Modern medicine has failed us. Antibiotics are failing us. Vaccinations have already
failed us. What's left between us and the deadly super bugs and varuses that are already
stalkin and killing us?
Homeopathic Medicine
Pages 20 thru 24 - Cold Remedies.
Copyright ©1995-2007 Eileen Nauman
All Rights Reserved
Cold Remedies
Colds are the bane of humanity's existence. There has never been a cure for colds. Some of the old fashioned "grandma's remedies" came close, but didn't quite make it. In the homeopathic arsenal of remedies, there are a number of what are known as cold remedies. I've sometimes seen a cold stopped in its tracks. The provision is this: if you catch the cold as it is forming, then you can stop it from occurring at all. However, once the cold gets fired up, it's tough to chase it down.
An interesting phenomenon occurs if one has the patience to chase down a cold. Often it will change character after the first remedy is taken, and then you have to re-examine your case by noting what symptoms are left or whether any new ones have appeared. After a remedy has been taken, the character of a cold can change within twenty minutes! Then a new remedy has to be taken.
Other colds will go away if you take the one remedy that most closely resembles the major symptoms. I find this to be particularly true of the Aconite and Gelsemium types of colds. Below are the most popular homeopathic cold remedies. If the bulk of your major symptoms fit one of these remedy pictures, try it. Your cold might be cured within a couple of hours of taking the remedy. Often, a homeopathic remedy will nip the cold so it will be shorter or else it will take away some of the most obnoxious symptoms and leave you with a very mild version of the cold. Either of these is preferable to the misery of having a cold for days.
Dosage Instructions:
For any cold remedy, try taking a pellet/tablet once an hour for three hours. If the cold
has not responded and the symptoms aren't any better by that time, stop taking the
remedy. Retake the case and decide upon another remedy, if appropriate.
Aconite should be considered in two specific situations. First, if you are in that period of a couple of hours or a day before the cold symptoms first appear, Aconite can stop the cold before it starts and completely short-circuit it. The key here is to notice that you are beginning to feel a little more tired than usual, perhaps you notice a hint of a headache coming on, a low-grade fever or are just feeling blah. That's when you should take one dose of Aconite 30G. The cold will disappear and so will the tiredness and lethargy. By the next morning you'll feel like your old self and have your energy back.
The second situation in which to use Aconite is if you've taken a chill or been caught in a draft; or if it has been hot and a summer storm drops the temperature thirty or forty degrees. Remember how Mom used to insist we put on a coat, a hat and our galoshes before we went out in the rain or snow? And remember how, if we resisted we often caught that blasted cold she was nagging us about? Well, that's an Aconite situation. So, if you have children like this and they come in from play looking a little peaked or they start sleeping more or are off their feed just a tad, give them a dose of Aconite to stop the cold before it starts.
Aconite colds come on suddenly. They may occur only an hour after you experience the chill. There is a lot of sneezing, a burning sensation in the throat and restlessness. The symptoms are always worse at night.
Belladonna is another terrific cold remedy, especially for infants and children, although adults can certainly use it too. The cold comes on suddenly along with a high fever. The skin is dry and hot and burning. Light hurts the eyes a lot, so you squint or put a hand up to shade your eyes. There is a marked sore throat and if you look at it, the back of the throat is a bright, strawberry red color; usually it is a right-sided sore throat. There is a tickle that makes you cough. A Belladonna cold creates great thirst.
Some other subtle signs of a Belladonna cold are that frequently the face will be flushed bright red and the eyes can appear to be extremely bright and shiny, with dilated pupils. These are key symptoms, especially useful with young children who can't communicate their symptoms.
Gelsemium colds come on very slowly, and it may take two or three days of feeling you are dragging, feeling more tired than normal and a little out of sorts, but not yet suffering any symptoms. This is a powerful message to tell you that you may have a Gelsemium cold stalking you. If you arrest it at this stage, you can cure yourself completely.
Other symptoms of this type of cold are that it becomes flu-like; you feel sluggish and shivery; your arms and legs get especially chilled and feel weighted down or heavier than normal. Frequently, you feel like a lump of coal or a sack of potatoes and you just don't have the energy or inclination to move very much at all. I call this the "couch potato" remedy.
There is a good deal of achiness with this kind of cold, and it's felt in the muscles of the arms and, particularly, the legs. There can be chills up and down your back and watery sneezing, along with a nasty taste in the mouth. Your limbs may be a bit trembly, too. Your scalp will feel very sore to the touch, and the headache that comes with this type of cold may feel like a tight band around your head. You will always feel better after urinating; it lessens some of the symptoms. A big keynote of this kind of cold is that you are always thirstless.
