EP17: Top Homeopathic Remedies for Conjunctivitis

Welcome to the Homeopathy at Home Podcast. I'm Marcus Fernandez and I'm thrilled to have you join me on this journey into the world of homeopathy. This podcast is inspired by my book Homeopathy at Home, which aims to empower you to take charge of your health using simple, effective homeopathic remedies. Together we're going to explore how homeopathy can be the key to unlocking your body's innate healing wisdom. Whether you're dealing with everyday ailments such as coughs, colds, strains and sprains, sore throats, or just seeking to enhance your health and well being, this podcast is your guide. So let's dive in and discover the transformative power of homeopathy in your everyday life. So let's get into today's presentation. Let's get into Conjunctivitis. There's top six homeopathic remedies that you should know if order to treat it. So what is conjunctivitis? Well, conjunctivitis, or it's known as pink eye, is inflammation of the conjunctiva which is the membrane that covers the eye. And as you can see here in the picture, the eye looks very red and sore and if it's caused by a bacterial infection it will have a often a yellow thick discharge or creamy discharge from the eye. But also people can get it from allergies or from hay fever. You know in the summertime with the hay fever and it normally makes your eyes very red, itchy, uncomfortable and usually it can sort itself out by itself. Sometimes people use medications but usually it will as an acute condition sort itself out. But you can do things at home. Some self help things you can do. You can boil some water, let it cool down and then gently wipe your eyelashes, especially if there's crust around the eyelids. With a clean cotton wool pad. Again, use one on one eye and then use another fresh one for the other eye because you don't be sort of mixing them up spreading the infection. You can hold a cold flannel over your eyes to let them cool down because often they can feel very hot or inflamed. Don't wear contact lenses. If you wear contact lenses, don't try to wear them at this time because they can be very irritating. But wash your hands regularly with warm soapy water. Wash your pillowcases, face cloths in hot water, detergent and don't try to share pillows or towels or face cloths and try not to rub your eye even though it's really hard because it can be so itchy and irritable. Try, try not to itch your eye. And we're going to talk about some other things you can do as well around sort of eye washes. So the first remedy, remedy number one, is aconite. So often this is with conjunctivitis, where it's a sudden onset and it can come, as we know, with aconite from dry, cold winds. So they can suddenly get this conjunctivitis from dry, cold winds or after injuries. So if there's any injuries or foreign bodies in the eye or from surgery and they end up getting conjunctivitis, then think of aconite specifically for that. And often, as you know, with aconite, like in coughs or colds, it's for the first stages of an acute situation. So this is for the acute stages of conjunctivitis, when you have a dry, hot feeling in the eye and the eye feels as though it's got sand in them, it can feel gritty, feel red, it can look bloodshot and very sore. And the eyelids can be swollen, swollen quite hard and red. And you can often with aconite, remember, you're also looking at the mental and emotional states as well as the physical. So they could be. Aconite could have all those aconite symptoms where they feel very anxious, fear, fearful, restlessness with it. They can't seem to get any relief wherever they are. But this feeling of fear and anxiety, worse for light, the eyes will be worse for light, can be worse at night. This is a keynote for aconite and worse for tobacco smoke, any sort of irritation. It's better for open air. And remember, we're looking for keynotes from these remedies. The next remedy is argent. So this is where they've got great swelling of the eyes, red and sensitive to light. But they get a lot of sort of discharge, like a smelly, creamy yellow discharge. A discharge. And sometimes the eyelids can be closed and glued together when they wake up in the morning from the discharge. And the corners of the eyes and the eyelids can be red, swollen in flames. They're specific to the corners of the eyes and the eyelids. And the whole eye can swell and can look red and raw, like raw beef. Looks very, very, very sore. The eyes can feel aching and feel tired and they can't seem to be able to fix their eyes on anything. It's difficult to fix their eyes and look at something and they just feel like they want to close their eyes. And they get. This is a really Good remedy for inflammation in babies. Conjunctivitis with babies. And again, you're looking for this discharge as well. Better for a cold compress onto the eyes, better for pressure, like holding their eyes. Better for closing the eyes, as I said