Got Questions about How to Take Homeopathic Remedies? Here are 3 Quick Tips

Don’t Worry about Do’s and Don’ts When Taking Homeopathic Remedies

Do you worry about touching your remedies, avoiding coffee, or waiting 30 minutes before and after a meal to take your remedy? Well, here is good news: Homeopathic remedies are extremely hardy. They survive many external influences and if you are not sensitive to a particular substance, your remedy isn't either.

Homeopathy and Antidotes — An Old Can of Worms

For decades, I used to like everything different and particular about homeopathic remedies but lived in fear of "antidoting" them. I made sure to never ever touch them. I didn't use peppermint toothpaste, and I switched my phone to airplane mode when tucking it into my bag with my remedies. Then I met Miranda Castro — practicing homeopath since 1982, author, and educator — and learned that homeopathic remedies are really not that fragile after all. Quite the opposite. “Oh, those Do's and Don'ts are an old story,” she said, “read my article about antidotes and worry no more!”

19th Century French Homeopaths and Miranda’s Experiments

renowned homeopath Miranda Castro Miranda tells about the old French homeopaths who treated their patients' alcoholic, angry husbands by giving Nux vomica to the wives and telling them to secretly put it in their spouses’ soup. And the remedy worked — they calmed down. So Miranda experimented by sprinkling a remedy into her dog’s food and mixing another into her son’s macaroni and cheese. Again, the remedies worked so she went rogue!

She experimented with allowing coffee and toothpaste and many of the other forbidden substances — finding that by and large none were a problem either. She found that coffee is a concern only for those who are affected by it. If you are sensitive to coffee, if you get shaky or worse, and if it keeps you up at night, don't drink it — whether you are taking a homeopathic remedy or not.

Tips on How to Best Take Homeopathic Remedies

Miranda relaxed her guidelines on how to take homeopathic remedies, and finally I did, too. Here are 3 easy tips you will want to follow when taking a homeopathic remedy for optimal results:

Take homeopathic remedies in a mouth free of food and strong flavors.
Allow 5-10 minutes before and after a meal or drink (water excepted) or brushing your teeth. Homeopathic remedies are absorbed by the mucous membranes in your mouth so let pellets or tablets melt in your mouth and hold liquid remedies in your mouth for a couple of seconds before swallowing. But if your child stuffs a piece of food into its mouth immediately after taking a remedy, don’t worry! It will still work.
Avoid camphor, eucalyptus, menthol, and tea tree oil.
These four aromatic oils in a concentrated form are famous for affecting the healing actions of a homeopathic remedy. You can relax about peppermint in toothpastes. Most contain little menthol, and the flavor dissipates quickly.
Store remedies in a cool, dark, and dry place.
Homeopathic remedies keep extremely well for many years. For short-term usage, remedies are surprisingly heat resistance so if you take them to work or travel with them, just make sure the bottles are tightly closed.