Here are answers to some of the FAQ’s practitioners get about homeopathy.
And here as a starting point is our Home Remedy Notes which may give you quick answers to doses, frequency, etc. This is a downloadable document so you can refer to at your leisure.
Homeopathic remedies can be made from almost anything on the planet.
Generally for home prescribing we use remedies made from the animal kingdom (eg bees), plant kingdom (eg Belladonna, Aconite or Monkshead, Pulsatilla, Arnica) and the mineral kingdom (eg Arsenicum, Mercurius, Silica).
Of course there are many other remedies made from substances from all the other kingdoms as well as from many of the toxins that we are exposed to in our world, but that is usually a question for your homeopath.
We supply the animal based remedies in a vegan format for those who prefer not to ingest any animal material. These are made on our vibrational potentiser machine and carry the resonant frequency of the material, rather than a physical substance. Any animal remedy will show vegan options in the store.
All combination remedies, eg Cold & Flu, Bad Head, Colic are non-vegan due to the way we produce them.
The actual remedy ends up in a liquid form, a bit like a herbal medicine, but it’s gone through a special process which makes it low risk and non-toxic.
This liquid or Medicating Potency, as we call it, is then added to the carrier – in our case sucrose, an alcohol mix or a cream base.
We use traditional carriers for all of our products and have sourced the best base ingredients we can find to give you the best results.
The carrier for our homeopathic pilules is organic sucrose manufactured by a company in Germany, who specialises in this product.
These are sucrose, not lactose, and of course are gluten free.
Our liquid homeopathic remedies (both combination and singles), as well as our oral essences are made up in 15% grape alcohol (gluten free), 5% brandy as a flavouring and Tasmanian spring water. This is a traditional carrier for homeopathics and the mix is similar to other brands of flower essences and similar.
We’ve chosen not to use other carriers, eg glycerine, because we don’t believe it maintains the original energy and authenticity of the homeopathics in particular.
You can check out dosages for babies and read about the use of alcohol in homeopathics elsewhere in the FAQs.
Our creams are made up in a vege base cream manufactured by Pharmaceutical Plant Company in Victoria.
The base is a fragrance free, light, non greasy, all purpose cream specifically formulated to care for all skin types, even those with sensitive skin.
This gentle formula supports repair of irritated, dry, flaky and rough skin.
Vege Base Cream is made from pure plant derived ingredients.
Gentle enough to be used as a moisturiser for baby on nappy rashes. Useful after shaving and for after sun care. Perfect for cleansing and make-up removal. Ideal for gardeners.
Ingredients: Water, Vegetable Glycerine (Plant derived), Cetylstearyl Alcohol (Plant derived), Caprylic/Capric triglyceride (Plant derived), Coconut Oil, Cetomacrogol (Wax), Phenoxyethanol, Nipastat
We use traditional carriers for all of our products and have sourced the best base ingredients we can find that give you the best results.
The carrier for our homeopathic pilules is organic sucrose manufactured by a company in Germany, who specialises in this product.
These are sucrose, not lactose and of course are gluten free.
Our liquid homeopathic remedies (both combination and singles), as well as our oral essences are made up in 15% grape alcohol (gluten free), 5% brandy as a flavouring and Tasmanian spring water. This is a traditional carrier for homeopathics and the mix is similar to other brands of flower essences and similar.
We’ve chosen not to use other carriers, eg glycerine, because we don’t believe it maintains the original energy and authenticity of the homeopathics in particular.
Our room sprays are made up in lemon myrtle floral water from New Directions.
These are not suitable for oral use.
Do not spray in the eyes or on skin/other materials without patch testing first.
Our creams are made up in a vege base cream manufactured by Pharmaceutical Plant Company in Victoria.
The base is a fragrance free, light, non greasy, all purpose cream specifically formulated to care for all skin types, even those with sensitive skin.
