Fighting disease the old-fashioned way, while keeping in mind it’s just a part of life.

Reprinted from the Yo Mama Series, LA Alternative Press

When I was a kid, the flu was just another word for a bad cold, not something you could die from. Life was simpler then. If you had a cough, you were given the hideous, fake-cherry Robitussin. For a fever, it was the chewable, orange-flavored Bayer’s aspirin. If you were really sick, you got antibiotics — and chicken soup. And when it came to shots, we got them all, no questions asked. I can still remember running through Dr.Stillman’s office in my Carter’s undies, hoping to escape the horrible needle.

I know that Western medicine has its place, but I’ve also been checking out other, more holistic ways of dealing with my kids’ health. So I sign up for a pair of workshops by Dr. Lauren.Feder — M.D. and homeopath.The first is “Vaccine Safety,” and the second, “Winter Colds and Flu Treatment.”

Dr. Feder, an engaging woman with a down-to-earth, decidedly undoctorlike demeanor, begins the “Vaccines” workshop by talking about disease. The Universal Law, she tells us, recognizes six processes that are basic to all living things - growth, digestion, elimination, disease, healing, and regeneration. In other words, for a homeopath, disease is just a part of life.

While the allopathic (Western) doctor seeks to combat disease by ridding the body of specific germs, the homeopath seeks to strengthen the constitution overall, so that the body can stay in balance and thereby resist disease. A homeopath doesn’t seek to eradicate or suppress symptoms, as in Western medicine, but instead sees symptoms as tools that the body is using to fight off disease.

Although homeopathy’s main tenets have been tossed around since before Hippocrates, Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician, formalized the study in the early 1800’s in response to the barbaric and useless treatments (bloodletting was very popular) favored by the physicians of the day.

“Homeopathic Medicine at Home,” by Maesimund B. Panos, M.D. and Jane Heimlich, gives a good explanation of homeopathic principles. “The Law of Similars” states that “like is cured by like.” In other words, “a remedy can cure a disease if it produces in a healthy person symptoms similar to those of the disease.” “The Law of Proving” states that the remedies used, have been tested or “proved” by observing the symptoms that healthy people develop when they take these substances over a period of time. “The Law of Potentization” insures that remedies are not toxic, as they have been diluted and shaken, and diluted some more, until no trace of the original substance can actually be detected in the remedy.

If it all sounds bizarre and mysterious — it is. Nobody knows exactly why or how homeopathy works — it just does. For me, the most bizarre and sinister practice in Western medicine is the vaccine, so I listen closely as Dr. Feder talks about the benefits and side effects of vaccinating your child. Words like “iatrogenic,” “meningitis” and “autism,” become a jumble in my brain as I furiously scribble notes about which vaccine may possibly cause this or that reaction.

In the “Winter Colds and Flu Treatment” Workshop, Dr. Feder talks about the concept of vitality, or life force, that we all have. The Chinese call it the Chi. It’s a balance that must be struck in order for the body to be healthy. Homeopathic remedies stimulate the body to stay in balance. She describes common remedies for colds and flu. You are meant to take note of all symptoms, consult the “Materia Medica” (the comprehensive list of remedies) and choose a remedy accordingly.

The herbal remedy belladonna, for example, is for colds with a throbbing, intense, red quality, when the patient’s pupils are dilated. It’s made from an herb that was used by women to dilate their pupils, once considered a sign of beauty, hence the name “Bella Donna” (“beautiful woman” in Italian). Like cures like.

As a novice to homeopathy, I have plenty of questions, and I find it refreshing to be able to talk with Dr. Feder as an M.D., a homeopath, and as a mother raising her own children in a sometimes toxic L.A. environment. I ask her how she came to straddle the seemingly opposite worlds of homeopathic and allopathic medicine, and she tells me that she doesn’t see it as a dichotomy.

“I was practicing allopathic medicine and feeling so unfulfilled — I kept finding myself recommending patients to holistic practitioners,” she says. “(Now I) choose to look at what standard medicine can offer, along with the ‘gems of the path.” It’s great to be able to help somebody in a profound way and a healing way without side effects.”

I go home equipped with lots of vials of tiny sugary pills, prepared to fight colds in an ancient/new way.

LA Alternative Press: A Locally-Owned and Independent Voice in the City Volume 2 Number 20/ January 7 - January 14, 2004
©2004 by Los Angeles Alternative Press LLC.