Homeopathic Help for Covid-19 and Long-Covid
Covid-19 and Long-Covid are not states of emergency for a homeopath. The course of the disease is similar to other infectious diseases and the symptoms always show what can support the patient. Homeopathic treatments have been correspondingly successful throughout the entire Corona Crisis. One only wonders why word of these successes got around so little. A physician and homeopath reports on her treatment experiences.
To make it clear right away: Covid-19 and Long-Covid are treatable by homeopathy very well. How could it be otherwise – after all homeopathy is a method which is oriented by the patient’s symptoms. Therefore, with the appearance of a new virus extensive research into the pathomechanism and molecular structure is not necessary in order to find a remedy. The homeopathic remedies are available, tested for over 200 years and completely free of side effects. In homeopathy it is a matter of finding the remedy for the ill person, not against an illness. From the homeopathic point of view the illness of the person is the sum of his symptoms – not his diagnosis. In homeopathic understanding, infection illnesses are quite simply acute illnesses. Significant for their treatment is only that the patient has symptoms that lead the practitioner to the indicated remedy.
So, when the Corona virus came to us in the spring of 2020, I was already amazed by the magnitude of the pandemic and, I confess, also a little anxious about how dangerous this virus probably is for us humans. However, for the reasons mentioned above, it was clear to me that in addition to the indicated school medicine therapies I would also try to help my patients homeopathically. In the more than 20 years of my work with homeopathy I had already gained a lot of experience with the treatment of infectious illnesses.
Before beginning treatment with my Covid-19 patients, I made two important arrangements in order to exclude the danger of the sometimes very sudden deterioration of the condition of this disease. Telephone follow ups would take place once or twice daily depending on the severity of the illness, even on weekends. With a deterioration of the condition a hospitalization would occur.
In homeopathy it is a matter of finding the remedy for the patient, not against an illness.
Acute Covid Infection with Fever
Following here is the case of one of my first homeopathically treated patients:
A 36 year old man, Mr. S., calls me in my practice. He has had a fever up to 38°C for two days, suffers from constant shivering, severe limb pain and cough. The Corona PCR Test turns out positive, his female friend has also fallen ill. He describes a feeling like feeling drunk, with the cough a sharp pain in the head and complained of strong night sweats. Physical effort would cause breathlessness for him, cold drinks improved the cough.
As far as his symptoms – a gift for a homeopath because it should be easy to find a homeopathic remedy with such clear symptoms. I prescribed Carbo vegetabilis C200, dissolved in water which he should take every four hours, and we agreed on the next telephone call for the afternoon. His discomfort improved noticeably, and after only three days he reported he only had a little cold and had not yet completely reached his old performance strength with sports. He already does sports? I was impressed. Two days later his health is fully recovered and a new friend for homeopathy is gained. Mr. S. had previously been a little bit skeptical as he had heard that homeopathy was humbug, but for want of an allopathic therapy he was quite willing to try out this therapy.
Epidemic Illnesses
With epidemic diseases it is often the case that many patients develop similar symptoms. With SARS-CoV-2 virus for example, at least with the first circulating virus variations, an interference with the senses of smell and taste was characteristic. Because of this often only a handful of homeopathic remedies come into consideration for treatment of patients. In this case you can also speak of epidemic remedies. Already from the beginning of the Corona pandemic homeopaths from around the world carried out systematic case documentation and collection. With different homeopaths in the same region it turned out that some remedies were found more frequently than others and led to healing. In Germany one of the most often helpful remedies was Bryonia alba which is also often used for other common colds.
A dry cough is a typical Corona symptom.
Acute Infection with Dry Cough
A case about that: Five days after a family reunion, a 69 year old patient received the request from the Health Department to go into home quarantine as the contact person of an infected person. Because the patient already felt a scratchy and repeated irritation of the throat, she insisted on a test. The result which was received two days later was positive. In spite of plentiful teas for colds [and coughs] and expectorants, the dry cough became worse. The family doctor could exclude a lung infection and advised her to wait under rest and quarantine conditions. In the meantime the patient’s fear of deterioration of the illness grew and she already saw herself dying under the ventilator. In this tense situation she telephoned her friend who recommended a homeopathic accompanying treatment instead of just waiting. The patient had a Corona-typical dry cough which was strengthened by the attacks. Increasingly the cough became painful, so she had to press against her chest with every coughing fit. Also the nights were particularly bad, she could sleep best of all half-sitting, but this was not very restful. The patient felt this particularly bad because with her general fatigue and weakness she felt urgently dependent on restful sleep. Her temperature was only slightly increased.
