EP34: Homeopathy for Styes and Blepharitis

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. In an allopathic way, you carry on taking the medicine. People take the medicine, don't they, for a period of time. In homeopathy, it's realizing that actually the remedy is just a stimulus, it's just a key to a lock. The body contains all the healing wisdom, whereas an allopathic drug, all the power's in the drug. So you take it, it has an effect. You stop taking it, it doesn't have an effect. Whereas homeopathy, you can take it once or twice and then it's going. So there's just no need to keep repeating it, if that makes sense. And today we're going to be talking about styes and blepharitis, and some of you may have suffered from this or, you know, people who have, or your kids have had it. I remember when I was a kid, I used to get it when I was younger where I'd wake up in the morning and all my eyes will be stuck together. I thought, oh my God, I've gone blind. But it was as a kid. You don't realize what's happening, but it's all stuck together with this gooey, sticky sort of discharge. And I suffer from steyrs and blepharitis, so I do remember that. So this is a really good topic to cover because it can be a reoccurring issue for people. And these some of the top remedies you can use in order to help. And we're talking about styros and blepharitis and the difference between them. But these remedies often cover both. So this is what I've tried to do is get the remedies that cover both styes and blepharitis. And like I said, this is not just the remedies you can use. I'm just giving you some of the top remedies that you should know about in order for these conditions. So styes and blepharitis so often caused by a staphylococcus bacteria, which can be the underlying cause of both blepharitis and styes. And styes are the result of an infection and cause a painful lump. We get a little painful lump under the eyelid where blepharitis is more the whole eyelid inflamed. Blepharitis sometimes causes a stye, but it's not the same condition. And blepharitis also causes like crusty flakes around the base of the eyelashes. So you can see the ones at the base of the eyelashes, these horrible little crusty flakes. Both conditions can lead to the eyes going red and to swelling. But blepharitis doesn't always have a lump it the eyelid like a stye does. But often they can be very, very similar. So this is why I'm covering both. So what is a stye? Well, styes are often caused by bacteria infecting an eyelash follicle or an eyelid gland. And you're much more likely to get a stye if you've had long term blepharitis. Okay. So this is quite, quite common. But often styes by themselves, they're very common and should clear up themselves within one or two weeks. Okay. If you get them, but all sooner with the remedies. They're rarely a sign of anything more serious, but they can be quite painful. So you can check if you've got a stye because the stye is a small painful lump on the inside of the eyelid or around the eye. And the skin around the stye may be swollen and red and the stye may be filled with pus. Okay. Pus in it. Now, this redness may be harder to see on brown or black skin, but you'll see the lump there. And your eye may also may be watery, maybe red, but. But generally your vision is not affected by the stye. And usually it's only one eye at a time, but it's possible to have more than one stye at the same time. Okay, so. And it's probably not a stye if there's no lump. If your eye or eyelid is swollen red and watery, it's much likely to be conjunctivitis. And see our previous video when I did whole session on conjunctivitis. Or it can be blepharitis. And the lump is hard, often not very painful. And if it's not very painful, it's more likely to be a chalazion. It's a really difficult word to remember chalazion to pronounce. I've been rehearsing that all morning. So to reduce swelling and help the stye heal, soak clean flannel in warm water and then hold against your eye for five to ten minutes and repeat this three or four times a day. And this should really help reduce the flowing and help the stye heal. But you get help, seek help. Professional advice. If it's very painful, very swollen, it doesn't get better within a few weeks and it starts to affect your vision. So please do seek help in that situation. And you can avoid styes by keeping your eyes clean. Avoid wearing contact lenses and eye makeup until the stye is burst and it's healed. Don't share towels or face cloths with someone who's got a stye, so try to separate that out and not rubbing your eyes if you've recently just washed your hands and not putting contact lenses in before washing your hands as well. And also can stop any sort of like, bacterial infection. And some common symptoms of blepharitis. Again, this can be caused, as we mentioned, by bacteria or the glands inside the eyelids not producing enough oil. So this then could cause irritation within the eye and it's not usually serious. And again, can often be treated by washing your eyelids every day. And it can't be spread to other people, so it's not contagious. It's often to do with the glands, as we said, all the bacteria. But often the glands can be blocked and then that causes them not to produce oil, which affects the eyes. And symptom of blepharitis, again, can include sore, swollen eyelids, itchy eyes, a gritty feeling in the eyes, flakes or crust around the roots of the eyelashes, eyes sticking together in the morning when you wake up. As I mentioned