"Pursuit of Health" broadcast on SAfm
9 September 2002
presented by: Monica Fairall 
guests/reviewers Ian Wheeler

monica:
You're tuned to SAfm, radio for the well-informed. Hello from me, Monica Fairall, and technical producer this week, Keith van Wyk. Between now and 8.30 we home in on back week with its theme this year of Back Care for the Caregiver - people who literally have to carry the weight of another human being. We find out about a homeopathic treatment kit designed for home and holiday use when acute health problems arise. And vitamin supplements get a nod of approval from the medical establishment.

A South African first aid kit using homeopathic remedies was launched in Cape Town recently with the aim of bringing this form of complementary medicine to the public in a simple, safe and affordable way. With remedies capable of helping acute problems from nausea and hay-fever to sinus congestion and shock, the bluebox kit includes an information booklet explaining the laws of homeopathy, many of which seem strange when compared with allopathic medicine but nevertheless effective. Pharmacist Ian Wheeler was responsible for designing the kit.

ian:
I have always just leant towards complementary medicine as a pharmacist. There are side-effects with every drug that one takes and as I got into homeopathy it made no sense if you dilute milligram strength; it really doesn't make a lot of sense in that the more diluted the more potent the remedy is. But the proof is in the pudding. The body has the intrinsic ability to heal itself and that's what homeopathy does. It comes from natural substances and it really triggers very subtly that response within the body to heal itself.

The other very important thing is that you don't really need a diagnosis. When I look at allopathic medicine, you diagnose the illness or disease and you then treat it along that path, whereas with homeopathy all you're doing is you're going to match the remedy to the presenting symptoms. And that's huge. Because then you don't have any side-effects. You can't go off on the wrong path, basically. That's what really appeals to me in a big way.

monica:
It's interesting to see how pharmacies and pharmacists have grown much more receptive to something like homeopathy and natural medicine in general - and just in the last few years, in fact.

ian:
Quite. Your public are bringing quite a lot of pressure to bear. Your young mothers... I see, in my retail pharmacy and health shop, young mothers coming in all the time, trying to avoid chemical drugs, wanting to go very much the natural route. And this is bringing about a big change in itself.

monica:
Now, the aim of your kit: just describe what this is, and what the kit contains.

ian:
The kit basically has evolved out of about 50 different remedies, complex to homeopathic remedies, meaning a combination of remedies within one, which we have developed and proved in-house over the last 8-10 years. Really again through popular demand of our clientele, buying 6-10 of the remedies and eventually saying, "How do we consolidate this? We go on holiday: what do we take with us?" That's really how the kit has evolved. We've chosen 21 of the most applicable first-aid remedies and put them into a very neat and durable little box which has broad application. With the 21 remedies chosen you can treat over 100 various symptoms.

monica:
Give us an idea of what they would cover.

ian:
Well, if you take hikers, the outdoorsman, for example, you'd use things like Injury. You'd use the Sting remedy. If you take the Sting remedy, for example, it has a broad application. It's not the typical bee sting, or wasp, or jellyfish... Even severe sunburn stings. If it stings, it's going to heal. If it's a hot water sting, for example, it's going to heal there as well. This is where I say that one doesn't need a diagnosis: if it stings, you grab the Sting remedy. It doesn't matter what has caused that sting: the remedies within there will heal the body.

The Injury remedy is also a wonderful one. It's at a 200C. Most of these remedies are at least 30C up to 200C. The Injury remedy deals with both the physiological trauma of the bang, the twist, the sprain, plus the mental anguish or shock that goes with an accident. So the little chap falling off his bike, he's got a fright or a shock... Or even an infant. This is the beauty with these remedies: they can be used for infants learning to walk, for instance, who take a tumble and it's a shock to their whole psyche. That is dealt with as well as the bruise and the bump.

monica:
And the typical things like headaches and digestive problems, and sneezes and sniffles? Would those be covered as well?

ian:
Absolutely. We've very carefully chosen these 21 remedies. We have an anti-spasm. We try to label them so that they're self-explanatory. The Anti-Spasm, for example, can be used not only in colicky babies but also for women's menstrual cramps, for sportsman's cramping. So for the hiker, the outdoor sportsman, it's very applicable. We do a Bites remedy, which is for more serious bites such as a dog bite or even a snakebite. People who are travelling into Deepest Africa, per se, can ask for it. It's not in this kit but they can request an anti-venom remedy, Toxica Serpentium, which would be put into the kit at an extra cost, and it covers all African snakebites.

monica:
What about malaria? You're talking about Deepest Africa now.

ian:
That's quite specialised. We do a malaria trio, as we call it, where we do a tropical remedy. We incorporate the Omega 3 and Omega 6 to build up your body's vitality, to stop bites. And we add Absynthium, which is a repellent that exudes out of the pores. You're not aware of that. And that has a repellent action as well. But that's not in this kit. Probably we'll launch that as a separate kit, because there's a big demand for that.

