Homeopathy With Heidi - 20160504 - prerec for 04May16 (#15 - Homeopathy And Arthritis) FINAL

Homeopathy is being discussed on Radio Kidnappers. Heidi explains that there are over 100 forms of arthritis and it can affect people of all ages. Conventional treatments like anti-inflammatories and painkillers may provide temporary relief but can have side effects. Heidi recommends a balanced approach, including diet, exercise, physiotherapy, and homeopathy. Homeopathic remedies trigger the body's natural healing abilities. Heidi's clinic, Thrive Homeopathy, offers treatments and has testimonials from satisfied clients. Famous people, including Charles Darwin and Mahatma Gandhi, have used homeopathy. It is a natural and safe alternative to prescription drugs. Taking a higher dose of homeopathic remedies may cause aggravation of symptoms. You're tuned to Radio Kidnappers, the voice of Hawke's Bay. This program is called Homeopathy with Heidi. How are you doing Heidi? Hello Ken, I'm glad to be here in the studio again. Can you believe another month has flown by? Oh it goes so quickly doesn't it? I know, it's the sign of getting older for me. In two minutes it's gone. Yeah. You're yet to find out what it's like. It does seem to be that way doesn't it? Now at Homeopathy today we're going to talk about Homeopathy and Arthritis. Now I guess everyone has heard of Arthritis but tell us what Arthritis is. Well the thing is that Arthritis is a very broad term and so many people are diagnosed with Arthritis or at least have arthritic complaints but did you know that there are over 100 various forms of Arthritis? I did not. No, I didn't know that until recently. And yeah, I thought do you know anything that you could think of that is Arthritic? I've got an Arthritic thumb, I've got a swelling on my thumb and it's a sort of calcification of the bone. Is that what Arthritis is? Well it depends. You know obviously one of those 100 forms but yes it can be just through wear and tear. So if you've had a lifetime of overuse of a certain joint due to sports or due to your profession like carpet laying, you're on your knees, we're not meant to be on our knees, walking on our knees all the time so you might develop Arthritic knee joints. So that is really a wear and tear of that fibrous tissue in between and the bone starts rubbing upon bone and that inflames and that can be very painful. Okay and we associate I guess Arthritis with old people, is that what happens or can young people get it? Well yes, unfortunately young people can actually get it. As I said there are various forms and I guess it also depends on what you define as young and old but I would say if you get Ankylosis Spondylitis which is sort of an inflammation of the soft tissue around the spine and it can go into the pelvis. So that often occurs in young people between the ages of 15 and 35. Wow That is young. That is very young. Then we also have Fibromyalgia which is another form and I just had a client come in last week with Fibromyalgia. Apparently one of six New Zealanders suffer from it. Do they really? It's staggering. That is staggering, yeah. And that's the fibrous tissue. It can be anywhere in your body. It can be the stiffness and tightness and pain in your shoulders. It can be in muscles and joints and people say it hurts all over and it tends to affect more women than men. Are we guaranteed to get it as we get older or does something escape? Well no, I don't think everyone has to necessarily get it. We obviously will have some more wear and tear in our joints and become a bit stiffer but I do think it has a lot to do with our everyday activity, how active we remain, how well we treat our bodies and what we put into them and food and nutrition wise, right? So on one hand we are saying that if we are doing something repetitively it may be a cause of arthritis but we need to stay active as well. Is there a fine balance between doing too much and not doing enough? Absolutely. I guess that's what I'm always talking about. It's always about the balance. The balance in exercise as much as the balance in nutrition and activity and again there's no one size fits all. So you really do have to listen to your body and sort of get in tune to what is good for you as opposed to just going by what the book says. Sure. Okay now we're not here to talk about conventional treatments of arthritis but let's talk about conventional treatments. So we have arthritis. What are some of the things that a doctor might give us? Well obviously anti-inflammatories, corticosteroids, painkillers but they will not necessarily treat the underlying cause of why this inflammation has occurred and that is basically the problem. It's a great starting point when you're really in agony. I mean some people describe it as jagged pieces of glass in their joints. I mean that is just agony, right? So you've got to do something. So an immediate anti-inflammatory or a painkiller, fine. But if you stay on them for too long then you will develop side effects. You'll have to either increase the