Friday, July 31, 2009

Pediatric and Homeopathy


Written by: Dr. B.P. Sharma, Edited by: Iman Navab

Warning: This article is intended for professional Homeopaths only. Do not use the remedies that are mentioned in this article on your own without supervision of your Homeopath. For more info on Homeopathic consultation, please visit www.imannavab.com


Introduction: Pediatric case taking is one of the most difficult task for a homeopathic physician. The main aspect of pediatric case taking is dependent on observations.

Temperament:-

Temperament is defined as the individual’s normal, natural style of behavior and response to the world. It refers to “How” and not “What” of behavior. This means temperament does not dictate what children will do, but help understand how they do it.

Temperament consists of the traits you are born with. It differs from personality which is a combination of temperament (nature) and the life experiences of people and environment (nurture).

As a homeopath we are supposed to understand the temperament of a child (for example: being chilly or hot). Temperament is determined by your unique neurological characteristics and unlike personality it cannot be changed. It remains moderately stable across time and situations.


To find a remedy for a child we have to consider 3 main factors:-

(1) Sociability
(2) Activity
(3) Destructibility


(1) Sociability refers to approach (Extrovert) or withdrawal (Introvert) stimulus of the child to a new situation. Some children move easily into new settings, taking very little time to join a new group of playmates, while others may observe the scene for a long time before going into a new situation. This can also be applied to other situations such as trying a new food or changing a daily routine, for example: Some children eagerly seek new experiences while others withdraw from new activities and experiences.

Extrovert children:

They like to play with new toys. They are curious to explore it. Will give smile to new faces. Allow you to examine.

Introvert children:

Slower to warm up to a change. Will avoid eye contact to new faces. Will not mix with other child. Will cry and will not allow you to examine.

Remedies for Extrovert children based on Temperament (being hot or chilly):

Chilly: Phos, Rhus tox, Spoingia, Verat, Hyos, Coff, Carc, Bell.
Hot: Lach, Arg-n, Croc, Cham, Bufo, Tarent, Medo, Sulph, Carc, Tub.

Remedies for Introvert children based on Temperament (being hot or chilly):

Chilly: Bar c, Calc, Calc-sil, Anti.t, Ant-c, Ars, Aur, China, Ign, Sep, Sil, Staph, Stram.
Hot: Ambra, Bry, Cina, Cham, Gels, Lyc, Nat-m, Puls, Thuja.


(2) Activity: refers to the degree of energy expenditure through movement. It is viewed as some of the important dimensions in determining temperament- it can be hyper or hypo-activity.

Remedies for Hyperactive children based on Temperament (being hot or chilly):

Chilly: Rhus Tox, Ars, Cham, Merc, Hyos, Rheum, Stram, Thuja, Bor, Cina, Calc-p, Ant.t, Coff, Ip, Kali-c, Mag-c, Ign, Anac, Verat, Nux, Elaps, Zinc.
Hot: Arg. N. Iod, Cham, Merc, Rheum, Thuja, Bor, Tub, Taren, Med, Sulph, Ambr.


(3) Destructibility: It can be a reaction out of anger. Smashing, ripping, or tearing apart of objects are the expressions of destructiveness. These destructive behaviors are often directed to a nearby convenient target.

Chilly: Bell, Camph, Ign, Stram, Verat.
Hot: Tuberc. Taren. Sulph.


Sociability-Activity-Destructibility axis:-

1. Extrovert + Hyperactive + Destructive: Tarentula, Tuber, Cham, Veratrum, Medo.
2. Extrovert + Hyperactive + Non-Destructive: Rhus Tox, Arg-n, Lachesis.
3. Introvert + Hyperactive + Destructive: Cina, Stram.
4. Introvert + Hyperactive + Non-Destructive: Lyco, Merc, Ars.


By considering the above factors of the child, we add thermals, thirst, characteristic, constitution and mental, before we arrive at the similimum.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Announcement

Dear Colleagues,

I, Iman Pour Navab, would like to inform you that I have been voted as Secretary of the Homeopathic Medical Association of Canada (H.M.A.C.) on July 26 of 2009. I wish to thank all professional members and the board of directors who appointed me for this position. I will do my best to serve the members.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

NEWS - Transitional Council of College of Homeopathic


Government of Ontario have today made announcement of appointment of Registrar of the Transitional Council of College of Homeopathic. Basil Ziv who has been appointed as new Registrar is best known as a homeopathic practitioner and educator. The Registrar is the chief administrative officer of the College. During the transitional period, the Registrar will support the transitional Council in all its work, including developing and implementing policies, by-laws and regulations that will govern the practice of the health profession. The Registrar is also responsible for the day-to-day operations of the College and has statutory duties under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991. We may therefore now get ready as the Regulatory procedure is going to be initated soon by the Government of Ontario.

Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital


"we wanted to create a place of beauty and healing”
Dr. David Reilly.

At Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital, patients are treated with the utmost respect and dignity. The building has been designed to meet both the physical and psychological needs of the patients, rather than forcing them to adapt to the operational needs of the hospital or any arbitrary architectural principles.

The exterior of the building is welcoming – not threatening – and is much larger than it first appears. The reception area is open, with a friendly interior, and bears a greater resemblance to a Scandinavian health spa than a fully functioning modern hospital capable of treating 10,000 outpatients and 500 inpatients every year.

The layout of the building offers a functional elegance to match first expectations. After discussion with staff and patients, the design was modified slightly so that ‘care’ spaces have a direct view and connection to nature and are protected from direct sound paths, while staff areas are located to the north and east of the building to avoid direct sunlight during working hours. Roof/clerestory arrangements provide natural lighting for deep plan corridors, waiting areas and enhances, as well as enhancing natural airflow and ventilation throughout the building.

Since staff face the sometimes demanding task of dealing with some very sick patients, some of whom have been previously viewed as untreatable, the Design Team has placed an equal emphasis on ensuring that staff health and well-being is given a similar level of priority. Not only are the consulting rooms and therapeutic areas positioned and fitted in an attractive and functional manner, but the staff rest areas and dining room have also been constructed and decorated in the same fastidious manner.

Project Director:

In 1994, as soon as Dr David Reilly was first appointed to lead the project to replace the old Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital, he was determined that the new building would be neither ugly nor intimidating.

However, Dr Reilly was not naïve about the challenges ahead. He realised that making a place of healing and beauty could not be achieved by simply hiring a top architect. It would require the motivation and creative collaboration of patients, health carers, architects, artists, administrators, hospital managers, academics, media workers and political leaders.

He therefore set out to put together a Design Team that would be prepared to work together creatively and mobilise the necessary support to ensure that the hospital would meet everyone’s expectations – at no extra cost per square metre than a regular hospital.

Contact Info:

Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital
Part of Gartnavel General Hospital site
1053 Great Western Road
Glasgow G12 0XQ, U.K.
Hospital switchboard: +44 (0) 141 211 1600

All the best to GHH.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Homeopathic Immunization in Cuba


Source: many thanks to Tim Rogers
Credit: GoodScience. / Image: Dr. C.J. Finalay, Credit: History of Camaguey City.


Greetings all,
A historical and inspiring event took place 10-12 December 2008 in Havana Cuba that I had the honour to attend. There, the Carlos J Finlay Institute under the guidance of its director-general, Dra. Conception Campa Huergo and Dr. Gustavo Bravo and others hosted NOSODES 2008, an International Meeting on Homeoprophilaxis, Homeopathic Immunization and Nosodes against Epidemics.

Homeopaths from Cuba, S America, Canada, Australia, UK, and Kenya (yours truly) made presentations on the wide varieties of successful disease prevention using homeopathy and more specifically, nosodes.

Each presentation was more amazing than the previous. All were very remarkable and notable in the field of research and science. Some of the topics included Childhood Disease Prevention, Homeopathic prophylaxis as an aspect of gov’tal programs, Nosodes Genus Epidemicus and Compexes, Homeoprophylaxis on Agronomy, Homeoprophylaxis on Veternary, Homeoprophylaxis in TB, Homeoprophylaxis in Chagas disease, Homeoprophylaxis in hepatitis, Homeoprophylaxis in Malaria (yours truly, again) and the list of presentations goes on.

Some of the speakers (known to our English speaking homeopaths) were Martine Jourde, Issac Golden (Aus), Kate Birch (Canada), Tony Pincus (Ainsworth, UK), Leo Van Gelder (NL) & Lindsay Hickey (UK). A number of Cuban & SAmerican homeopaths also presented their work. All have done unique work in the field of homeopathy & epidemic disease.

