EP23: Homeopathy for Fevers

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 talk about fevers. Top homeopathic remedies for fevers so fever Fever is a healthy response of the body and it's responsible in acute disease for stimulating the increase and activity of white blood cells within the body. Fever often accompanies inflammation and it's crucial in the beginning stages of fever and the recovery of the fever. And if it's efficient, we're able to move through it quickly and it gets a resolution of the illness. And you may have a fever if your chest or back feels hotter than usual, you have other symptoms such as shivering, you know, chills, sweating or warm or red skin, which can be harder to see on a black or brown skin, the redness. And a thermometer that says Your temperature is 38 degrees or above. And many causes of fever can be a cough, a cold, and often it's not usually something of a sign of something less, anything serious, because often the body's trying to resolve it through the fever. So as we said, a cough, a cold, a flu and a fever is considered more serious if it's very high and it won't come down. And again, I say to everybody, when in doubt, get help, you know, from a healthcare practitioner. And often you get fevers in children. Now, fevers in children, many of you probably experience this already if you've got kids. You know, high temperature is very common in young children and the temperature normally returns to normal with three or four days. And a normal temperature for a child is around 36.4 degrees. But this can vary slightly from child to child and a high temperature is classed as 38 degrees or more. Got to make sure you give them plenty of fluids and look out for the danger signs when you should seek medical help. You know, dry nappies, listlessness, high pitched Cry fever. That continues for three days or more. And you should always get medical advice if you're worried about a child, because often with kids, things can change very, very quickly. Okay. But let's look at some remedies that you can use. So we've got aconite, number one. These are just in alphabetical order, not order of importance. So the first remedy is aconite. And usually the first signs of a fever routine is its sudden onset. So with aconite, it comes on suddenly and it's ailments from dry, cold winds. So they can be outside, they get a chill from a dry, cold world or from getting very cold. Okay. Getting very, very chilled. It can also be from a shock or fright because it's a big remedy for shock and fright. So the first thing you think of is something like aconite. And with aconite, there'll be a dry, burning skin, high fever with coldness and chills and shivering. The fever and chill can alternate with a red hot flush face, one cheek hot, or the other cheek can be cold as well. So one cheek hot, one red, one pale. Great restlessness when tossing about with aconite and contracted pupils. So these are some of the observations you're going to see when you differentiate between the remedies. Great anxiety and a sense of foreboding. Often with aconite, they think they're going to die. Okay, they think they might die worse in the evening, worse around midnight, worse for touch. They don't want you anywhere near them. Worse for motion and worse for any cold, any coldness, they're worse for. Better to rest if you just want to rest and take it easy. Better if they have open air. And often they want to be in coverage during the heat. They want to take their covers off. They don't want the covers. The worst for being covered. And they're very, very thirsty during the heat and the chills. Okay, so look at some of those keynotes where I talk about keynotes a lot. You've heard me say, if you had to name a song and you play three notes, you'd recognize that song. It's the same with homeopathy. You're looking to match those characteristic symptoms. Next remedy arsenicum album. Great picture. In fact, the other picture was good with the person who's quite frightened. With arsenicum album, you can see very, very chilly now with arsenicum burning fever, with great restlessness in the fever again, tossing about or pacing about. This can't get any relief. And they're moving around very restless, bit like Aconite. But with arsenicum there's lots more exhaustion. There's great exhaustion and great weakness. And they can have really violent chills where the teeth are chattering and severe shivering. And they can feel as though the blood is as cold as ice, as though there's ice in the blood. Very, very cold. You can see here the man with a duvet wrapped around him. They can't get warm and they can have an intermittent fever that stops and starts, comes and it goes, stops and starts. But incredibly anxious and incredibly despairing and they fear they'll never recover. In fact, they actually feel they are dying. That's the difference. Aconite thinks they're going to die. Arsenicine thinks they're already dying. They don't think they're ever going to get better. Despairing of recovery. Worse around midnight. Okay, now say 11pm to like 2am can be around that. Worse from cold again, worse. But these are worse for open air. Well, Acunite was better for open air. It's worse for any draft at or any open air and worse for motion. Better for heat and better for company. They want people around them. They want people around them because they're very fearful, very chilly, but thirsty for small sips of water. They don't glug it down. Small little sips, okay? And that's arsenicum. You may see they have diarrhea as well, which is a big thing with arsenicum. It's very digestive. You don't have to have it. But I think we've covered there enough keynotes for that remedy. Next remedy, belladonna. This is one of the number one remedies we often give for fevers. Sudden high fever with throbbing, pulsating with the fever, congestion of blood. Can feel the pulse pounding like in the carotid arteries. They just feel it pounding. A dry burning heat without chills. So they don't have chills, they just have this dry burning heat which like radiates off them. You can feel it. They're like a fire. You can feel the heat coming off them. Flush red face or very pale with burning, dry, hot skin. And they have dilated, glassy, shining