Or what current medical practices and education are doing to our health
This post could actually be a book, there’s so much I could include and no doubt there will be many questions. If it rings true with you my suggestion would be to seek out the services of a registered and well experienced homeopath to delve deeper with you. I will add a link at the end to my list of trusted colleagues, but you can also go to the Australian Homeopathic Association find a homeopath function. Many homeopaths offer a ten minute discovery call.
Trigger Warning Some people may think this article is saying to never go see a GP, specialist, have any investigative tests or take any medication. That’s not the case. I’m suggesting we think more about what we put in our bodies, the impact of repeat, long term and multiple drug prescriptions, and why each generation is getting gradually more sick. It’s not all about the medical side of things, but these are just my thoughts based on nearly 30 years in practice. This post will not discuss vaccinations as this is an individual’s personal decision based on their situation.
What individuals and parents are being told more often than ever is that medication is the only solution for anything and everything. That it’s ok to use medications every day and in multiple forms. That they may not fix the problem, but just keep taking them, take more doses and if that doesn’t work take multiple medications.
We are being told that these medications have all been tested as suitable for everyone, that the dosages are right for everyone, that side effects are rare and minor, and that studies show there are rarely issues with interactions between medications (an increasing problem for the older generation). And the claims that some medications cause serious chronic health issues over the long term are either rare or incorrect, and the studies we are increasingly seeing are “not the right studies”.
Something that I observed happening rapidly over the Covid Years was that algorithms were changed so balanced information that had previously been accessible was no longer available online. The only information to be found easily in a search was the “truth” that the system wanted us to have access to. And if you happened to visit the GP the process had become very formulaic. A tick box “yes-no” process which ended up with a recommendation for your best treatment. A strong focus on how your blood pressure and cholesterol were, on making sure the increasingly large range of annual testing you were invited to partake of was undertaken, while red flag symptoms were frequently ignored or misinterpreted in many cases.
But many people woke up and started reading during the Covid Years, realising that a lot of what they’d accepted as truth was actually just marketing on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies and allied prescribers. They also realised the untruth of so much that they had been advised to do, and that they or their children had been damaged, sometimes irreversibly.
All of this we were told was conspiracy and untruth, until the last year or so when the truth has begun to reveal itself. A sad truth for many.
Having said all that, let’s get back to the subject of this post.
For over 100 years the view of the body has been purely mechanical, a physical machine that can be fixed with a bandaid or a bit of oil, which really misses the point of this amazing system that is us!
We are more than the sum of the parts which are tended to separately by each of our specialist medical professionals. We are not made up of bits and pieces, but are a finely tuned organism that is self-regulating if given half a chance.
That is not to say we should never see a GP and never have a blood test or a scan to assess what is going on physically. I always say that the diagnostic tools of the medical world are their best offering and of course antibiotics can be a lifesaver but only if used infrequently.
One of the things that is happening because of the general mistrust of the medical profession is that more and more people are self-medicating, which is in itself a similar problem in many cases to the medication issue. Supplements, herbs and the many other evolving natural treatments can sometimes be suppressive or even toxic as well. In my practice over-supplementation, poor gut function, thyroid and adrenal stress can be really clearly identified on a hair test, just as examples.
It’s just hard to know the truth and sometimes your only truth is how your body feels. Sadly in a toxic world we can all struggle no matter how pure our diet or our air and water. It’s unavoidable and we just have to do our best.
However, there are some things that we need to understand from a more holistic perspective and this is that if you keep taking a pill (prescribed, over-the-counter, some supplements, etc) to “fix” symptoms and “reduce inflammation” or regularly apply a cream to get rid of a rash, you are not getting rid of these symptoms. They are not gone, they are suppressed.
Eczema & Asthma
This is why when your child has eczema (inflammation) and the creams fix the rash, the rash comes back if you stop the cream (inflammation). And why if they keep having ear infections (more inflammation), the antibiotics (oral or topical) work for a bit and then they don’t work (inflammation again), so stronger drugs are required.
We need to understand that the symptoms we experience are a sign that our system is out of balance. Drugs don’t bring balance, they suppress until they can’t suppress anymore and then more drugs are required.
If we continue to use drugs to get rid of this inflammation, then the symptom stops trying to come back at the original site and the problem is pushed deeper into the system.
This is not good!
To have symptoms on the skin, while it looks bad, is not nearly as much of an issue as having asthma, which is a more chronic inflammatory state, now termed an auto-immune condition.
Fever
Fever is another example where I am often giving an explanation of the inflammatory process. It’s the body’s natural way of burning off infection and healing. But parents these days fear fever. They don’t understand the purpose of fever because they are no longer educated. In a normally healthy child (and we don’t see so many these days) they will throw a high fever and then they will begin to recover. This means the body is allowed to complete the process, resolve the inflammation and return to balance.
