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.)
Treating an Autoimmune Headache
It will be fifteen years ago next month when a patient we’ll call Pat first came to consult with me. A mild mannered, hard-working woman in her mid-sixties, she complained of ongoing weakness, breathlessness and dizziness that had been bothering her for years. She also had unstable blood pressure for which she had already been medicated for over 30 years.
From a homeopathic perspective, her case was fairly clear at the time. The lack of energy, vertigo and the breathlessness that was especially exasperated when climbing the stairs or walking up hill along with her salt of the earth yet timid nature was enough to suggest the remedy Calcarea Carbonica.
Radiation
The Great Kanto Earthquake hit Tokyo and surrounding areas at noontime on September 1st, 1923. It lasted for somewhere between 4 to 10 minutes with a strength of 7.9 on the Richter scale. Upwards of 100,000 people were killed, the Imperial Palace burned and even the massive 93 ton, 40 feet tall ‘Great Buddha’ statue, which had sat placidly for nearly 700 years some 60 miles from the epicenter, slid forward several feet. The most lethal consequence of the quake were the fires that spread from domestic hearths, in use for food preparation at that time of day, to quickly engulf the wooden structures that housed them. Fanned by high winds, they developed into a huge firestorm that engulfed much of the city.
The Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tusnami of March 11, 2011has yet to prove as lethal with some 13,000 confirmed dead and over 14,000 as yet unaccounted for. Because of the tsunami and absence of open fires, fire was not such an issue this time around. But, the interesting parallel with Kanto Earthquake is that, in the end, the most deadly aspect of the disaster might very well end up being the destruction of another energy source – the nuclear reactors that provide the electricity that has replaced fire.