Can someone please advise me on whether or not a homeopath can help me with my weight problem. Food is a comfort, and has been since my parents divorce. I'm ok with diets and watching what I eat until something gets me stressed or upset. Any information would be appreciated.

Bette,

homeopathy treats the whole person, there is no one remedy for weight loss or appetite control. If something is out of balance either physically or mentally or emotionally, causing the overeating than yes homeopathy can help to put you back into balance.

Barb

Thanks Barb,

That is exactly what i was hoping. I don't want just a quick answer... it has been going on for years... it is just recently i feel that it is becoming a serious problem.. thanks again, and I will go ahead with my appointment!

I remember one case I had when I prescribed a emedy for an over large woman and without any suggestion from me she took herself off to the gym and lost all the excess weight. She has had another child since then and the weight still stayed off. The remedy? It was Sepia which has the keynote better for exercise!!!
I have also had many a patient that has come back after a remedy and said that they don;t crave for chocolate anymore but whether that has led to actual weight loss I'm not sure.

After being given a good remedy many patients are able to accept the way they look. This happens especially with Thuja.

Nice work Ricky, but just in case anyone reading this thinks that the remedies mentioned can be tried randomly for weight loss, I am stating categorically that they cannot.
A full case must be taken, as Ricky did with her patients, in order to choose the right remedy for them as individuals.

The weight is becoming a health problem, especially now that i'm thinking of having children in a few years. I'm not after a quick fix, but rather assistance in focusing on the right things... feeling good about the condition of my body in order to give my future family the best possible chance... thanks for the feedback

[This message has been edited by Bette (edited 22 November 2000).]

Hi,
this is interesting.
Anna I take your point about homeopathic remedies being different for each person and of course I realise there are no quick fixes.
However I took Sepia a month ago on GM's reccomendation for another problem and like Rickys case, I suddenly found myself excersing at the gym more often and more efficiantly and consequently a weight problem that I have struggled with for about four years now, has started to resolve itself.
Seeing as how Sepia is such a difficult remedy, or at least I find it to be {easy to antidote etc). it's nice to think that I may have unwittingly been on the receiving end of an unexpected bonus
Homeopathy is full of surprises !

Divina, I have not come across a case previously in which Aqua Marina was used.
Looking through the materia medica in Vermulen's Synoptic II, it looks very similar to Nat Mur as you write.
Please could you explain how it is differentiated from Nat Mur in practice?
Do you think it is significantly different from Nat Mur such that the patient would not have had such a good result from NM?
Thanks, Anna

Hi Ollie,

Nice to hear of such a nifty bonus!

If you look in the materia medicas, there is often reference made to "glandular affinities in remedies". Sepia and Nat Mur are 2 that I can think of which have an affinity or an effect on the thryoid gland--calc carb also has an affect on this gland, which governs the way the body uses calcium. Phosphorus has an effect on the pancreas, so we often see ailments like hypoglycemia in phos cases. Interestingly, "obesity" can exist in all these remedy pictures.

When the remedy is correctly administered, everything in the case can balance out very well and the body will allow for proper endocrine function and metabolism--that's when you get weight loss as well as everything else to get better!

When I was in school we had a patient in the school clinic who suffered from hyperthyroidism for years, and she saw excellent results from a prescription of a remedy similar to Nat Mur--Aqua Marina, which turned out to be her simillimum. Everything in the case improved dramatically in just 6 weeks, and held for over 2 years of follow ups (that I witnessed). She was an accomplished nurse who was working on her doctorate at the time, so she knew some excellent endocrinologists who verified her results for her; she came to the clinic to seek help for a longstanding depression. We were very lucky to see that brilliant change take place and hold. It's like Hahnemann says (to paraphrase): when you remove the disturbance to the vital force, you create the possibility for the person to become to person he/she was intended to be, without encumbrance from disease. He or she can reach full potential.

Regards,
Divina

Hi Anna,

I'm not so sure myself that the Nat Mur would not have worked--maybe not so well, but still done some good, perhaps over a longer period of time and with appropriate alterations. I'm beginning to feel that more than one remedy can help a patient. Some remedies are so close that I have a hard time believing only one could be the simillimum, but I also have a hard time shaking the possibility that even if they are so close, there must be only 1 simillimum. I've heard a lot of prescribers and teachers publicly wondering about this, too. The trouble with homeopathy is that it is really difficult for every prescriber to come up with exactly the same prescription for any particular case. I know there are a lot of homeopaths writing and working on how to solve this problem now.

In the clinic case I mentioned, the Aqua Marina was chosen because it presented itself in a rubric for a specific type of recurrent menstrual pain. It was repertorized on its periodicity (I cannot possibly find my notes from that time, but I do remember that there was a 21 to 28 day period between occurences) and in that rubric the remedy aqua marina was found, but nat mur, which was present in many other larger rubrics in the case, was not. The patient also had a dream in which she found herself standing in the ocean, slowly becoming engulfed by the waves. The feeling of the dream was not one of fear, but of a kind of happy resignation--that it would be okay if she drowned, or was completely overtaken by the water. As if she were literally in her element in the waves.

Its the remedies we don't know that come up in repertorization (and also in the dream!) which should command our attention--so aqua marina was researched further and given in 200c.

Aqua marina is not the same thing as Nat Mur, which is sea salt (really just sodium chloride). Sea water contains not just mineral components, such as nat mur, but also animal and vegetable components--minute fauna and flora. So it must have a different energy all together.

Wish I could locate those old notes to be more precise about that rubric--I know it was found using MacRepertory and Referenceworks (not sure whether the Phoenix repertory or the Complete Repertory was the source) but if pressed, I can look back and find it.

I've never prescribed the remedy myself, but I must say it did this patient wonders. Not that I'm a big proponent of this, but talk about a way to convert the mainstream medics! This patient is an extremely accomplished nurse in one of the biggest hospitals in Canada, who was also a professor of nursing at University of Toronto. All the specialists she employed to monitor her progress on the homeopathic remedy were amazed at her results, which they verified. She eventually took up serious study of homeopathy herself. I haven't seen her in over a year, so I wonder if she's still at it--but she'd be in a terrific position to promote a greater understanding of homeopathy among her own students.

Anyway, hope this helps,
Divina