The biggest benefit of this natural inflammatory process is that it very often arises at points of childhood development. If we allow the body to work its way through these processes with minimal assistance, there are leaps in development and milestones are met. The immune system becomes stronger and more resilient and the acute illnesses become further apart as this happens.
Here’s a post I wrote previously with reference to the Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne) advice on fevers.
I’m certainly not saying that a child should never have Panadol or Neurofen or see their GP if they are in pain or have had an extended period of fever. Sadly some children don’t have the natural immune response in this generation of kids to be able to overcome a fever on their own. What I’m saying is that we need to remind ourselves what fever is for and how we can manage it with the drugs as the last resort, rather than the first.
Many parents are also being taught that these drugs are good to give if a child doesn’t sleep well or is restless on a flight, and I’ve certainly heard tales of this advice from mums in clinic!
Back in my early days in practice drugs like Neurofen and Nexium, just as examples, were available on prescription only from the GP, but once the drug patents ran out, they suddenly became available over-the-counter. You could just go into the pharmacy and buy them. Initially Neurofen was only for adults, next thing it was also for kids and that’s where we are today. Many drugs are repurposed for kids (and pets), still with their side-effects and many with long term implications for chronic health, which are now appearing in the mainstream medical publications.
This is not the place I want to get into sharing studies on the outcomes of giving these drugs to children and early onset asthma, for example, but you can search for yourself and see why Australia has one of the highest rates of asthma in the world. Not the only reason, but certainly one of.
Asthma, eczema, allergies
Just going back to the topic of suppression, there are of course many other conditions that will appear if symptoms are suppressed and driven further into the system. Asthma, allergies and eczema are one of the best examples with kids, because it’s the one we see so often.
You start out with eczema, apply cortisone creams and bingo no more eczema. Then, completely unrelated according to your GP, allergies start to appear. No problem, give antihistamines every day and the allergies are gone. If they don’t go you can always do desensitisation, next level suppression. Yay, allergies gone, but next thing is asthma.
Hormone (and thyroid) issues
Hormonal issues (painful periods, infertility, PCOS, endometriosis, difficult menopause, etc) are another issue where suppression or manipulation are a factor. We see these issues so often these days it’s considered normal. Chronic and autoimmune conditions at this level have also ramped up over the past 25 years.
What is the elephant in the room with these hormonal issues?
Artificial hormones – contraceptives, IVF, HRT (and I would add to that the Gardasil jab).
We are now seeing a third generation (possibly fourth) who have had their hormones suppressed or manipulated with a pot pourri of artificial hormones starting from the oral contraceptive (OCP) in the 60s, and each generation the problem goes deeper.
We are told it’s fine to stop our period coming, to take the pill for painful periods or bad skin, to use IVF to improve fertility, and now it’s becoming fashionable again to take HRT, but if we look a little more than skin deep we can see we have a major problem and more hormones aren’t making things better.
And so the original condition is driven deeper and deeper and many of us will know that one of the ultimate suppressions – mental and emotional – is cancer.
The Progression of Ill Health
This a topic that we explore extensively when we study homeopathy. Many of you who have seen a homeopath know that sometimes things get a little worse when you start treatment as the system attempts to rebalance itself. Sometimes old symptoms reappear briefly in the process, a sign we are working through layers and having a clear out.
The biggest topic for discussion with many patients is that old symptoms usually reappear in the reverse direction of their original appearance, moving from the more vital organs where things have been suppressed to, out to the more superficial levels such as the skin and mucous membranes where it all started.
When I was thinking about an image for this post I thought about the story of the Princess and the Pea. Our beautiful selves on the top of a massive pile (layers) of mattresses, and to my way of thinking our core wound or our sensitivity at the bottom, ie the pea. No matter how many mattresses or how much suppression, that darn pea is still there, hidden but not forgotten by your system.
Symptoms as a Vent
Occasionally where symptoms have been in evidence a long time or healing is just not quite complete, patients will end up with what I call a vent. It’s that tiny spot that you just can’t clear up or the last little symptom with the lungs. To my mind it’s the place perhaps where it all started or just an indicator that you’re not quite there with treatment. If you try and get rid of that vent with drugs, eg cortisone or stronger creams on a tiny, annoying patch of eczema, you can drive the symptoms deeper – see below.
An example of a symptom I have seen in practice which illustrated this very well was a non-healing leg ulcer. When the ulcer was healed with antibiotics and other drugs, mental symptoms appeared. When the ulcer was allowed to heal naturally with medical honey and homeopathics, the mental symptoms also improved.
But these vents are often a good indicator of stress and symptoms ramping up remind you it’s there! Too much stress, the eczema on your ring finger flares. It’s not time to put cortisone on it to suppress it, it’s time to look at your lifestyle and work out why you’re stressed! If you know why and you know it’s temporary, then leave it alone and just manage it naturally.
