Latest / Motherhood Alliance Podcast / Homeopathy for Colds, Flu & Everyday First Aid w/ Beth Bundy | fieldwork homeopathy
Transcript
- Britney Suttner: Hi, this is Brittany from motherhoodalliance.com and I'm excited to welcome you to a new four episode series with Beth Bundy, a certified classical homeopath, registered nurse, public health nurse, and co-founder of Fieldwork Homeopathy. With experience in both conventional healthcare and homeopathic medicine, Beth brings a unique perspective to healing that considers the full picture, mind, body, emotions, environment, and family dynamics. Through her virtual practice, she works with children and adults experiencing a wide range of challenges with a special focus on mental and emotional health, including anxiety, depression, grief, mood swings, anger and rage, perfectionism, concentration difficulties, learning challenges, hypersensitivities of all kinds, birth trauma, generational trauma, and many other things. Hello everyone, welcome back to our fourth episode in this homeopathy series. Beth has been providing us with a world of knowledge and we are so thankful to invite you back to the fourth episode. Welcome back Beth. Beth: Thank you, let's jump in. Britney Suttner: Yeah, we're gonna just jump right in. so just to kind of lay the groundwork here though, we're gonna be talking about. acute care, so short-term care, things that would kind of come and go on their own. So colds, flus, injuries, maybe things we're going to experience in the summer more so like sunburns, mosquito bites, all those types of things. But if somebody is standing in a store where they would typically go with their kiddo or themselves or experiencing any of these things, they're going to see a plethora of liquids and creams that can help with this. So why should somebody consider homeopathy versus maybe some more of the standard options? Beth: have to give a shout out to like herbal medicine too. Like there are amazing like herbal cough syrups and herbal, you know, immune booster, like amazing. So if a family or individual has kind of a medicine cabinet where they have a lot of herbal things in them too, that's incredible. Those also can often really move somebody through, you know, an acute illness. and the herbs are working with the person's own physiology to move them through it. I think, and you can certainly use homeopathic remedies and herbs at the same time together. You can do all the things together at the same time. Whatever will help to support the fever or whatever is going on. Yeah, homeopathy, just, I think for someone walking into the aisle, like for the first time and looking at the remedies, it often feels bewildering, honestly, because what they, often what is put like on the label on the tube is not all that the remedy can be used for. And so if you're looking for something for flu, You're just by looking at the labels on the tubes, it's not going to help you. You're not going to find what you need. And this can be a barrier to using it actually. Britney Suttner: Yeah, and I think as people are shifting from conventional medicine and just going and getting a day quill into understanding what homeopathy is and how it actually works and how it supports our system in a whole new way, it can be really overwhelming, like you're saying. And then the remedies themselves don't actually say blatantly like a day quill would on what it's going to cure for you. So it does take a learning curve. But going back to the... standing in the aisle type thing, there are some products that if let's say somebody has a kiddo that is starting with some cold symptoms, we've been talking about how in your practice, you only recommend one remedy at a time. And you spend some time first figuring out which one is going to be the best based on the symptoms that you're experiencing. But there are some where you get a bottle of kids, you know, daytime cold medicine and it has like six homeopathy, like medicines basically, remedies listed on that bottle. Is that even helpful? Is it not? Would you recommend those? Would you not tell us about those? Because those are everywhere. Beth: They are everywhere and they're interesting because I see a mixed success with it. Sometimes there's a remedy in there that does match what the illness picture is and it works for that person. And at the end of the day, that's all we care about, that it works, right? So some people find that like Boyran makes like cold calm or allergy calm. Like those are kind of some of the brand name, you know, combination remedies is what we call them when there's multiple in one that you'll see. And if it works for you, awesome. And if you're walking into that aisle and it's your first time using homeopathy and you just want to try that, awesome, use it. will probably help. would probably move something because otherwise, Otherwise, in order to