Healing with Homoeopathie

Several readers inquired about the possibilities of homeopathic use for the problems of progressing age. This article is an attempt to answer those queries.

Aging is inevitable for all of us who will be lucky enough to get there. Aging with grace, dignity and good health is one of the blessings of life. Good health comprises physical and mental well-being. Homeopathy is a system of medicine that can help to maintain good health for as long as we live.

However much we want to be free of health problems, our aging years bring with them some sort of ailment or disability. There could be physical problems like pain and stiffness of the joints, weakening brittle bones, vertigo, trembling, debility and gait disturbances, diminishing bladder control, sleeplessness, recurrent respiratory infections, complications of chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, etc. Aging could affect our mental sphere bringing on depression, decline in our cognitive functions, memory, etc.

Often I come across patients who are overwhelmed by the name of a diagnosis given to them. This brings on anxiety and often depression at the thought of a ‘big and unknown’ illness. My advice to them would be not to get scared of the ‘disease term’ used; ask your doctor to explain what the condition is all about and what the common terminology is for it. Patients have every right to ask their doctors for details. Many patients have come to me, worried that they have “vertigo”. They say that they had suffered from dizziness, in Gujarati called ‘chakkar’, but the doctor said they had vertigo. And this gets them worried. It is a big relief for them to know that vertigo is the medical term for dizziness. This is just a small example, this happens commonly with many other ailments.

Many a time, we see senior citizens being diagnosed with a chronic disease condition and then put on long-term medication that brings on its own share of side-effects, adding to the ill-health and suffering that the patient has to put up with. Homoeopathy is ideal for such situations – the remedies, in their correct potency and dosage are safe from side-effects (because they are not chemical drugs but potentized electromagnetic energy forms of the remedy substance), they are easy to take and are cheaper than conventional medicine treatments. Homoeopathic remedies, for all chronic conditions, are chosen with due emphasis on the individual patient and not the disease name. When remedies are chosen in this manner, they work to stimulate the immune system of the patient, making all the body systems run optimally. The body’s own healing mechanism is given a boost and the process of cure is begun. It is important to realize that ailments that have existed for many years will not go away in a few months. Patience is essential. However, some kind of improvement should certainly be visible in about 3 – 4 months. In cases where cure is not possible, homoeopathic remedies serve to give relief and keep the patient as comfortable as possible. The progress of chronic degenerative illnesses can be slowed down by homoeopathy, if the patient is beyond the reach of cure.

Our senior citizens often suffer from acute health problems like coughs, colds, digestive disturbances, etc., that are triggered by environmental conditions, due to a weakened immunity. Strong chemical drugs may help to contain the infection but bring on diarrhoea and weakness that stays with them a long time. Homoeopathic remedies are effective even in acute conditions and work rapidly to eliminate the problem without the addition of side-effects. In such acute conditions, the homoeopath does not need to know the life history of the patient; details about the acute problem itself – details about the origin, duration and progress are enough to aid the homoeopath to select a suitable remedy. A well-selected remedy can deal with an acute problem very rapidly, within minutes to hours. The patient is left free of the problem and with good vitality.

To conclude, a senior citizen, with the help of homoeopathy, has very good chances of staying relatively healthy, avoiding unnecessary hospitalization and enjoying the retirement years in the best way possible.

Nowadays Noise Pollution has become rampant in our society, and most of the time we put up with it, partly because we have no idea about what steps can be taken to control it. We tolerate the discomfort others put us through, but it is necessary to be aware of what influence noise has on our bodies, apart from the basic nuisance of having to listen to unwanted noise.

EFFECT ON HEARING: The ability to hear is one of our most precious gifts. Without it, it is very difficult to lead a full life. The damage done by noise depends mainly on how loud it is and on the length of exposure. The frequency or pitch can also have some effect, since high-pitched sounds are more damaging than low-pitched ones. Initially, loud noise tires out the inner ear, leading to temporary hearing loss. However, with continual noise exposure, the ear will lose its ability to recover from temporary hearing loss, and the damage will become permanent. Permanent hearing loss results from the destruction of cells in the inner ear-cells which can never be replaced or repaired. Such damage can be caused by long-term exposure to loud noise or, in some cases, by brief exposures to very loud noises.

