Author: Maeve Smith
Natural Medicine Treatment: Influenza
Wednesday, 8th October, 2008 at 9:26 am, Isle of Wight
We’d like to welcome new contributor, Maeve Smith onto the VentnorBlog team. Maeve, who lives in Newport, is registered as a homeopath and passionate about natural therapies. Here, she offers some great advice on how to deal with the dreaded ‘flu. Ed
It’s that time of year again and we all have enough to worry about without getting the flu. There is some good news though.
Homeopathy, a natural system of medicine is effective at treating flu quickly. Below are some of the most common remedies I use every year to treat symptoms of the flu.
If you would like more information, advice or would like to buy an individualised flu remedy pack, please feel free to give me a call (contact details at the bottom).
Flu - What is it?
Influenza (flu) is caused by many different types of virus and spread by droplet infection such as sneezing and coughing. Viruses do NOT respond to antibiotics and viruses naturally mutate and evolve making them impossible to destroy completely.
Flu affects the respiratory tract and causes sore throat, cough, sometimes chest pain, muscle and bone pains, chills, fever, and headache. The symptoms can feel very strong and the person can feel very ill.
Incubation period is usually a couple of days. It can start with fever/chills and this stage can last for around 2/3 days. Full recovery can take one to two weeks and some people complain of never being the same since having flu.
Bronchitis and Pneumonia are two possible complications of flu and some people, the very young, the very old and people suffering from chronic respiratory problems such as asthma can be more vulnerable than others to a sever bout of flu.
Not everyone will succumb to flu because it is very dependent on our individual susceptibilities.
Antibiotics will not help because the symptoms of flu are viral based.
Herbal preparations and vitamins
Echinacea tincture can be very useful if taken as a immune boost one week a month throughout the flu season along with Hydrastis (Golden seal) and Cats claw. Once flu has set in these immune boosting herbs will speed up recovery but will not relieve the symptoms.
Vitamins
Vit C with bioflavanoids and zinc is also a useful immune boost helping to speed recovery but will not relieve the symptoms
Homeopathic self help options
If you take the right remedy for your symptoms it will both shorten the duration of the illness and relieve the symptoms in the same way as allopathic analgesics do. Homeopathic remedies can be taken along side herbal preparations and or conventional analgesics safely and without contraindications.
If you worry about being susceptible to a bout of flu, homeopathy has prophylactics to offer although they are no substitute to seeing a qualified homeopath and receiving individualised treatment they are helpful in many cases but not all cases because the treatment has not been individualised, to buy these you need to contact a homeopathic pharmacy such as Helios or Ainsworths and ask them for their flu prophylaxis remedy.
Alternatively you could go see a local homeopath, this also means that if you were to succumb to flu you would receive the best homeopathic care as they would already know you as a patient.
Homeopathy can work very quickly in acute cases such as flu and results can be felt soon after treatment.
In part two, we will focus on the various remedies for treating the causes of flu.
Maeve Smith LCCH RShom (Licensed & Registered with the Society of Homeopaths)
Natural Wisdom Homeopathic Practice. Tel : 01983 559006.
Images:
Influenza Virus: Cynthia Goldsmith/Content Providers: CDC/ Dr. Terrence Tumpey
Echinacea Flower: tanakawho
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October 8th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
For balance, readers might be interested in an interview with Professor Ron Eccles, director of the Common Cold Research Centre at Cardiff University, in the Independent. Interestingly, he’s sceptical of the claims made for Vitamin C and Echinacea: http://tinyurl.com/457hv5
As for homeopathy, (and there’s a good description and bibliography on Wikipedia, so you can decide for yourself), the weight of scientific evidence suggests there’s little to it other than placebo or enhanced placebo effects - which are of course, features of all medicines, and, in themselves, not to be, ahem, sneezed at. Personally I’d be wary of paying - through the nose or any other orifice - for medicines whose efficacy is suspect, whether they be homeopathic or allopathic, herbal or chemical in origin.
November 2nd, 2008 (3 weeks ago) at 1:25 am
For further balance, readers might be interested in the 2 surveys below, these and many more positive double blind trials and surveys can be viewed at http://www.homeopathy-soh.org
British prospective survey of homeopathic treatment of 223 patients, 1996. 90% improvement or more: 32%. 60% improvement or more: 65% 50% improvement or more: 72%.
Report on NHS practice-based homoeopathy project. Analysis of effectiveness and cost of
homoeopathic treatment within a GP practice at St. Margaret’s Surgery, Bradford on Avon, Wilts.
Elizabeth A Christie, Andrew T Ward ISBN 1 901262 006
British prospective survey of homeopathic treatment of 160 patients, 1994.
Very positive effect: 73%. Some effect: 27%. No effect: 0%.
Report on a Homoeopathy Project in an NHS Practice. Covering 18 month period from February
1993 to August 1994. Elizabeth A Christie, Andrew T Ward,. Reprinted February 1997.
November 15th, 2008 (6 days ago) at 6:20 pm
Homeopathy is a load of rubbish. Suggesting that it can treat ‘flu is dangerous and could lead to someone dying.
November 16th, 2008 (5 days ago) at 1:20 am
I think its down to the individual to view the options and the stats themselves and make a considered opinion..to say something is rubbish is neither constructive nor accurate.
Homeopathy is not my bag..but Having seen some strange things I do not discount it and its down to personal choice and personal responsibility
November 16th, 2008 (5 days ago) at 11:14 am
So, would you be happy for your elderley mother -or grandmother- to ‘consider’ a homeopathic remedy effective for treating their flu?
November 16th, 2008 (5 days ago) at 11:50 am
I seem to recall a Mr Bandler suggesting that he wanted to market a really benign drug under the name “PLACEBO” but the American Federal Drug Administration, short sightedly in my view, would not allow it.
Any vague nostrum that somehow fools the user into believing they will get better is likely to have a limited beneficial effect. But as for effecting a cure as dramatically has been demonstrated with vaccine against the small box virus, for example, that is just crazy.
The current penchant for believing that some fanciful notion will magically solve your ills is part of the modern “get rich quick”/”who needs to work” sickness in society that idolises nonentities on “Big Brother” and sneers at anyone who devotes a lifetime of study and work to developing skills and creating a real understanding of disease.
November 16th, 2008 (5 days ago) at 11:54 am
Ooops, bet you didn’t know you could get a virus from small boxes did you:)
You all know I meant smallpox I hope!!
November 16th, 2008 (5 days ago) at 12:15 pm
I would obviously prefer her to have a ‘flu’ jab, but assuming she was of sound mind (and is not dead - as is the case) then it would be her decsion
November 16th, 2008 (5 days ago) at 12:26 pm
Anyone who believes that homeopathy actually works is not of ’sound mind’. They need to be steered towards scientifically-proven treatments.
November 17th, 2008 (4 days ago) at 8:18 am
if it’s good enough for the H.M the Queen, then it’s good enough for seb!!
how come it works with non-human animals too?!
November 17th, 2008 (4 days ago) at 8:19 am
whoops - forgot a link!!