select one remedy for the picture, you kind of have to have a book. You kind of have to have at least a reference for how to choose one. So a little bit of, you have to kind of dig into your resources if that's something that appeals to The other thing about the combination remedies is that when there are multiple in one preparation, It's kind of like the body is receiving 10 different messages at once. It would be sort of like standing in a circle of people and they're all talking to you and saying something different. So it can, and those combination remedies have not been tested to understand how they work together. So they... A lot of them kind of negate each other. lot of them, like it ends up being, it just may not do much at all. But for some people it does. And I don't know why that is. It's just our individual constitution, it works. So they can often be a gateway and awesome. If people want to start with that, that's great. Britney Suttner: One other question is about dosing that we haven't talked about yet. And I know we've touched on dosing, the basics of it in episode one, we talked about these acute dosing, using dosages for acute care in the last episode. But I know in my home kit, which we're gonna link to some home kits in the show notes, but in my home kit, I may have the same remedy in 30C and then the same thing in 200C. So when it comes to the different... remedies you're going to be sharing with us in this episode because you're going to help us build kind of a first aid kit for physical things too, which I'm excited about. How do you know which one you should be using if you get a home kit and it has multiple options? Beth: So in general, a 30C is a bit more on the physical level. It does often include mental-emotional, but it's more kind of physical. The 200C is a higher potency. It goes deeper into the mental-emotional space. So if there's an illness where... there's a ton of fear or there's a ton of anxiety with it or lots and lots of crying, I would use a 200. So it's kind of like, is the emotional piece really prominent? Then go with the higher. But if you don't have a 200, that's awesome, because most of the stores just have 30 seat, just use that, it's gonna work great too. Yeah. Britney Suttner: Okay, that is helpful. just have all these. So this is an episode where I'm like picking your brain because I've been using homeopathy for a while with first aid things. Before we jump into the actual remedies themselves, is this safe for pets? Are all remedies safe for pets? Are some like definitely a no-no? know, like dogs can't have grapes and the remedies like that. So tell us about using these for our fur children. Beth: You can use every remedy for your fur babies and birds or reptiles, whoever, any animal. Yes, even in zoos, they use them with elephants. I mean, they use them. Everyone can take a remedy. So they're all safe for all of them. And with animals, my gosh, it's amazing. It works so well. Like they do really well with it. So yes, they... They do great. Britney Suttner: Hey, no, that's great to know, great to know. All right, I'm let you take the floor here with walking us through building our at-home first aid kit. Which remedy should be included in it and what things do they commonly help with? Beth: Okay, So for a really nice first aid kit, there's like five or six that I generally recommend. So we talked about Arnica in the last, our last episode. any kind of injury, accident, fall, bruises, any kind of bumper bruise where you're like, that's gonna be a goose egg. I can see it coming. I know what's gonna happen. Arnica all the way. Any kind of over exertion. Like if you're a weekend warrior and you haven't been to the gym but you go out and do yard work all day and you feel so sore. That's Arnica, any kind of overworking. Arnica is just, or you go to the gym and you do it a bit too hard, you're really sore, do some Arnica. It's just, it's just amazing. Like it helps so much. Aconite, we also talked about last time for any sudden fright, fear, accident. So like panic, anything that brings on a panic. hyperventilating, heart palpitations, really just restlessly really scared. Could be anything at all. Okay then the third one actually is usually apis who I was showing earlier. Apis mellifica made from the honeybee. So even like in the fall when we're out at the apple orchard and there are hornets, there are wasps, there are bees eating all the apples and it's incredible for bee stings, wasps, hornets, all of those critters who get into our socks and sting us. Amazing. You know how painful it is? Like I got stung by a bee last summer on my hand and I... forgot how much it hurts. It hurts a lot. It hurts a lot. So I was taking apis and it really took the edge off. The swelling was minimal and really in a very short time I felt really a lot better. So apis is one to have on hand. Apis is also