This gentle formula supports repair of irritated, dry, flaky and rough skin. Vege Base Cream is made from pure plant derived ingredients.
Gentle enough to be used as a moisturiser for baby on nappy rashes. Useful after shaving and for after sun care. Perfect for cleansing and make-up removal. Ideal for gardeners.
Ingredients: Water, Vegetable Glycerine (Plant derived), Cetylstearyl Alcohol (Plant derived), Caprylic/Capric triglyceride (Plant derived), Coconut Oil, Cetomacrogol (Wax), Phenoxyethanol, Nipastat
All our single remedies are made by specialist homeopathic pharmacies.
We generally buy from Australia (Martin & Pleasance) but may also purchase from New Zealand (Simillimum) or the UK (Helios), depending on what it is we need.
Pharmacies may have different remedy lists because sometimes they have a special interest or work with a homeopathic clinic with a special interest. They may make new remedies, which are unique to their pharmacy, and in turn these remedies may be shared with other pharmacies.
Many of our base remedies have been in existence for decades, and some may be as old as 200 years or more. This is because the pharmacies themselves may share their source material in a form known as a “back potency”, so that the source material becomes more widely available.
Sometimes the original source material of the remedy is unknown because remedies are often passed from pharmacy to pharmacy over time.
Remedies are made according to guidelines laid out in the British or United States Homeopathic Pharmacopoeias.
Due to the way remedies are made, a process known as dynamization (succussion and dilution), there is none of the original substance remaining and they are rendered non-toxic and, according to the TGA, “low risk” only because regulations now prohibit us from saying they are “safe and effective”!
There really is no difference between giving drops or pilules in home use. It is a personal preference based on, often, the age of the child.
Drops can be easier for a baby.
If you want to give to a sleeping baby, a pet or an unconscious wild animal (ie one of those birds that has flown into the window!) you can just rub on the head, on the gums or on the wrists. Any of the pulse spots will do and the remedy will work.
A 25ml bottle of drops and a 10g bottle of pilules contain a similar number of doses.
I was trained in the UK where, at that time, using a combination remedy was considered a crime by homeopaths! When I set up in practice in 1998 I realised that it took a lot to explain homeopathy and some people just didn’t have the time or the desire to find out how to do single remedy prescribing.
How challenging is it to have a sick child in the middle of the night and have to read through a materia medica (homeopathic guide) to pick a remedy, when you can just give Panadol?!!
I wanted to offer a simple way to access homeopathy for busy families and so I looked at combination remedies offered by companies around the world, and in particular in Germany where they are very popular, and I started to try out some of my own formulations with clients.
Combination remedies are such an easy way for people to start out and from using a combination remedy people get the understanding of how well homeopathy can work. They might progress to single remedy prescribing or they might not, but they may also progress to having a consultation and changing their health and their lives.
The purists undoubtedly say the remedies in the combination negate each other, they won’t work or they may even cause suppression, but in my experience over 20 years, this is not the case at all.
What I believe happens is that the body works with the resonance of the indicated remedy, so it’s usually only one remedy in that combination that works for the individual. The body chooses. This is all just energy. If you put 3 remedies in a bottle they don’t become mixed up, they are still 3 single remedies!!
Combination remedies can be a great way to start out using remedies and they can be a very convenient way of taking a minimum of remedies travelling and for non-homeopathy users to easily pick what to give from your kit.
There’s no shame in using combination remedies and they often produce quick and reliable results, as feedback from customers keeps affirming.
Hand-making remedies since 1992, Melanie Creedy trained in the precision art of making homeopathic remedies with John Morgan of Helios Homeopathic Pharmacy in the UK, one of the world’s best known and top pharmacies. This skill and high level of understanding has been passed on to each and every dispensary assistant over nearly three decades, so you know we know what we’re doing!
All our base remedies (aka medicating potencies) are purchased from the best homeopathic pharmacies in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and prepared according to European Homeopathic standards so you know they’ll be effective.
