Homeopathy to treat the body and heart of Nepalese people

On April 25, the earth shook in Nepal.
Andrew Lustig, president of Global Outreach Doctors in New Mexico, asked me to join his emergency medical team on a mission to Nepal. Andrew and I collaborated during my second humanitarian work trip to Haiti in 2010. In his medical experience, he is very aware of the effectiveness and multiple benefits of emergency homeopathic care. He wants an integrated, multidisciplinary medical team within his organization, made up of homeopaths, paramedics, nurses, physicians, surgeons, psychologists, and rescue dogs.

Without a shadow of a doubt, I left Indonesia to join the team in Kathmandu.

When the earth shakes the Nepalese, it leaves behind gutted houses, wounded bodies, and bruised, decomposed hearts in the dust. Fortunately, Nepal's first earthquake occurred on a Saturday afternoon in April. Schools and offices were empty, people were working in the fields, and the weather was mild. Despite this, the devastation remained limited.

Yet, there are too many emotional and physical wounds, the loss of loved ones, of parents. The loss of the security of a home one has spent a lifetime building. The possibility that the next aftershock could be fatal. It's a whole life, a reality that changes in a matter of seconds.

Emergency homeopathy?!

The first time I went to work in Haiti after the earthquake, several people asked me, looking puzzled, "But would you mind telling me what a homeopath is going to do in Haiti? What first aid treatment are you going to offer to the seriously injured with your little granules?" At first, their doubts almost contaminated me. But, enriched by my experience in trauma care, I quickly pulled myself together, and thank God! Because the more the days passed in Haiti, the happier and prouder I was to be a homeopath, seeing how quickly the remedies offered relief and then healing to the injured, both physically and emotionally. I heard the same questions before and after my stay in Nepal. Now, it makes me smile. The thoughts that cross my mind? "Ah! If only you knew what I see!"

Head trauma

In trauma of all kinds, including head trauma, in Haiti, Nepal, and Montreal among athletes or accident victims, I have seen how pain, severe headaches, nausea, mental confusion, tinnitus, and inflammation diminished and disappeared with my "little" granules. But where my medical colleagues tell me they remain powerless, lacking resources in the face of mental confusion, dizziness, and other complications of head trauma, a homeopathic dose of the appropriate remedy restored balance and eliminated the symptoms, sometimes in less than 24 hours, without side effects. For that alone, the trip and all that it entails is worth it.

Where homeopathy is beneficial

Homeopathy is beneficial for bone fracture pain. Pain can be reduced and bone strengthening accelerated. Anti-inflammatory medications have their share of side effects, even if they relieve pain. They should be avoided in certain patients, including pregnant women.

To treat and prevent infections of open wounds and cuts.

Lung irritation caused by dust.

Corneal injuries from a foreign body.

A coccyx injury with nerve damage and pain radiating down the leg.

Perforated, lacerated limbs. Stop the bleeding and inflammation while waiting for surgery.

Stop the fever caused by trauma and fear.

Trauma to an internal organ.

The right remedy saves lives.

Diarrhea caused by fear or unsanitary water and subsequent dehydration.

Rheumatic pain developed while sleeping outside, in tents, on the cool, damp ground.

Some examples of what homeopathy offers, with effectiveness and safety.

I insist on safety, this ability to do no harm, to cause no side effects. Isn't this the primary goal of medicine, according to Hippocrates? Primum Non Nocere . First, do no harm.

Even lice?

It was a real joke under the blue tarp roof of our little, improvised, makeshift clinics. "Go see Ingrid, she probably has a cure for that!" Andrew would tell the team members. To the surprise of a fellow nurse, I even had remedies for eliminating lice in my kit! Oh! If I had known, I would have come to see you! We had a good laugh on the road, packed like sardines in the Jeep.

(The lice treatment protocol is in the emergency remedies section of my website)

The emotional shock

Homeopathy is unique in its approach to treating the person with a remedy that matches the specific emotional stress that made them ill.

