I have a thousand reasons to be happy that I am a homeopath, and about two weeks ago I acquired one more reason. My daughter, Nastassia, is traveling in India for four months. She is eighteen years old and wanted to take the semester off from college to spread her wings and explore India. She has been loving it over there and has visited many cities and ashrams, starting from Calcutta to Varanassi, Kerala, Hempi, Gokarna, Goa, Mumbai and Rishikesh. She has visited the ashrams of Mother Theresa, where she helped to feed little two year olds; Ammachi's ashram in Kerala, which she says was voted by National Geographic as one of the five most beautiful places in the world; Sai Baba's ashram in Bangalore; Sri Ramana Maharshi's ashram in Tiruvanamalai; and listened to the Dalai Lama lecture outside of New Delhi.

She called me on March 13th from the coastal city of Gokarna, where she and her friends had been camping out on the beach, eating coconuts, lying in hammocks, and swimming with the dolphins. She had eaten in a restaurant a week earlier, and felt really sick right afterward. After a day or two she felt better and thought she had recovered, except that her stomach was huge and hard, and she was feeling lethargic.

On Tuesday, right before sunset she got much worse, and developed really bad chills, followed by a very high fever and the feeling that she was burning up. The symptoms were headache, delirium, dehydration, severe diarrhea, where she was going to the bathroom every half hour, pain, swelling and induration of the abdomen, dizziness, perspiration, shivers, nausea and vomiting. She was restless at night, the worst time being 3 or 4 a.m.

On Wednesday she went to an allopathic doctor, because she couldn't find a homeopath, and after giving a stool sample was told that she had a case of Salmonella. The treatment he recommended for this was two I.V.'s and two injections of Siprofloxisin. He said that she would need to be hospitalized for several days.

Remembering that her mother was a homeopath, Nastassia called home at 1:30 a.m. I took her case and repertorized her symptoms, and the indicated remedy was Arsenicum album, which is one of the best remedies in homeopathy for food poisoning. When Nastassia left for India I had given her a small box with about twenty remedies that she might need in an emergency situation. Luckily, she had Arsenicum album in the 30C potency in the kit. I told her to put two pellets under her tongue, and to call me the next day. She called me the following evening with the wonderful news that she felt 90% better.

Three hours after the remedy the diarrhea had improved dramatically. She slept fine that night, took her breakfast well, her stomach had softened up and she was not suffering. She and her friends decided to give her another day or two just to rest and recuperate, and then they were heading for Goa.

I told Nastassia to try to get a hold of a 200C potency of the remedy, just in case she relapsed. Nastassia found a doctor who was an allopath, a homeopath and an Ayurvedic doctor all in one. He told her Arsenicum album was the best medicine by far in any system for this condition. He gave her a 200C potency of the remedy to hold onto. She has taken one other dose of the 30C, and one dose of the 200C since then. She still has occassional loose stools, but otherwise she is feeling fine.

The reason I am presenting this case is that it shows how effective and quick acting homeopathy can be in severe acute situations. It also demonstrates one of the major differences in allopathic and homeopathic philosophy. The allopathic approach is to make a diagnosis where the offending parasite or organism can be identified, then to treat the patient with a medicine that is directed at attacking this organism.

The homeopathic approach is quite different. The homeopth doesn't need to know the name of the offending parasite, but needs to observe and study the symptoms of the patient carefully. These symptoms represent a dynamic disturbance in the vital force, which has made its presence known through the changes in health or symptoms that the patient experiences. The homeopathic remedies act on the vital force, restoring it to balance and harmony, and in the process the symptoms subside and whatever germ or organism had been present disappears. It is to the health of the patient that the homeopath addresses the remedy, and not to killing off germs. If the germs are killed off without addressing the overall health, the ailments often just recur or become chronic problems.

Materia Medica of Arsenicum Album

Some of the guiding symptoms to Arsenicum album are acute illnesses accompanied by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and burning pains. It is often indicated for food poisoning from bad meat or fruit. The Arsenicum patient is worse from midnight to 3 or 4 a.m. He or she is extremely restless, while at the same time feeling weak or prostrated. Thirst for small sips of water is characteristic. The Arsenicum patient often feels great anxiety for his health, or the health of loved ones, and a strong fear of death. The chronic Arsenicum patient is known for his extreme fastidiousness, which I believe comes from an internal sense of chaos, that requires them to have an external environment that is very orderly.

Arsenicum album has such a wide range of uses from acute gastrointestinal diseases, to gangrene and palliation in the last stages of advanced illness. Arsenicum is famous for its ability to ease deathbed anxiety. Some of Arsenicum's biggest fears are of cancer, poverty, robbers, death, and being alone.

Arsenicum album is a wonderful remedy for asthma, when the symptoms are indicated, and as a palliative in cancer patients. This is truly a marvelous homeopathic remedy of many uses that can produce miracles when properly administered. No home medicine chest should be without this remedy.

Spring 2001