives to synthetic medicines
“The person who takes medicine must recover twice – once from the disease and once from the medicine.” – Dr William Osler, one of the founding fathers of Johns Hopkins University.
Being a woman is by no means an illness, but it certainly counts among the “complaints” that are treated at every turn.
It starts with the time of the first menstrual bleed, runs through the fertile years and on to the menopause itself: at every stage modern medicine tries to tamper with women’s rites of passage.
Under the guise of “support” the chemical manipulation of the female body already begins in puberty, as soon as the first spot appears.
Far too often young girls are prescribed the Pill to treat acne! Acne, for heaven’s sake! If that is a “systemic” solution for a local complaint! Why should young girls be treated with artificial hormones when their natural hormonal balance is anything but settled?
Why risk the health and future fertility of a young woman when there are safe, elegant and highly effective homeopathic solutions for this skin problem?
The Banerji protocol for acne
In the Banerji protocol, Hepar sulphuris calcareum C200 is given together with Arsenicum album C200, one dose on alternate days. (If these remedies do not completely clear the acne, you should consult a professional homeopath who has studied this method in detail and knows which remedy is best for you.)
Women of reproductive age in particular are under constant bombardment.
Side effects of the Pill
Since the 1960s, when the contraceptive Pill became available, women have celebrated “the Pill” as a liberation from childbearing in a way that was simply unimaginable in previous millennia.
At the time one could not imagine the side effects the Pill would have. And I don't mean the well-known ones such as weight gain, depression and blood clots (which are listed on the Pill's leaflet as if they were perfectly normal accompanying effects).
No, I mean the long-term effects that creep into a woman's life and can manifest in quite alarming ways, sometimes only many years later. I'm talking about an increased risk of breast, liver and cervical cancer, and affective disorders including postnatal depression.
That is a very high price for freedom.
Let's be honest: many women use hormonal contraception because it's so easy. Perhaps it's the only solution they know to prevent an unintended pregnancy. But with a little research you can find alternatives that are much safer.
Synthetic hormones alter the sense of smell
What is even more serious is the fact that the Pill can cause women to choose the wrong partner! In 2008 a very enlightening article was published in Scientific American (titled How the Pill Affects Women's Mate Choice). It really opened my eyes.
Or perhaps I should say it opened my “nose”, because the study's findings show that the Pill changes our sense of smell! Even if that is hard to believe, our sense of smell plays an important role in mate choice and influences us subconsciously but significantly.
Synthetic hormones manipulate the natural sensory organs of a woman's body and thus change her personal preferences. If a woman stops taking these hormones, she becomes “herself” again and may question the partner choices she made while on the Pill.
That's simply shocking, isn't it?
How many other complaints might there be that are related to this hormonal tinkering?
Artificial hormones and weight
Take the case of Juanita, a young woman who suffered severe back pain. She had been to many doctors and paid for expensive tests, but nothing could be found or cured.
Juanita was used to keeping her weight at a healthy level with lots of exercise. But because of the back pain she could not train as usual and steadily gained weight. Thirty kilos of excess weight cannot be explained simply by lack of exercise. The young woman was desperate and asked a homeopath for advice, because there had to be an explanation for her weight problems.
When I work with my clients or students I always encourage them to put pencil to paper, have a roll of paper ready and draw a timeline of their complaints. Without this important step for case-taking many medications and their possible side effects remain undiscovered – especially substances that are often referred to as “natural”.
I therefore questioned Juanita in detail and it emerged that her back pain began shortly after a three-month contraceptive injection. Her gynaecologist had warmly recommended the injection: “It's fantastic! I have the injection every three months too. And the best thing is that the annoying monthly bleed disappears. What could be better?”
What could be better? Real health and a contraceptive method that leaves a woman's body intact would be better. Not this chemical manipulation.
You should know that Juanita had told her doctor that her periods were heavy and painful. This symptom was decisive for prescribing the Pill. And as the doctor had promised, the monthly bleed and the associated cramps stopped from that moment on.
Back pain instead of menstrual pain
But instead, her menstruation was replaced by relentless back pain.
This is the truly pernicious part of synthetic medicine. It “works” by making one complaint disappear, but you never really know what you are taking – and every patient should and must be aware of that.
When Juanita finally realised what was happening to her, she knew what to do: no more injections, but homeopathy to restore the natural hormonal balance – and thus her periods.
The Banerji protocols as a detox cure
We began homeopathic treatment with the Banerji protocol to “antidote” the allopathic drugs: Camphora C200, taken once only as a single dose.