pupils. Okay, diluted, glassy, shining pupils. These glassy eyes. And they can have hallucinations with the fevers where they can thrash out or see things. But the hands and feet can be really cold, but the body is hot. So you'll feel that. They may complain of cold feet or cold hands. And you feel it and the hands feel really cold. But the body will be burning. Can Be drowsy, it can be limp. Or like I said, they can be agitated. No thirst in the fever. But they can crave lemons. Hence a picture there of lemons. That can be lemon juice. That can be lemonade. Anything to do with lemons. Worse for any noise or jarring. Any short joke because they're so sensitive. Worse for light, because sometimes you can have a headache with the fever. Worse in the afternoon around 3pm Better for light covering. Better for rest in bed. Better in a dark room. They want the curtains closed. Okay, and that's Belladon. This is the number one remedies. What often will give for fevers. A little tip here. If belladonna is indicated and you're giving, it doesn't work. Try the remedy Stramonium. Okay, the remedy Stramonium. Okay, Next remedy Bryonia. So with Bryonia it's a great picture here. It's like they feel like they're in the desert. The gasping for water. Slow onset with Bryonia. So we've talked about sudden onset with aconite and Belladonna. This is more of a slow onset over a few days with internal heat and coldness. Sweaty and shivery. But they can have rigors. And if you know what I've experienced rigors. It's very, very cold and very really extreme. Like any such a shake and start to shiver. And the heat can alternate with the chills, as we said, aches and pains in the muscles with the fever and bursting splitting frontal headaches. Worse for any movement. Now, if you watch previous videos, previous live sessions. We talked about a lot. We talked about headaches. We talked about muscle sprains and strains. They are worse for any movement, like even to move their eyeballs hurts. Okay, all symptoms are worse. Movement. They want to lie still and only feel relieved. Only when they are still and quiet. Can be irritable and want to be left alone. We said about arsenicum, wants people. No, no, they want to be alone. But tremendous dryness of the throat, the mouth, the lips and 34 large amounts of water. They'll be glugging the water. We said about Arsenicum. Small steps. They'll be glugging it because they are so thirsty. Worse in the evening. Worse around 9pm so notice all these time modalities we talk about again, this can tie you into the remedy. Wouldn't be the only thing that I would. If they weren't worse around 9pm Wouldn't be a reason not to give it. But it just adds to our characteristic symptoms or our Three legged stool. We talk about worse emotion, talked about worse cold, worse wet weather, worse in the autumn, worse around eating. So that change of the season, when it starts getting a little bit damp, a little bit wet, like just here in the uk, then you think about good indication. Baronia, better line still, as we said, better cold water, better for being quiet. So again, bronia, slow onset over a period of days. Next remedy, chamomilla. Great. Picture here shows a chamomilla child. So often this is a fever with strong pain in conditions such as teething or earache in children. Two areas I've covered in these videos. You can check them out. Teething and earache. Very irritable, very angry, hot and bothered. Okay. You know, if you've got a chamomilla child, okay, you can't please them. Capricious. You can't please them. They'll want this and they don't want it. They want that, they don't want it. You're trying to do everything to soothe them, but nothing helps. And they don't know what they want. They don't know what they want, but they're in pain or, you know, they're in this irritable fever like state. Can't keep still. They're always moving about. Again, one cheek red, the other cheek pale. Again, another keynote for chamomilla. And it can also sweat on the back of the head, which is another Remy like Calcar we covered before. And they can also have diarrhea with the fever. And it looks like green grass, the stalk like green grass, chopped with chopped eggs and spinach. Okay. Very peevish, demanding, but better when being carried and paced about the room or rocked. So they like that vigorous movement. Okay, you feel better for that thirst during the fever. Worse foot being uncovered. Worse stuffy room. Worse 9pm to 12am or midnight. Okay, Chamomilla, great remedy in teething and earache when you've got fever. Next remedy, Ferrum fos. Now, this is a great remedy for the beginning stages of fever. And often it can lack these characteristic symptoms. Okay, so it's just like this heat or they can have the fever and it's sort of somewhere between aconite and belladonna. Great remedy. We use it a lot in our family and it can really nip fevers in the bud if you give it early enough. Can often be a fever with a sore throat or of unknown origin. This is a fever of unknown origin. Again, lack of characteristic symptoms. It can be a low grade fever and depletion and exhaustion. The wary and the lethargic. Now you're going to think of gelsemium, which you're going to talk about later. But this again, it's sort of like in between aconite and belladonna, but in the beginning stage of fever, but at the exhaustion, weakness is like. Looks like gelsemium. Slow onset. Again like Bryonia. Slow onset. Over a few days. Dry heat without chill looks very flushed and red in the face and can appear quite healthy. Or they can suddenly go very, very pale. And that's ferrum fossil. Frequent sweats and shivering. Thirsty for cold drinks and sour things. Chilly again, cold hands and cold feet. Bit like belladonna. So you can see this differential between them. But it's good to know these remedies again. We've used this a lot as a tissue salt, as a cell salt, which you can buy over the counter or homeopathic pharmacies. But a great, great remedy to know, especially with kids, for example. So gelsemium, great, great, great fever remedy. Again, slow onset flu, like fever. And they ache in their muscles and this heaviness in their limbs, like dragging themselves around. But they also describe that the limbs can be trembling and feel weak. So they go to