What will the Doctor or pharmacist prescribe?

You will be offered/told to take the following:

Nasal corticosteroid sprays - Corticosteroid medicines are synthetic derivatives of corticosteroid hormones that are produced naturally by the adrenal glands. Natural Corticosteroids have many important functions in the body, including control of inflammatory responses. Synthetic Corticosteroid medicines are used for their effect in controlling inflammation, and corticosteroid nasal sprays are used for the localised treatment of nasal allergies.

The Scientifically proven effects of taking these drugs are:

• increased appetite and weight gain
• deposits of fat in chest, face, upper back and stomach
• water and salt retention leading to swelling and oedema
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• black and blue marks
• slowed healing of wounds
• Osteoporosis
• Cataracts
• Acne
• Muscle weakness
• thinning of the skin
• increased susceptibility to infection
• stomach ulcers
• increased sweating
• mood swings
• psychological problems such as depression
• adrenal suppression & crisis

As a side effect you may experience some relief from your allergic rhinitis symptoms, but inevitably with long term use you will begin to experience the effects of the poison.

What is interesting is that when we are under stress our body produces this steroid as part of its survival mechanism. Long drawn out stress results in similar symptoms to the side effects of corticosteroids.

• blood sugar remains high

• high acidic level inside the body
• demineralization of bone ( the bodies fluids are acidic and so are burning away at the joint sites)
• raised blood cholesterol levels and vasoconstriction - both of these two leading to arteriosclerosis.
• memory impairment
• weight gain as oestrogen is sitting in the fat cells.
• chronic stress affects the effectiveness of the immune system
• inflammatory agents cytokines and self-generated responses autoimmune are no longer contained by circulating cortisol and so auto immune disorders like arthritis result.

Antihistamines are used to control the symptoms of allergies such as hay fever. They work by preventing the actions of histamine, which is a substance produced by the body as part of its natural defences. It is stored in cells called mast cells, in almost all tissues of the body and is released when the body reacts to a foreign substance (known as an allergen).

The released histamine binds to its receptors (H-1 receptors) causing a chain reaction that includes an increase in blood flow to the area, and the release of other chemicals that add to the allergic response. (Itching is one of the results).

Antihistamines work by blocking histamine receptors, therefore reducing the reactions that cause itching

The Scientifically proven effects of taking these drugs are:

They dry the mucous membrane of the nose but many of them also cause sleepiness and other problems, especially in older people like headache; blurred vision; constipation; dry mouth; dizziness; difficulty passing urine; and confusion; drowsiness; dry mouth, nose, or throat; gastrointestinal upset, stomach pain, or nausea; headache; increased appetite and weight gain; thickening of mucus

Less common effects

Acid or sour stomach; belching; blurred vision or any change in vision; clumsiness or unsteadiness; body aches or pain; confusion (not with diphenhydramine); congestion; constipation; cough; diarrhea; difficult or painful urination; difficulty in moving; difficult or painful menstruation; dizziness; drowsiness; dryness of mouth, nose, or throat; early menstruation; fast heartbeat; fatigue; fever; gastrointestinal upset, stomach pain or nausea; heartburn; hoarseness; increased appetite and weight gain; increased sensitivity of skin to sun; increased sweating; indigestion; loss of appetite; joint pain; muscle aching or cramping ; muscle pains or stiffness; nausea; nightmares ringing or buzzing in ears; runny nose; skin rash; swollen joints; stomach discomfort, upset or pain; tender swollen glands in neck; thickening of mucus ; tremor; unusual excitement, nervousness, restlessness, or irritability; vomiting

As a side effect you may experience some relief from your allergic rhinitis symptoms, but inevitably with long term use you will begin to experience the effects of the poison.

(This is just a basic over view of what happens when the body is stuck in trauma).

For an alternative homeopathic perspective on treating hay fever go to:

Find a Cph Qualified Homeopath or Clinic in your area.

Treat your hay fever at an affordable price at the College of Practical Homeopathy’s Teaching Clinic.

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Some of the major causes of developmental and behaviour disorders such as obsessive –compulsive gambling are:

1. Diet – the wrong kind of food such as a refined carbohydrate, tea, coffee, or other stimulant, excessive amounts of additives in foods, junk food like fizzy drinks, chocolate, sweets, any form of sugar, other stimulant like hard cheeses, fats causes the body to produce the adrenal hormone Cortisol. It also requires the body to use vital nutrients in order to break down and eliminate the toxic residue leaving the person mal nourished. All of this will have an impact on the mind in some way, varying from depression to behavioural problems.
2. Drugs/alcohol – Recreational & prescribed drugs can have an impact on a person’s development and behaviour especially if these have been consumed before, or during gestation. Vaccinations are also a major consideration when dealing with developmental and behavioural problems.
3. Shocks - are a major cause of mental illness, especially physical or emotional shock of grief or fear. Prolonged mental/emotional and physical abuse, especially sexual abuse) can be the precursor to behavioural disorders.
4. Behavioural Problems of Children due to Parenting Problems - Poor relationships may slow the child’s development of mental and social skills and cause failure to thrive. A vicious circle pattern is a cycle of negative (naughty) behaviour by the child that causes a negative (angry) response from the parent or caregiver, followed by more negative behaviour by the child, leading to a further negative response from the parent.

