Prevention is better than cure

"Prevention is better than cure" is a very homoeopathic approach, and we've asked local homoeopath Sarah Worne to give us her advice for dealing with winter colds and flu. From Epsom salts to onion soup Sarah gives us her top tips and unpicks some common myths. Will an apple a day really keep the doctor away, or do we need to give ourselves a little more TLC?The next time you feel a cold coming, there are various straightforward strategies which will help you through the process more easily. The number one rule is: don't overload your system with food. Forget the old saying, ‘Feed a cold - starve a fever.' Your body is using up energy - for its very own clear-out of toxic or excess waste - so encourage, rather than sabotage this process. Change your diet to fresh fruit and vegetables.

Many of us are now aware that stress is the number one culprit for bringing down physical health, making homoeopathy such a natural choice, and with the increasing pace of our life-styles, there will usually be some stress or other to compromise our energies. Homoeopaths often tell their patients that the common cold is a blessing! It's the body's way of slowing us down and letting us know that we should take it a little easier and a cold gives us a natural de-tox, however unwelcome that may be.

Ideally, a cold should not be suppressed with orthodox medicine or popular high doses of vitamin C. Continue to take in fluids, using spring water and fresh fruit and vegetable juices. Try to avoid commercial juices which can encourage catarrh, rather than help expel it.

At bedtime take a hot bath with one or two pounds of Epsom Salts dissolved in it and then go immediately to bed, taking care not to get chilled. The body needs energy to recover, and to ensure this above all, your body needs rest!
Homoeopathy is an energy-based medicine capable of building the immune system by gently balancing the body to facilitate its very own unique ability to heal itself. When our immune systems are working efficiently, we have the natural capacity to ward off those uninvited winter bugs - the ever familiar coughs, colds and the increasingly dreaded influenza, and a visit sooner rather than later to a homoeopath is a wise move.

Whilst many over-the-counter homoeopathic remedies work for simple acute ailments, actually visiting a homoeopath will be far more effective and long lasting. Your first visit will explore your medical and family history to find inherited lines of weakness. Any mental and emotional symptoms will be of primary importance and your overall coping strategies will be looked at, together with your diet, fitness levels and general lifestyle. Your prescription will then be individually made up for you as no two people are the same.

First Signs

At the first sign of stress or when you have the feeling ‘I wonder if I am going to get a cold?' take Arsenicum in low potency (6C) half hourly for up to six doses. This remedy will usually arrest it unless the chill is due to standing in a strong wind; then Aconite taken in the same way should help.

Ferrum Phos 6X is another good remedy to take in the early inflammatory stages of a cold. You can also use other biochemic tissue salts to help with those runny noses. Alternate the appropriate one with Ferrum Phos 6x - every 2-3 hours. Use Kali Mur 6X for a whitish discharge, Kali Sulph 6X for yellow and for watery discharges try Nat Mur 6X.

Onion soup with lots of onions is another excellent way to help the body naturally detox. Allium Cepa is good for burning, acrid discharges and watery eyes.

Nux Vomica is useful if you have a cold which makes you feel irritable with a runny nose during the day which will then stuff up at night - you feel chilly and can't get warm enough.

Black elderberry extract/juice (also available in capsule form) helps support the immune system and has twice the natural anti-oxidant capability as cranberries. Anti-oxidants support the immune system by helping neutralise the harmful effects of free radicals.

Echinacea is still also very useful to take when feeling run down or if you have been in contact with someone who is suffering from the flu virus.

Whilst good Homeopathic constitutional prescribing is a great insurance for health, your Homeopath will also be able to prescribe remedies to help your body resist the infectious and much feared influenza.

A good diet and adequate exercise are common sense measures and if you understand the ‘mind-body' approach to health then you may need a little more than "an apple a day to keep the doctor away" - so it's worth considering the comprehensive energetic power of Homeopathic remedies to keep in balance - prevention has to be better than cure and remember, a cold may not be such a bad thing after all!

For further information please contact Sarah Worne MCPH RSHom., Registered Homoeopath on 01323 871313, or email sarah@sarahworne.com. Sarah runs clinics in Lewes, Forest Row and the South Downs

Understanding Homoeopathy
Author: Sarah Worne MCPH RSHom.

A succinct and informative little book - a perfect introduction to Homoeopathy. It takes the reader through many of the issues raised by those new to the subject such as the origins and history, benefits of treatment, when it is appropriate to self-prescribe and when professional help is needed.
Published by First Stone and costs just £1.99 and can be obtained via
www.sarahworne.com or purchased from Helios, Camden Road, Tunbridge Wells. www.helios.co.uk SKU#: BK1473