March 2011 : Volume 13 : Number 2

Welcome to the March 2011 Newsletter,

This newsletter is dedicated to my mother-in-law the late Joan Audrey Creedy who passed away on 26 February. As I sit at Sydney Airport waiting for my flight to London for her funeral, I reflect on the ways she has inspired me over more than 25 years.

Joan (and husband Tom) were the people who started my journey with homeopathy back in 1985. They were way ahead of their time in the use of natural medicine and recommended I try it for my hay fever which got me hooked! They supported me financially through my studies over a number of difficult years and have been a source of strength even at a distance of 12000 miles. In return I treated a variety of broken bones, surgeries and other issues at a distance and wish I could have been there to support her with homeopathy at the end. Sadly she passed away the day before I left for the UK.

Joan was an amazingly creative woman. She started to train as a fashion designer until the war came along, at which time she joined up and did her bit. After she and Tom were married and Michael and Dean came along she got involved in pottery and we still have some of her beautiful creations in our home. When I met her in 1985 she was starting on a journey with embroidery which earned her a second City and Guilds in Embroidery in her late 70's. She continued to push the boundaries with her amazing use of colour, material and texture right up to the age of 87 when she passed away. Her last embroidery "The River of Life" hangs impressively in their lounge as a final gift for son Michael.

Joan was also a passionate gardener and this is where some of our passion came from. She provided plants for our first gardens and continuous inspiration with her own beautiful garden, which always contained the obligatory beans and tomatoes through the summer, as well as a riot of colour and texture. Our garden is full of her favourite plants and colours and our home is full of her beautiful and ever-evolving embroideries, which will hold her in our memory for ever. I'm only sorry she never braved the trip to come and see our beautiful piece of the planet.

Farewell Joan, your life has coloured our world!

Antidoting Remedies

This is a bit of a homeopathy myth and one I'm sure I've talked about before. Some homeopaths are very fixated on the concept of antidoting a remedy (constitutional remedies obviously) with such things as coffee, essential oils, peppermint tea, chamomile and similar. Miranda Castro ("The Complete Homeopathy Guide") had a beautiful story on her website some years ago which I always trot out at my home prescriber workshops as an example of this myth. She was so dogmatic about patients antidoting their remedies that with hindsight she realized she had created a barrier between herself and their healing. It took a little old lady who unbeknown to her continued drinking coffee while still getting improvement from her remedy to make her realise this and change her view. My view is if you make it too hard people won't take their remedy or just won't come back!

It is true that if you are an extremely sensitive patient and are given only a single dose of your remedy and then told to take nothing for a while, that you may stop the action of the remedy by being in contact with something stronger than the remedy. This is not an antidoting of the remedy though, this is another stronger energy interrupting the remedy action. Generally if you are sensitive I will have you on a regular dose of an LM potency so that there is less chance of this happening. I do find that emotional upsets are much more likely to interrupt the action of a remedy than anything else. The guideline to take your remedy 10 or 15 minutes away from eating, drinking or cleaning your teeth is to give the remedy the best chance to act, but it will usually do this whatever. There are some lovely stories from Hahnemann's time of women being told to put Nux Vomica in the beer of their alcoholic husbands and seeing improvement in their behaviour!! If it's all too hard to do the 10 or 15 minute space, just give the remedy!!

Geraldton Homeopathic Mummy's Group

I have quite a number of families who use homeopathy in Geraldton, WA, both as patients and for their families. These enterprising women who do not have a local homeopath have set up their own group to learn more about homeopathy and to share their experiences. Time allowing I will give them some direction and some professional input but I know some of them have been using homeopathy for many years now and are already great home prescribers. Well done ladies!!

What's on the Website

Don't forget delivery is free on orders over $100 Australia wide!

Travel/Jet Lag Combination I have just added Melatonin 30c to the standard combination to support the system through the change in time-zones on long trips. I'll let you know how it works when I get back!

Some of the other essential remedies for these trips are Nux Vomica and Coffea for that hung-over feeling you can get from being overtired, Cocculus as a stand-alone remedy (it's in the Travel/Jet Lag Combination) for that dreadful dizziness you can also get from being overtired, from the time change or just being on a plane for so long. I've also packed Anas Barb 200c to help my system cope with the bugs in the new environment and people coughing over me on the flight, and of course Cold Comfort and Flu Combination. While I also carry a full 36 remedy kit when I fly, I find the combinations are great when you don't have time to think or your brain is a bit foggy from tiredness.

Gastro Combination for Bali - Don't forget to take the Gastro Combination with you when you travel to Bali and similar places. This is my most recommended remedy and it works in a majority of people. I am also getting a lot of enquiries about homeoprophylaxis (HP or homeopathic immunisation) for Bali. If you are staying in a resort there's not much you need. If you are heading off into the jungle for a day or two you might want to think about Malaria and Dengue Fever protection and some people have taken Typhoid with them. I can tailor HP remedies for your own situation - please ask.

Bits & Pieces

Leave of Absence March 2011

Many of you will know that I have had to go to London for most of March. I am still available to answer your emails and texts.

