This is the eighth episode in a series highlighting homeopathic remedies I carry with me all the time. There are almost 50, so it will take a while to complete!

I don’t know what it is about Belladonna that causes me to be so intrigued by it. Maybe it’s the Latin name, which means “lovely lady,” or the common name of “Deadly Nightshade.” The Nightshade family of plants includes banana peppers, potatoes and tomatoes, also some of my favorites, along with a host of other plants that we shouldn’t be eating if we want to live. There’s a great list here. I loved learning about Belladonna in the Academy of Practical Homeopathy, and reading about how Samuel Hahnemann found that the genius method of dilution and succussion that he discovered changed toxins like Belladonna into tremendously effective agents of cure. When Dr. Hahnemann was practicing conventional medicine, he and his colleagues were taught to use Belladonna, Mercury, Digitalis, and other poisons as medicines. They had to be extremely careful with their dosages or they would kill rather than heal their patients. Hahnemann quit practicing medicine because the treatment of far too many patients worked to their detriment rather than their benefit, and far too many died from the overzealous use of deadly toxins used as “cures” in their gross (original) form. I love to imagine the joy he must have felt when he realized that his signature process of finding the “minimum dose” could turn all of those substances into healers.

Homeopathically, Belladonna is used for many of the same pathologies that Hahnemann’s colleagues used it for in their day: fevers, pain, delirium, and the like. Except with Belladonna 3c, 6c, 30c, 200c, etc. there is no risk of overdose. The main mistake that can be made with any homeopathic medicine is taking a remedy too frequently, which can cause a slight negative response that’s usually easily handled by stopping the remedy and taking a strong sniff of mint.

Belladonna in potency has been used throughout homeopathy’s 200+ year history to bring the following illnesses to a successful resolution: Measles, mumps, joint pain, gout, boils, ovarian cysts or pain, sinus infection, respiratory infection, scarlet fever, tonsils, glandular swelling, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, cataracts, stroke (excerpted from Nature’s Materia Medica by Robin Murphy). It’s referenced in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (Alcott was an advocate for and user of homeopathy). And it’s in my everyday remedy box at all times.

I would love to share more information about homeopathy with you. Please click “subscribe” below to join my homeopathy email list, and consider taking one of my classes! If you would like to schedule an individual consultation about a health problem you’re experiencing, just send me an email and we’ll get the process started.

For even more information on Belladonna, check out this blog by my mentor, Joette Calabrese! As always, please subscribe, email, or comment to keep the conversation going.

This is the seventh episode in a series highlighting homeopathic remedies I carry with me all the time. There are almost 50, so it will take a while to complete!

Arsenicum album is the first homeopathic remedy I used that I truly understood as medicine. Like many other people, I used Arnica cream (see the previous post) without knowing that the word “homeopathic” on the label meant that it was a potentized form of the Arnica flower, diluted and succussed in a sterile environment until it was reduced to nanoparticles that would enter your cells and stimulate them to move into homeostasis due to the Law of Similars, a natural law discovered by Samuel Hahnemann in the late 1700s. If your eyes have glazed over, that’s OK – there’s a LOT about homeopathy that we haven’t been told and I’m eternally grateful to have learned so much at the Academy of Practical Homeopathy and its Mastery program. That’s what enables me to share this essential information with you!

Back to Arsenicum, the true subject of this blog. When my daughter was very sick to her stomach in the summer of 2020 and there were no good options for me to get her checked out, a friend offered to bring us a sample of “a natural medicine that had helped” when she had a similar illness. I am so glad I trusted my friend enough to give my daughter the medicine! It was Arsenicum album, and within minutes of taking the little pellets, her nausea was completely gone. This was after days of suffering. Of course I had to know more about the little pellets, and my friend introduced me to Practical Homeopathy^(c). I am eternally grateful.

Arsenicum is one of the oldest remedies in our Materia Medica (the encyclopedia of homeopathic medicines), and its actions are well-documented and incredibly broad. It’s a fantastic gut remedy, especially for difficult and potentially dangerous illnesses such as dysentery and food poisoning. My mentor, Joette Calabrese, shares a story about her husband feeling terrible after eating a serving of turkey that had gone bad, and how Arsenicum saved him a lot of trouble. It’s definitely worth a read!

The benefits of Arsenicum aren’t limited to the gut, though. It’s also the #1 remedy in our Practical Homeopathy^(c) protocols for rashes on the skin that itch and/or burn. It’s a great remedy for anxiety in people who need to exercise control over their life and environment. And it can help ease the restlessness and pain associated with the end of life (think: alternative to high doses of Morphine). To see what one of the master homeopaths of the past said about Arsenicum album, look at this entry from his Materia Medica, but be aware that it will take a few minutes to read! Arsenicum album is an important, historic, effective, and broadly applied remedy.

William Boericke, another homeopathic master, wrote this about Arsenicum: “A profoundly acting remedy on every organ & tissue; its clear-cut characteristic symptoms in correspondence to may severe types of disease make its homeopathic employment constant & certain.”

Samuel Hahnemann, the 18th Century physician who discovered homeopathy, wrote this about Arsenicum in his book, Materia Medica Pura: “As I write down the word, ‘arsenic,’ considerations throng upon my mind. When the beneficent Creator made iron, He no doubt permitted the children of men to fashion it wither into the murderous dagger or the gentle plowshare, wherewith to kill or feed their fellow creatures. How much happier would they be did they employ His gifts only for the purpose of doing good. This should be the aim of their life. This was His desire.” Yes, Arsenicum album is, indeed, arsenic. A deadly poison in its gross form, that will most surely take the life of the person who ingests it. However, the homeopathic process of dilution and succussion reduces the original substance so completely that an overdose is impossible, but instead its curative properties are released and even a toxin as deadly as arsenic becomes an agent of healing. Isn’t God’s creation amazing?

I would love to share more information about homeopathy with you. Please click “subscribe” below to join my homeopathy email list, and consider taking one of my classes! If you would like to schedule an individual consultation about a health problem you’re experiencing, just send me an email and we’ll get the process started.

Oh, one more thing – Arsenicum can be helpful in uprooting Alpha-Gal! Yep, you heard that correctly. Check out this blog by Joette Calabrese for more on that, and feel free to message me or comment for more information!