before, when I was a little boy and I used to wake up, it was all like all gummed up or red or discoloured eyelids. So these are the more common symptoms of blepharitis. And what are chalazions? Well, chalazion is often mistaken for styes, but unlike styes, you, chalations are not caused by infections. And a chalation starts as a swollen area of the eyelid and over a few days a hard lump forms. Again, this lump is usually painless and like a stye which can be more tender and more sore to the touch. And a chalazion develops after the oil lands and the eyelids thicken. And when the oil glands are blocked, the eyelid becomes inflamed and a lump can develop. And since blepharitis and a stye may come from a blocked oil glands, either blepharitis or a stye could lead to a chilezion. So before we get into the remedies, always like to say, please subscribe to the YouTube channel. We've got over 1300 people now that are registered. Let's get that to 10,000. Let's spread the word about homeopathy. And when you subscribe, you'll get notified as soon as a new video goes up. So you're the first ones to know. And also check us out, check out our website, you know, the center for homeopathic education, sietchehomeopathy.com we got a lot of different blogs on there. We've got a lot of information about homeopathy on there as well as all the different courses that we run from the beginners level all the way to practitioner and professional homeopath level. So do check us out. We've got lots of courses in there, a lot of free webinars in there as well. And if you're interested about training to become a homeopath, we have a recruitment coming up in January. So you'll hear more about that in further details. But yeah, check us out on the website. So let's look at the homeopathic remedies for styes and blepharitis. So the first thing I want to talk about is hypericum and calendula or hypercal. And this is where you can get it in homeopathic mother tincture. And this is made from natural herbal preparation of calendula, which is marigold and also hypericum St. John's Wort. Now you can get them as a mixture for many of the homeopathic pharmacies. Sometimes health food stores sell this as well. And you get a few drops of the tincture in a glass of cool, previously boiled water. So it's sterile. Soak a clean flannel in the warm water, hold it against your eye for five to ten minutes and repeat this three or four times a day. And this really promotes rapid healing. It's an antiseptic, plus it's pain relieving. So again, you can do that. Just put the flannel in that mixture, do it against your eye for five, ten minutes and do that three or four times a day. So it's a really good way of really helping the stye, all the blepharitis. So let's look at the first remedy. Age knit. Now, we talked about this one. We did conjunctivitis. This is for great swelling of the eyes, which are red, sensitive to light. Okay, sensitive to light. But they get a lot of smelly, creamy yellow discharge when the eyelids also glue together with thick crusts. And normally the effects, the inner corners of the eye here and the eyelids can look red, swollen and inflamed. And the whole eye, as you can see this picture, it can swell and it can look like raw beef. Okay, it can look like raw beef. It can be that sort of inflamed and the eyes will ache, the eyes will feel tired and they can't keep their eyes fixed or anything. They just get really tired. Better for cold or cold compress, better for pressure, better for closing the eyes and better for cool air. Okay, keynote here for the Arjunit. Remember we're looking for keynotes. Worse warm room, it can irritate it. And worse, often on the left hand side that the eye can be affected more along with the physical symptoms. They can also have emotional, mental symptoms where they can be quite anxious or nervous, get a lot of anticipation, apprehension and fear. So this could be somebody who is worried about doing a presentation at work or doing a speech or before a job interview. And they're quite a lot of anticipation. Then they might develop a sty on their eye and they wake up in the morning, I'll go, oh, great, I've got this interview today, or I've got this speech to make today and I've got this big star in my eye. So it's often good to see what is behind it because in homeopathy we look at you mentally, emotionally as well as physically. It's truly holistic. So sometimes we'll look at these mental, emotional symptoms as part of the remedy picture. Argentine often will crave sugar and desire sweets again. It could desire sugar around this time. But do look at those keynotes, you know, looks like raw beef. The anticipatory anxiety symptoms as well. But remember, often it affects the left eye and the inner part of the eye can look red and inflamed. Next remedy, graphites. Here you get dryness of the eyelid, which again are red and swollen, but with graphites, what you tend to see. And if you check out our videos on athlete's foot and impetigo, often you'll get cracks, especially here at the corners of the eye okay. On the outside there can be very cracked and very sore. There's a dryness. With graphites it can be very, very dry. And with graphites, often the styes are on the lower lid and have what's called like a drawing pain. Okay. Fix the lower lid, much more of a drawing pain. And they can have a thin acrid discharge from eyes or pus, like a sticky discharge. Okay. And the dry mucus on the eyelids in the morning afterwards. So it can be this thick, sticky discharge. If