The on-line shop will operate as usual and if you require remedies that are not on the website or you have questions in this regard (eg the many trips to Bali) please email and I can organise for you.

I will be back on board around Friday 25 March. If you require an appointment after this time email or text while I'm away and Dean will contact you with the diary.

Homeopathic Distance Consultations - Health Fund Payments

I was pleased to see in a recent Australian Homeopathic Association newsletter that our insurers have confirmed that they insure us for distance consultations because this is now how many people choose to access healthcare. I had long had the feeling our association might tell us in time that we should not provide distance consultations, and as many of you know this is a large part of my practice these days. This is something that you should inform your health funds of if they refuse to pay for a distance consultation. If you do want to claim a distance consult, please remind me at the time so I can add the correct provider number if applicable.

Newsletters 2011

Due to study commitments it is possible that the newsletter may not be issued so frequently this year. I do hope to get a short version out monthly, but it may be that I will produce a longer version every two months. Homeopathic items for the newsletter are always welcome.

Skype Consultations - I offer Skype consultations if you have it available. This can be very useful for treating children and just for having a face to face chat. Let me know if you would prefer skype to a phone consult. The Skype program is a free download and is easy to use if you have a computer with speakers and a microphone and a webcam.

www.naturalnews.com This is a great website about all kinds of natural things. I get an email most days about everything from research on vitamins and foods to vaccination issues. They make some very clever satirical videos too! Sign up if you are interested in health and wellbeing and want the truth about what's going on in this industry.

Vaccination Issues

Whooping Cough Epidemic and the AVN

I recently had the good fortune to listen to a webinar by Meryl Dorey of the AVN. It was a great presentation and answered some of my personal ponderings about why the coughs were getting worse over the years when they supposedly weren't whooping cough.

Through her research and connection with a wide range of medical people around the globe, she informed us that whooping cough (Pertussis) is not the only form of this bacterium. It would appear that there are a couple of other forms, one of which is Bordetella Parapertussis (B Pertussis) which are also in the environment although in a milder form than Pertussis. I had observed this trend for persistent coughs which responded to the whooping cough remedies over last winter and this confirmed my suspicions.

She produced data which showed that reported "Pertussis" cases had increased over 50 times since 1991 (despite a 24% increase in vaccination levels since 1991) to around 25,000 reported cases in 2009 and higher than this in 2010. The general view, and I've seen this on a variety of websites is that, like antibiotic resistance, we are now starting to see forms of disease which are mutations of what is vaccinated against. Effectively the more we vaccinate, the more cases of the disease we are seeing in another form. I was reading a study the other day in the BMJ that concluded that Pertussis vaccination may give some protection against B Pertussis but the coverage appears to be low.

What is also evident and needs to be said is that vaccination does not prevent an individual carrying the disease and passing it on to someone else. This has been seen recently in the case of a fully vaccinated maternity nurse in NSW with a cough, who passed Pertussis onto many of the newborn babies in her care. Vaccination should not make you overlook a cough of any kind.

The good news if you have used homeoprophylaxis (homeopathic immunisation) is that because homeopathy works on the basis of "like cures like" rather than "exact cures exact" you should have the same level of protection against B Pertussin and other forms as against the standard form. This does not however mean that your child will not get the disease as coverage is 90-95% meaning some children, particularly those with respiratory related problems (asthma, allergies, eczema and similar) in their personal or family medical history may be more susceptible. In these cases my recommendation is always to use constitutional treatment through a homeopath to strengthen the immune system as well as HP. You can also choose to vaccinate conventionally and then use HP on top. Whatever your choices, do be vigilant but also be aware that Bordetella Parapertussis is not usually so severe as the standard strain of Pertussis vaccinated against.

If you have any questions on the above please contact me. If you would like to view the AVN's webinar https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/219070090.

www.naturalnews.com Just a couple of items of interest from this website.

Swine Flu Vaccination linked to narcolepsy and seizures in children http://www.naturalnews.com/031313_swine_flu_vaccine_narcolepsy.htm http://www.naturalnews.com/029334_flu_vaccines_seizures.htmll

HPV vaccines cause stillbirths http://www.naturalnews.com/031300_Gardasil_stillbirth.html

Homeoprophylaxis (HP or Homeopathic Immunisation) - Adding new babies to your program

If you have a new baby and want to use your homeopathic immunisation program for this child ask me to sent you a questionnaire and organise a phone consult, after which I will send you out a record card and offer the usual support. There is a small fee to cover the cost of the paperwork and the consult. Your new baby will then be added to the register I hold in the clinic of all children who are currently using an HP program, which is at the request of the Australian Homeopathic Association.

If you have purchased a kit to use with your family, please ensure you keep me updated of any changes in your email/contact details. Sometimes there are changes to the program and I may need to get in touch with you.

Clinic Hours

I am now consulting in Hobart all day on both Tuesday and Friday. Saturday mornings are now by arrangement only. Consults (including phone consults) are available at Mountain River all day Wednesday and some Mondays if I have time.

You can email melanie@elementsofhealth.com.au for appointments or phone 0409 089965. Please note the clinic is closed on Thursdays - emergency calls only.

Until next time,
Warmest wishes

Melanie Creedy