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| Hpathy Ezine, September 2005 | ||||
Soccer Moms, Heads Up!-- Elaine Lewis, DHom |
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It has been brought to my attention that practically every child in the world is playing soccer! You have no idea how fraught with danger this sport is--according to Kelly, Queen of the Soccer Moms! Here's what your little soccer player can anticipate: Heat/dehydration, heat exhaustion; asthma/breathlessness from too much running; ailments from high winds--hot or cold; high anxiety before games; injuries: broken bones, broken teeth, lips (taking a kicked ball in the mouth), bitten tongues, head injuries from falls and collisions with other kids' heads; bee and wasp stings, sand in the eyes, fingers in the eyes, kicks in the shins, broken ankles, sprained ankles, and sprained hands and fingers from trying to break a fall. And they're not even being paid to do this, it's all for "fun"! Yikes! OK, I don't pretend to understand this, but luckily, homeopathy can help! If you don't believe me, ask the French soccer team doctor from 1993 to 2004, including the World Cup championship team of 1998, who said: "The greatest value [of homeopathy] in sports? Its speed of action. I can use homeopathic medicines like Arnica directly on the soccer field."--Dr. Jean-Marcel Ferret./1 So without any further ado, what remedies should you have with you on the soccer field? We might as well start with Arnica, as, without a doubt, Arnica has almost single-handedly made homeopathy famous! I would say seventy to eighty percent of the time, you're going to give Arnica for sports injuries; that's because Arnica is a specific for blunt trauma. Every homeopath carries Arnica with him (or her) in his (or her) pocket or car or backpack or all three. That's certainly the case with me; I have Arnica 10M in my pocket, Arnica 30C in my first aid kit in my backpack and Arnica 200C in my car. What can you do with Arnica? Practically anything! Think of it in car accidents, falls, head injuries, any blow, a sore bruised feeling from any cause--even a flu with a sore bruised feeling all over the body. The worst head injuries where the person is seeing stars or has actually been knocked out can be brought back to health with a dose of Arnica. Post surgically, people who have taken Arnica have had no need for morphine or other pain relievers; now that's impressive! And I was one of those people once, so I know it's true. Some of you may be wondering what Arnica, or any homeopathic remedy for that matter, looks like and in answer, the remedies look like little sugar granules and you can drop a few of them in a bottle of spring water, shake it up and take a sip. That's all you have to do! Always shake the water bottle before each dose. An unconscious person can take the remedy by mere contact of the water with his lips, he doesn't have to swallow it. ArnicaBlunt trauma. Wounds with a jagged surface, ragged wounds. Bruises or bruised feeling. Great soreness. Broken bones, multiple fractures--give Arnica first; you may have to follow with another remedy. In fact, an injured person may need many remedies in succession; a remedy for fright, followed by a remedy for blunt trauma and so on. (Try to leave space between each remedy so that you can ascertain the effect of the remedy just given.) Sprains. Strains. Falls, accidents. Swelling from injury. Injury to the throat, hoarseness, loss of voice from shouting, "Hey, I'm open! Pass me the ball, for God's sake!!!" Nosebleed from injury. Ailments from over-running/too much running--asthma, nausea, etc. Head injury, any ailment after head injury. Another curious thing about Arnica is they won't look well and will be dazed, but they'll tell you they're fine! They don't seem to know they're injured! When you see this, they need Arnica for sure! Furthermore, in a head injury, they may answer you correctly and then fall asleep. Arnica people don't want to be touched, so they'll send you away and they'll be very adamant about it. In counterdistinction to Arnica, we have another injury remedy that's sure they are not fine! In fact, they fear they're going to die, and that remedy is... AconiteFright, panic and fear are the main features of the Aconite injury--and that's just the parents! Yes, give the parents Aconite to calm them down! You'll look at the little soccer player after an injury and you'll see that he's frantic, groaning, tossing about, biting his fist in pain. Notice your reaction, are you scared? Then it's probably Aconite. Any ailment or injury with fear as a concomitant is Aconite. Inability to act or think. Fear, anxiety attacks, before an event (like a soccer game). Sudden sore thoat after being exposed to cold/dry winds. Any ailment after exposure to cold dry winds (and even hot dry winds). They call Aconite "The Arnica of the eyes". So, getting poked in the eye, corneal abrasions, sand in the eyes, "there's something in my eye!", etc., give Aconite. And speaking of the eyes, for "black eyes" we