Of the large and growing population of users of homeopathy sports men and women are particularly likely to be represented and there are good reasons for this.
Consider the process of INFLAMMATION (with which all sports men and women will be familiar): a necessary process which, via a series of complex reactions and interactions, leads to the healing and renewal of damaged tissue. Conventional wisdom would have us believe it must be stopped at all costs and so we apply all manner of tools to slow or stop it in its tracks. Our pharmacy shelves are groaning under the weight of all the various options available to us to achieve this end – why? Well, inflammation is accompanied by the quaternion of horror: Calor (heat), Dolor (pain), Rubor (redness) and Tumor (swelling) i.e. DISCOMFORT, and conventional wisdom (which by a stroke of good fortune is matched precisely by our aversion to discomfort) has it that the Symptom is the Disease so remove the symptom and we remove the disease.
Well, no … remove the symptom and clearly we stop the healing process kindly provided by Mother Nature after many m/billions of years of development. So we should ask the obvious question – in healthy people can using anti-inflammatories retard the healing process? Yes it can, particularly with the NSAID (Ibuprofen, Voltaren, Celebrex) variety as multiple studies have shown (see www.ismoc.net/sportsmedicine/NSAIDs.html for a brief of the reasons why).
So what do we do instead to support the strains of sports activities?
Apart from Ice and Rest, Homeopathy suggests we use a very safe, super-diluted dose of a substance that, in a healthy person, would mimic the symptoms we are trying to treat - thus taking the view, radical as it may seem, that the body knows what it is doing and that it should be assisted rather than hindered in its endeavors.
Athletes use Homeopathic medicines because:
- they can have no harmful side effects
- anyone can use them
- as they are so dilute they can never show up on drug tests
- they are cheap
- they are never tested on animals (unless tested on humans first)
- they have a 200 year track record
- they work with the body’s own healing mechanisms and they can speed up the healing process
- they allow for an earlier return to training.
The following remedies are commonly used by sports enthusiasts:
Traumeel: (injectables, gel, cream, tablet forms are all available) for sprains, strains, lactic acidosis and bruising
Arnica Montana: Bruising and shock, restlessness in bed after excessive training/exercise
Ruta Graveolens: Sprains, Bursitis, periosteum injury, stiffness that is better for movement/warmth and worse in cold damp conditions
Rhus Tox: tendinitis, Plantar fasciitis, movement is worse on first movement but better for continued movement.
Symphytum: to aid the healing of fractures and bone injury.
Zeel: joint pain and inflammation, arthritis. A good alternative to Cox -2 inhibitors (e.g. Celebrex).
To find out more about homeopathy can help you manage and prevent sports injuries and keep your body in optimal condition get in touch today.
(Gratitude to Dr J Rodgers RSHom)