After diagnosing mononucleosis and examining a teen for any potential complications, a conventional medical doctor typically has nothing to offer a mononucleosis sufferer besides good advice to rest and drink plenty of fluids (and to avoid heavy physical activity or contact sports if the spleen is swollen so as not to risk rupture). In fact, most teens and young adults do recover on their own without any lingering after-effects—but it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, and a small number of people do report lingering, chronic fatigue for much longer than that.

Thank goodness for homeopathic medicines. When the right remedy is chosen, healing is rapid and complete, as you can see in the various stories of mono patients in these pages. However, choosing the right remedy for a patient with mono can be tricky and requires expertise, since there are many possible choices, all dependent upon the individual’s unique symptoms. Below are just a few of the many remedies that might be indicated. If you or a loved one has mono, it would be wise to seek professional medical and homeopathic advice.

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Those who are skeptical of homeopathy often denounce it saying there is not enough “scientific evidence” to support it. They imply that conventional medicine is superior because it is “evidence-based.” Homeopaths often have countered that the evidence for much of conventional medicine is thin at best—and recently, this argument has been vindicated by a bastion of conventional respectability, the British Medical Journal.

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A remedy that can ease withdrawal

—compiled by Homeopathy Today staff

Throughout the history of homeopathy, Nux vomica has helped people with addictions. It can ease withdrawal symptoms, smooth and shorten the detoxification process, and address the lingering effects of overdoing any drug. Like any homeopathic remedy, however, Nux vomica is not a panacea and works best when selected to fit a person’s individual symptoms.

Modern-day homeopaths use Nux vomica in much the same way as did these homeopathic forebears:

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or … Alien Spouse and the Story of the Human Thumb
by Mary Aspinwall, ISHom, PCH

Those of you who have read some of my past articles in Homeopathy Today may remember that I have been living in both Ireland and Spain the past twelve years. Last November, my family and I got caught up in the media’s wild enthusiasm for The Secret—as seen on Oprah! This is a book that should come with a clear warning: “Reading this may change your life!”

Going for it

We decided to give it a go. We held a family meeting during which each of us—my husband, our 9-year-old son, our 16-year-old daughter, and I—had the chance to say what we would ideally like in our lives. We even selected some images to represent these ideas and stuck them on our fridge door.

Just in case you’ve been living in a cave the last few years, The Secret is based on the Law of Attraction. The idea, in a nutshell, is that by clearly visualizing what you want in life, you can manifest it. Or as one of the book’s contributing writers says, it’s like “ordering from the cosmic catalogue and confidently awaiting delivery.”

We mostly felt our lives were pretty good but needed a bit of fine tuning. We loved living in Ireland because of the great sense of community there, but the almost daily rainfall left us with more than a touch of cabin fever. We loved the outdoor life we were able to live in southern Spain’s near perfect climate, but because we were in a holiday/vacation town, the sense of community wasn’t there.

So we started to visualize a vibrant community with lovely weather, an outdoor lifestyle, great educational choices, art, live music, comedy, theatre, culture, organic food, and people who wanted eco-friendly lives with holistic healthcare—and that, dear reader, is how we ended up in Ojai, California.

Paradise found

We searched carefully for our perfect spot via the internet, and Ojai certainly looked promising. My husband did a solo reconnaissance mission in February and gave it three thumbs up. Luckily, after moving here in July, we all agreed that it is a very special place. A bit like dying and going to heaven…in fact, it was filmed as heaven (Shangri-la) in the 1937 Frank Capra movie, Lost Horizon.

So what makes it so heavenly? First, it is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Second, the people are laid back, savvy, and friendly. The owners of the house we are renting even organized a potluck supper so we could meet our new neighbors.

In just four short weeks we have managed to find a lovely home with fruit trees and a vegetable garden. We even have the offer of three chickens. It is darn near a Little House on the Prairie scenario, except we can walk to town. I have also signed the lease on a little downtown office with a patio garden. The children are settling in to college and school. We all have groovy high-handlebar bicycles, which are like riding on armchairs. We have discovered the joys of thrift shops and garage sales. At the Salvation Army car lot, we even found an old cheap and cheerful convertible that runs like a dream. We are there, ready, and waiting to do our bit to recycle/re-use other people’s discarded treasures!

Not so fast…

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Energy and emotional steadiness return after teen takes the right remedy

by Ann Jerome Croce, PhD, CCH, RSHom(NA)

Nearly ten years ago, a young woman came to see me because she was having trouble recovering from mononucleosis. Heather was eighteen, finishing high school and applying for college. She had contracted mono just before Christmas break and now, three months later, was over the worst of the symptoms but still slept at least twelve hours a night and took a nap every day after school. While fatigue after mono is not uncommon, most people are beginning to recover by this time, and Heather was showing no signs of improvement.

Acute or chronic?

First I needed to decide whether to treat Heather’s fatigue acutely or constitutionally, as homeopathy offers both options. Mono is contagious and generally resolves on its own, two hallmarks of acute illness; however, only those with an underlying susceptibility catch it, and it can create long-term fatigue, two considerations that in homeopathy lead us into the realm of constitutional (chronic) prescribing.