There is a particular look of dullness to the facial features -- it could be called a stupid look -- half-closed eyes, partly open mouth, rounded shoulders. You look like a big lump sitting there. The four Ds of Gelsemium are dull, drowsy, dumb and droopy looking.
Natrum Muriancum, or Nat. Mur., is good for the early stage of a cold or one in which the sneezing is worse in the morning hours and mucus or nasal discharge looks like raw egg whites. The nose is stuffed up and blocked, and cold sores develop in and around the nostrils. If you have a Nat. Mur. cold you don't want to be fussed over or taken care of. You reject the sympathy of others and just want to be left alone to go about your business, cold or not.
The headache, if there is one, starts at the base of your skull and comes up and over the top of the head. All the symptoms are usually worse around 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. You prefer to have fresh air, an open window, but don't want to be talked to, jarred, touched or have bright lights or music/sound. Usually, if you are a Nat. Mur., you are pretty stoic and noncomplaining about your illness.
Pulsatilla is another wonderful child's or infant's cold remedy. When they catch a cold, they always want extra attention, they want to be fussed over, held and kissed and don't want to be left alone. If left in a bedroom alone, they will drag their favorite blankey out with them and lie on the couch to be near someone. They are just the opposite of a Nat. Mur. cold in the emotional sense.
Cold symptoms include lack of thirst, headaches centered above the eyes and yellow, runny nasal discharge. During the day the nose runs like a faucet, and at night both nostrils block up completely. You always want fresh air and hate being in a warm, stuffy room. No matter how sick you are, you want a door left open or even a window cracked to allow in fresh air, even in the middle of winter!
You get worse if you take a hot bath or shower to sweat it out. You have a decided loss of smell. The cough may produce green mucus, and it will be a loose-sounding type of cough. One of the best things for a Pulsatilla with a cold is an extra hug or two. It's surprising what touch can do to speed the healing process - even more than a homeopathic remedy! Pulsatilla children may get far more emotional and weepy than usual when they have a cold.
Allium Cepa colds are indicated by discharges running from the eyes and nose simultaneously. The keynote here is that the tears or discharge from the eyes is bland in nature, but the discharge from the nose is burning which means your nose will get very raw very quickly. So if your eyes and nose are nonstop leaky faucets during the cold, this is the remedy for you.
Euplirasia is closely related to Allium Cepa, but has just the opposite cold symptoms: the tears/discharge from the eyes is burning, scalding, acid-like, and the discharge from the nose is bland. Also, the Euphrasia cold is always worse at night.
Hepar Suiph. is for colds that spread mucus from the throat to the ears or from the ears to the throat. There is tremendous involvement of the sinus cavities and the mucus is always a thick, yellow-green discharge that is constant. Heavy mucus being coughed up or blown from the nose calls for this remedy. Also, you would be very irritable, chilly and supersensitive to drafts of any kind. You will have a splinter-like sensation in the throat area, which is what makes you continue to cough. You also break out in a heavy sweat that has a distinct odor to it that is considered sour-smelling.
This is a sinusitis remedy par excellence - so long as there is lots of nasal discharge that is yellow-green and thick. You might also get cold sores at the corners of your lips. There can be hoarseness and loss of voice. Usually, the cough is worse between 6 p.m. and midnight. The cough can be hoarse and dry, but if it moves down to the chest, it becomes loose and rattling.
Another keynote symptom of a Hepar Sulph. cold is that whenever you swallow, there can be pain in the ears, along with that splinter-like or fishbone-like sticking sensation occurring simultaneously in the throat.
Ferrum Phos. is another cold that comes on slowly, like a Gelsemium cold. With this cold, everything is usually mild - a mild cough, a mild fever, mild sneezing. But there may also be a nosebleed just before the cold comes on, or during it; so this is a particular keynote for this remedy.
Usually, you would be very pale but flush easily. You feel better if you place a cold cloth on your aching head. You may have red spots on your cheeks. There is hoarseness or even laryngitis and a cough that is dry and hacking as well as pain in the chest. The symptoms are more marked and dramatic between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. Gentle exercise or moving about definitely helps.
Ferrum Phos. doesn't like being jarred, lying on the right side or becoming too hot during the cold. Your flushed face may become bright red, just as with the Belladonna cold, but the differential here is that the Ferrum Phos. won't have bright, shiny, dilated eyes.