The flu can come on suddenly and stop you in your tracks - but there are many homeopathic remedies that can help bring relief and shorten the duration of the flu.
The following are some remedies that can bring relief during the flu:
Aconite:
feel fearful or agitated
C/F Sudden shock
This remedy is very commonly given for the initial stages of FLU, croup, bronchitis, pleurisy, and pneumonia.
dry, hoarse, croupy cough
develop a cold or cough during dry cold weather. Along with their dry cough, they will have a dry mouth.
Worse at night, being cold, drinking cold water
restless and anxious and very thirsty.
Arsenic album:
feels chilly and exhausted/ Great exhaustion after the slightest exertion.
anxious restlessness /
nightly aggravation
Burning pains. Unquenchable thirst
Unable to lie down; fears suffocation
Cough worse after midnight
Expectoration scanty, frothy
burning heat all over
a watery, runny nose with sneezing paroxysms and a dry or wheezing cough
Belladonna:
No thirst, anxiety or fear. Belladonna stands for violence of attack and suddenness of onset
Heat, redness, throbbing and burning WITH HIGH FEVER
Dryness of all mucous membranes; nose, fauces, larynx, and trachea with aversion to water
Barking cough, whooping cough
Larynx very painful; feels as if a foreign body were in it, with cough
restless, drowsy, and have wild dreams.
worse at night
Redness is remarkable
very red sore throat, a pounding headache,
Ferrum Phos:
Fever, initial stage of infection, when not many signs of flu are seen , or general sick feeling.
Headache; General dull headache; sensitive to cold air, noise, and any jar
Rosy cheeks
A feeling of weariness
Sensitive eyes
A short hard cough
Strong thirst
Vomiting after eating
Cough better at night.
This remedy is also prescribed in early stages of flu or fever, even if symptoms are not especially clear.
Baptisia:
terrible flus that come on suddenly. People feel sore and bruised all over, and the body and the limbs feel as if they are “scattered and all in bits.
There’s profuse sweating with a high fever and an intense thirst.
“stuporous ” look— dazed and sluggish to the point of falling asleep while they are talking to someone
respiratory: sense of suffocation. Seeks open window
Bryonia
feels very hot and dry, is thirsty for large quantities of cold drinks, and experience aching all over
warm weather after cold days
common cold starts with a nasal discharge and then moves down into the chest,
Cough, dry, at night; must sit up; worse after eating or drinking, with vomiting,
with stitches in chest, must expand lungs
dry, painful cough which makes their heads hurt
Wanting only to lie still and be left alone
Everything feels worse from even the slightest motion
Coming into warm room excites cough
Tough mucus in trachea, loosened only with much hawking.
Eupatorium:
severe aching deep in the bones as if bones are broken
Marked periodicity
Throbbing Headache Occipital pain after lying down, with sense of weight.
Fever: Perspiration relieves all symptoms except headache , Chill between 7 and 9 am preceded by thirst , Knows chill is coming on because he cannot drink enough.
Yellow tongue
Influenzinum:
The homeopathic remedy Influenzinum can be used as a preventative—taken once a month during flu season with additional doses if in contact with someone who has the flu. Many homeopathic pharmacies make it fresh each year from that year’s flu vaccine. Some homeopaths swear by it—finding it more effective than the conventional flu shot, without the side effects. Studies in England and India conducted between 1968 and 1970 using Influenzinum as a preventative showed the homeopathic remedy to be highly effective at preventing the flu
Oscillococinum:
Can be used as preventative
In the year 1925, Joseph Roy is believed to have observed in some conditions of a culture the existence of a germ animated by an oscillating movement. He named the nosode Oscillococcinum because of this fact.
Anxiety, paleness, chill. Sensitiveness to barometric weather changes. Tuberculous patients sensitive to cold. Fever, Eye and nasal catarrh. Bronchial congestion. Painful congestion of the ear drum.
Gelsemium:
for flus that come on when the weather changes from cold to warm.
It is for the commonest of flus that come on slowly and are accompanied by weak, aching muscles.