you remember from other videos we've done, that discharge with graphites is like honey. Sometimes it can be like consistency of honey. Worse for daylight or artificial light. The worst for light generally either outside or artificial light. Better in the open air, better in the dark. So their eyes feel better if they're in the dark. So remember graphitis, the keynote. Dryness, red and swollen. A lot of these thighs and blepharitis are red and swollen, but it's the dryness and the cracks at the corner. But also this sort of thin, acrid discharge from the eyes or pus, like a sticky discharge. Okay. Bit like honey. Okay. Next remedy, Hepa sulph. So this is a good remedy where the stye has become infected. Okay. So we know it's really good when things are pus formed with hepar sulf. Here the eyelid again is red, swollen, inflamed, but extremely sensitive. Now, again, if you've seen any of the videos when I've mentioned Hepa sulf in any different conditions, they are so sensitive, everything is hypersensitive to the least touch and the least cold air. So cold air comes into that they can really feel it. It's like, oh, gosh, shut the door, shut the window. Hurt my eye. Or if they touch it and they have like a splinter like pain. Keynote of Heposulf splinter like feeling in the eye. Something's in there in the eye or can feel like sand or grainy and scratchy. Okay. And this thigh can be inflamed, as you can see from the picture, again with a thick yellow discharge. But this one, it's sort of, if you smelt it, smells like old cheese. Any discharge of hepar salt, whether it's a mucus from the nose or from any other place, it smells like old cheese. Okay. And looks like old cheese. So the very chilly heposal, very chilly, very irritable and bad tempered, over sensitive, like a bear with a sore head, with a style or blepharitis, you don't want to be around them. Okay. Nothing you can do for them. They're never satisfied. Okay. And they're never happy. So your best probably to avoid them. The worst for slightest draft, even the door or the window open a little bit, they really feel it. Worse open air, as I said, but particularly cold air, worse for touch, worse on waking, better damp weather, better for heat. Okay, big keynotes there of hepa sulph. Next remedy, pulsatilla. Now, I'd say probably the most common remedy for stye, especially in children. And it's often the first remedy you'll think of. And here the eyelid is inflamed, usually the upper left lid. Very specific. The upper left lid is affected and again can be stuck together. Worse in the morning. So they wake in the morning and it's stuck. But the inflammation in the eye with the styrofarita is normally the upper left lid. And again they have a thick, yellow, profuse, bland, yellow discharge from the eye. Again, very much a keynote of pulsatilla. Any of their discharges is normally yellow, profuse and bland. And it's burning with pulsatilla. Burning, itching of the eyes, they have to rub them. Burning and itching, which can make it worse. Again, as we look at the mental and emotional symptoms with pulsatilla. And again, if you watch any of the videos when pulsatilla is ever mentioned, they extremely can be weepy, emotional with changeable symptoms as well. The synthesis can change. Very changeable pulsatilla. And if you look at the remedy, pulsatilla, it moves in the wind. It's called the wind flower. It moves in the wind. They're better for company, better for sympathy. They want your sympathy, not like have ourselves keep away from me. Pulsar wants you to look after them. They want you to love them. They're better if you're around and you're asking how they are. They feel much better for that, for being looked after, better for open fresh air. They'll want to have a window open. This feels so much better from fresh air and better for any cold application onto the eye. The stye particularly worse stuffy rooms. That's the worst thing for pulsatilla, being in a stuffy room where there's no air, no fresh air. Worse in the morning. Getting another keynote for pulsatilla and worse on waking and can be better as sort of the morning gets on. And another big keynote for pulsatella is they are thirstless. Okay? They don't want to drink, not particularly want to drink, even if they Are drinking, say, oh, you're thirsty? No, I just think I need to because it's supposed to be good for me. But they're not really thirsty. They're thirst less. Big remedy, number one remedy, you think often with kids and styes. Next remedy, staphysagria. So this is really good for reoccurring styes. Again, often on the left upper eyelid. Now with this stye, with staphysagria, the stye doesn't produce pus like kepel sulph, but remains a hard nodule or lump. And the pain in the upper lid is worse. Closing the eye. So when the closed eye, it feels like there's a hard substance underneath. When they close their eye painful, the eyelid can itch. And the angles of the eye is often affected. Especially the inner part of the eye can be painful. Dryness of the eye, particularly the left eye. So this is again, it's the left eye that's affected. This again, how you differentiate right or left with hot tears. So they get the dryness of the eye, but then they get these hot tears. Okay. And the eyes can be very sensitive, Very sensitive. And that is the remedy, staphysancy. It can be extremely sensitive to what you say. And often you'll see the style, the blepharitis can be caused particularly the style from suppressed emotions. It's where they've had to suppress