have... LedumBlack eye, injury to the soft tissue around the eye. Injuries with dark bruising that feel cold and are better for cold applications. Bruises are very painful with pitting edema and a mottled bruise color. Cellulitis that spreads upward. Puncture wounds, animal bites, will prevent tetanus, with deep soreness and swelling of 2 or 3 inches, deep red and painful, needs ice. The Ledum patient will be much worse if you remove the ice for even a second! Any time an injured part feels cold, give Ledum. In a Ledum wound, you will see redness at the site, but surrounded by a ring of powder, or a ring that's bluish-white; it may feel cold and the injury is ameliorated by cold. Speaking of black eye, we can't forget... SymphytumIf I could possibly quote from Dr. Robin Murphy here, "For blows to the eye, Ledum and Symphytum are the first two; Arnica is #3. For severe achiness in the whole eyeball that is dark blue and discolored. ... For all the bone diseases; osteomyelitis, bone ulcers, spinal diseases after trauma and injury. ... Someone gets hit in the face on the cheek, that is not an Arnica case; it is a Symphytum or Ruta case. Arnica is for soft tissue. Arnica may help but Symphytum will cure. ... You get hit in the abdomen or arm, that is more Arnica. The chin, cheek, face or eye is more Symphytum. The knee would be Symphytum or Ruta. You can start with Arnica but a lot of times, that won't finish it. You may have to give two or three remedies in sequence to give rapid relief. Give Arnica to remove the bruised feeling and the swelling and help with the discoloration, then it is time to go to another remedy, like Symphytum to finish it. ... Symphytum has a great affinity for bones...promotes healing; give Arnica first; once the [broken] bone is set, give Symphytum. It helps remove pain, inflammation and swelling, good for injury to periosteum when Ruta fails and injury to coccyx when Hypericum fails."/2 HypericumThis is the nerve remedy. Have you ever dropped something on your toe or someone stepped on your fingers or the door closed on your hand and the pain shot up your arm? That's Hypericum! Injury to areas rich in nerves. Someone steps on your toes, you bite your tongue. The pain is sharp and shooting. Injury to the nerves, inflammation of the nerves. Falls on the tail bone. Puncture wounds with sharp pains, animal bites, insect stings with sharp pains. Numbness and tingling. Injury to the spine. Pinched nerve. Crush wounds Any neurological condition after injury to the spine like convulsions. Person complains that he can't raise his arms without pain. Lacerations. Excessive painfulness. Foreign body in the eye. CalendulaA partner with Hypericum, often you'll see the two of them sold together as "Hyperical". They're both for cuts, open wounds, deep abrasions, multiple abrasions, chapping, chafing, bleeding, stabbing....I think you get the idea that Calendula is an Antiseptic! Pour Calendula water on an open wound to clean it out. Drop some calendula pellets in a plant sprayer and spray the whole area that's been abraded. Take the remedy internally as well. It stops bleeding, stops the redness, puffiness and pus formation at the site of a wound and stimulates healing, soothes the pain. Redness, rawness. Abrasions in the eyes, foreign body in the eye, but give Hypericum if there is a lot of pain! Prevents sepsis from setting in after being wounded and even if it already has set in, Calendula is still the remedy, but also consider Pyrogen. Another good use for Calendula is the ruptured ear drum you might get from people yelling, "Go team!" and "Deee-fense! Deeee-fense!" StaphysagriaIt can be hard to decide when to use Staphysagria and when to use Calendula. Both are wound remedies. But with Staphysagria there is more pain, exquisite pain! In fact, do you know where I use Staphysagria? At the dentist's office! Scraping the plaque off of sensitive teeth can cause a patient to hit the ceiling! For this I take Staphysagria 10M right as I sit down in the dentist's chair; and as homeopathic remedies don't create the "drugged" feeling you get from pain killers, you can think that the remedy isn't working, and that the dentist just hasn't gotten to your sensitive teeth yet. But when I got through the whole bottom row without pain, I began to suspect something! And when the whole proceedure was done without any anesthesia, I was convinced that the remedy really worked! But back to sports injuries! With Staphysagria, there is deeper infection than in Calendula, there is more pus and more pain. The wound seems to affect the whole person and not just the local site. BryoniaWhatever the injury may be, whether it's a broken bone, (and Bryonia is the #1 remedy for acute fractures), a bruise or a sprain, the reaction of the Bryonia person is always the same: He can't move! Even the slightest movement causes a sharp pain! Even breathing might make the pain worse, so he is breathing very shallowly. Firm hard pressure gives him relief, an ace bandage gives relief. He will want the area immobilized. If for some reason