Where a humanitarian organization like Global Outreach Doctors is keen to have homeopathic care in its ranks in order to offer care at all levels, where homeopathy excels and dazzles me every day, is in its unique ability to treat chronic or acute disorders, taking into account the specific emotional stress that causes the symptoms in an individual. Not to rely solely on diagnosis but rather on the root cause and the entire condition to select one remedy over another. To each their own remedy. Are you following me? Let me explain.

Shaken to the core

Significant stress that we are sensitive to can hit us right in the heart and create an inner shock, an imbalance of vital energy, and disrupt our equilibrium. Our natural defenses are then weakened, which gives free rein to all sorts of latent weaknesses that take the form of symptoms and illness. Not all stress affects us to this extent, and we are not all sensitive to the same type of shock.

Homeopathy does not simply observe the body's injuries. It makes the connection and sees where the injuries originate. The earth shakes houses and shakes hearts: terror in all its forms, collapse at the loss of loved ones, the loss of a humble home, of security, of hope for old age... These shocks to the heart and soul shake the health of some and leave traces on the body and mind of many. But fortunately, the power of homeopathy can restore balance and strengthen health.

How is my grandmother?

In the high mountains of the Kothe region, about four hours' drive from Kathmandu, we set up a small, makeshift clinic under an ancient tree. With the help of our nurse-translator, I see a young boy for a consultation.

He suffers from severe bronchitis and coughs a lot. The experienced doctor I work with (and I must emphasize that our collaboration is perfectly harmonious. Our knowledge complements each other very well) suggests that the dust from the collapsed houses is probably the cause and is considering giving him antibiotics. This is completely normal. Indeed, dust contributes to lung infection. But what is stopping his body from defending itself against it, and not everyone reacts this way to dust?

I asked the boy exactly when he started coughing. Right after the earthquake, he told me. Before that, he was perfectly fine and had never coughed in his life. “What did you feel during the earthquake? What happened?” I asked him. “I was in the fields, and I was immediately very scared for my grandmother who was at home. I felt a pain in my chest, I coughed, and I ran to the house, which I found in ruins with my grandmother dead under the rubble.”

From a homeopathic point of view, it was the intense fear for his grandmother that weakened his natural defenses and gave way to the cough that deteriorated into bronchitis. For this initial cause of fear of the suffering of others, the remedy he needed was clear. I administered it to him in a liter of water, which I shook, and gave him a sip every five minutes for an hour. Which he did. After an hour, we found a little boy who was coughing much less and whose lungs were clearer. Before we left the village, he had hardly coughed at all. His lungs were clearly on the right track. He was able to continue taking his remedy in water for a week. Not only would the remedy heal his lungs but it would strengthen his overall physical, emotional, and mental state in the shock he was going through.

The precision of professionally practiced unicist homeopathy is such that if the shock had been the fear of shock, the fear of dying, an agitated fear or a frozen fear, the grief of losing one's grandmother or something else, the remedy to be administered would have been completely different. It is also interesting to note that in some people, the body remains solid and balanced despite the shocks, because their own sensitivity is not solicited.

What sticks to our skin and body

Without homeopathy, it can be very difficult to get rid of emotional shock and its lingering effects on the skin and body. Many times my patients tell me they feel like they are shedding a ton of physical and emotional burden. Properly used homeopathy has this extraordinary ability to restore balance to the body and mind that has experienced shock. As incredible as it may seem, that's how it is, and after 18 years of practice, no one can tell me otherwise! As controversial as this medicine may be, it is only the lack of information and knowledge that prevents people from fully appreciating its capabilities.

What are you suffering from?

This pregnant woman being treated for a urinary tract infection caused by the loss of her sister. This frightened young woman who couldn't sleep, suffering from palpitations and high blood pressure. People came in for all sorts of physical ailments, and in some cases, when the cause wasn't physical trauma, when I delved into the rubble of their hearts, I found that the ailments had arisen from emotional shock.