In our purpose built dispensary we are required to comply with TGA Good Manufacturing Practice regulations.
Our pilules are best quality 100% organic sucrose, which is the traditional carrier for homeopathics. We’ve tried a few brands over the years and most recently purchased German-made pilules from HSC in the UK.
Our liquid remedies are made up in Tasmanian spring water (quality assured) with 15% grape alcohol (food grade, gluten free) and 5% brandy (gluten free) as a preservative. This is necessary, particularly for orders going to warmer parts of Australia and again is the traditional liquid carrier for homeopathic remedies.
We’ve chosen not to dispense in anything apart from the traditional carriers (alcohol and sucrose), knowing that this ensures your homeopathics work according to the homeopathic materia medica information.
Our liquid remedies are available in 30ml and 50ml bottles.
You have the option of adding a spray fitting if you’d prefer this to a dropper. Sprays are available in the store.
While our glass bottles may add a little to the weight of your kit, we have chosen not to use plastic containers as we believe plastic is incompatible with maintaining the quality and longevity of your homeopathics. With the current discussion around microplastics in our entire system, we stand firm by our decision to only ever dispense in glass.
We believe the quality of our remedies is of the paramount importance and our clients assure us they can tell the difference from other suppliers’ products.
We don’t have room to list all remedies and potencies we hold in our remedy bank so if there is something you want but don’t see, please email us to check if available.
We have an extensive remedy bank and can supply a wide range of common remedies but do bear in mind we are a clinic and dispensary rather than a homeopathic pharmacy. TGA has also laid down regulations around what we are allowed to dispense to the general public.
We do not dispense potencies higher than 200c in the store, but will dispense above a 200c if you are a homeopathic practitioner or we have a written request from your registered homeopath or naturopath. Prices may differ from those in the store.
Some of our kits are made up individually when you order them. This does mean that occasionally there may be a slight delay if you have placed a large order.
If you place an order for a Pick Your Own Pack and list the remedies you require without specifying a potency, we will automatically send you the remedy in a 30c.
Potency indicates how many times the remedy has been diluted and succussed (banged) when it has been made by the pharmacy.
For home prescribing use 6x, 6c or 30c – the same frequency of dose as directed for any of these potencies. These potencies are also the most available and should be effective in the majority of cases.
Higher potencies (ie 200c, 1M, 10M) will need less doses and are only sometimes required in acute prescribing. Usually these potencies will be prescribed by your homeopath and are not generally dispensed by a homeopath or pharmacy for home prescribing, although we do have some 200c potencies in our store.
If you are unsure what to buy, go for the 30c as this is what we call “a good mid-range potency” and should help whether you are managing a cold or an emotional upset.
Customers often ask if our remedies are gluten free or if there is a risk of contamination.
Our pilules are organic sucrose and made by a specialist manufacturer in Germany.
Our alcohol and brandy (the components of the drops) are made by a specialist distillery in SA and they have told us both are gluten free.
Many people these days have issues with gluten and we haven’t been made aware of any problems in nearly 20 years of having a store.
In our clinic we have had a lot of coeliac patients and many who are gluten intolerant over the years, and again no issues with dispensing remedies in either format.
Any questions drop us a line via the contact page.
I sometimes get emails about homeopathic remedies such as Belladonna or Aconite, which people may know are made from poisonous plants. We do seem to use a lot of seemingly toxic substances in our medicines, but the way we make our remedies is key in being able to use them without any concerns.
You wouldn’t want to buy or use some of these substances in a herbal form, because yes, some of them are toxic in these material doses, ie as a plant.
However, because of the special way homeopathic remedies are made, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the body who looks after our medicines in Australia, views them as low risk when prescribed according to homeopathic principles.
These substances have been used in homeopathic form for over 200 years so we know about their action when prepared in this way and you can be assured that at Elements of Health we comply with minimum potencies (dilution) to make sure your remedies are not going to be a problem for your babies and small children.