amazing for if anybody has food allergies, sensitivities and they eat something like at a gathering or something and they start to have the hives kind of anaphylaxis. itching situation, give apis and then go to the emergency room or do the EpiPen, but it will Fourth one would be a remedy called Hypericum. Hypericum perfulatum. It's actually made from St. John's wort, the plant. Excellent remedy for injuries to the nerves. So another injury remedy, but if you slam your finger in the car door, or under the hood of your car or you fall on your tailbone. If you bite your tongue and it like hurts a ton and it feels like that neurologic feeling. If you get cut somehow and it's really like nervy pain, that electrical pain that kind of moves up the limb kind of shooting hypericum all the Even like dental pain. You you bite a funny on your tooth and you get the zingers, take hypericum. So anything nerve, nerve inflammation, nerve injury. Incredible. Really helpful. And then the fifth one would actually be, I know we're still in tick season, so wood ticks, deer ticks, which is a big topic, especially in our region, right? Huge, huge proponent of a remedy called leadum. Lidum palustre. It is made from marsh rosemary plant, which actually grows up in Door County. First remedy to think of for if you find a tick embedded or it's starting to be embedded, know, do all the things, try to get the whole thing out. Do Lidum for like three days, like every two to three hours for three days. Lidum has an affinity for puncture wounds, actually. And what's a tick bite? It's actually kind of a miniature puncture wound, right? And so it will help to prevent any kind of sequelae, co-infections, know, this fear about Lyme, like really, really, it's so incredible. knock on wood, I have all of my clients have Lidum with them. They take it if they've found a tick on them. starting to be embedded and I haven't had anybody who's developed any fever or anything as of yet. Now that's not to say that it's 100 % nothing is, but it's preventatively incredibly amazing. Britney Suttner: I love this. This is so helpful. Did you have Beth: Yeah. Britney Suttner: one more for this first aid kit? thought you said six. Beth: I... let me think of one. I actually, I have a little first aid kit that just has the five that we talked about. Britney Suttner: Okay. Well, how about a couple of them that come to mind for me is what about burns? Like if a kiddo gets a burn, Beth: yes. Britney Suttner: whether it's on a stove or by a fire pit. Beth: Yep, burns, burns, burns. Thank you. This is great. So there's a remedy called cantharis, cantharis vesicatoria. It's actually made from an insect. It's made from the Spanish fly. And for any kind of burn, yes, whether on your stove, at the fire, where, and equally so, burns are so painful. I burned myself on the stove not too long ago and Forgot how much it hurts. It hurts so much. Like to Kantharis, it will work incredibly fast, incredibly fast with the, you know, when the pain is like burning, Britney Suttner: Yeah. Beth: that burning excruciating, and when you want to put an ice pack on it. And literally, if you lift the ice pack off for one second, the pain comes back. It's that kind of burn pain. It will, it will. It will work so quickly you will be amazed. And it will help and actually for deeper burns, it can help prevent blistering and it can help prevent it from going into the deeper layers of the dermis and the skin. So good one. Britney Suttner: Okay, well let's build the next layer of our first aid kit at home of cold and flu. Beth: Mm-hmm. Okay, there are, there's one. One or two, so one for cold and flu, generally speaking, the remedy arsenicum, arsenicum album, it's made from arsenic, actually, the mineral, is like my go-to for when a cold, it's kind of that classic head cold presentation where, but you start to feel like, my nose is running, I'm starting to feel congested. I'm a little bit chilly. Maybe my eyes are burning a little. I'm sneezing. I have a little tickly cough and I'm feeling anxious about getting sick because I don't want to get sick and I have stuff to do and I'm too busy to be ill. That's arsenicum, even in a little kid. So if you are starting to kind of like feel those initial symptoms, if you take arsenicum right away, like every couple of hours for 24 hours, it generally will cut it off at the pass completely and it won't develop into anything bigger. If it does, that means that your body actually needs to go through some kind of inflammatory processes like a clean out situation or an immune system strengthening. So then the symptom picture might change and you might have to match something else to it. But generally speaking, a lot of the time it will completely resolve it and you won't get sick. It's such an amazing resource to have. Britney Suttner: What about pulsatilla? What is that typically