monica:
Now, obviously if you're treating yourself it's meant as a First Aid - but it can obviously go quite some way, as it is homeopathic, to supporting the body's ability to heal itself. You're not saying this must replace a consultation with a professional homeopath or indeed a medical doctor?

ian:
We're dealing here with purely First Aid treatment. As soon as there is a deeper chronic illness or the patient has not responded within an appropriate period of time, obviously one should consult a general practitioner or a classical homeopath, where there's a more chronic, underlying, constitutional need for treatment.

monica:
Because there's often quite a lively debate within homeopathy between use of complex remedies, where you've got several remedies in one mixture to treat several symptoms and your classic simplex, where one constitutional remedy is used to treat the individual.

ian:
Right. We are using what we call clinical homeopathy here, where we have complex remedies: we have 4-5, even sometimes up to 7-8 remedies within one. But the body is very clever. We're created very cleverly. The body will take out that which it needs for its particular condition and will discard the rest. Obviously one wouldn't treat long-term with these remedies; they're purely for acute treatment, for acute symptoms.

monica:
I was quite intrigued, when you were showing me the kit before we started chatting, Ian, that you've got a homeopathic antibiotic.

ian:
Yes, this is a wonderful tool, particularly in the hands of your pharmacist, as I said to you, where the mother comes in and the child has had a number of antibiotics and possibly recurrent viral infections, and she just does not want another allopathic drug. It's a wonderful tool. It's a very high potency. It's at a 1M potency. So even your patients who have a penicillin or a streptomycin allergy can safely take the remedy. But again we would stress that should the patient not respond within a 48-hour period, or the condition not stabilise, to immediately refer to your doctor or classical homeopath. But we have a 90% plus success rate with these remedies, and particularly where one catches the symptoms early, the sooner you will respond.

monica:
So do you think people are going to be sensible enough to know how to work with this kit, Ian? Obviously in dispensing these remedies over the years you've been there, the homeopaths in the pharmacy have been there to give advice, and one can direct people along the correct path.

ian:
Yes, that's very important. My whole aim here is to introduce homeopathy to the lay person in a very safe and efficacious manner. That's what this kit does. It takes the mystique out of homeopathy to a certain extent; it makes it very simple. The mother can reach out safely for any remedy, no matter what the child is on allopathically. If the child is being treated by a classical homeopath, well, then I'd be reticent for them to use this - although, if they're out in the bush and there's an emergency, they definitely would. 

I focus on training: we are going to go into selected retail pharmacies that are complementary medicine orientated, and health shops. I will be giving training to the people selling the remedies. And we've put together a very comprehensive little booklet. You cannot summarise homeopathy that easily, but I've tried to do that. I've put in the do's and don'ts, some of the misnomers. One of the common ones is that people say homeopathy takes a long time - and this is absolutely not true. If you're dealing with an acute situation it simply means remedying or dosing frequently. 

For example, our Calming remedy. We have people who have panic attacks: anything can trigger it - traffic, or a busy shopping centre. They take a dose every 15 minutes and by the third dose that severe anxiety is completely dispelled. So as long as the remedy is taken frequently... The more acute the condition the more frequently you'd give the remedy. It's not the amount. A dose would always be about 4 little pillules. You aim for 4 pillules, not more than 5: that would just be a waste. You cannot overdose. 

So it's very safe for children. If they got hold of the kit and swallowed an entire vial - and they're 10g vials - it would do nothing. But it just wastes the contents, basically. So they are very, very safe.

monica:
Well, maybe we should see these kits going into all of our hospitals and clinics as well, Ian, because a lot of them are running out of the conventional drugs.

ian:
Well, this is what I'm hoping. Obviously our first aim was to get this into the homes. And we don't call it a homeopathic kit; we call it a treatment kit. Because this would adjunct your general First Aid kit. You need certain drugs; you need plasters and bandages, etc. This is an adjunct and can treat, as I said, over 100 different symptoms using these 21 remedies.

monica:
That was Cape Town pharmacist, Ian Wheeler, talking about a homeopathic treatment kit that can be used to provide First Aid for everyday ailments and injuries. For more information you can visit the website www.pegasuskits.com. Or you can telephone Cape Town 761-4111. And the kit costs R295,00.

And that ends this week's edition of 'The Pursuit of Health'. Cassette copies of the programme can be ordered by telephoning RadioPro on Johannesburg 714-4709 or writing to them at Private Bag X1, Auckland Park, 2006. 

This programme was produced in the Durban studios of SAfm, with technical production this week by Keith van Wyk. I'm Monica Fairall saying good night and good health.