September/October 2006 www.enjoywholehealth.com San Antonio Edition 27
Why Use Homeopathy?
Orly Bernstein Castillo, DHom, CCH, RSHom(NA)
Homeopathy is falls under the umbrella of Holistic Medicine, but it is its own system. It uses the idea of the law of similar. The law of similars is, when a natural substance can cause symptoms in a healthy person, that substance can be used to cure similar symptoms in a person who is ill. This is also known as the principle that like cures like. Homeopathy treats illness and inherent constitutional problems by using the “like cures like” principle.
Homeopathy is about treating the whole person. The illness or disease that we may have is not separate from us, therefore we, as people, should be treated and brought back to balance as a whole. The physical body is simply the outer indication of an inner energetic state. The responsibility of the cure lies on the vital force, the inner energy that make us who we are. This way of thinking tries to give the healing and curative responsibility to the body and not an outside form, like a drug or a crude substance. The body is always trying to heal itself, and tries to keep a balance of well-being. Unlike crud substances that can cause changes in the body, can make your body react a certain way, homeopathic remedies are not aimed at killing organisms, and therefore, they cannot destroy any healthy part of your body, but rather balance the body.
Within you exists a living intelligent energy that is responsible for healing and maintaining balance in your body. This energy is called the vital force. The vital force holds the organisms of our body together as a harmonious whole. When the vital force is off balance, we, then, are ill and show symptoms. The vital force can “break down” for many reasons, some of those may include our susceptibility, our life-style, how true are we to ourselves, and how we view ourselves in this world. We have susceptibilities for many reasons, some are because of our genes, where we are born, or how we are reared. Just because half a village dies from a virus, that does not mean that you will, or even get sick at all. Whether we get sick or not has to do more with our susceptibility and how balanced our vital force is than the virus or a germ.
Homeopathy treats both categories of disease: acute and chronic. The acute disease is self-limiting; in other words, it is not deep-seated. Cough, cold, flu, food poisoning, and children’s illness such as chicken pox are all examples of acute illnesses. Well chosen homeopathic remedies will speed up recovery, alleviate pain, and help ensure that there are no complications. Chronic disease is more deep-seated than acute disease. It develops slowly, continues from a long time, and is often accompanied by a general deterioration in health. An acute illness that is followed by complications can develop into a chronic, long-term illness. Arthritis, heart disease, cancer, and mental illness are all examples of chronic illness.
Any substance occurring in the universe may be used as a source of a homeopathic remedy. Most remedies are made from animal, vegetable, or mineral substances. The substances are diluted and potentized. When looking for a remedy to match a person’s symptoms for a cure, the homeopath’s job is as if he is looking for a mirror in nature to match the person’s traits and symptoms. The remedy that best matches a person’s particular symptoms and traits is called the simillimum.
We, as people, have many delusions in our life, who we are and how we think others see us. We make our delusions into our reality. We create a reality around us to support that delusion, in order to validate to ourselves and others that what we believe about our life is the truth. For example if you believe that you are an unlovable person, you will always attract that type of sensation or people who will validate that to you. If your delusion is that you are not good enough, you will attract a spouse, a boss or a friend to validate that belief in you. If you are the boss and yet every person you hire can’t do their job right, no matter what, the workers seem to let you down. You may the person with the delusion that people are not trust- worthy. This will be the type of person who will inevitably attract workers who are not reliable into your work place. This system is in place in order to make those delusions a reality to prove to ourselves and to others that we are not crazy. To prove that what we believe about ourselves and our life is the truth. But, what if our truth is making us sick? Remember our mind and physical body are one. What if we believe that what we do is never good enough. What if we believe that we are not worthy of being loved? If our parents validated that to us when we were young, now we need a spouse who does the same. And what if through the years we also developed headaches whenever we couldn’t finish a project, headaches from the stress or pressure. So now every time you get that sensation, the sensation that you are not good enough you develop a headache or a stomach ache. Should the pain be treated separately? Should you just treat the symptoms as if that pain came from thin air? The homeopath’s job is to match you with a remedy that matches all of your symptoms; your believes, your traits. By matching a remedy to you, we then start to break those blocks of healing down, since like cures like. Those same blocks that do not let our vital force do its job can now be broken down. By matching a remedy to the person as a whole, we allow the vital force and the body to sink into harmony. It is the vital force that we want to reach with our remedies.