dose because you sort of become a bit used to it, right? So you need a little stronger medication. Then you can have side effects. Corticosteroids are pretty damaging. The list is from thinning of skin, muscle weakness, osteoporosis, weight gain. It can worsen diabetes. It can worsen glaucoma. If you have too many painkillers some will actually attack the stomach lining so that you can have stomach ulcers and bleeding in the stomach. So whilst you might start with that as an immediate relief, I do think that it would be wise to see what else can you do through diet change, through exercise, physio and so on and obviously homeopathy. That's why I'm here. Of course. Now maybe we should talk about the homeopathic remedies for arthritis. But before we do that, should we have a song? Absolutely. And as we're talking about exercise, due to this pain, people often want to keep it still. Don't move. It's so painful. I'd rather just sit there and not move. But we are aware if you don't use it, you lose it. So gentle exercise is important and so I actually thought of a song that might help you do just that. How about some Shake, Rattle and Roll? Here it is. I said shake, rattle and roll. I said shake, rattle and roll. Well you never do nothing to save your dog or your soul. When those dresses, your head's on up so nice. When those dresses, your head's on up so nice. You look so warm but your heart is cold inside. I said shake, rattle and roll. I said shake, rattle and roll. I said shake, rattle and roll. I said shake, rattle and roll. Well you never do nothing to save your dog or your soul. Goats! Goats! Goats! Goats! Goats! I'm like a one-eyed cat sleeping in a seafood store. I'm like a one-eyed cat sleeping in a seafood store. I can look at you and tell you don't love me no more. I believe you're doing me wrong and now I know. I believe you're doing me wrong and now I know. The more I work, the faster my money goes. I said shake, rattle and roll. I said shake, rattle and roll. I said shake, rattle and roll. I said shake, rattle and roll. Well you never do nothing to save your dog or your soul. Shake, rattle and roll. You're back on Radio Kidnappers, the voice of Hawke's Bay. This is the homeopathy program. It's our pleasure to have you in the studio. Now Heidi, if we want a homeopathic treatment, where do we come to get one? Well my clinic is in number one Lampton Road on Hospital Hill in Napier and the name of the business is called Thrive Homeopathy because I would like you to thrive in your health and your well-being and that's why I chose that name. And you've got a website? I do. So that would be www.thrivehomeopathy.co.nz and I have some information about homeopathy, about myself. I've got some testimonials, a map so you can find me, a booking system and it's a blog site as well so various articles and information is also posted there or courses that I give or talks and things like that. And it's great that you have those testimonials because I guess people are going to say to you, well of course you're going to say it works because you wanted me to use homeopathic treatments for you but you know, it's good you've got real people who have given you testimonials haven't they to say how well it works? Absolutely, yeah. And that must be a plus? Yeah, it's always a little bit challenging. I don't want to ask everyone to give me a testimonial after their recovery because sometimes they feel a little bit embarrassed about the illness or complaints that they had. So I say, hey you're fine just to put your initials there. We don't have to go into detail or just more about homeopathy and the treatment. So there are various testimonials from all walks of life, young, old, men, women, children, teenagers. This is on the side. Do you find that the famous people are using homeopathic remedies that it helps your business? Absolutely, yeah. There's some amazing people. It goes way back, Charles Darwin. He's famous. He's famous and he opposed homeopathy until he was ill and then he used it. Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Therese, the Royal Queen, she has her own private homeopath. The German National Soccer Team, they're pretty good I think. They're pretty good aren't they? Yeah, I'd say so. So they use homeopathy because you can't necessarily use the painkillers and the anti-inflammatories because that would be under doping but you can homeopathically. And you raised a good point before that song that prescription drugs that are prescribed, they do have side effects and homeopathy doesn't. Exactly, yeah. The main thing is it's all natural. I think that's one point of difference. There's nothing synthetic and it isn't about forcing the body into an action or regulating or managing or suppressing as pharmaceutical drugs will do. They will control things. They will suppress the pain. Homeopathy doesn't do it. It's quite the opposite. Homeopathy triggers your innate ability to sort of rebalance and deal with it because normally if you injure yourself and you're in pain, it takes a while and the