before, this, because they feel achy and they feel tired, they just want to close their eyes. Because often the worst for light as well, as we said, and better for cool air, worse warm room, worse on the left eye, left side often rather than the right. They can also be anxious and nervous as well, like aconite. But this is a different sort of anxiety. This anxiety is very much about anticipation or apprehension or fear. Like they've got an appointment, they'll get all anxious about it. It's like this anticipation. Or if they want to go and see a practitioner, they might be all, you know, sort of worried about getting there and anticipating going there, how they're going to manage. So Arjuni gets very nervous and anxious for upcoming events. But one keynote for age nit is they crave sugar, they really crave sugar and they desire sweets. So this could be again a keynote which leads you in to this remedy. The next remedy is arsenicum album. And you can see here with this photograph of this man, it's like his eyes are so red and burning. So with arsenicum, the watery burning and they can have red inflammation here of the eyelids, it can be all red. Okay. They also have tears when the eyes are streaming and it's what's classed as like, corrosive tears. It's like, makes the cheeks and makes the eyelids sore. It's like the burning, the tears are burning and the eyelids feel so hot with really intense burning. Again, I think this is a great photograph of somebody of our Seneca. It's that red burning, intense heat in their eyes and again they can stick together with crusts, but they have like a stinging pain. If they try to open their eyes, they get the stinging pain, intense photophobia. So this intense light really, really infects the. Can't bear the light, particularly sunlight. With the conjunctivitis and again with the arsenicum picture, they can be very anxious, very restless and often their anxiety or fears come up is, oh, my goodness, they're really anxious about their health. So they'll be worrying about what this actually means, why they got conjunctivitis, does it mean they've got a more serious disease, so they really panic arsenicum and are very insecure about what they've got. And also very restless, incredibly restless. They've been moving around restless Restless because they feel so anxious, thirsty for cold water. But again, with Arsenicum keynote, they only sip the drink. They just don't glue it down like a baronia patient would. This very much about they. They take small sips of the water, but they are thirsty for cold water. Worse light, as we talked about the photophobia, but also worse around midnight. So between 11pm and 2am they definitely. They can be aggravated. Their symptoms can be worse. Worse on the right side, whereas our gin, it was worse on the left side and can be worse for cold because they are very, very chilly or something. Even though they have a thirst for cold water, they actually feel quite chilly. Better external warmth, so they're better for warmth and that could even be sort of warmth on their eyes. They may feel better like a warm compress on their eyes rather than a cold one. Better for company because again, if you want to be around people, they feel better because they're feeling quite anxious, better for sitting up and elevating the head. So they're better if they sit up, worse lying down. And they feel better for open air. They feel better if there's open air around them. So remember that some of these keynotes, as we said, this excoriating like tears, they burn the anxiety and the photophobia as well, and also the restlessness. Next remedy, Euphrasia, better known as eyebright. So again, if we look at what we call the doctrine of signatures, if we look at the plant, you can see it looks like an eye to me. It looks like an eye with little eyelids. It looks like an eye, and that's why it's called eyebright. And so with Euphrasia, this is a great remedy. We cover this when we did hay fever, like we did with Arsenicum as well. This is where people have constant streaming, again, of hot, burning tears down their cheeks, very similar to arsenicum, but they're constantly wiping their eyes. You see them because there's so much really streaming, probably streaming more than Arsenica, but they still burn. And they're sort of winking and or blinking, trying to clear their eyes from these tears. They can be a thick, sticky yellow mucus that collects at the corner of their eyes with Euphrasia, and it can feel like again, sand in their eyes, in the eyelids, and the eyelids will swell and they'll burn. But this sandy, gritty feeling in their eyes and often be accompanied with a bland nasal discharge. Okay, so they'll have this bland nasal discharge at the same time as their eyes watering in the conjunctivitis and worse, lying down. So if they lie down, then this discharge in the nose is a lot worse. They can have sharp pains in the eyeballs themselves from bright light. It feels