An easy-to-pack kit for on-the-road emergencies
Nothing will spoil your travel plans faster than getting flattened by a nasty cold, high fever, or Montezuma's revenge. Fortunately, homeopathy offers symptom-specific relief for even the worst of your travel ailments. Don't leave home without the following remedies recommended by Kathy Thorpe, a certified homeopath in Boulder, Colorado.
Colds and flu
Allium cepa. Good for intense sneezing, watery eyes, and a clear, burning discharge from the nose. For those who feel better moving around and worse in a warm room.
Arsenicum album. Use if you tend to catch cold easily, you feel clingy, your symptoms get worse after midnight, and you have watery discharge from your nose even though it's stuffed up.
Pulsatilla. Works for the later stages of a cold, and if your cough is loose in the morning but dry at night and your mucus is thick, bland, yellow, or green.
Fever
Aconitum napellus. Use if your fever comes on suddenly at the beginning of a cold or if you have croup after exposure to cold wind, or if you feel fearful and have a thirst for cold drinks.
Belladonna. For a sudden and intense high fever with a hot and flushed face, dilated pupils, clammy hands and feet, and in the rare case of delirium or
hallucinations.
Ferrum phosphoricum. Good at the onset of illness when your fever is high, but comes on slowly. Look for red blotches on your face.
Traveler's diarrhea
Arsenicum album. For severe diarrhea, cramping, and burning stomach pain from food poisoning or eating bad fish, meat, or dairy products. Emotionally, you feel anxious and don't want to be left alone.
Carbo vegetabilis. For abdominal bloating, gas, and nausea that occur a half hour after eating and can be relieved by burping. You are exhausted, chilly, have clammy hands, and yet crave cool air.
Pulsatilla pratensis. If you experience bloating, indigestion, and heartburn about one hour after eating rich foods like ice cream, fats, or pork. Although your mouth is dry, you are not thirsty.
Nux vomica. For cramping pains, gas, indigestion, and sometimes nausea and vomiting caused by overindulging in rich and spicy food or alcohol.
Constipation
Nux vomica. You have a constant urge, but strain with little success. Constricted, spastic sensation, and stool is hard. You feel chilly, irritable, and constipation is often caused by prescription drugs or overindulging in food, alcohol, and stimulants.
Alumina. Take if you have no urge for a bowel movement yet have an intense straining to pass stools, which are sometimes covered in mucus; if dryness in the rectum and constipation lasts for days; and if you're mentally confused or foggy.
Bryonia alba. Try this when you have little or no urge to go to bathroom; stools are large, hard, and dry; you feel pressure in the stomach and dryness in the rectum; and if you're irritable, very thirsty, and possibly headachy.
Injuries
Arnica montana. Benefits shock, trauma, bruising, or muscular strains, black eye, or head injury and speeds healing. You tell everyone "I'm fine," even though you've been injured.
Ledum palustre. For a puncture wound or a bruise that feels cold to the touch
Hypericum. For tingling, numbness, or shooting pains. Hypericum mother tincture can also be used topically for bleeding wounds and to prevent infection.
Bryonia alba. Good for a fracture or sprain, especially when the least motion causes pain.
Calendula. In gel form or spray, this remedy works topically for cuts or scrapes; prevents infection.
Motion sickness
Cocculus indicus. If you feel light-headed, dizzy, or nauseous, and can't stand the thought or smell of food—often results from sleep deprivation or excessive worrying.
Tabacum. For violent nausea or vomiting, especially when accompanied by profuse salivation, chills, cold sweats, and dizziness.
Petroleum. Works well for sea- or airsickness characterized by stomach pains or nausea with heavy salivation, chills, dry, cracked skin, and disorientation.
Jet lag
Arnica. If your muscles get sore and restless from sitting on long flights, take arnica one hour before your departure and every three to four hours while traveling.
Cocculus. An excellent remedy if you've lost even an hour of sleep and you're exhausted, anxious, dizzy, or have a headache.
Sunburn
Urtica urens. Helps with the burning, stinging, and redness of sunburn. If you feel better lying down and worse when touched or when water hits your skin, take this remedy.
Cantharis. For severe sunburn with blistering that feels better from cold applications. Also good if you feel restless and thirsty.
Calendula. Cools sunburn and helps heal skin quickly when applied as a gel or spray.
Insect bites and stings
Ledum palustre. Especially good for mosquito or flea bites, but also relieves itchy, swollen bites that have a cold, numb sensation and a purplish color.
Apis mellifica. For bee, wasp, or jellyfish stings, apis alleviates red, swollen, and stinging bites that feel better after cold applications or baths and worse from heat.
Note: These remedies are for acute conditions. For more serious conditions, consult your doctor; for chronic problems, make an appointment with a professional homeopath.
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