get a glass of water. They can sort of feel like they're trembling, that there's weakness in their limbs. They can have a strange, very peculiar symptom that the chill begins in the hands and the feet. I've had it where people feel like achy in the hands and the feet. It's like, oh, no, I think I'm coming down with something. It starts in the feet and the hands. It feels like sore and flu, like, like in the hands and feet. Extreme exhaustion. There's no energy. Answers very slowly when you're speaking to them. So how do you feel? Oh, I don't know really. You know, even to think hurts. And they feel dizzy and they're drowsy. They look, can look flushed in the face, dark red and dull. But the eyes can look heavy and droopy. And that's a real symptom of gelsemium. You spot their eyes, droopy, no energy. But they can have a fever with a chill up and down the spine. They say it feels like it's going up and down my back, up and down my spine. Thirstless with gelsemine, with the fever. So you can see now these remedies. Thirsty thirst, less chills, not chills. Slow onset, quick onset. This is how you get into your remedies, how you choose your remedies by differentiating between these symptoms. Worse. Thinking about their illness. This is like they don't really want to talk about it. When you're asking them questions, especially if you're trying to do, you know, give them a remedy out of your remedy kit and trying to ask them all 20 questions, it's like they're not. They just really don't want to think about it. Worse for motion, so they want to lie down. Worse for talking. Better for urination. Another keynote for Gelsen. They can feel better. They'll go and urinate and they can feel better. Better for rest, better for heat. Okay, feel better for heat. Next round would be Pulsatilla. Again, this is good for childhood fevers, childhood diseases, earaches. Again, this picture is just great. Really sums up Pulsatello. It's like, oh, I'm abandoned, just upset. Feels forsaken, goes into the corner and hides. Reminds me of that poem when I was a kid. Nobody loves me, everybody hates me. And going to the garden to eat some worms. I don't know if you know that poem, but there she is in the corner or he is in the corner. Feeling very forsaken. So with Pulsatilla, a dry heat, often no sweat. And some parts of the body may feel hot to touch while others feel cold. This is Pulsatilla. They have these changeable symptoms, okay? So the symptoms constantly change. They shift. Body hot, limbs cold, limbs cold, body hot. Very intolerant to heat. Especially stuffy rooms. They need fresh air. They want the window open. It's. Oh, compare it. Open the window. Or they'll stand at the door just to get some air. Or they'll want a fan near them, okay? So that they need that circulation of fresh air. They cannot stand stuffy rooms. Chilly, very, very chilly. But aversion to heat. And they can have one sided coldness. They say, yeah, this side of my body feels warm, this body feels cold. They crave affection and they crave sympathy. They just want to be held. So if it's a child, they just want to be held and cuddled and loved and be very tearful and clingy. But also you'll see that in older children, you'll see that in adults as well. They just want to be looked after. They want to be held. Incredibly tearful, incredibly clingy. Where are you going? I'm just going to the kitchen. No, don't leave me. That's Pulsatilla. They can also moan during the fever. So they'll be asleep or they'll be Moaning again. Adults, children, but they have this burning heat at night. They are thirstless, no thirst. But sometimes a pulsatilly can have a gastric upset with the fever. Don't have to have, could have, but pulsate the thirstless. That's the keynote of them. Worse evenings, particularly twilight, that twilight period, they can be a lot worse and worse in the evening. Worse being left alone, worse being overheated in bed. Better open air as we talked about in all phases of the fever. In fact they crave it as we said, they crave that open air. And that's the top remedies for fevers that I've gone through. So always like to put this slide in about prescribing because people always get caught up with potency. I always say we're talking about home prescribing in these sessions. You know, being a home prescriber, you can use a 6C, a 30C, which things, these are what you can buy over the counter of the remedy. And all the remedies I talked about, you'd be able to get in the health food stores from homeopathic pharmacies as well. Or maybe in your remedy kit, if you've got a remedy kit. And again, you can give a dose every 15 minutes for three or four doses. Depends what the fever's like. And then you know, until the symptoms improve. And you're looking for these key notes of the remedy. Okay, you're looking for these keynotes of the remedy or we talk about these three legged stool. But when you give the remedy, remember I'd say to all, you look back, if you want to go on YouTube, look at the video about top tips for prescribing. You know, you're measuring the effect of the remedy, you're observing, you give the remedy and you're observing the effects of it. Now sometimes the fever can break after the remedy and they start to sweat. You know, you just got to observe it. And that's what the patient, the person in front of you, determines what to do next. Whether it's a change of the remedy or the potency. But if symptoms start to improve, remember the remedy is like a key to a lock. It's stimulating the natural healing power within the own body, the wisdom within the body, that's what does the work. The remedies are key to it, to stimulate it in order to do what it knows what is needed at the time. So you repeat it as needed with the person. But a little framework. Then you can give a dose every 50 minutes. You know, for up to three or four doses or until the symptoms improve. But the symptoms persist, contact a qualified practitioner, okay? If you have a homeopathic practitioner, contact them. And as I said at the beginning of the presentation, you if you're seriously worried, then get medical advice, especially young children, okay? Especially in babies. So that's it for today's session on fevers. 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.