Bryonia isn't helping sufficiently in fractures, go to Eupatorium perf. for severe pain. Bryonia's opposite is... Rhus toxicodendron("Rhus tox" for short.) Unlike Bryonia, Rhus tox must move! They cannot sit still! They must stretch, walk about, squirm in their seat. Usually with Rhus tox the injury is a sprain or strain. They feel terrible stiffness, which is relieved by stretching, moving and is worse as soon as they sit for any length of time or lie down. Moving helps them enormously, so does heat and hot bathing and massage. RutaRuta is an awful lot like Rhus tox. Ruta has strains and sprains, an affinity for the tendons, and a feeling of stiffness and is also worse cold and better heat, but Ruta wants to lie down and is better for lying down, which Rhus tox certainly is not; plus, Ruta's stiffness is extreme; they'll say it's like being encased in cement! Also, what Ruta is famous for is injuries to the shins and other areas that are thinly covered, like the forehead, chin, elbow, cheek bone--the periosteum, in other words. LachesisCompound fractures, tremendous bruising which is black, or near black with oozing of dark blood, threatened infection, severe pain, burning pain, worse heat, worse pressure. Do not even think about giving an ace bandage to a Lachesis patient! Natrum sulph."Nat-sulph" is needed for the chronic syndrome following head injury or spinal injury which will almost always include severe depression. There may also be amnesia about the event. HelleborusFollowing head injury, a slowness or sluggishness, poor concentration, a lack of comprehension; the patient is in a mental fog; he may have a furrowed brow and a rolling of the head from side to side. ApisBee stings, wasp stings. Penetrating wounds that burn and sting as if they were bee or wasp stings. Carbo veg.The person is passing out from the injury. Also, altitude sickness, when your team is traveling to areas of high altitude. GelsemiumThe little soccer player is so nervous, so anxiety-ridden, before the game that he's trembly, feeling weak, may have diarrhea and thinking that he's "coming down with something" and not well enough to play. BelladonnaThe problem here is the heat. Heatstroke, heat exhaustion. The two back-up remedies for Belladonna in heatstroke are Glonoine and Natrum carb. Bellis PerennisBellis is a back-up for Arnica. They are both daisies, but Bellis is a deeper Arnica; it's for bruised organs. Imagine being kicked in the stomach or hit in the breast! This would be Bellis. There may also be lymph node enlargement after a trauma. Bellis will ask for cold applications and is worse from heat. OpiumAfter Arnica, Opium is the most common remedy for head injury. The person will have pin-point pupils, will be stuporous and unresponsive. Face will be flushed, bloated, heavy, red, hot with an imbecillic look. Ferrum phos.Nose bleed of bright red blood. ******************************************* Potencies: Homeopathic remedies come in different potencies, generally the potencies go like this, from low to high: 6C, 12C, 30C, 200C, 1M, 10M, 50M and CM. The idea is to match the potency to the severity of the injury. A person who's knocked out needs Arnica 10M and may need it repeated every 10 minutes until he shows signs of recovery, whereas a person with a bruise to his knee might just need Arnica 30C, every 15 minutes until improvement is noticed and then less often as he improves. Even the 200C can do great work in a head injury; I once had a head injury where I was seeing stars and Arnica 200C brought me back to normal within five minutes, so this gives you an idea of how potent the 200C is. So, you Soccer Moms should get together and pool your money to buy a 30C remedy kit, a 200C kit and a 10M kit and don't worry because no one's going to be without a remedy! Homeopathic remedies clone themselves just by dropping a pellet into water and voila! you've got a new remedy bottle! Yes, I know it doesn't seem possible! Go to Homeopathy Remedy Kits at Hpathy or http://www.a2zhomeopathy.com/ to buy remedy kits, empty bottles, remedy boxes...they've got everything there. Now the next thing you're going to need is an acute prescribing book, which you can order from the same place or Homeopathy Book Shop at Hpathy, http://www.minimum.com/ or http://www.homeopathic.com/. There's a lot more to be said about these remedies than what I've listed here; for instance, Staphysagria is also for the resentment one feels after a game, making it hard to fall asleep. ("Harry never passed me the ball!") Plus there are other remedies I had to leave out because of limited space and time, but you'll do well with what is here. Does everybody know what to do for an injury now? Don't tell the other team!
________________________ 1. Homeopathy Today, Aug. 2005, p. 54 2. Robin Murphy, ND; Fundamentals of Materia Medica, p. 515-517.
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Elaine Lewis, DHom, CHom takes online cases. Visit her website at: www.hpathy.com/office/ElaineLewis.asp |
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