A man in his mid-30's we'll call Rashad consulted with me complaining of severe burning pain in his face.  It began suddenly about a half-year earlier.  He just woke up one morning and it felt like his face was on fire. The episode lasted nearly a week then disappeared.  Ever since, the burning returns without any discernable pattern either in terms of the timing, duration or the area of the face, excepting the fact that it was always symmetrical.  Along with the burning, his face felt extremely dry and the skin stretched tight.

Rashad went to a dermatologist who put him on a series of medications: analgesics, anti-anxiety pills, muscle relaxers and even steroids, but these had no effect on his condition.  An antidepressant lowered the intensity of the burning, but it still was barely tolerable and appeared randomly.

Elaine is a woman in her 30's with two young children, all of whom I had been treating off and on for a number of years.  Prone to headaches, menstrual irregularities and appetite dysregulation, she generally responded to homeopathic treatment positively.    Lean and tall, Elaine always had a pleasant, gentle manner about her, agreeable, quick to smile and laugh.  

Michael is a high school student with PANDAS who I have been treating for the last several months.  He developed the condition at the age of 8 after a bout of strep throat that was treated with antibiotics.  The strep kept on reoccurring and Michael began exhibiting odd behaviors. He would wiggle or shake his body and make stepping patterns with his feet or tapping patterns with his fingers.  Then he started with various tics that presented like slurping and sniffing.  

A woman we shall call Elaine first came for a homeopathic consultation a number of years ago.   A teacher and artist in her 50's, she had struggled with depression for nearly her entire life, along with bouts of severe insomnia when she would go sleepless for days.  A few years earlier, she had seen another homeopath who had been able to help her to a certain degree.  But since Elaine had moved out of the area and was still prone to frequent relapses, the homeopath suggested she consult with someone else.

A patient we'll call David came for a consultation seeking help regarding a mood disorder.  Variously diagnosed as depression or anxiety - or both, it had plagued him for most of his adult life.   Most of his emotions seemed tied up with his working.  As a middle aged professional who ran his own small firm, he placed a great deal of pressure on himself to perform up to his own high standards and easily fell into despair about what he perceived as his professional inadequacies.

Beth was an 11-year-old girl whose mother brought her in for a consultation mostly to address behavioral and emotional issues.   Over the years she had a number of neuropsych evaluations that led to an alphabet soup of diagnoses - ADHD, ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder), ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), AS (Asperger Syndrome) and my personal favorite PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified).  

In December of 2017, The Federal Drug Administration issued a Draft Guidance proposing that the guidelines governing the manufacture and sale of homeopathic remedies in the United States for the last thirty years be withdrawn and replaced by an updated version. 

Magnesium is a mineral, one of six alkaline earth metals - along with beryllium, calcium, strontium, barium and radium - that make up the second column of the periodic table.  In nature, it can only be found as a salt, that is, in combination with other minerals such as magnesium carbonate, magnesium sulphate, magnesium citrate, to name but a few.  Elemental or free magnesium that is not combined with another element is a highly flammable, lightweight, shiny gray solid that can only be produced artificially.

First this one morning, a man made his way into the clinic leaning heavily on the shoulder of a young boy.  As he entered, my attention, initially grabbed by the brilliant violet tunic top he wore, subsequently fell on the telltale curl of his left arm and the dragging of his left leg.  

Falling into a chair, he explained that in the night he awoke with the sensation that the left side of his body was heavy and weak.  Now, he was breathless, dizzy, his head hurt and his heart felt too large for his chest.  There was also a burning sensation internally and especially in the left thigh.

One of the cases that stand out in my mind from the beginning days in practice was of a woman with Alzheimer's disease who was brought in by her husband for treatment.  They were old time Vermonters - Earl, a farmer who prided himself on ingenuity and self-reliance, and Mary, a sturdy, strong looking woman.  (Not their real names.)

Jill's adventure with Lyme Disease began in 2010, some six years before our first consultation, or at least that is what she thought.  It first manifested as muscle stiffness, severe indigestion and tremendous fatigue.  As with so many cases of Lyme, her condition was not correctly diagnosed initially.  Jill was told she had GERD (gastric reflux) and had surgery for that.  Perhaps because her sister was diagnosed with Lupus (the autoimmune illness Systemic Lupus Erythematosus or SLE), she too was told that was the problem and was treated for it.  Nothing seemed to help.

Recently, I saw a patient freshly diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer.  He had been my patient for a number of years already and had apparently responded well to homeopathic treatment.  That is, the symptoms he had complained of were alleviated and his sense of well being increased.  He felt well and there were no indications of illness.  Then he underwent a routine colonoscopy...

Jack was a pretty normal, happy 7 year old who came down with a cough and fever one winter's day.  He got over the acute physical symptoms after a few days but still didn't feel well.  Jack complained of being sad and lethargic, poor sleep, low appetite, not being able to concentrate, and no longer wanting to go to school.   His teachers also noticed that he seemed unusually withdrawn in the classroom.

This went on for about a month and then one day, while attending a sporting event with his family, he suddenly became acutely anxious and was overwhelmed by what he called 'bad thoughts'.   The thoughts, mostly of a perverse sexual nature, and the anxiety continued on, becoming a chronic problem. Jack subsequently developed compulsive behaviors such as counting, repetitive questions, and particular hand motions as well.   Eye blinking, which had first appeared a few months prior to getting sick but had resolved on its own, also reappeared as a tic like behavior.

Aluminum toxicity is one of the most commonly cited factors in the development of dementia and Alzheimers disease.  Cookware and utensils has been a major of source of exposure.  Increased awareness has brought a reduction in the domestic use of these implements in more recent years, but comes too late for the current elderly generation amongst whom dementia has become epidemic.  Even so, cooking techniques which bring aluminum foil into direct contact with foods are still common and the use of aluminum cookware is still widespread in institutional cooking and restaurants, as well as the developing world for reasons of affordability and convenience.

Pharmaceutical medication is another often overlooked route by which aluminum is introduced into the body.  While the presence of mercury has gained much more notoriety, aluminum is also used as a preservative in vaccinations and other drugs.

It is no wonder then that in the homeopathic treatment of dementia, a remedy derived from aluminum - or more specifically aluminum oxide is one of the most common prescriptions.  

Recently an elderly man with significant cognitive impairment was brought to my office by his wife in the hope that there might be something to be done to improve his condition. Although on the surface he appeared cheerful, attentive and able to understand what was being said, it was the lack of coherence in his speech that betrayed how confused he really was.  Most any question that was posed him would be answered with a reply that started off well, but inevitably devolved into a sequence of words that made little sense.

His story was that about 5 years earlier, he had suffered a massive heart attack that he barely survived but since that time he no longer could think straight.  Previous to that he had a history of colon cancer about 15 years earlier, but there was no history of dementia.