Afterwards Sepia 200 ( potentisation in homeopathy) was administered, which fits particularly well in cases like Juanita's. Sepia is taken once a week for as long as necessary to regulate the hormonal system. For Juanita it took a little over a month until one morning she noticed that her period had started again.
Coincidentally, the dreadful back pain also vanished as if by command.
It took another two months for Juanita's cycle to fully normalise. During those two months the period returned just as heavy and painful as before the three-month injection and we decided to give the homeopathic remedy that from the start would have helped Juanita!
Homeopathy for painful menstruation
For heavy and painful menstrual bleeding Dr Banerji recommends Arnica montana 3 in combination with Sabina 6, both taken together twice daily. The two remedies are an excellent starting point for a homeopathic treatment.
It is perhaps unsurprising that Juanita's pain improved immediately on the second day of her period after taking the homeopathic medicines. Within three months Juanita's cycle had fully normalised.
The road there, however, had been long and completely unnecessary.
In my experience the contraceptive Pill is one of the greatest endocrine disruptors in our society. After all, women do not take it just for a few weeks and then stop. No – women take their Pill or three-month injection continuously for years or decades!
You must imagine the confusion these synthetic hormones cause in our bodies, not only in our reproductive organs but in the whole hormonal system. This fiddling with the delicate hormonal balance – without regard for what it can do – is not science, it is sloppy. More importantly: it has long-term and negative effects not only on health but on a woman's behaviour.
You heard that right – on behaviour!
The Pill as a cause of divorce
In fact the Pill is now also referred to as the “divorce pill” because the divorce rate among women taking the Pill is noticeably high. Feel free to Google it. It is fascinating and alarming at the same time.
When our hormones are disturbed, it can be that our whole personality and attitudes change.
We suffer more from PMS, become more irritable and the mucous membranes of our vagina dry out. Sometimes people around us notice that we lose our “nesting instinct” and no longer care for family, housework, cooking or child-rearing. Worse, we lose interest in our husbands. It's as if our libido has packed its bags and left!
Of course we are all different and perform our “duties” as wives and mothers with varying enthusiasm and everyone has times when they don't feel like family life. That is by no means an illness. But if we develop a very strong aversion to everything to do with our womanhood or if we lose our joy in these things, you can safely assume that our hormonal balance is out of kilter.
Indeed, our hormones naturally adapt to different life phases. Modern medicine, however, amplifies these fluctuations by recommending that we be manipulated with synthetic hormones throughout our lives – from birth control to bioidentical hormones in the menopause! (By the way: you should know that the term “bioidentical” is often just a marketing strategy. It does not necessarily mean the product is truly natural).
The further we move away from our reproductive years and towards the menopause, the louder the calls from the medical profession for hormonal intervention become.
Isabelle, for example, was no longer herself. She was shaken to her foundations and no longer recognised herself. Her skin became dull and saggy, her usually good figure needed help and her mood swings had become almost legendary.
Isabelle's husband tiptoed through the house and even the cheeky little family dog, otherwise a rather daring terrier, cowered whenever his mistress came near.
“I was wild and unruly and desperately needed to be tamed. The doctor I consulted in my distress, however, believed that everything could be sorted with medication.”
Isabelle goes on: “She was a walking pharmaceutical factory: hormones, patches, sleeping tablets, antidepressants. I was foolish enough to take the lot. I thought I had no other choice. I remember her telling me the medicines would regulate my hormones. She said there was no other way.” After months of this “drug therapy” – Isabelle today calls it a contradiction in terms – she sank into a state of emotional numbness that prevented her from participating in life.
Her doctor had told her that antidepressants would ease the anger and depression, which was only half the truth. The doctor had not warned her that she would feel as if her personality had been lobotomised.
She had made a pact with the devil. Isabelle was no longer hysterical but pathetic and sluggish. She was no longer depressed but could feel nothing at all.
When her daughter-in-law cheerfully announced she was expecting her first child, Isabelle showed little interest and replied neutrally: “Oh, how nice.”
Must I emphasise at this point that Isabelle's family became increasingly worried?
Strangely no one thought the strong medication might be the cause of the noticeable change in character, because everyone had full trust in conventional medicine. Surely the doctor would not prescribe anything that could cause such side effects.