So are there alternatives?

There are a variety of complementary and alternative approaches that can help – this article addresses whether homeopathy can make a difference.

Homoeopathy addresses the person as a whole, as a totality (including all aspects of their life); and affects the mind, body, emotions and spirit. From this we can infer that homoeopathy has an important role to play in dealing with psychological “dis-ease” as well as today’s behavioural and psychosocial problems (of which there has been a huge increase in the West).

From a homeopathic perspective it is difficult to separate the psychological from the physical aspect of the person. The homeopath needs to understand underlying causes of developmental and behaviour disorders and put symptoms in the right context to make maximum use of the individuals own self healing mechanisms.

The homeopathic point of view is that 80% of dis-eases come from the mind. The other 20% comes from the food we eat, environmental toxicity, physical injuries, drug toxicity and hereditary factors. When dealing with behavioural problems we must establish the context of the symptoms.

Homeopaths have always treated the mental emotional symptoms of the client as part of the whole body approach, strengthening it to support the mind and visa versa. Homeopaths understand that to be healthy, we need to not only take care of physical health by proper diet and life style, but also take responsibility for mental and emotional well being as well.

Homeopathy has a concept called ‘Miasms’ that can help explain this type of obsessive –compulsive behaviour and an individual’s predisposition for such behaviour.

The main miasm to govern the mind tends to be the syphilitic miasm. The energy is destructive and there is a pre disposition to mental illness, insanity depression, eating disorders, phobias; drug and alcohol abuse. There are four main Miasmatic remedy to consider when looking at psychological disorders but it is very important to establish the root causes of behaviour disorders.

Unfortunately allopathic medicine has, in general, reduced developmental and behaviour disorders to biochemical imbalances and assumes that an appropriate chemical therapy will fix the problem. In fact, there are many underlying causes that need to be taken into consideration when treating people with gambling and other behavioural disorders.

The concept of an ‘addictive personality’ has been added to our vocabulary where people are predisposed to taking habit forming substances or behaving in ways that are obsessive - compulsive. The rewards for the behaviour can be physical, mental or emotional. With this sort of personality one healing approach is to swap a bad habit for another hopefully less damaging one, e.g. changing an alcoholic into a compulsive exerciser. However the real challenge is to remove the emotional need that produces the compulsive behaviour!

Louise Hay says that addictions are about running from the self, fear and not knowing how to love the self.

A well trained practical homeopath will investigate the underlying causes of the problem and using the time line will help a client explore this – it may establish what emotional, physical abuses or substances the client has been exposed to and prescribe remedies that will support the body to heal itself.

In the West, behavioural disorders are extremely common and it is an important part of case management to take into consideration the cause of the symptoms – whether mental/emotional or physical. A homeopathic case taking should be a thorough investigation into the cause of the problem in order to remove the symptoms. You will never get a cure to any thing if you do not address the cause of the problem and this true not only for homeopathy but all other systems of medicine. These disorders require help and support from a range of complementary and alternative treatments. Counselling and psychotherapy can be of great benefit in helping people resolve psychological issues and will act as an important adjunct to homeopathic treatment or vice versa.

Homeopathy, especially if applied in a practical way, can provide treatment strategies that are tailored to the individual needs of the person and which are non toxic, non addictive and cost effective system. This can relieve the untold misery of obsessive compulsive behaviour and prevent individual spiralling downwards in to a world of chemical coshes, ill health and fear based medical interventions.

For more information:

Visit the College of Practical Homeopathy’s ”Homeopathic Directory” to find a Cph Qualified Homeopaths, Practitioners, and Clinics in your area.

