Treating Pain Without Meds

A few days ago, a patient asked me how I treat painful headaches. I told her that I drink a glass of water with liquid electrolytes added for fast delivery. If I don’t have liquid electrolytes, I put a pinch of mineral-rich salt under my tongue and once it's dissolved, I drink a glass of water, and that usually does the trick, often faster than a pill.

“What about headaches caused by muscular tension?” she asked. I take magnesium as a supplement or mag-phos tissue salts (low potency homeopathic), if the pains are cramping and I’m craving warmth or pressure. Or I take mag-mur homeopathic if I’m feeling liverish, constipated, old, worn out, and the headache is bursting. If my headache is caused by a change in air pressure before a storm, to which I am sensitive, then I just push through, though there are remedies for that, too. She was impressed that sometimes I don’t take anything, but that wasn’t always the case. I trained myself to do that.

Pain from teething can be helped with gentle low dose homeopathic remedies

I have quite a low pain threshold, so for many years I was prone to popping a pill every time I had a headache or period pain. Since I neither drink alcohol nor take cannabis, I thought it reasonable to numb my pain with painkillers until I realized that the painkillers themselves were often causing the pain. I might have flu-like aches and pains in my body the following day, or a headache, or feel bloated and uncomfortable, or have joint pain. And I noticed my default solution was to think about taking another painkiller. So I went cold turkey and completely stopped.

Of course, in extreme circumstances, such as a tooth extraction or serious injury, we need something to get us through pain, and the relief a painkiller offers brings a much-needed break. However, if we continue to sweep our symptoms under the rug and suppress them periodically, we risk overriding the system. In his book, Levels of Health, world-renowned homeopath George Vithoulkas says the following:

The homeopath must realize that nothing happens without purpose in the organism. Every symptom appears because it is the best possible avenue of counteracting the disease that the organism has chosen. The defense mechanism will automatically produce the necessary and most appropriate reaction for the specific imbalance at the time of stress. From the moment of intervention with chemical drugs, free expression is obstructed, and the mechanism will need to rearrange itself and take the next possible line of defense.

However, this new opportunity for symptom expression will always transpire on a deeper level than the previous one. Therefore, the primary goal of the defense mechanism is to keep the disturbance away from the more vital organs and in the peripheral areas such as the skin, mucous membranes, or muscles. If the organism is not allowed to express symptoms on a more superficial level, it will eventually concede and create symptoms on a deeper level, affecting more essential organs.

So when we continue to take suppressive medication, we risk pushing the disturbance deeper into the body. Most medicines are suppressive by their very nature. We can tell just looking at their names: non-steroid anti-inflammatories, protein pump inhibitors, cholesterol absorption inhibitors, enzyme blocking statins, and pain killers. Paracetamol targets the nervous system, crosses the blood-brain barrier, and inhibits the production of prostaglandin, a hormone-like lipid that, amongst other things, regulates inflammation. Vithoulkas suggests that over time, the suppression of the inflammatory response leads to the development of chronic disease. When the body is prevented from raising a fever or producing a strong inflammatory response, the disturbance penetrates deeper, which explains the famous statement by the father of medicine, Hippocrates, who said, “Give me a fever and I can cure any disease”.

So what can you do when you or your family have a toothache, headaches, stomach aches, sore muscles, growing pains, or pain from injury?  Homeopathy has remedies for almost all acute pain symptoms. Many are surprised to learn that a remedy can even be considered suppressive if taken over a long period, misused, or taken in the wrong sequence. Check with your homeopath, especially if you or your child is under chronic or constitutional care. The expression of an acute during this time means something important, and suppressing it may not be the right thing to do to bring about healing of the bigger picture.

Pain plays an important part in alerting us to the fact that something is wrong. If pain persists, seek homeopathic, medical, or emergency care. But often, pain is caused by incorrect lifestyle, sedentary or abusive habits, dependency on sugar, processed foods, and pharmaceuticals, all of which contribute to inflammation, which causes pain.

The body gets used to the mild cortisone nasal spray you’ve been using since you had that cold a few months ago, or the headache pills you take every time you don’t get a good night’s sleep, or the cortisone cream you use to suppress those eczema outbreaks. At some point, I encourage you to make the move and give up the chemicals on which you have come to depend and replace them with more natural, plant based or homeopathic (highly diluted) remedies, which have no lasting negative side effects, and which will strengthen your organism and so you will be able to respond to disturbances in the healthiest possible way.

Click here for a link to an online chart of homeopathic remedies you can use to help manage pain.

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Note : Any references to homeoepthic medicines in this article are purely literary references and not recommendations. Homeopathy doesn't work that way. Please consult a qualified homeopath before taking any homeopathic remedies.

Rebecca Bermeister is a certified Classical Homeopath available for online consultations or treatments from her home clinic in Pardes Chanah, Israel.

She can be reached via her webpage www.rebhomeopath.com 

email - rebhomeopath@gmail.com 

Whatsapp - +972(0)547793606

Her books, A Very beginners Guide to Homeopathy and Family Health 

and Homeopathy for Acute Family Care may be purchased here.