If you have any further questions on this, do send us an email!
As you may have heard on the grapevine, some single homeopathic remedies are made from animal material, but we do offer ways around this if you are vegan.
You can read the blog about vegan remedies here if you are interested or concerned and it will give you a good understanding of how, for example, one honey bee (which likely had already passed away) was used as the base for not just all the remedies dispensed from one pharmacy for decades, possibly up to a couple of hundred years, but that one honey bee may have also been the basis for remedies in other pharmacies. No loss of species from homeopathy!!
We know how you feel though, having been very strict vegetarian and then vegan (but not as strict vegan as a Jain!) for more than 20 years, and can provide you with a vibrational remedy made on our potentising machine instead of a pharmacy-made remedy.
When you’re buying, any single remedies which are of animal origin have an option for a vegan version within the Single Remedy Category in the store. There is a small additional fee as these have to be made by hand.
You can be assured that our Combination Remedies do not contain animal material, due to the special way we make them.
Much like pharmacy medicines, a preservative is a necessary part of homeopathic remedies, particularly in warmer climates. Many products, including herbs and flower essences, have an alcohol base and these products are regulated by the TGA.
This small amount of alcohol is also an integral part of the action of a homeopathic remedy, ie how it works, and while some practitioners and brands have chosen to change to other preservatives, with our homeopathics at Elements of Health we want your remedies to work as intended and we can’t guarantee that will be the case if we change from the traditional format.
The alcohol in our remedies is as low as permissible – a mix of 15% grape alcohol and 5% brandy (for taste) – but high enough to stop your remedy growing floaties if someone touches the dropper to their mouth and puts it straight back in the bottle.
Many brands and products (mainly herbals and medications for kids) are changing to glycerin as a preservative.
Glycerin is a sweet, syrupy liquid that is derived from vegetable or soy bean oil, coconut or palm oil, and similar but produced in a way that creates a type of sugar alcohol.
It’s not as shelf stable as higher quality alcohol, so a much higher percentage is required in the product as a preservative.
Glycerin (aka glycerol) is produced by heating fats/oils under pressure or with a strong alkali, causing it to split from fatty acids. Sounds a bit nasty to us!
Below is a useful discussion I came across recently about alcohol in products for children, in this case in relation to herbal tinctures which typically would have a higher concentration of alcohol in the formulation than a homeopathic remedy.
Do note their comparison between the amount of alcohol in a herbal tincture and in a glass of apple juice!
“A question that we frequently receive is whether alcohol based tinctures can be used for children and the answer is yes – in very small doses at the parents’ discretion. “Typical doses of herbal medicines for children aged 6–12 years contain 0.07–0.18 g ethanol, which is equivalent to, e. g., 31–75 ml of apple juice (with an ethanol content of 0.3 %), and is eliminated from the blood within 1–3 min. These doses lead to a maximum blood ethanol content of 0.008–0.015 g/l, calculated under assumption of the worst case scenario.” (Reference)“
Of course, as a homeopathic it is fine to give drops to a baby at any age, right from birth, as long as you follow the dosages below and stick to the recommendations on the product and on the label.
The amount of alcohol per dose is small, particularly for babies and children. For example 20% of one drop is the amount ingested for a baby under 6 months old.
To maintain the integrity of the product, do ensure that if the dropper touches the mouth it is rinsed in boiling water before returning to the bottle.
See below if you would like to dilute your liquid remedies or use as a spray.
1 drop for under 6 months of age
2 drops for under 12 months
4 drops for over 12 months
We now stock sprays that fit our 25ml, 30ml and 50ml brown bottles so that you can also use any drops you may have bought as a spray applied to the wrists, soles of the feet or top of the head.
One spray is sufficient for a dose.
This is a great option for using your home remedies, but I do not generally recommend if we are doing a constitutional (individualised) prescription. In this case we will discuss options for potency of the remedy and the best format for your child.