their emotions. They haven't expressed it, especially anger or humiliation. So they may have had to suppress their anger. They may be at work or with a partner. They've kept it in, they haven't expressed it, but they're really angry. Or they feel they've been humiliated, but they won't express it. They're all very nice, but underneath they feel it. But guess what pops out the issue with the eye. The stye comes out. So the stye is an external manifestation of their internal state, internal mental and emotional state. They can't express it verbally, so it's come out physically better for application of cold water on the sty. So they don't want warm water. They do want to have cold water on the eye. So staphysagria seen this a lot with people, especially when they suppress their emotions. So again, you're looking at what is the body trying to tell me? What's it trying to express? What's it trying to tell me what the issue is. And finally, sulfur, good old sulphur. Sulfur has many, many uses in homeopathy. So many uses. But this is really good for Chronic. When people get it time and time again, we call it chronic. Keep getting these acute. Doesn't seem to quite clear. Well, this is. Sulphur is good when it's recurring in the same place more again, in the upper lid towards the inner part of the eye. But the thing with sulphur is the margins of the eye around the eyelid are very red. Okay, they look red and they looked in flame. And they say it feels like they're burning, that this heat in them. That's the thing with sulfur. There's a lot of heat and it can sting. And they can be itching. Again, big of sulphur, red and itching and inflamed. And they can have profuse tears can come. Okay, profuse tears. But often they describe the tears. They feel like they're oily. That's very sulfur. They feel like the tears are oily. Again, strange, rare, peculiar symptom. But again, the tears can feel like the burning. Burning sensation. Worse in the morning. Okay, with sulfur, worse in the morning. Again, the lids can be stuck together in the morning with a yellow or whitish discharge. But again, it's common in blepharitis. You're not looking at the common symptoms. Look at things that differentiate between these remedies. And they can have dryness of the eyes in the warm room. So they feel dried out by a warm room. But the tears will flow in the open air. Okay, the tears will flow in the open air. And they cannot bear the eye to have the eye washed in any way, shape or form. So when I talked about before, like the eye wash using the flannel, they will not want it anywhere near them. Sulphur do not like bathing. They do not like Washington. They do not like bathing in any sort. And they say it aggravates. It aggravates the eyes, makes it more itchy and more inflamed. Worse, becoming heated. Big keynote of sulfur. Think of the volcano that comes out of sulfur from a volcano. It's like they are worse being heated. They feel hot enough as it is. They kick the covers off or their feet can burn and they keep the covers off at night. Worse than bathing. I've mentioned that. Worse closed rooms. I mentioned that as well. Again, better open air. So a lot of these remedies are better for open air. But you've got to then differentiate between them with the other modalities, what makes them better or worse, what the sensations are like and everything we've described in those remedies. So how do you prescribe? Well, you can use, I always say use a 6C, 30C. This is what you can buy over the counter at the health food store or you can buy from a homeopathic pharmacy or they're in the remedy kits. So this is why normally for home prescribing, 6 or 30C is great. Just try that. Take one dose twice daily for three or four doses or until the symptoms improve. If you think the symptoms have improved after two doses, then leave it. Because as I always say, the remedies are like keys to a lock. What we're getting the Remy's to do is stimulate the body to start healing itself. It's a bit like key to a car. You start the engine. Once the engine's going, you don't keep doing that with the key, it's going to make a horrible grinding noise, but the ignition just gets it going. It's the same with the remedies. We're stimulating the body to start healing itself. All that healing wisdom you're ever going to need is within you and these remedies are these keys. So if one or two doses, it starts to improve, then stop the remedy. You don't need to continue on. The body knows what to do. If it stops like a day later, just repeat it again or take three or four doses and that should be enough to start the healing process. You will feel or you will see the difference with the remedies quite soon in acute situations. And remember, you don't need every single part of the remedy that I've just been discussing. Of these remedies, you're just looking for at least three keynotes, three strong keynotes, in order to prescribe, or we say the three legged stool. And if symptoms do persist, please seek help from a qualified practitioner. Particularly if you try the remedies, two or three and they haven't worked, you may need to get more expert advice because obviously you know, it's not that clear for you. Also, it's reoccurring as well. It's good to seek because something's not being resolved. If they keep coming back, it's good to get some constitutional treatment as well. So as I mentioned, check us out, subscribe to our YouTube channel and check us out on CT. Homeopathy.com 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.