body works through that bruise and the pain and you recover. Wounds heal and that's really what homeopathy does. It stimulates so you're not taking it for long periods of time. You're only taking it to get back to health and well-being. What if we are taking it and we think, I'm starting to work, I'm going to take a double dose. Will that harm us? Well, it potentially, it won't harm you but it can aggravate and we are all about, we have different potencies which are different strengths of a medicine and the idea is to find that right stimulus, so the right amount of push that you need. If we give you too high a potency or too frequent a dose, we can aggravate the current symptoms that we're trying to heal. Now you're not saying that homeopathy is a silver bullet. You're not saying it's a cure for arthritis, are you? No, no, definitely. In some cases, if it's wear and tear and there's just old age and there's pain, inflammation, it will definitely help to relieve the pain in a safe and gentle manner. If there are other issues, for example, gout, which is another form of arthritis, that is where the kidneys are not eliminating the uric acid properly in your body and the uric acid builds up in your joints. So with a homeopathic remedy, because you then stimulate the kidney to do its job properly, to eliminate, well, I guess you could say, yes, you can get rid of your gout. I have a friend who's going overseas in a few weeks' time and she has arthritis in the ankle and she's finding it very difficult to walk. She's been to the doctors and they gave her a cortisone injection, which has certainly freed her up, but she's been taking Temeric a little. Yeah. Is that a form of homeopathy? And she's finding it's making her feel better. Well, only if it's a homeopathic potency. I mean, often you get herbal supplements that we actually use as homeopathic medicines as well. So it would have a number behind it if it's a homeopathic version. You mentioned earlier the feeling of pain is like having razor blades attacking your body. If I come to see you for a homeopathic remedy, am I going to feel better almost immediately after a homeopathic remedy or is it going to take a bit of time to kick in? Well, sometimes. I actually had a man with gout probably about two months ago. So we discussed basically what is the pain for you like? How does it feel? What makes it worse? What makes it better? Also, what does it look like and where in the body? Is it in the thumb? Is it in the toe? Does it extend to where? So after all that was clarified, and if he preferred a hot application or a cold application or those kind of things, I gave him a remedy and we just continued discussing. And I think it was about 10, 15 minutes later, I said, so how is that toe now? And he goes, oh, it's actually, it's not pulsating as much. And when he stood up, it was still sensitive, but it wasn't gone. And then he took the remedy for three days and called back and said, yep, it's gone. It's fine. So now he has that remedy so that if the symptoms return and they are the same, then that remedy might still be indicated and he can take it again. Did you get a testimonial of him because that was a really good one? Yes. Now, I was having a look on the website before you came in about homeopathy and arthritis, and there are literally, I suppose there are hundreds of them, but some of these homeopathic remedies have got weird names, haven't they? And some of them treat different areas of arthritis, don't they? They do, yes. So what funny name did you come up with? Well, I can't even pronounce some of them, but one of them, they're talking about Rostox. What's Rostox? Rostox, that is poison ivy. Wow. And I guess that's actually a good example of how to explain the modalities of the pain. So poison ivy will grow along trees in a shaded, cool, damp environment, right? And if you touch it, you can have a rash, and it will be red, blistery, and very painful, and you want to rub it to make it feel better, and you will be quite restless. So imagine you have arthritis, and it looks that red, it feels itchy, and it's better for rubbing, and it's worse in the morning or in the winter when it's cold and damp, and you just have such pain on the initial movement, but then you start moving gently, you go for a nice little 5-10 minute walk, and then everything sort of limbers and you feel better. Well, that's an indication for Rostox as a remedy, so that might be indicated for you. I've given it to animals, horses for example, dogs, and people, and it's a wonderful remedy. Now there's rheumatoid arthritis, there's arthritis and there's rheumatism, what's the difference? Well, rheumatoid arthritis is almost like an autoimmune, so it's where the body is attacking itself, the antibodies, and it's an inflammation of joints, can affect the entire body, and it can go through phases of remission. But if you have osteoarthritis due to wear and tear, well that's just going to be there, it's not going to go into a remission. It might get better or worse depending on the weather