Beth: Mm-hmm. Britney Suttner: used for? Because I think that's one that I've heard of a lot. Beth: Yep, Pulsatilla is really for adults and kids, mostly for kids. So I do give it to adults actually quite a lot. The kind of classic presentation of Pulsatilla and when you would use it would be a head cold or like bronchitis or some upper respiratory thing where it's kind of the more ripe. stage of the illness where your body is starting to discharge all the goop. It's goopy, all the phlegm, all the mucus is now coming out and it's thick, it's yellowish green, it's creamy, it's copious, you're full, you're just full, your sinuses are full, it's just like how much more can come out of my face? How much more can I cough up? That's Pulsatilla. without a doubt and it's like you can't lay flat to sleep you have to prop yourself up because you can't breathe and generally you feel kind of like you might feel a little weepy or kind of wanting comfort or clingy and just kind of sad when you have that going on but like the weepy kid you know who's sick and Britney Suttner: I like... yeah. I was gonna say, does that heal pity parties? Cause that's pretty much what we all have when we have sickness, right? Beth: Yes, if that is, if it's a pity party, it's probably Pulsatilla. Because yes, the all love. Yes. I love it. I love that. Exactly. Yeah. Britney Suttner: funny. There we go. PP. That's how we're gonna remember that. Palsatilla for pity parties. How about upset stomach? Stomach bugs. Beth: Mm-hmm. Okay, so stomach bugs. So arsenicum, which we just talked about for the head cold. Equally, first remedy you think of for food poisoning without a doubt. Give arsenicum like you ate something bad and it's now coming out. Arsenicum all the way and you're like freezing, you know, all the, all the things. So that you'd think of number one. Nux vomica also we talked about kind of emotionally for like overwrought, over scheduled, know, teens who are irritable. Also an amazing remedy for tummy upset, especially when you overate. Like you went to a party and the food was so good and you ate too much in your livers. Like, I'm sorry, I can't deal with all of this. and you're bloated and crampy and nauseous and that kind of thing. Noxomocas, great. Yeah. Britney Suttner: Yeah. Okay. Fever, aches, chills, still that same arsenicome. Beth: Yes, if that is part of that kind of initial runny nose, chilly, sneezy picture and it's like body aches, right? It's more tipping into kind of maybe a more influenza type scenario, arsenicum all the way. There's two others that I recommend in that situation too. So one, especially for flu-y. flu-y, COVID-y, body achy kind of whatevers that come. So one is Jelcemium, which we talked about for anticipatory anxiety. It's one of our number one flu and COVID remedies. Absolutely incredible. And it has the same picture of like, the symptoms generally come on really slowly over several days. They're kind of building. And then once you're sick, you're like, I'm so sick. I feel droopy, sleepy, achy all over. My body's heavy. I can't hold my head up. I just want to be left alone. I don't want to move. It's just, you know, the terrible flu feeling. That's Josemian. And then a second one is called Brionia. Brionia alba is made from wild hops. That's another incredible flu remedy. Similar onset like gel semiam, kind of a couple days, and then like the high fever flushed face. With bryonia, it's like your whole body feels dry. And if you're laying there in your fever, and you even like move your toe, or you move your eyes, your whole body hurts. Like moving anything hurts, it hurts because everything is dried out. That's bryonia. So that will help move a person through that more quickly. When someone's really sick though like that, it takes a few days to kind of move through, Britney Suttner: Sure. Beth: but you'll suffer a lot less. Britney Suttner: Yeah, yeah, which is always important to remember when you're in the midst of the suffering, right? And you, I mean, we're in such a microwave society where you take remedy and you're like, okay, I'm not better yet. It's like, I do Beth: Yes. Britney Suttner: appreciate how you've kind of explained slow moving sicknesses move slower out, like the ones that come in slowly come out slowly and the things that hit you fast kind of can leave faster. I'm guessing you've probably already hit a remedy for this, but it's pretty common. So just want to touch on it. Headaches and migraines. Beth: Yes. So, belladonna that we talked about with the kiddos having the tantrums, incredible headache remedy, migraine remedy, And a belladonna headache is like that type where you feel like your head is going to explode. Like it literally the volcano kid, like it is, it is pulsing. It is throbbing. Like you can feel like your carotids are just your, your skull is holding too much pressure. It's going to