The treatment of the patient in this stage of the disease was simple in this respect in that the cough indicated the remedy Bryonia: dry cough, worse when lying down, better when sitting up, painful, pressure against the chest relieves the cough pains.
The patient took Bryonia alba three times. To her great delight she could almost sleep through the entire night and was relatively fresh in the morning. Four days after the beginning of the cough the patient was pain free. Only the weakness lasted a few more days, and then also completely disappeared. Such a cough, like this patient had, often comes in the early stages of Covid-19. As a result it is important to be under medical control, in order to recognize a deterioration early, especially of course a lung infection.
Long-Covid
For several months patients with often months-long Post-Covid complaints increasingly came into the medical practice. More studies correspondingly determined that approximately 80 percent of all symptomatic Covid-19 illnesses were again symptom free at the latest after twelve days. Approximately 13 percent are only symptom free after four weeks, five percent after eight weeks and two percent after more than eight weeks. On the subject of Long-/Post-Covid, in July 2021 leading scientists presented an S1 Guideline (action recommendation for physicians, prepared by a representative group of experts) which was intended to give an overview of diagnostic and therapy options. A Long-Covid Syndrome is recognized when the complaints persist beyond a period of four weeks after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. A persistence of complaints beyond a period of more than twelve weeks is defined as Post-Covid Syndrome. Also in the Guideline the frequency of these syndromes is given as 10 to 15 percent of those taken sick from Covid-19.
Due to the still hardly available data for treatment possibilities, the authors propose an individual action for therapy depending on the patient’s symptomatology. Although it sounds like it, the scientists probably had no homeopathic treatment in mind in their therapy recommendations. They could not yet make concrete allopathic therapy proposals.
Long Courses Also with Other Infection Illnesses
Homeopathic physicians have always been familiar with therapy for secondary conditions after getting over the actual infection illness. These regularly occur with many infection illnesses, for example with flu, Herpes zoster or especially also with Infectious Mononucleosis (glandular fever, Epstein Barr Virus infection). A survey among homeopathic physicians of homeopathic treatments for Long-/Post-Covid which was conducted by the well known homeopath Dr. Uwe Friedrich (see his website at https://hahnemann-klinik-baltrum.de/, showed that the treatment results begun early with homeopathic therapy were optimal (100 percent healing).
The longer the illness event had already existed before beginning the therapy, the less good the treatment results were and the more protracted the treatment. Nevertheless, the average healing rate of all treated cases of 96 percent (86 to 100 percent) with an average duration of 7.2 days (1 to 28) is extremely reassuring.
I have had the pleasure of working together with Dr. Uwe Friedrich for several years in the Hahnemann Clinic which he founded on the smallest North Sea island of Baltrum. There we attend ambulatory and hospitalized patients with various, in some instances very serious, illnesses in a special treatment concept of homeopathy, breathing and sensation work (Experiential Breath according to Prof. Ilse Middendorf) and psychotherapy. Dr. Friedrich has dealt very intensively with the homeopathic treatment of Covid-19 and Long-/Post-Covid. In the meantime we also predominantly treat patients with this clinical picture in the Clinic. The following case comes from this joint work.
Long persistent states of exhaustion are known not only after Corona infection.
Long Covid with Great Fearfulness
A patient reported she has been infected with Corona virus for over five weeks. Presently, her voice is still very, very weak and not reliable. Her breath is not free, mucous is still in the lungs and she must cough with deep breathing immediately. Especially in the mornings she is “fluttery” and must sit down several times. As an actress in a great theater she wants to participate further in the rehearsals because the first performances with an audience are just around the corner. But she is still not able to work in a concentrated manner. She loses the thread quickly, the “flow” is suddenly gone and she could not remember anything. Suddenly her thoughts have disappeared. Then in her brain is the “great tired emptiness”. This all makes her even more sensitive than she always was anyway. Additionally, she is extremely irritable and internally quickly angry. “My fuse has become very short.” Her nose is constantly swollen internally, so that day and night she needs nasal drops in order to be able to breathe through her nose. Outdoors her nose is somewhat better. Her Corona illness itself had not been too bad. To a great extent she had gotten over the fever, joint pains, smell and taste disturbances, nausea and diarrhea after several days. She has always been chilly, but since Corona she has occasional “heat attacks”. During the last two weeks she sleeps poorly, not only because of the congested nose, but also because she is afraid that someone is in the room. In the morning and evening she is afraid of “the black side” [pessimism]. Her thirst is pronounced. In recent weeks she also drinks at night. This can be connected with the quite swollen nose. Now she is afraid that it goes on for months as we know from the media reports about Long-Covid. In spite of all the sophistication, friendliness and enthusiasm, the basic fearfulness of the patient was clearly felt.