This trust was shaken when the family spent the summer holiday by the sea and Isabelle forgot her medication at home – whether intentionally or not, nobody really knows to this day. That was when Isabelle came back to herself and managed to turn things around. It was not easy, because first came the withdrawal symptoms: mood swings, sleeping problems, vomiting. The family put up with it, because at the same time something wonderful happened – for the first time in a long time the family had the old Isabelle back. But the joy was short-lived, because with the old Isabelle came the fits of anger and depression in intensified form and everyone quickly realised that another solution had to be found.
Fortunately, shortly afterwards Isabelle talked to her neighbour, who told her about a homeopathic remedy that had helped her a lot during the menopause. She said she still had a bottle at home. Would Isabelle like to try it? Ten years earlier she would not have been willing to share her little pellets with anyone.
“My homeopath told me to take the pellets once a day for 13 weeks. Already after two weeks I noticed a change,” the neighbour said. “I was myself again, without all those nasty symptoms.”
Isabelle took the remedy immediately. It took less than four weeks and Isabelle's husband noticed that his wife had regained some of her gentleness. She could laugh at his teasing again, took an active part in life and had noticeably more energy because she slept better.
In short: she was almost her old self again!
Antimonium carbonicum for menopausal complaints
The wonder remedy is Ammonium carbonicum C200. It is a specific for the time before, during and after the menopause. Thousands of women have been helped by this remedy at the Prasanta Banerji Homeopathic Research Foundation Hospital alone. I was fortunate enough to witness its excellent effect first-hand there.
In Isabelle's case her passionate, buoyant nature had been suppressed beyond recognition by the antidepressants. Her personality was in danger of breaking; in fact the medications were destroying the whole essence of this woman.
This morning Isabelle painted her toenails bright red: “I love it when my red toenails shine in sandals,” she says. “It reminds me how exciting and dynamic life can be.”
Thanks to homeopathy she is one of those women who know what they want in life even after the menopause.
Like majestic and dignified architectural masterpieces, valuable treasures are hidden in our mature minds and bodies. We can take responsibility for these mysteries and use them wisely, or we can give in and vegetate as a patented, synthetic copy of our former selves, imposed on us by an industry that has lost all sense of proportion.
So what should we do if we suspect that our hormones are following their natural course or – worse – that the body is finally rebelling after years of artificial manipulation by the Pill or other synthetic hormones?
As a rule it is good to start with Sepia 200, twice weekly, until the hormonal balance is restored.
In fact Sepia is known for returning women to themselves. That means it smooths out the hormonal upheavals that make life difficult for many women during the climacteric and can also correct hormonal changes caused by artificial hormones (i.e. “botching”).
The remedy is not a fountain of youth – you won't become 30 years younger with Sepia – but it makes you calm and content in the current phase of life. With appropriate homeopathic support every woman can master the transition period with confidence, even without synthetic interference.
(The following protocol is not suitable for girls and young women who have not yet been pregnant. It is specifically intended for older women and women who have been pregnant or have been definitely harmed by the intake of artificial hormones.)
It is used for loss of libido, vaginal dryness and vaginismus (pain in the vagina).
I have personally observed how Sepia 200 has restored interest in family life to women.
I can attest that it makes it easier for women to carry out their household duties with joy and vigour.
Time and again I have observed that it simply melts away irritability and exhaustion from which so many women suffer (interestingly this is usually worst around 4 pm).
Depending on the individual case, Sepia should be taken for several weeks or even months. But when the problem clearly points to a “Sepia issue”, this remedy can be life-changing – and not just for the woman but for her husband and children as well.
None of us has to forgo the joy and happiness that caring for a home and family brings. And certainly we should all be able to have a happy and loving relationship with our husbands. If you feel your desire and your love have flown the coop, get them back!
Please don't misunderstand me – homeopathy is as layered as it is versatile and there is always more than one approach to a problem. Women's health is a very complex field, but what we can learn from the experiences described above is that a disrupted hormonal system should always be treated with a remedy that addresses the cause of the disorder and not simply suppresses symptoms.
Homeopathy supports the body to navigate through changing hormones without running aground. It empowers us women to come to terms with ourselves and our hormones, regardless of which transition phase we are in.
I have been where you are now. I tried diets, supplements, bioidentical hormones, essential oils and herbs, but nothing – and I really mean nothing – compares to the reproducible, gentle and effective results that my clients and I have achieved with practical homeopathy.
Pass it on!
Yours, Joette
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Source: Memo to Mighty Members #10, Joette Calabrese HMC, CCH, RSHom(NA
Photo: 345688298 by WIRACHAIPHOTO, 1357975862 by goffkein.pro,
1356269696 by Prostock-studio
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