This woman who developed a painful lump in her breast after the loss of her husband. Each received their own homeopathic remedy.

I see again the resilience, the pain experienced in silence, an incredible strength. The hearts leaping with joy, the smiles when I gave thirty dollars to continue necessary hospital treatment. Thirty dollars is so nothing. But it can take you far in Nepal.

On the roads

Under the guidance of the Nepalese Ministry of Health, we went, as much as possible, to places where no medical care had yet been provided, searching for injured people. A close-knit team, dedicated to humanitarian aid and hardworking. People more wonderful than the last. With three Jeeps, three rescue dogs trained to find bodies, about twenty members of our rescue team, sometimes a truckload of food and water to distribute.

I spent 11 days trekking through the high mountains, on winding paths, at 5,600 feet or less, skirting precipices, skirting rockfalls, eating protein bars and pasta, crossing bridges whose strength we sometimes doubted, imploring the gods and angels... searching for villagers in need of medical attention.

Hear the heart of the earth tremble

We were camping on the sand, by the Kothe River, on the side of a Himalayan mountain. At 4:30 that morning, while I was sleeping peacefully in my tent, on my stomach, with my ear to the ground, I was awakened by a strong shaking and a very loud rumbling sound that resonated towards the center of the earth. It was fascinating to hear the earth rumbling so loudly with my ear against the ground. I will never forget it.

I see again those people whom I had the honor of serving with my little granules and wonder what they are doing today. This teenager in flip-flops with a fractured foot to whom I left, in addition to the arnica, my boots. My little toothless hippie grandmother with various injuries who was barely able to leave her house and who told me about her injuries and the landslides in her language as if I understood her. She was so expressive that in fact, I understood her...

A Walk to Nowhere in Kathmandu

In Kathmandu, I had money to distribute that had been sent to me by monk friends from India. I took rickshaw rides to nowhere, knowing that I would hand over a small fortune of $60 to the elderly and tired driver. I will always remember the face filled with joy and sudden energy of this old man. He waved at me for a long time as he rode off on his bike. When he turned the corner, I let a small tear fall. And I started again with another rickshaw, my heart full of joy. Ride to nowhere, going around in circles in Kathmandu! Let's go! Next grandpa rickshaw driver? $60 is so nothing, and so much for this brother on the other side of the world who earns 20 cents per ride. My god, it doesn't take much to train each other! Here or elsewhere. How much time we waste in life with trivialities! And how much can we worry about nothing... Here too, in Quebec, among friends, it doesn't take much to put a smile on the face of someone we love or a stranger. Anyway... What was I saying again?

Grace and Gratitude

I have infinite respect and gratitude for this homeopathic medicine that life has given us through this German physician and chemist, Samuel Hahnemann. My head can only bow before the force of nature that this medicine offers.

I also have great admiration for osteopathy, acupuncture, and Ayurveda. But it is homeopathy that has stolen my heart and that I am blessed to share. With its share of mystery, of course, what a wonderful gift of life.

I am filled with gratitude to have been able to meet the Nepalese people, so profound, resilient, humble, and gentle. These ladies who carry a heavy basket of leaves or branches on their backs and heads for several kilometers every day, climbing the mountain. From the age of 35, they are in pain everywhere. When I find a task difficult, I think of their courage, their resilience, and it puts things into perspective...

At the slightest obstacle, I see the suffering, the humility and the resilience again and tell myself that there are worse things in life than that. "Put things into perspective, Ingrid, put things into perspective..." Today, I see faces again, the smiles I meet, the gentleness of the hands that touched my heart, the soft, laughing voices repeating Namasté! and I wonder what they are doing, how they are. I put money aside for my next rickshaw rides to nowhere. I send them a thought of light and love from the other side of the world and whisper in their ears that I have not forgotten them...

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