like a sharp shooting pain into their eyes. They want to be away from the light. And you can see this theme now with conjunctivitis, often it can be worse for the light. And this is also for conjunctivitis when people get measles. So if people get measles and get conjunctivitis, think of Euphrasia again, worse in the sunlight, worse in the warm room, worse indoors, worse wind, worse coughing. Okay, so it just makes everything worse when they cough. Better for wiping their eyes, obviously, because they can see better for blinking, because it clears their eyes. Better for being in the dark, better for open air, better for walking around slowly. So if they walk around slowly, they feel better. Now, it's interesting in some of the homeopathic books, in the old homeopathic books I've got here absent menses, which means period. So often people can get conjunctivitis and the period hasn't come, but they get conjunctivitis instead. So this little strange, rare, peculiar symptom that you may observe now, some self help here. We talked earlier on about things you can do. Well, you can get Euphrasia tincture, you can buy it from the health food store. And so you can use it as like a, to bathe the eye. So you can bathe the eyes with a solution of 10 drops of Euphrasia tincture to half a pint of water, convert that into liters and what the conversion is, and you can add a teaspoon of salt can be added to that. And then you can, up to four times a day you can bathe, bathe the eyes as we talked about before, and wipe them and it can be very soothing. Euphrasia is very soothing to the eye. And if you don't have Euphrasia, you can use salt water just by itself. If you have no Euphrasia, but try to use Euphrasia, you should have it in your, in your kitchen cupboard. It's so good. And if the eyes are gummed up in the morning, wipe them very carefully with this solution as we talked about, to remove this discharge. But it can be a real tonic for the eyes. Very, very old remedy for the eyes. So that's as a tincture. Next remedy, Hepar sulf. Now, you may have given aconite first of all. And this often remedy is a good remedy after aconite. So you may give Aconite, it hasn't done what it everything that it should have done. Then I would then go on to hepa sulf. And with hepar sulf the eyelids are very swollen. Again, look at the picture. Inflamed, very sensitive to any touch. This is keynote for hepar sulph sensitivity. So if the slightest touch, they're in a lot of pain, okay. And they want you to keep away from them or even if they do it themselves. And also very, very sensitive to cold air. So this could be when people have got conjunctivitis from getting chilled or sitting like aconite in a dry cold wind or in a draft. And now they've got conjunctivitis and they can have a typical hepa sulf keynote, a pain splinter like pain in the eyes. Again it sound, but it feels like they've been scratched as well. So this splinter like pain is a keynote for hepa sulf. And also having another strange rare pewdie symptom of the eyes. Feel that they're being pulled back into the, like a pulling sensation of their eyes. As you can see from the picture, the eyes and the eyelids are red, they're inflamed with a thick yellow discharge. Like old cheese smells like old smelly rotten cheese. Okay. They'll smell it, you'll smell it. Very smelly. You know, this is a real keynote for any sort of discharges in hepar sulf. So again, very irritable with hepar they're incredibly irritable, bad tempered, very oversensitive. You say anything to them and they'll take it the wrong way. That's the heparcel state. They're worse for the slight dystis drafts, worse for open air, worse on touch if you touch it or they touch that, worse on waking, worse for the cold, better damp weather, better for heat, better for eating. If they eat, they feel better in themselves. They just feel better in themselves. So you can see these different things. Some things are better, some things make the remedies worse. This is how you differentiate between the remedies. So you could be down to like we've talked about like six remedies out of 4,000 remedies that we use in homeopathy we're down to six. And you differentiate which one to choose by what makes it better, what makes it worse. And some of these keynotes, symptoms. But just give a remedy, just give one and if that doesn't work, then go into another next remedy. This is closest to it and you will get it. You'll know when you get the right remedy, especially in your cutes, it will work very, very quickly. And people often say they feel better as soon as they start taking the remedy, they feel better, things are starting to shift and that's what you're looking for. Pulsatilla. So pulsatilla, big remedy for conjunctivitis. Again, they like argentinate. They get a thick, profuse, bland, yellow, sometimes greeny discharge from the eye. And the eyes can stick and get sticky in the eyes. Generally not that painful, but lids will