If you are concerned about giving the drops to a baby too often, you can reduce the alcohol further as follows:
If you cannot have alcohol for personal reasons, you can purchase most remedies in sucrose pilules, the other traditional format.
Reference: Alcohol vs Glycerin
We are currently dispensing our remedies in organic German sucrose. This looks different to the pilules we have used in the past and sometimes they may appear wet. This is not a problem either with quality of the remedy or clumping.
Sometimes people ask why the remedies are made from sugar or sucrose.
Pure sucrose is the traditional carrier for the homeopathic remedies themselves and is used globally by all homeopathic pharmacies. Sometimes pilules are made from lactose or milk sugar, but we only use sucrose in our dispensary.
Pilules can come in different sizes – as small as a poppy seed and as big as a headache tablet! We have chosen size 3 pilules because we find this suits most people.
The sucrose in a pilule is a tiny and pure dose of sugar, in our case German organic sucrose.
The positive action of the remedy on the immune system is stronger than any potential negative action of this tiny amount of sucrose.
It has been used for decades, possibly more than a century, and when the remedies are “proven” (ie given to healthy people to determine the curative action) it’s undertaken with the sucrose as part of the process, meaning we know the action of the sucrose as part of the remedy.
In the store you can choose whether you want your remedies in sucrose or in an alcohol based mix (the other traditional carrier). This is personal choice as they both work the same. Some products are only available in one or the other depending on what you are buying.
We like to keep it traditional because we know this is how the remedies work best and the information in our homeopathic materia medica for many remedies is based on sucrose as part of the remedy.
Using sucrose as the carrier also gives the product a longer use by than the drops and is much better for things like travel kits and remedies you carry with you in your bag.
Our pilules are manufactured by the Pharmaceutical Plant Company (PPC).
Under TGA regulations, products of this nature require an expiry date to be included on each vial and to be stated on the outer package.
The expiry date relates to the pilule batch as manufactured by PPC, rather than the homeopathic medicine of which the pilules are the carrier only.
We suggest keeping your pilules in a stable environment as far as possible and, from our experience, they will remain effective for years beyond the stated expiration date.
Please do your own research on this topic as there are differing points of view.
Do however note that we always recommend updating your homeoprophylaxis (HP) and ImmSafe remedies once they are out of date, to ensure they work as they should when you need them to.
Remedies prepared as drops are subject to the influence of the rubber droppers. After a time the remedy becomes tainted by the dropper, becomes unpalatable and is likely contaminated. We recommend not keeping liquid remedies beyond the expiry date on the label for this reason.
Many people ask about the x-rays which are part of travel and the postal system, and also EMFs which are part of life.
We now live in a web of these electromagnetic and low-level frequencies. It is impossible to avoid, especially during travel and if items are being sent through the mail.
Avoid having them go through the x-ray machine when you travel by all means. They can be hand inspected in many places without any issues, but this is becoming harder and harder to do.
We personally haven’t experienced or heard of any issues with remedies being exposed in this way, so feel you can rest assured that your remedies will still work when you need them.
There is a whole blog about homeopathic remedies and their vibrational (energetic) properties in this paragraph!
Any information provided does not replace advice from your doctor or homeopath and we advise you to seek medical help and diagnosis as appropriate.
Our kits and remedies contain homeopathic medicines selected for use in minor ailments and injuries only. They are recommended for use with immediate family only and our advice and information is not sufficient to treat extended family or friends.
Our combination remedies are prepared as a single vibrational remedy incorporating the remedies traditionally used for the situation described.
They are not suitable for home treatment of chronic, ongoing or serious conditions or diseases.
Homeopathy is deemed to be low risk by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
The remedies are effective when used in accordance with the homeopathic indications.
If in doubt as to their appropriateness to a particular situation, consult your health care practitioner.
Use only as directed.
Always read the label or information supplied.
If symptoms persist see your health care practitioner.
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