Holiday Homeopathy

Heading off on holiday? I never travel without a kit of homeopathic first aid remedies - here's my list of those I'd never venture off without. You can buy them singly or we supply kits tailor made to your needs, including long-haul trips.

Sunburn
Belladonna is our no. 1 for sunburn and sunstroke. It's excellent for any condition or injury that is bright red, hot, dry and angry-looking.

If someone complains more about a burning, smarting dryness, then cantharis may be better. Cantharis is good for burns and scalds - and a must for anyone prone
to holiday cystitis!

If your skin gets spotty and itchy in the sun, try urtica urens. This is made from nettle and so is good for any nettle-like hot, irritated rash.

Another essential is calendula tincture: a few drops in warm water or dabbing it neat onto the area is lovely and soothing for sore skin and any minor wound.

If your skin is sensitive to the sun or you're prone to heat rash, taking sol
can work wonders.

Ledum is the no. 1 for bites or puncture wounds. Apis, made from bee venom, brings down the classic allergic reaction to a bite (insect or animal), where the skin swells and it burns and stings like mad.

Again, a few drops of calendula tincture in water is excellent for applying to bites.

Eyes
Euphrasia is a fabulous all-rounder for any eye problems, from hay fever to eye strain to conjunctivitis. Take tablets, or a few drops of tincture in water, is the homeopathic equivalent of Optrex.

Travel sickness
For any type of motion sickness, be it cars, trains, boats or Big Dippers, cocculus is a godsend. The 'cocculus' feeling is when you've been reading in the back of the car or you're feeling green on a boat or you've had a lousy night's sleep and you come over all woozy, dizzy, leaden and hollow-stomached.

Flights
For people that suffer take-off jitters, pop in an aconite and you should find yourself gripping the seat a bit less. Or for anyone who is seriously scared of flying, try argentum nitricum.

So many people have ear problems on flights so in my first aid kit I always have some silica and pulsatilla. Silica works well for poppy ears and ear pain, and pulsatilla is great for anyone whose ears are giving them jip because they have a cold (if you can take two to three kali mur tissue salts daily for at least a week running up to the date you go, all the better).

Tummy trouble
Arsenicum album is our no. 1 remedy for food poisoning. It works excellently when a person is restless, anxious and whacked out by vomiting. When nothing will stay down and all someone can bear is little sips of water, then arsenicum is called for.

If someone is sick after overeating or a rich meal, give them nux vomica. It's the homeopathic hangover cure.

Veratrum album is the 'Delhi belly' remedy, for times when you have such acute sickness and diarrhoea you don't know what your body will do next and you daren't move from the bathroom because you know there will be dire consequences!

If nausea is the problem, then think ipecac. This is for when someone is so nauseous they keep retching, often without being able to bring anything up, or even when they are sick they still feel queasy.

Carbo veg is another good sickness remedy. For stomach upsets it is needed when someone is bent double with stomach cramps and/or their only relief from the vomiting is to keep belching.

For people with the opposite problem, constipation because of a change in diet and scenery, opium is great.

Emergencies
If you take no other homeopathic medicine on holiday you should pack arnica - it is such a cure-all. Its chief use is for shock and bruising, but it's brilliant for helping someone cope after anything sudden or untoward: from a bite to a fall to a knock on the head to hearing bad news. It's also a fabulous reviver for when the day's just been that bit too long for everyone!

For a no-obligation chat please contact Sue on 01590 624020.

Or visit www.NewForestHomeopathy.co.uk for more information.