THE PREVENTION OF EPIDEMIC LEPTOSPIROSIS IN CUBA
But none of these remarkable speakers, each presenting their amazing work in disease prevention and use of nosodes could not hold a candle to the historical accomplishment of the Cubans in their presentation of controlling the local endemic-epidemic disease of Leptospirosis.

Now, the Finlay Institute is primarily the Cuban research institute that produces allopathic vaccinations for their country. Since Cuba is outcasted by the USA government, they have come to depend on themselves for the making of medicines, health care programs, etc. And since the Cuba is not under the yoke of the international pharmaceutical juggernaut, they are not held back from adopting homeopathy and other alternative medicines wholeheartedly into their national health programmes. The Finlay director-general herself is very pro-homeopathy (not to mention, besides, a macrobiotic vegetarian).

To put it simply, what they presented is this:

Cuba goes through a yearly cycle of Leptospirosis epidemic, especially after the hurricanes flood the countryside and water pollution reaches its height. (Leptospirosis: infectious disease caused by the spirochaete Leptospira transmitted to humans from rats, giving jaundice and kidney damage. Can cause death).

Annually the population is exposed to the disease, most especially after hurricanes.

Until Aug 2007, the Finlay Institute (a part of the Ministry of Public Health, Cuba) has been distributing its own allopathic Lepto vaccination. August is the height of the hurricane season. Annually, many are left homeless, flooded out and under the stress of disaster situation. There is a sharp rise in the lepto epidemic.

The usual expectacy of infection even with allopathic vaccination would have been around a few thousands, with some deaths included.

Part of the reason for this is that the high cost of vaccination prevents putting but the most at-risk populations (ie children, pregnant women, elderly) on vaccination. The cost of such limited vaccination is about US$3,000.000.

But in Aug 2007, Finlay put approximately 5,000,000 people (yes! 5 million!) in 2 provinces on homoepathic nosode prophylaxis at the cost of about only US$ 200,000.

That figure represents the entire population of the 2 provinces. The prophylaxis consisted of 2 single doses about 2 weeks apart. Included in the dose was the Lepto nosode + some Bach flower remedies to address the mental distress of the disaster situation.

How very amazing it was to watch this presentation being made. Up to the point, the presenters were showing us graph after graph of the usual rise of the epidemic, year after year, even with the use of allopathic vaccination. Each year the graphs would edge higher and higher towards the year-end, reaching up to the thousands of infected.

But this time, within 2 weeks after Aug 2007, the rising lines literally dropped off the chart to ZERO-Ten infections only! Yes. Near-zero infections, zero deaths from leptospirosis after Aug 2007. And in 2008, no deaths, infections less than 10 a month.

HISTORY MADE for Homeopathy
This mass treatment of 5 million people with homeopathy, I don’t believe, has been done anywhere else in the world, not even in India, where homeopathy enjoys the shelter of the government.

And the awesome results of going from hundreds of infected to near-zero in the period of a few weeks, also is historical. My jaw dropped as I watched the graphs demonstrate their success.

The Cuban team readily admits that they have not invented anything new as far as homeopathic philosophy or application. They have simply followed what we homeopaths know to work. And since they have no pharmaceutical multi-nationals to stop them, they were able to do it on a massive scale unknown in the history of homeopathy.

What is remarkable is their application to such a large population, and its dramatic success, with full scientific verification. The results are incontrovertible and undeniable even by the most rabid of anti-homeopaths.

I’m eagerly awaiting their formal publication in the medical journals of this remarkable event. I’m sure once these medical results are published, homeopaths will have more “weapons” in our “arsenal” to fight for our existence and for the adoption of homeopathy in national health programmes in industrialized and developing countries.

As a word or two about Dra Heurgo, Dr. Bravo and the rest of the Cuban team. Truly remarkable people. “Concita” as Dra Heurgo is lovingly known by the people of Cuba, is well known and loved as a woman who has done remarkable work to improve the health of the population. I found her to be a remarkable person – untiring, passionate about her work and compassionate in her motivation to serve her fellow human beings.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

July 1st - Happy Canada Day!



Did you know:
Homeopathy was widely practiced in North America during the 19th century. Many doctors practiced homeopathy as well as conventional medicine. At the turn of the century there were 20 homeopathic medical colleges and more than 100 homeopathic hospitals in the United States. Canada's first female doctor, Emily Stowe, who founded Women's College Hospital, was trained as a homeopath at the New York Medical College for Women, Homeopathic from which she graduated in 1867. Homeopathic hospitals opened in Toronto and Montreal in the late 19th century.