or what you're doing, but yeah, it's a different... Hypercium, what's that? Pardon me? Hypercium. Hypericum. Oh, it's a hypericum. Can that be? Yeah, we'll call it hypericum, shall we? Okay, yeah. That's what it probably is. If you've got any of those words, I can't even read them. See, we're just winging it. Hypericum, yeah, that's right. I'm not prepared for your questions. No, it is hypericum, and hypericum is St. John's Wort. Oh, right. So, we know... That's very famous, St. John's Wort, isn't it? It is, and we take it to calm the nerves. So, obviously, when there's an inflammation, the nerve endings are irritated and painful. So, sometimes you can use St. John's oil, right, to rub it in. So, that would be a naturopathic approach, but if you take it as a homeopathic pill, often these tiny little white pill oils, then that would be treating it on a homeopathic level and is for pain. So, it calms those nerve endings. And I guess we've talked about this before, but if I go to the doctor and say, look, I've got arthritis in my thumb. He's probably going to prescribe me, I don't know, a pill, and I'm going to come to you. How do you work out from these hundreds of different remedies that are available, how are you going to work out that my thumb has got this particular sort of arthritis as opposed to what I might have gout as well? Yes, you might. Exactly. And that's what we take into consideration. We don't look at a single pain or a single issue that you have. We look at the whole person because we are connected, right? If I've got gut issues and a sore thumb and some psoriasis, well, that's all connected. So, we look at that as a whole picture. And it's not necessarily what form of arthritis do you have. We don't necessarily have to know the diagnosis from the doctor. It's more about when did it start? What's it feel like? What makes it better? What makes it worse? What's going on mentally, emotionally? You know, how does that affect you? Or how do you react because of the pain and the situation that you're now dealing with? So, all those factors are taken into consideration, and that's what helps us to find that remedy. Like with Roose Talks, I explained you'd be restless and the initial movement is worse. But then there are other remedies where you just don't want to move at all. You just sit there and say, oh, leave me alone. I want it dark and I want it cool. And someone else will say, I want to constantly move and I want it warm. Yeah. Right? So, those would be the things that help me to define what remedy to give. We've only got a couple of minutes to go, Heidi. But again, while that song was on, we were talking about diet and arthritis. And we're aware that homeopathy is a holistic approach to healing. So, what would you recommend to someone who has got arthritis, have come along to see you, you've prescribed them a homeopathic treatment. What would you say to them about their diet? Well, again, it does depend a little bit. If it's, for example, gout, then I would say avoid foods that build up uric acid. So, that would be the red meat and the, like, a fowl. Yes. Red wine. Those kind of foods. High in proteins. All the good stuff. All the good stuff. Coffee. Coffee. Oh, no. Couldn't do that. But again, what is really important is the overall acidity of our bodies. And we are more and more acidic and we need to be a bit more alkaline. That is a huge contributor to many of our illnesses and problems. So, a very easy way to deal with that would be drinking some apple cider vinegar in a glass of water every day. Or some fresh lemon juice squeezed in water. And then you can add half a teaspoon of baking soda. Now, that's going to foam and bubble. So, you just wait a few minutes. When that settles, drink that. Yum. And that will then lower the acidity in our bodies. And that is then often some pain relief because the inflammation will go away. Tissue salts are also very, very good to try. And there are some combinations out there. So, if you go to a health shop or a pharmacy, New Era products, they actually have for rheumatism or joint some tissue salts. So, that's affordable and you'd have to take them for longer. So, maybe half a year. And one more important one before I forget. Glucosamine and chondroitin. That would be very valuable. So, glucosamine is found in the covering of shellfish. And chondroitin is often made from shark or bovine cartilage. So, by supplementing that, we can help the body. We support the body. Very good, Heidi. Now, before we get to your thought for the week, just to remind our listeners, we've got arthritis. We want to try a homeopathic remedy. How do we come and see you? Well, you can either go into my website and book an appointment. Or you can call or text 021-335233. And, yeah, I guess, Thrive Homeopathy. Check it out. Check it out. Yeah. And what's your thought for the week, Heidi? Well, because we're talking about pain, how about this? The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow. For every challenge encountered, there is opportunity for growth.