If I were to approach Heather’s fatigue acutely as a lingering stage of her mono, I would need a remedy that fit her particular mono symptoms including the current fatigue. On the other hand, if a constitutional susceptibility had led to her illness, a remedy targeted narrowly toward the mono might not be comprehensive enough to give her the healing boost that she needed.

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Fast recovery for a woman with severe mono
by George Guess, MD, DHt

As in the case of most viral illnesses, mononucleosis, an Epstein-Barr virus infection, stymies the best efforts of conventional medicine. Not so with homeopathy, which has a long and successful track record in treating this ailment—both the acute illness and protracted cases with tardy convalescence. Below is a case illustration from my patient files.

A 23-year-old woman came to me with mononucleosis, previously diagnosed by her allopathic/conventional physician. She had been ill for ten days. She had an excruciating headache located behind the eyes. She ran a fever from about 6 p.m. until 6 a.m., when she would have a profuse sweat. Her neck hurt considerably.

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Can we use them all together?
by Amy Rothenberg, ND, DHANP

When 39-year-old Carla first came to see me, she was struggling with anxiety, depression, insomnia, attention deficit disorder, chronic tonsillitis, and fibromyalgia. This single mother of two worked as a computer programmer and was stressed out in all areas of her life—physically, emotionally, and financially. She was terribly stiff and sore and had frequent throat infections, but her physical discomforts were overshadowed by her deep anxieties and worries, which were almost paralyzing.

Carla felt chronically overwhelmed at work and at home. She took no pleasure in life and felt there was nothing to look forward to.

For ten years, she’d been receiving medical care for her health complaints but, unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be helping much and was costly, too. This just added to her financial burdens while increasing her feelings of despair.

The tip of the iceberg

The list of pharmaceuticals that Carla presented to me was impressive. At various times and often in combination she had been prescribed Prozac®, Zoloft®, and Celexa® for depression; Ativan®, Valium®, Xanax®, and Klonopin® for anxiety; Ambien® and Lunesta® for help with sleep; Adderal® for attention deficit disorder; the anti-inflammatory Celebrex® and the muscle relaxant Flexeril® for fibromyalgia; and a veritable laundry list of antibiotics for her tonsillitis episodes. At the time of our visit, she was on Klonapin®, Celexa®, Ambien®, and Adderal®.

Carla is not alone. It is very common for new patients to come to me with a myriad of complaints and a long list of corresponding medications. It used to be mainly my elderly patients, but over the past 20-plus years, increasingly younger and relatively healthier people are coming to me with long lists of drugs they take or have taken. Some of these conventional drugs are amazingly effective or may even be essential for the person’s survival. But many others are amazingly ineffective, unnecessary, or even detrimental to health. According to a Journal of the American Medical Association article, 108,000 Americans died in 1996 from adverse reactions to FDA-approved medications that had been properly prescribed by licensed medical professionals, and another 2.2 million Americans had negative drug reactions. So, along with the over-prescribing and excessive cost of many drugs, there are growing safety reasons to use caution when beginning new prescriptions or when adding to a drug regimen.

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Knocked out by mononucleosis? Speed up the healing with homeopathic treatment!

by Susanne Saltzman, MD

Being a teenager can be pretty stressful. (Though, frankly, being a parent of a teen is probably worse!) Besides the pressures of keeping up with homework, school sports, and peer relationships, many teens are dealing with fluctuating hormones, mood swings, poor eating habits, and late night bedtimes. All these things can have a negative impact on immune systems, making teens especially vulnerable to a viral illness called infectious mononucleosis—or “mono,” for short. Known as “the kissing disease” because it usually spreads via saliva, mono can debilitate a teen for a few weeks—or a few months.

Teens have it worse

Mono is caused by one of the most common human viruses—the Epstein-Barr virus, a member of the herpesvirus family. Most people get exposed to this virus sometime during their lives. When children become infected, they usually show no symptoms or only mild, brief illnesses. When teens or young adults get infected, however, it causes mononucleosis almost 50% of the time.

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A fever is a helpful and necessary part of the process of healing in an acute illness. An increased temperature generally indicates that the body’s defense mechanism is fighting an infection and temperature variations indicate how it is coping. During a fever the healing reactions of the body are speeded up: the heart beats faster, carrying the blood more quickly to all the organs; respiration speeds up, increasing oxygen intake; and perspiration increases, helping the body to cool down naturally.

by Timothy R.Dooley, MD, ND

If you can make simple observations, you can quickly learn enough homeopathy to practice on the home-health level. You don’t need to be an expert in anatomy, physiology, or pharmacology.  You do need to be able to observe your child’s symptoms and anychanges in them: thirst, skin color, appetite, mood, discharges, modalities (what makes symptoms better or worse), etc. And you need to be able to match these observations with the symptoms and changes that medicines can cause - and therefore cure when applied homeopathically.