Bone injuries in our children and the consumption of soda Orly Bernstein Castillo, DHom, CCH, RSHom(NA)
Bones support our body and they also surround and protect its internal structures. Bones provide an attachment for the muscles and are the framework of our children’s growing body. Bones are living tissue that changes constantly, with bits of old bone being removed and replaced by new ones. Fractures in the bone usually occur as a result of injury. But why is it that some bones have a tendency to fracture more easily then others? Calcium is found in bones and teeth. Calcium provides strength and rigidity to bones. The absorption of calcium from the intestine is dependent on the presence in the body of sufficient quantities of vitamin D. Calcium is an essential nutrient for bone health. A well-balanced diet including adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, zinc, and vitamin D is also important for bone health.What if we rob our body of the calcium it so needs? We eat all the right foods and we make sure that our diets consists of food that are rich and high in calcium, we make sure we have sufficient quantities of vitamin D and yet we see that the numbers of bone sports injuries in our children are going up. We see so many women at high risk of developing osteoporosis. How can that be possible?Americans drink more soft drinks than ever before. Sodas account for more than 25% of all drinks consumed in the U. S. and according to the U.S department of Agriculture, kids are heavy consumers of soda pop. Soft drinks tend to displace calcium-rich beverages in the diets of many children and adolescents. In fact, research has shown that girls who drink soft drinks consume much less calcium than those who do not. Soft drinks are far from soft. They are high in phosphorous and phosphoric acid, which infiltrate bodily fluids and corrode stomach linings, upset the alkaline-acid balance of the kidneys, and eat away at your liver.Soft drinks contain large quantities of phosphorus, which when excreted pulls calcium out of the bones. It is also known that children who drink large quantities of diet sodas containing aspartame are particularly vulnerable to its dangerous side effects. For example aspartame which is in diet sodas contains methyl or wood alcohol, which can affect fetal brain development. Soft drink contains high amounts of phosphorus. The ideal dietary phosphorus-calcium ratio is about 1:1. But when adding large amount to our children’s diet as well as our diets the ratio in the average American diet is often greater than 2:1 and sometimes even 4:1 or 5:1. At those levels, excess calcium is removed from bone and eliminated, blood levels are reduced, and there is bone demineralization. Researchers have yet to identify exactly why phosphoric acid has a negative effect on bone. Some believe that excess phosphoric acid attaches itself to calcium and prevents it from being absorbed, or that it may adversely affect parathyroid hormone levels in the body (which regulate bone density).In the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine Michael Murray ND and Joseph Pizzorno ND They wrote that "Soft drinks have long been suspected of leading to lower calcium levels and higher phosphate levels in the blood. When phosphate levels are high and calcium levels are low, calcium is pulled out of the bones. The phosphate content of soft drinks like Coca -Cola and Pepsi is very high, and they contain virtually no calcium." According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, approximately 55 percent of Americans, mostly women, are at risk of developing osteoporosis, a disease of porous and brittle bones that causes higher susceptibility to bone fractures. Women of all ages who regularly drink soda pops run a much higher risk of developing the brittle bones disease osteoporosis than women who don't drink cola, according to a new study by Tufts University researchers. Mothers note that soft drink consumption in children poses a significant risk factor for impaired calcification of growing bones. Here are some ideas for good sources of Calcium, not only pizza, cheeseburgers, and chocolate milk but milk, soy drinks, cheddar cheese, yogurt, butter milk, sardines, tofu, salmon, kale, Chinese cabbage, and broccoli.