Symptoms Going Deeper
Below is a list of the direction of decline as symptoms are suppressed more and more. You can see the problem pushing deeper into the organism. But very often, somewhere in there, the mind and emotions are affected as part of the picture.
In some cases, where the system is extremely stressed (and often this is observed where we have suppressed emotions/trauma), the less severe levels, eg skin or mucous membranes, will be completely bypassed and symptoms will appear immediately at a deep level. Each individual is going to manifest their dis-ease differently, but the more serious the problem, the deeper the issue has penetrated.
- 1. Skin – we may see symptoms on the skin in childhood such as eczema and this is often the first we see of dis-ease. As mums we want our babies to be perfect, but we need to see this as the immune system’s message that something is out of balance.
- 2. Mucous Membranes – the ears, nose, throat, tonsils, gut, etc may be affected if we suppress the skin, or may just be the starting point, skipping the skin altogether.
- 3. Musculoskeletal system – symptoms pushing a bit deeper may appear as arthritis, back pain, growing pains, bone symptoms.
- 4. Lung Conditions – further suppression may move symptoms to the lungs as asthma, bronchitis, bronchiectasis, COPD.
- 5. The Gut – let’s not forget the gut, which is the main focus for so many professionals these days and can be implicated at any stage of the process. Sometimes along with the skin, sometimes not until things are going deeper. But gut symptoms are always a sign that things are not well and the problem is not necessarily just in the gut!
- 5. Endocrine Disorders – thyroid issues, adrenal function, fatigue may appear as the system becomes more unbalanced.
- 6. Organ Dysfunction – these major organs can start being involved at any point and of course the liver and kidneys are major organs of elimination and the heart is a single organ which is necessary for life.
- 7. Brain & Nervous System – when conditions like MS, Parkinsons and other similar conditions appear we know things are happening at a deep level where positive change is more challenging to achieve, but not impossible.
How do we work in Homeopathy?
Actually this starts off with why do we ask so many questions in homeopathy?
I approach a case like an archeologist. I dig and delve, gently going deeper to see if I can find out where the original symptoms started. Sometimes this is a traumatic event, sometimes it’s a high intervention pregnancy or delivery, sometimes we can see that it originated further up the family line. Frequently drugs have contributed to the issue going deeper.
You may not be familiar with homeopathy, so here’s a bit of a rundown on how homeopathy works, which will help you understand why a consultation for these more chronic types of issues is always the best way forward.
Homeopathy treats the whole person, not just the symptoms or a named condition, so a consultation looks at the whole person, inherited tendencies, family medical history, environment, gut function, conception, pregnancy, delivery and of course vaccination history, if a factor. We also look at the mental/emotional aspects, as well as any trauma.
The aim is to select individualised remedies to bring the system back into balance. Each case is unique, as are the remedies chosen, so five children with glue ear, for example, would likely all receive a different remedy or treatment plan.
The way we look at a case means that immune function as well as mental/emotional health are considered in the course of the consult. We tend to find a well selected homeopathic remedy will address most of what’s going on.
Every person regardless of conventional diagnosis or presentation is likely to receive different remedies because everyone is unique and we are treating the person, not just the symptoms. With well over 5000 remedies to choose from we have a lot of scope to individualise, far more so than the remedies which you will often find listed on the internet.
Because I am often very booked up and I want you to have the best support, my trusted colleagues list can be found here. Just scroll down the page to find the list. You’re welcome to check in with me first to see what my availability is.
About Melanie Creedy
Melanie has used homeopathy since the mid-1980s and has been in practice since 1998. For many years she ran The Children’s Ear Clinic in Western Australia, but since her tree change to Tasmania, has a special interest in helping individuals manage their life and health through looking at a diagnosis or condition in relation to the symbolism of this unique picture. Armed with a range of remedies from the most common to the most unusual and esoteric, Melanie guides people to plumb the depths of their life and spiritual path with homeopathy to help them find insights, to understand and to heal.
Melanie has developed her own methods of dealing with complex cases over the years, including detoxing and homeopathic chelation, and offers distance consultations via phone and zoom to allow people Australia-wide to access her services.
Melanie Creedy is a Licentiate of the British School of Homeopathy in the UK and holds a Bachelor of Health Science in Homeopathy. She is registered with the Australian Register of Homoeopaths (AROH) and is a member of the Australian Homoeopathic Association. She was Vice President and Professional Development Coordinator of the Australian Homoeopathic Association from 2011 to 2015 and editor of the AHA National Newsletter from 2012 to 2020.
Homeopathy is a traditional medicine. It may be used in conjunction with other medicines. For any ongoing chronic condition, it is important to be assessed or examined by your healthcare professional or specialist. Always seek medical advice in emergencies. The information provided in this blog does not constitute medical advice but is for information only. If in doubt as to the appropriateness of a suggestion or treatment seek advice from your homeopath.