There is a dull headache and a great feeling of heaviness ... eyelids, head, and limbs.
These people are thirstless even with the fever, chills that run up and down the spine.
They are apathetic, dull, and drowsy.
Merc Sol:
for those who experience fever with copious, extremely offensive perspiration, which makes them feel worse or at the very least doesn’t provide any relief (unlike most feverish sweats).
Their breath smells bad, they have more salivation than normal, and they are extremely thirsty.
Nightly aggravation. Sensitive to both heat and cold.
Cloudiness, intoxication, and dizziness, Heaviness, fulness, and aching in head, as if forehead were squeezed by a bandage, or as though cranium were on the point of bursting
Rhus Tox:
for flus that come in cold damp weather.
There is much aching and stiffness in the joints which is worse when these people first start to move after having sat or lain down for a while.
The pains then ease up after a bit of movement (like a rusty gate!) but these people become quickly weak and sore and so they have to rest again. After they have rested for a while they stiffen up and have to move again—creating a cycle of restlessness.
Their pains are better for warmth. They can be anxious and weepy (not knowing why they are crying).
Phosphorus:
fever with an easily-flushing face
feels very weak and dizzy
periodic headaches, sudden shooting pains, splitting headache after cough,congestion of brain seeming to rise from spine into head., rush of blood to head, red face and eyes, heat on head,
hoarseness
sore throat
cough
stomach pain and nausea or vomiting
strong anxiety
wanting others to be around to offer company and reassurance
strong thirst, with a tendency to vomit when liquids warm up in the stomach
DOSE AND REPETITION:
Take the indicated remedy in a 30X or 30C potency according to the severity of the symptoms
more often (every 1–2 hours) if the symptoms are severe
less often (every 3–4 hours) if they are not too bad.
Stop and start the remedy as needed: stop medicine if you feel better—and repeat it only if the symptoms start to return again.
If you have taken about six doses and had no response then it’s likely that you selected the wrong remedy. Check your symptoms again and find another remedy. Or call me ☺
If you only have a higher (200) or lower (6) potency, don’t worry—the right remedy will work in any potency.
At the first sign of a flu:
Oscillococcinum can also be taken right at the very beginning of feeling ill but before any symptoms have developed, before you even know that it’s a flu. Take two or three doses 4–8 hours apart.
Aconite will help if taken in the first few hours of a fast developing flu that comes on after getting chilled in a cold wind. You can take Aconite when you know you are getting sick, have started to sneeze and develop a fever, but before you have a clearly identifiable symptom picture. Take three doses, one every hour or so
Ferrum phos is the remedy to take after Aconite hasn’t helped and a fever has developed, but you have no other symptoms yet. Again, take three doses, one every hour or so.
Convalescence
My favorite homeopathic remedies for weakness after influenza are Kali phos, China, and Gelsemium.
These aren’t the only remedies for post-viral weakness but they will help many of those whose vital forces are struggling to recover their former strength and health.
Kali phos is for those who suffer general exhaustion and are unaccountably depressed after the flu.
China is for those who are debilitated after the flu especially if they have lost a lot of fluids through sweating and/or vomiting. They are chilly, pale, and with dark circles under the eyes and are touchy and irritable. Their limbs feel weary and they want to constantly stretch or change position. If one of these remedies fits the symptoms, it should be taken in a low potency—that is, 6X, 6C, or 12X— two to four times daily, for up to a week.
Gelsemium is for those who continue to feel dull, apathetic, heavy.
even after the acute flu symptoms have passed. Their temperature stays up around 99°F and while they don’t feel very ill they don’t feel well either.
This is a more serious state as it can develop into chronic exhaustion; therefore, this remedy should be taken in a higher potency—12C or 30C— twice daily for up to three days.
It can be taken if the feelings of heaviness and exhaustion look like they are settling into a chronic fatigue pattern also.
The homeopathic remedy Influenzinum can also be taken in any situation where a person simply feels they have never been well since the flu. A single dose of a 30C can be all that is needed in this situation