EFFECT ON OTHER BODY SYSTEMS: Excessive noise can not only destroy the ability to hear, but may also put stress on other parts of the body. Affecting the heart, noise can cause quickened pulse rate, increased blood pressure and a narrowing of the blood vessels. Over a long period of time, these may place an added burden on the heart. People exposed to noise sometimes complain of nervousness, sleeplessness and fatigue. Excessive noise exposure also can reduce job performance and may cause high rates of absenteeism. People living near airports, railway tracks, busy roads, or other noise-emitting facilities consider sleep disturbance as the most deleterious effect of noise. The data suggest that these noises might affect mood, well-being, and performance the next day. Sleep disturbances are suspected to contribute eventually to the development of chronic health disorders. Most reviewers agree that the effects on sleep depend on the physical characteristics of the noises as well as on individual and situational factors. Noise may also put stress on the body by causing the abnormal secretion of hormones and tensing of muscles. Noise causes the release of different stress hormones. The part of the brain called hypothalamus receives input from, and sends signals to, other parts of the brain, and it produces hormones that stimulate or inhibit the release of other hormones from the anterior pituitary. The pituitary hormones, in turn, stimulate or inhibit the adrenal gland to secrete its hormones, one of the major adrenal hormones being Cortisol. The whole complex interaction of the Hypothalamus, Pituitary and Adrenal Glands is very important and in medical terms, we call it the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis of the body. The effects of longer-lasting activation of the HPA-axis, especially long term increase of cortisol, are manifold: immune suppression, insulin resistance (e.g. diabetes), cardiovascular diseases (e.g. hypertension and arteriosclerosis), catabolism (e.g. ostoeporosis), intestinal problems (e.g. stress ulcer) etc. Even worse may be the widespread effects of other hormones outside the hypothalamic system, which have the potential to influence nearly all regulatory systems, causing other medical conditions as signs of disturbed hormonal balance.

EFFECT ON CHILDREN: Compared to earlier years, the lives of children are getting noisier and noisier. Noise levels of the environment, like road traffic, railway sounds, aircraft, etc., have increased considerably. Noise levels at school have also increased dramatically, where more and more use of mikes and amplifiers is being made to reach out to a large number of students. Outdoor leisure activities of children and toys have also become more noisy. Even at home, a large number of households encourage TV sets remaining on for a major part of the day. All this contributes in creating an almost permanently noisy atmosphere for children.
Children possess less well-developed coping responses, and are often less able to control their environments, and as a result effects of noise seem to be more harmful to children in many ways. Aggressive behaviour and hyperactivity seem to be, in part, a consequence of this everlasting noise exposure that children face today.
The information available on noise-induced effects on the fetus shows hearing impairment associated with exposure to high occupational noise levels during pregnancy. On-going research indicates that growth retardation of the child may also be associated with extensive occupational noise exposure of the pregnant mother. It cannot be excluded, but is seems unlikely, that environmental noise causes fetal abnormalities. This may however, be due to lack of proper methods to ascertain this possibility.
Babies who are born pre-term, have to cope with their environment with immature organ systems, especially, the auditory, visual and central nervous systems, which are the last systems to mature. These last stages occur, in part, during the time the pre-term child is in the incubator or neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Studies need to be conducted to evaluate thoroughly, what effect excessive noise might have on the developing auditory system which would be more vulnerable to hearing impairment.
Where children are concerned, sleep is very important for good health, and studies do show that sleep patterns get disturbed from exposure to noise. As children grow, it has been found that there is a considerable difference in the blood pressures of those exposed to road traffic noise and those not exposed. However, where aircraft noise is concerned, studies show that children adapt to aircraft noise without any major ill effects, this adaptation is not seen in cases of road traffic noise exposure.
Development of reading skills seems to be affected adversely in school children with a long-term exposure to high levels of traffic noise from either aircraft, road or railway traffic. Long term noise-exposed children also seem to suffer from difficulty in concentration and difficulty in focusing their attention, esp. when someone is speaking to them. This perhaps occurs because children learn how to ignore sound stimuli as a way to cope with long-term noise exposure. Unfortunately, this tuning out process may over-generalise so that children learn to tune out not only noise, but also relevant other auditory signals, such as speech.
In families where noise is a part of daily living, parents too seem to be less attentive to their children. This could affect the confidence levels of children as well. Some studies showed that children highly exposed to environmental noise for prolonged periods of time are less motivated when placed in situations where task performance is dependent on persistence. Prolonged exposure to uncontrollable noise seems to induce feelings of helplessness and behavioural patterns which also reflect helplessness. As the child continues to struggle unsuccessfully with an uncontrollable stimulus, it eventually learns that it is helpless to do anything about the situation, as manifested by feelings of hopelessness and reduced persistence. However, personal character traits of a child modify this to a significant extent.
Where teenagers are concerned, studies have concentrated only on the effects of noise causing noise-induced hearing impairment. Listening to music through head phones certainly causes hearing impairment at loud volumes.

According to the National Institute of Occupational Health, continuous exposure to noise levels above 90 decibels can produce adverse auditory and non-auditory health effects. If we want to reduce the chances of these adverse health effects happening to ourselves and to our loved ones, it is essential that every one of us protests whenever someone exposes us to high noise levels and it is our duty, in turn, to see that we do not expose someone else to our noise.