Note: Homeopathic Treatment requires strict individualization. Please do not take any medicine without consulting your physician/homeopath.
Our feedback mail includes a request for more comprehensive frostbite/hypothermia
general management information to go along with the Homeopathic
First Aid care described in the February article. Here is
some of the best advice I've found:
In hypothermia:
"Lukewarm baths, of from 31 degrees C to 34 degrees C (88
degrees F to 93 degrees F) serve to awaken the slumbering irritability
of the fibers in cases of apparent death (from freezing, drowning,
asphyxiation) where the feeling of the fibers has been benumbed.
While these baths are only palliative, they often prove themselves
to be sufficiently effective, especially if at the same time coffee
is given and the patient is rubbed (warmed) by hand.
--Aphorism 291, The Organon of Medicine, 6th edition, Samuel
Hahnemann.
In the introduction to the Organon, Hahnemann also describes the
time tested homeopathic (law of similars) treatment for frostbite.
In a section of the Introduction titled "Homeopathic Folk Remedies",
he writes:
"Even the non-medical classes of people, endowed with a healthy
sense of observation, found many times over through their experience
in domestic practice, that this medical mode (application of
the Law of Similars, or physical Homeopathy--my clarifications, ) was the surest, most thorough, and most infallible one.
Frozen sauerkraut was placed on recently frozen limbs, or the limbs
were rubbed with snow". p.52
Rubbing limbs with snow has come under a lot of criticism as a
practice lately, but the fact remains that if the body's own heat
is not very warm and the limbs can't be warmed by being held against
the armpits, back of the neck, or close to the genitals, and if
the choice of warming oneself indoors is not readily available,
applying a slightly less cold substance to the frozen part achieves
exactly the required end described by Hahnemann. Snow usually
happens to be readily available for this purpose, and as long as
some form of respite from the elements can be found its temperature
(higher than freezing) will effectively thaw frostbite that has
not become too severe. If you can't get out of the cold by
going indoors, set up a camp and build a fire; allow your patient
to rest and get warm with indirect exposure to the fire and use
the snow to bring the frozen parts back to warmth. If you
can bring a patient indoors, other options such as cool water baths
or gentle warming by wrapping can help just as well.
Some medical authorities advocate rapid thawing, using water that
is as hot as the patient can stand...but this is, for the most part,
totally unnecessary in frostbite that is not severe.
The big fear in advocating this kind of treatment is that gangrene
will result to the frozen part; however, the big risk is that the
high temperatures of the water will "cook" tissue, causing permanent
damage. The intense swelling and pain caused by this treatment
can also present its own damaging effects, and certainly cause more
distress than is warranted. Use this method only if you strongly
suspect that the frostbite is severe; and be cautious when you do,
using water that is just a little closer to body temperature than
it is "hot". Remember that most people find getting into a
hot tub (water temperature in the high 90's) takes some time to
get used to, even when their body temperatures are normal!
Further on in the Organon's Introduction, Hahnemann elaborates
on this practice of physically applying the Law of Similars, and
advocates that the frostbitten limb be soaked not in water
of the same temperature as the frozen part:
"1. The frostbitten limb was not restored isopathically by
the perisistent employment of that degree of cold wherein the limb
froze; it would have become quite lifeless and dead thereby.
Rather, it was restored by a cold that only came close to the original
temperature, and that was gradually toned down to a comfortable
temperature (homeopathy), as frozen sauerkraut applied to a frozen
hand at room temperature soon melts away and gradually warms up
from 1 degree C (34 degrees F) to 2 degrees C and so on up to room
temperature, even if the room is only 10 degrees C (50 degrees
F), and thus the limb is restored by physical homeopathy." (p.53)
These forms of treatment are still employed against frostbite,
as they are the most gentle means of bringing back circulation and
warmth to the frozen part without causing permanent tissue damage
or excessive pain. The most important thing to remember in
any treatment of these ailments is that rubbing or massaging the
affected area can cause harm, so it must be avoided.
If it is at all possible, bringing the person into the warmth of
a shelter is the best way to start treatment--then, warming baths
can be used to slowly bring the body temperature back up.
It is safe to restore warmth to a person suffering from hypothermia
using blankets and exposure to gentle heat, as well as some stimulant
like the hot coffee Hahnemann includes in his description to encourage
circulation back into its own activity. Applications
of direct heat, such as from a fire, or using water that is too
hot in a treatment bath will cause, at best, intense swelling, cramping,
and general pain; at worst, this can cause tissue damage which can't
be undone.
If no success is achieved using these means, rush the patient
to the hospital. Keep in mind that a dose of an appropriately
fitting remedy on the way to the hospital may very well make that
trip less urgent, or at least lessen the damage to tissue that may
result. If a well chosen remedy can lessen the potential suffering
for the patient, give it; that way when the patient arrives at the
hospital less will need to be done. No one is advocating that
these treatments are mutually exclusive.
The intention of the Homeopathic First Aid article was to specify
individual remedies which can be used to lessen the pain and danger
of harm resulting from frostbite and hypothermia: this was
the focus and purpose of the article. General antipathic
or allopathic methods of treatment, which Hahnemann elaborates in
the Organon, can also be effective if one chooses to treat in this
manner, or if one happens to be without homeopathic remedies.
These methods are still advocated and widely used today, and have
actually been in use successfully for several hundreds of years
(thousands, if you're Inuit, but who's counting?).
The resources for the original article were:
Health Canada/ Healthy Ontario (http://www.healthyontario.ca/english/news ,
January 14, 2004);
The Organon of the Medical Art by Samuel Hahnemann, Wenda B. O'Reilly,
editor;
Notes from David Little's First Aid Room on the Homepathic treatment
of Frostbite and Hypothermia http://www.simillimum.com/FirstAid.html
Clarke's Dictionary of Homeopathic Materia Medica,
Boericke's Pocket Manual of Homeopathic Materia Medica,
Dr. Roger Morrison's Desktop Guide to the Materia Medica. |