Four weeks after the 6-day stay on the island the patient wrote in an email: “My general state of health is good to very good. I am very clear in the head and often feel the joy-of-life, gratitude and élan. My voice is flawless. I haven’t had any fears since the remedy was taken.” The remedy was Phosphorus in the C10,000 potency.
In order to make his great wealth of experience in the homeopathic treatment of Covid-19 and Long-/Post-Covid accessible to a greater audience, Dr. Uwe Friedrich has summarized his experiences with the Corona treatments in two books also for non-homeopaths (“Angst vor Corona – was man bei Covid-19 selber tun kann” [“Fear of Corona – what you can do for Covid-19 yourself”] and “Long-Covid und jetzt?” [“Long-Covid and Now?”]). The feedback from several patients shows that even non-homeopathic educated laypeople could sometimes treat long Long-Covid courses successfully themselves.
Even non-homeopathically educated laypeople could sometimes treat long Long-Covid courses successfully themselves.
Long-Covid With Extreme Exhaustion
After reading the book “Long-Covid and Now?” a lady who was affected wrote the following history to the author: “I had gotten Corona in April. I had no great fears because I am very healthy, and treat my body well in every respect. The illness in itself was rather harmless and subsided after two weeks without the typical lung symptoms, with only slight fever and illness feeling. I thought that was it and threw myself back into life. After a few weeks, I fell into a never before known exhaustion. I felt heart palpitations, circulatory disorders in the arms, legs and head, had glaring hair loss, pressure on the chest and a totally empty but at the same time heavy head, with the typical symptoms of ‘brain fog’. Acupuncture, fascia treatment, craniosacral therapy and food supplements helped me from week to week a little more, but nevertheless I fell back over and over again. The exhaustion was especially bad, which felt like an everyday system crash. My strength was long ago at an end before it was day, my children only experienced me in bed or creeping around almost on all fours in the apartment. 16 hours of sleep daily did not bring recovery but disturbed my psyche more and more. In the summer holidays I was by the sea, but even more in the bedroom, during the day in a semiconscious state, and from the early evening in deep sleep. I experienced the seven weeks like a kind of fog. During this time I had none of the above mentioned treatments, and therefore came home in a catastrophic condition. One day before my first day at work it was clear to me that I would have to call everything off.”
In her need, she procured the book by Dr. Friedrich. She devoured it in half an hour and finally took Arsenicum album in C30. Thus it continued: “Ten minutes after taking it my body became light, my head cleared, I was able to focus again, my heart beat quite strongly five times and calmed down immediately. Since then no more heart palpitations, no circulatory disturbances, no exhaustion, no brain fog. I even have reserves of energy and if I am tired, it is like in former times a comforting tiredness which is almost pleasurable. After the administration of the three globules I have experienced an incredible miracle healing.”
The patient reports listed [above] show us how easy it sometimes is to heal homeopathically. This gives us courage in the treatment of a disease that newly came into the world, frightens us and about which we do not yet know all too much. Based on our good and long-standing experience with homeopathic treatment for infection illnesses, we recommend for every patient who suffers an acute infection from SARS-CoV-2 virus or a Long-/Post-Covid Syndrome to make a homeopathic treatment attempt. However at the same time we must not forget that there are very serious courses for Covid-19. If we note that our homeopathic treatment is always accompanied medically, we have found a side effect free therapy that can take away fear and bring healing. This can give us all hope.
An Exclusive Translated Article for P2P Supporters
From the Monthly Publications of P2P
Published February 2022
From an article in Raum&Zeit, Volume 40, Issue #235, Jan/Feb 2022
Machine Translation by SYSTRAN, Lernout & Hauspie, LogoMedia & Promt
Translation & redaction by: Carolyn L. Winsor, P2P Consulting
© Copyright 2022, Christiane Poppe, Lüneburg, Germany
Sources/Literature
- „AWMF Leitlinie Post-Covid/Long-Covid; Stand 12.07.21
- Deutsches Ärzteblatt, Nr. 39/2021; S. 1762 bis 1768
- med. Uwe Friedrich: „Angst vor Corona?”, Klar Verlag 2021, ISBN: 978-3-938461-08-2
- med Uwe Friedrich: „Long Covid – und jetzt?”, Klar Verlag 2021, ISBN: 978-3938461-10-5
- https://hahnemann-klinik-baltrum.de/ Erfahrungen: Umfrage zur homöopathischen Behandlung von prolongierter Covid-19 und „Long Covid”