be inflamed and sort of gummed up again. You can see this picture of this little boy. A big remedy for kids, pulsatil. As you know, itching and burning of the eyes. And they rub them, and they're always trying to rub them. So it's very good in neonatal conjunctivitis, you know, newborn babies or very young babies. And often with people who need pulsatilla, they're very mild, they're very weepy, very emotional, so they're probably quite clingy. They want to be around you with changeable symptoms. Sometimes, oh, it's itchy, then it's more burning or then there's a discharge. They change quite a lot. But the mental state of them, often they can be quite weepy, quite tearful, and they want to be cuddled, they want to be looked after. Again, may have conjunctivitis from measles. And we said this before about from measles. Better company, better sympathy, better open air, better for crying. So they always feel better if they have a good cry and better for motion. Again, they feel better if they slowly move around. Worse for stuffy, warm rooms. This is the worst thing for pulsatilla. They cannot stand hot, stuffy, warm rooms. They need the windows open. They need the open air. They need the fresh air. They're worse on morning and waking. So you may find that the eyes are really glued up. Or the conjunctivitis is worse when they first wake up in the morning, worse around twilight. The pulsiller don't like twilight. And again, another keynote of pulsiller. They could be thirstless. They just don't. Don't have any thirst at all. So that's the top six remedies that we've just talked about. So we talked about. We did aconite, didn't we? We talked about aconite, we talked about arsenicum, we talked about Euphrasia, we talked about hepar sulf and we talked about pulsatilla. Now I feel the top six remedies that you should know for conjunctivitis. There is other remedies for conjunctivitis, but they to me are the main ones that you should know. And again, I always do a review of homeopathic prescribing because of the questions I get and the emails and messages. What potency? And again, I always say in home prescribing, stick to the 6C or the 30C potency that you get from the health food store or from the remedy kits and take one dose every 15 minutes intervals. I think with conjunctivitis you probably could do it a little bit longer, maybe an hour, once an hour for three or four doses or until you see the symptoms improve. Okay. And you're looking for the keynotes of the remedy. I know I say this all the time, but if you have to sing a song or play a song, it's those notes, those three notes you may play or four notes and you would recognize the song. But I call it the three legged stool in order to prescribe. But again, we're talking about acute situations here with conjunctivitis. If it's something that's reoccurring, keeps coming back again and again and again or doesn't quite resolve itself, you'd give them two or three, four remedies. Then seek the help of a qualified practitioner because there could be something that you, something else that you're missing that you need a more, somebody more experienced be able to prescribe for you. So that's always my golden rule. But there's a lot you can do with remedies in the home. This is the aim of these home prescribing sessions, these videos, so that you can learn how to use the remedies yourself. You know, I'm very passionate about this. This is why I wrote the book the Home Prescriber, because I want people to use it. And when I wrote this book, I did it in such a way that it was easily accessible that you could write in it. You know, I people to use this. I want people to be covered in tea stains or food on it or whatever, kept in the kitchen, not on a shelf. I want people to write in it and put things they've learned about homeopathy or the potency they gave and what helped and some little tips because the more that you use homeopathy, the more that you see the amazing effects it can have on yourself, on your family, on your friends, on your community. So please, please, please do try it out. Do use it and spread the word, Tell people at the school gates, at the school or you know, I don't know, you're in a social situation and remedies for people because it does work in these acute situations. The home prescribing is so, so effective. Thank you so much for joining me today on the Homeopathy at Home podcast. I hope you found today's episode enlightening, empowering and made you feel that you can become a competent home prescriber. Before we wrap up, I just wanted to invite you to explore my latest book, Homeopathy at Home, published by Hay House and Penguin Random House, where you'll find even more insights into homeopathy's transformative power. So for more resources updates, please look in the show notes below. And until next time, keep embracing homeopathy. Use it in your daily life. That's how you learn homeopathy, by using it. Until next time, take care. Thank you.