Homeopathic Remedies to Clear Acne and Reduce Stress
I am thrilled to have guest writer, Kathleen Scheible CCH, here today to share with you her thoughts on how homeopathy can work for the body and skin. Kathleen is a well-known fixture in the San Francisco homeopathy community and found her own pathway to alternative medicine through healing skin. She is here today to contribute her thoughts on how homeopathy can help in supporting the skin.
People are amazingly complex creatures. We are robust in many ways and can adapt to stressful conditions. These stressors can be physical, such as vastly different temperatures to what we have known or the more nebulous emotional stressors including all of the pressures of modern living: Being a good student, raising kids, trying to make a living, and simply not having enough time or resources to do these things well enough.
We learn to keep going, to not give up or drop the ball. For lots of us, this means that though we keep holding things together, we may experience some chronic health issues that crop up more often when stress levels are high. Skin issues, migraine headaches, digestive disturbance, necks or backs that go out, insomnia, PMS, and even simply bursts of anger or panic attacks – while we might be able to identify our triggers for these issues, it’s much harder to lower stress levels.
Homeopathic medicine is a very effective therapy for stress-related health issues such as these. That is because it’s a holistic approach which acts more like a very profound stimulus for your body’s own healing abilities. One homeopathic remedy is tailored to you – the signs and symptoms you tend to get, and the qualities of how you experience your symptoms. The remedy can initiate a healing response that extends to your mental and emotional state as well as the physical symptoms, as well as overall energy level and openness to existing resources that you may have.
There are thousands of homeopathic remedies, and finding which one is the best match for you is how homeopathic medicine is practiced. To give you an idea of how it works, the following are examples of homeopathic remedies and an accompanying example of a real (anonymous) person that has been helped by that remedy.
Arsenicum album
People who need this remedy often experience high levels of anxiety, and have many different worries. They often would have severe imbalance in one or more of these physical areas: lungs – severe asthma, often since birth, skin – can have severe dry skin including eczema since birth, mind – anxiety, and digestion – tend to get frequent stomach bugs with very severe nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea or else extreme gastritis. Other keynotes that help to confirm this would be the correct remedy: the person is very chilly and often illness is brought on by the cold, everything is worse at night, burning pains (could be skin, lungs, or stomach) and anxiety makes all of these issues worse.
A woman in her early 50s had suffered with debilitating digestive issues for most of her adult life. She was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, and had periodic bouts of lack of appetite and diarrhea with burning pains in the stomach, brought on by stress. She was a parent of two kids, now both adults, and she had a good marriage. However, she was “high strung” and constantly worried about things going wrong. She and her husband had a successful business together but she worried a lot about finances, and what might go wrong. She obsessively worried about her kids, the choices they made, and that something bad might happen to them. She had a fear of germs, and worried about contamination – of food, of the house – and brought along sanitizer wherever she went. She was chilly all the time, especially her hands and feet and had Raynaud’s syndrome. She had pretty severe dry skin, with deep cracks in her fingers and feet throughout the cold winter time. When things got really bad, she would wake up at night, often between midnight and 1am, with a panic attack. Also her digestive issues got worse with stress, for example when she found out that someone might sue their business.
While the pressures of a small business owner are understandable, especially threat of legal action, debilitating stress-related symptoms can be lessened with homeopathic treatment. In her case, the remedy Arsenicum album helped her greatly. After only two doses of it in 30C potency, she experienced a sense of calm that was dramatic, and lasted for three days. Overall, she is now much less anxious, and does not get set off easily, and finds that while she of course cares about her family, she mostly doesn’t worry about things she can’t control. For two days, she had a strong odor with her sweat. This is not an uncommon first response to this remedy. That went away. Also, her skin is much less dry, even in the winter time.
She now only has bouts of digestive issues a couple of times a year, compared with once or twice a month. And the severity is much less, as it doesn’t affect her appetite and she can function much better with it.
Nux vomica
For people who need this remedy the main issues in life tend to be overworked and experience an out-of-proportion anger. They are often “type A” and are competitive, impatient, and can be arrogant. The overwork leads to a state of collapse. Often people who need this remedy keep themselves going with too much coffee and then unwind with alcohol, leading to an overwrought nervous system, which contributes to their short fuse. This is another remedy with an affinity for the gastrointestinal system, and the quality of pain is strong cramping. They are also usually chilly and are aggravated by alcohol, coffee, and anger and feel better by warmth. Other indications that help to confirm this remedy is needed: sneezing in the morning (and/or strong seasonal allergies), craving for stimulants, constipation, acne with itchy pimples worse at night, and high sex drive.
A man in his 30s was a mid-level manager for a software company, and seemed very impatient throughout his appointment. He also seemed irritated at the light in the office, and kept reacting to any little noise – obviously his nervous system was over stimulated. He had been experiencing persistent insomnia, waking at 3 or 4 am worried about work, and how he should be doing something about it. Then he’d have sleepiness throughout the day. He also had cramping pains after meals often, and frequent heartburn, which was worse if he had a drink with dinner though he had one each night. He had bouts of severe back pain at night in bed, worse from work stress – which only happened a few times a year. He often had constipation, for which he took medication from time to time though he hated going to the doctor. In fact he also hated most of the people he worked with, as he felt they were all pretty stupid. He frequently got angry at work, and could fly off the handle at people. This sometimes brought on acute cramping in the stomach. Starting in his college years after a lot of heavy drinking, he developed acne rosacea. His anger could also flare up his rosacea, which he also sometimes got from overindulging in alcohol, but when the anger caused it, it was very itchy. His hemorrhoids were better from warm applications, as were his stomach cramps.
After taking two doses of Nux vomica in 200C potency, he had a bit of an aggravation: he had a pretty strong stomach cramp that lasted for a day, accompanied by a headache that was like the migraines he used to get. But when we had our follow up appointment one month later, he reported that he wasn’t having the digestive symptoms anymore unless he really overdid it with spicy food. He found that he hadn’t been angry with his coworkers, which was very unusual. That was probably why his rosacea was almost gone. Also, no back pain for several weeks – it had gone away with the anger too. Six months later, he is much better, and has changed jobs as he realized the only reason he was working in that industry was to be competitive, which wasn’t so good for him. He doesn’t drink as much coffee, doesn’t get insomnia, and has only had faint rosacea occasionally.
I have always believed there is more than one pathway to clear skin. If you find homeopathy intriguing and wish to learn more, check out Bernal Homeopathy here or email Kathleen directly at kathleen@bernalhomeopathy.com.
In love, health, and community,
Elise May, CN + LE, is a holistic esthetician, acne nutritionist, and founder of Skin Nutritious. Since 2009, she has helped over 1,300 clients overcome acne with a unique blend of coaching, treatments, and holistic skincare.
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The entire contents of this website are intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Elise May, Skin Nutritious, and her community. Skin Nutritious encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