just explode and you just, you just want to be quiet and somewhere dark, not have any noise or light. Like this is kind of a more migraine advanced kind of feeling, but like, But it can come on after being like at football practice, you're dehydrated, you were in the sun too long and you've got this pounding, pounding headache, that's Belladonna. It will take care of it quickly. A second headache remedy is actually made from salt. It's Natrium Myriaticum. That kind of headache feels more like 1000 tiny hammers hammering or like a vice a vice like a the band of your hat. Squeezing squeezing and it's so painful. And again, you just want to be laying down in a quiet room. No stimuli. Yeah, it can help move that through really quickly to Britney Suttner: Okay, another one that comes to mind, I'm just spitballing all the ones I want to know that happened in my family, right? Is like at the end of a cold, when you just have that like deep cough that just continues seems like forever. What about like cough specific? Beth: coughs are more challenging actually like coughs Puffs can be just more challenging. And yes, when something hangs on for weeks and weeks, that usually indicates that there's in that person's body or their constitution, they have a little bit of a lung weakness or a bronchial weakness that it's, can't, the body can't fully complete the cycle or resolve it on its own. to think of ones that I would give in that situation. So often if it's a if it's still remaining like a deep chesty cough and there's still rattling goo in there and it's really hard it's thick it's hard to get it up and out you know like you can hear your kid or your spouse coughing and you're like it sounds terrible but they can't cough it up and out so a remedy for that would be cost to come. called causticum. It's a mineral, it's like calcium sulfur mineral salt. So causticum is one and it's the feeling of like, if I could only cough this up, I would feel so much better, but I can't. Britney Suttner: Thank you. Beth: That kind of feeling and it can kind of linger and keep going. So I would think of that one mainly for that. Britney Suttner: This is a pretty good first aid kit. Between the last one and this one, mean, these are a lot. This is so great. Thank you so much for just sharing these tangible things that parents can do in their houses. Is there anything else that comes to mind from a first aid kit at home that people should just have on hand? Beth: I that's a pretty solid grouping. If you Britney Suttner: Pretty good list. Beth: just had those, you would cover most stuff that you needed. Britney Suttner: Okay, awesome. Well, I do want to just remind people, I know you said it in a prior episode, but you are available for acute consultations for anyone, whether they're doing like long term care with you or not. So if you are if you're dabbling in homeopathy, but you get to a point where you're just feeling kind of stuck and you want Beth's opinion, we will have all of her information in the show notes. We do like to end a series with a question though, and that is what is the future of your business hold? So what's What's in the future for field work homeopathy? Beth: Hmm. You know, I like I'm I'm living the dream that I dreamt about having for so long even in nursing school, which was a long time ago. now, but like, like I the the place that my practice is in my focus on this mental, emotional and then the physical all together and helping kids and families and family systems and family constellations and helping people and kids like patterns that they're stuck in that are limiting them that are, you know, obscuring their own spark, their own individuality, their own creative gifts, their own work that they're meant to do in the world. I get to do this every day. It is the love of my life. It is the most fun I've ever had. It's so fulfilling. So really, I'm living it. And I just, think the more families I get to work with, the more people like the better the world is. And that's, Britney Suttner: I love that. Beth: that just, it's extremely meaningful to me. Yeah. Britney Suttner: Yeah, well, and you're not only helping the individual people that are working with you directly, but you're helping to educate the public on new ways of thinking about our health, which I think is a huge, huge step. And it goes far beyond the number of clientele that you could even work with if your books were full, right? But just a reminder, I do have the links to everything Beth. in the show notes, including we're going to have some at home kits, some resources, a book that she recommends, links to her social media, her website, ways to contact her, all that jazz. Thank you, Beth, so much for joining us for all four of these episodes. Beth: Thank you so much. This has been so much fun and I'm so grateful for the community that you have built and provided for