Ear infections: Breaking the antibiotic cycle

One common home health problem that frequently arises is that of middle ear infections, also known by their Latin name, otitis media.  Most children experience a few episodes of otitis media, usually associated with a cold or upper respiratory infection. It is well known that antibiotics are overused in the treatment of ear infections. I have treated many patients of all ages over the years for this disorder, using homeopathy almost exclusively and with great success.

In fact, I think it is safe to say that the use of antibiotics in ear infections seems to create a self-perpetuating cycle.  It is as if the immune system gets lazy and this results in increasing numbers of such episodes. Using homeopathy seems to break the cycle; the immune system starts functioning on a higher level, resulting in fewer colds and ear infections.

This makes sense when you realize that homeopathic remedies don’t work by killing bacteria.  Rather, they stimulate a response in the overall recuperative process, helping your child’s body fight infections naturally.

Pay close attention to the symptoms. How did the problem start? How is the child behaving? What do they want to eat? What do they want to drink?

The trick for good results with homeopathic prescribing is to pay close attention to the symptoms. How did the problem start?  How is the child behaving?  What do they want to eat?  What do they want to drink?  How do they appear?  Are they chilly or hot?  Are they more comfortable indoors or outside in the open air?  What is the nature of any discharge they may have?  And so on.

Changing symptoms, changing remedies

The remedies listed are not the only remedies that might be indicated in someone with an earache, but just these few will help a surprising number of cases.  If none of these seems to fit, check for other remedies in one of the many good homeopathic self-care books available.

Remember when treating your child that their symptoms may change as the days (or even hours) go by, and when the symptoms change, the child will typically need a new remedy.  For example, Belladonna or Ferrum phosphoricum might be indicated in the early stages of an earache, but the symptoms may change, calling for Pulsatilla or Hepar sulphuris as the days go by.

Sometimes patients, especially kids, just bounce back after a dose or two of a well-chosen remedy and get better practically overnight.  More typically, however, they will improve significantly with a well-chosen remedy and then spend a number of days “clearing up” the remaining, less acute, symptoms.  In my experience, if the child is getting better in general, their ears are also recovering.

These remedies are non-toxic and sold over the counter at natural health food stores

Here are some of the common, and truly indispensable, remedies to consider for children with ear infections.

Chamomilla. You can hear the child who needs Chamomilla down the hall and through a closed door. They are uncomfortable and irritable, and they want you to know it. There is something in their cry that puts you on edge; it’s the kind of cry that causes adults to think things like, ‘Would somebody please shut that kid up!?’  The child demands to be carried and screams when put down. They demand this or that, but throw the object of their desire away when they finally get it.  A peculiar symptom I have seen many times is that one cheek may be glowing red, while the other is pale.

Pulsatilla. A child needing Pulsatilla is also tearful, but quite different from the Chamomilla patient described above. Here the cry is usually wimpier, creating a reaction in the surrounding adults of, “Oh, the poor thing!” The child clearly wants sympathy and nurturing. Discharges (such as a runny nose) are usually yellow or green, thick, and bland - not irritating. They typically have little thirst or appetite, and they generally feel better in fresh, open air.

Belladonna. In conventional medical school I remember being taught a memory aid for the patient who has been poisoned with Belladonna [in large,non-homeopathic doses].  It went something like: “Red as a beet, dry as a bone, hot as a furnace, blind as a bat, mad as a hatter.”  These represent some of the characteristic symptoms for Belladonna and are helpful in recognizing its homeopathic  presentation as well.  We think of Belladonna for illnesses with sudden, violent onset. The child is typically hot, red, and dry. The pupils are often dilated and the eyes seem very bright.  Curiously, the head is often hot but the limbs are cold. The nervous system is affected in such a way that the child often experiences twitching or jerking - perhaps in their sleep - and is sensitive to light and jarring. They are often excited and restless.

Ferrum phosphoricum. Listed in the homeopathic materia medica for Ferrum phosphoricum is the comment, “violent earache, acute otitis media when Belladonna fails.” That is, the child needing Ferrum phosphoricum may at first be mistaken for one needing Belladonna.  And this is largely how I have come to think of Ferrum phosphoricum -  similar to Belladonna but less intense. The child is often excited, sensitive to light and jarring - but not to the extent of Belladonna.  They are often red, but not as intensely red; hot, but not as burning; eyes red, but not so bright.  And like Belladonna, Ferrum phosphoricum is commonly indicated in children with earaches.

Hepar sulphuris. Think of Hepar sulphuris when the child is chilly, sweats easily, and often has an accompanying hoarse, barking cough. Discharges are typically thick and yellow, and pains are often sticking (like splinters).

Dosage: These remedies are non-toxic and sold over the counter at natural food storesand some drug stores. The commonly found potencies (such as the 6th, 12th, or 30th) will be fine. Given a choice, I usually recommendthe 30th potency.

At first you might lack confidence in your abilities to take care of your family.  Remember, though, that you intuitively know much more about health and disease than you realize, even if you don’t know all the terminology.  After a few successes you will start to realize that the body heals itself; we’re just giving it a little help - with homeopathy.

Adapted from “Do-it-yourself learning—Healing ear infections”, by Timothy R. Dooley, MD, ND in Homeopathy Today, April 2004