Happy Homeopathic Christmas

Don't want to be a complete Bah Humbug - but you have to admit it, there is a certain inevitability about Christmas. You run yourself ragged list-making, planning, trailing around heaving supermarkets and sweating for half a day over a meal that everyone wolfs down in 20 minutes. Then they all slump in front of the TV repeats feeling bloated, drunk, bored and overheated.

There's no happy pill to transform Christmas into happy families with tinsel on top. But here a few homeopathic pills to get you through everything from rampant reflux and hangovers… to a lack of festive libido!

Kids are running riot

There's always a point when the excitement gets too much. The children are so full of the joys of Santa they can't sit still. When you feel you've lost and it's very soon all going to end in tears, coffea cruda will calm children. Give it when they just can't get to sleep on Christmas Eve, and have it by your bed in case they're bouncing around begging to open presents at 4am Christmas morning.

Frazzled, tetchy and tired

The turkey's ready an hour before schedule but the potatoes are still bullet hard; you're juggling sausages, sprouts, broccoli and gravy, then you realise you've completely forgotten the bread sauce or the turkey spits all the way down your prize new blouse… And where on earth has your other half disappeared to?!

No person contemplating taking on the big family roast should be without Rescue Remedy. It's a combination of five Bach Flower Remedies (clematis, rock rose, cherry plum and star of Bethlehem) that have been put together to soothe and restore us at these hectic moments. I recommend you get hold of it in spray form so you simply spritz a bit directly onto your tongue for almost instant effect.

As the Christmas meal falls to the lot of a woman in most households (not in the BT, RT and YS households, mind - Ed), I make no apology for mentioning a remedy that is specifically for mums at the end of their tether. Sepia is for times when you're feeling so knackered, downtrodden, ugly and tied to the kitchen sink that no one can do anything right. You hate the lot of them, most of all hubbie, and offspring. You want to clutch the worktop and scream - and as for yuletide conjugals, well, forget it!

Put it on your Christmas list (and if you're still in a sepia state of mind in the New Year, book yourself in to see a homeopath - sepia really is a fantastic remedy for PMS, period pain, menonopause and all sorts of other 'women's problems').

Digestion up the creak

Lycopodium is a homeopathic antacid, for heartburn, acid reflux and nervous/gurgly tums. Take it when you feel bloated, windy and can't stop belching.

Arsenicum album spans the whole dodgy stomach spectrum from hiccups to food poisoning. Any time you have a burning pain in your digestive tract or stomach, arsenicum will help.

If you're digestion's still uneasy a good few hours after eating or the morning after the night before, you'll benefit from nux vomica. This is great for hiccups after overeating, and weight and pain in the stomach that can range from mild dyspepsia to being so bad you have to be sick.

Totally overdone it

Nux vomica is our homeopathic hangover cure. It's the one to take when you've overindulged, whether on food or booze. Particularly effective when you wake up in the middle of the night knowing you're going to suffer all the next day for one too many G&Ts, or your digestion's giving you gyp after a rich meal.

Cold on the way

As soon as you experience a twinge of rawness in the throat, fullness in the nose or that giveaway headachy heaviness that says cold on the way, think aconite. Take two to three doses right away and it will nip the cold in the bud.

Through winter I also recommend everyone takes echinacea. This is a first-class immune system booster, well proven in clinical trials, that helps tide you through all the bugs that do the rounds at Christmas time. And if you do go down with a winter lurgie, get yourself some olive leaf extract - it's five times more powerful than Vitamin C for fighting bacteria and viruses.

Happy 2012

Finally, it only remains to wish you all a Merry Christmas! If your New Year resolution is to get healthier, fitter and shed a few pounds, then I've got lots of news next month…

For more information please contact Sue Leach on 01590 624020, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.NewForestHomeopathy.co.uk.