Tags: addiction, addictive personality, allopathic, alternative medicine, behaviour disorder, behavioural problems, college, complementary, depression, drug, gambling, homeopathy, junk food, mental illness, miasms, naturopathy, parenting problems, psychological problemsaddiction addictive personality allopathic alternative medicine behaviour disorder behavioural problems college complementary depression drug gambling homeopathy junk food mental illness miasms naturopathy parenting problems psychological problems

It is now generally recognised that people who have psychological disorders are suffering from physical imbalances of the brain; as well as disturbances in thinking, emotion, and behaviour. These disorders are often caused by the complex interactions between physical, psychological, social, cultural, and hereditary influences. An ‘addiction’ to gambling could be seen as one of these disorders and therefore would fall under the remit of the NHS as it stands today. The current treatment of mental health disorders are categorized as either:

• drug therapy and electroconvulsive therapy
• psychotherapeutic treatments include individual, group, or family and marital psychotherapy; behaviour therapy techniques (such as relaxation training or exposure therapy); and hypnotherapy

If you are lucky, live in the right area and are persistent you may get a combined treatment approach involving drugs, psychotherapy and counselling but the resources are extremely limited particularly in the more costly approaches which involve trained counsellors rather than cheap medical coshes or happy pills.

Bear in mind that responses to the side effects of allopathic drugs are also unpredictable and affect a person mentally and emotionally. Many patients who are treated with drugs experience chronic illness including depression which further aggravates their condition and may lead to further pathological behaviour.

Children acquire many skills as they grow. Some skills, such as controlling urine and stool, depend mainly on the level of maturity of the child’s nerves and brain. Others, such as behaving appropriately at home and in school, are the result of a complicated interaction between the child’s cognitive development, health, temperament, and relationship with parents, teachers, and caregivers.

Behavioural and developmental problems can interfere with and threaten normal relationships between the child and others. Gambling can be a mild behavioural problem – a time of experimentation and rebellion that is grown out of as we mature into adulthood. For an increasing number however this growth process is arrested and they continue to create problems. So what are the alternative or complementary approaches that could be used – either within the NHS – or privately?

Benefit from affordable homeopathic treatment for both you and your family at the College of Practical Homeopathy’s Teaching Clinic.

Tags: addiction, allopathic drugs, alternative medicine, cognitive development, counselling, electroconvulsive therapy, gambling, health, homeopathic college, homeopathy, medicine, NHS, physical imbalances, psychological disorders, psychotherapyaddiction allopathic drugs alternative medicine cognitive development counselling electroconvulsive therapy gambling health homeopathic college homeopathy medicine NHS physical imbalances psychological disorders psychotherapy

Gambling can be seen as harmless fun, an interesting leisure pursuit, morally reprehensible or a serious mental health issue depending on the actions of the individual and the effects those actions have on that person and those around them.

Addiction is defined as the disruptive behaviour or activity associated with something that that a person is dependent on – gambling, alcohol, drugs, eating disorders etc Addiction generally interferes with the ability to work, study, or interact normally with family and friends.

However the first question before we explore gambling and the NHS is to why ask this is suddenly becoming big news. (For a fuller account checkout an interesting article by Alan Cassels ‘Drug Companies Peddling Paranoia’ in New Internationalist Publications) but briefly the following is relevant for readers to get an overview of how the current debate has been started).
About thirty years ago the British physician, Julian Tudor-Hart published his famous ‘inverse care law’: ‘those who most need medical care are the least likely to get it.’ Modern pharmaceutical research is playing Dr Hart’s law out on a macabre global scale. While the debilitating diseases of the poor – such as malaria, tuberculosis and sleeping sickness – have few or no treatments, the drug companies are busy working on cures for a ballooning set of ‘made-up’ diseases of the rich and privileged. There are now drugs for toenail fungus, ‘pre-hypertension’ and bedwetting; for compulsive shopping and gambling ‘addiction’.

How do drug companies create ‘markets’ for new drugs – they create ‘new’ diseases by hiring public relations agencies and work with academics. ‘You find a professor working in a university and fund that professor to write a book, or to do a media tour around the country. Or you find a public figure, a sports figure or an actor, to go around and meet and work with journalists, and to do work with public forums, so you literally create this need.’

Looking at the latest ‘gambling’ disease we can see all the hallmarks of the creation of an investment led ‘social disease’ – the drug companies are fully aware of the market potential and how well a disease area ‘performs’. The rising rates of gambling addiction or obesity and the dark clouds of potentially dire public health consequences are seen in terms of their silver linings – generating legions of new customers. Drug companies claim they need a large market to recoup their research and development costs. But the top drug companies throw nearly three times more money at marketing and promotion than they do at basic R&D. And their initial research is often already ‘funded’ by the taxpayer.

So who actually runs the NHS? More in our next blog…..

Benefit from affordable homeopathic treatment for both you and your family at the College of Practical Homeopathy’s Teaching Clinic.

Tags: academics, addiction, alternative, complementary, drug companies, gambling, health, homeopathic college, homeopathy, inverse care law, malaria, medical care, medicine, NHS, obesity, pharmaceutical research, treatmentacademics addiction alternative complementary drug companies gambling health homeopathic college homeopathy inverse care law malaria medical care medicine NHS obesity pharmaceutical research treatment