miranda castro - the health hub

GENTLE LITTLE SOULSTHE 12 FABULOUS CELL SALTS

Miranda Castro RSHom(NA), FSHom, CCH

1

ONE AND THE SAME …✓ Tissue Salts

✓ Cell Salts

✓ Biochemic Salts

✓ Bio-chemic Gems

✓ Tissue Remedies

✓ Cell Salt Remedies

✓ Or any combination of the above

2

WILHELM H SCHUESSLER (1821-1889)Dr Schuessler was a German homeopath who was keen to simplify homeopathy.

He was influenced by the work of Dr Rudolph Virchow (1821-1902)—the father of modern pathology. Virchow postulated that diseases are signs of changes in cell metabolism.

3

SCHUESSLER’S GOALS & BELIEFS

His special interest was in the important inorganic salts (of which the body is composed) and their quantitative relations.

His goal (after 15 years in homeopathic practice) was to create a therapy with sharply defined boundaries.

He believed the inorganic substances found in blood and tissues are sufficient to cure all diseases that can be cured.

4Castro_CellSalts_Nov2020.key - November 12, 2020

BASIC THEORY

The tissues or cells of the body can be broken down chemically into twelve inorganic mineral salts:

1. calcium fluoride 2. calcium phosphate 3. calcium sulphate 4. phosphate of iron 5. potassium chloride 6. potassium phosphate 7. potassium sulphate 8. magnesium phosphate 9. sodium chloride 10. sodium phosphate 11. sodium sulphate 12. silica

5

Inorganic salts are important mineral constituents present in human cells. In accordance with the theories of Virchow disease takes place at a cellular level. Even though water and organic matter make up the greater portion of living cells, the inorganic matter is the only substance that the organism/cells cannot produce by itself. Since the life of living cells is relatively short, the creation of new cells depends on the presence of inorganic minerals. A lack of these minerals in the living cells keeps organic materials from entering them. When a human body is reduced to ashes, there are only 12 minerals left behind.

BASIC THEORY CONT.

6

The judicious use of these minerals in an attenuated (bio-available) form makes good any deficiencies at a cellular level (by prompting the cells to restore the balance of their essential components) therefore stimulating normal cell functioning. He ascribed a specific purpose to each one of the 12 salts, based on his understanding of their biochemical purpose and relative distribution in the body. He performed clinical experiments to confirm his conclusions in the form of homeopathic "provings”. He published his findings first in a paper in 1873 entitled “An abridged therapy on the basis of physiology and cellular pathology.”

BASIC THEORY CONT.

7

WHAT DO THEY DO ✓ Supplements of the homeopathic world

✓ They help to regulate constitutional disturbances at a cellular level

✓ The doses are minute and dynamic but have not reached Avogadro’s Number—they contain some particles of the original substance at a molecular level.


THEIR MAIN USES

✓ Home prescribers can use them for simple problems instead of being overwhelmed with finding the right homeopathic remedy.

✓ Practitioners can use them as a supportive measure in between constitutional remedies, especially for specific physical conditions or symptoms. Also for acute complaints.

✓ Some practitioners use them exclusively.

9

PREPARATION

✓ 1 part of the crude material + 9 parts of saccharum lactose are triturated in a pestle and mortar for one hour = 1X

✓ 1 part of the 1X + 9 parts of saccharum lactose are triturated in a pestle and mortar for one hour = 2X

✓ This process is repeated either three or six times, yielding a 1,000,000 to 1 dilution or 1000:1 dilution.

✓ Not all cell salts are soluble at 6X (Calc flour, Calc phos, Silica)

10

Biochemic Homeopathic

Law of Deficiency Law of Similars

Medicines derived from the mineral kingdom Medicines derived from all kingdoms

12 remedies total Over 8000 and growing

Decimal scale only: X (typically 3X, 6X, 9X and 12X although all potencies are available.

All scales: X, C, LM etc.

Combinations are OK Single remedy mostly

Repetitions are OK Single or split doses mainly

11

TWO PROBLEMS …No peer-reviewed scientific clinical trials have been conducted on tissue/cell salts (including outcomes studies), and they are less well known to the public than some other complementary therapies.

Schuessler did not consider the trace elements, equally essential to proper cell function, and that this is why cell salts alone are limited—and do not cure all imbalances/diseases.


CELL SALTS SNAPSHOT

Calc fluor Elasticity Bones/veins/ligaments Boney growths. Laxity of tissues.

Calc phos Nutrition Bones/hair/teeth/nails Strength/health of structure. Physical tonic.

Calc sulph Suppuration Skin/mucus membranes Thick/yellow/lumpy/bloody stuff.

Ferr phos Inflammation Blood Strength/health of blood. Red.

Kali mur Inflammation Mucus membranes/blood White stuff. Blood clotting.

Kali phos Inflammation Nervous system/brain Emotional tonic. Simple insomnia.

Kali sulph Suppuration Skin/mucus membranes Thick, yellow or yellow-green stuff. Joints.

Mag phos Pain Muscles/nerves Cramps/spasms: better heat/pressure.

Nat mur Regulates fluids Skin/mucus membranes++ Hydrates: water balancer. Albuminous stuff.

Nat phos Acidity GI tract Acidity. Yellow (golden) stuff.

Nat sulph Regulates fluids Liver/head Drains: water regulator. Green stuff.

Silica Nutrition Bones/hair/teeth/nails++ Eliminates/ejects. Strengthens everything.

13

DOSAGE GUIDELINES DRY DOSE

✓ Cell salts can be taken dry, on or under the tongue.

✓ Use the lid to tip out the tablet, tipping it straight into the mouth of the person taking it (without their lips or tongue touching the lid)

✓ Or tablets can be tipped into the hand of the person taking them so they can put it in their own mouths! You can touch your own remedy.

✓ I have had to be creative on occasion …

✓ Never tip back any that have been touched.

14

INFANTS

✓ Tip out a soft tablet into your own hand and hold it against the cheek of the infant. It will dissolve on contact with saliva and not be a choking hazard.

✓ Or you can put a little water in a teaspoon and tip the tablet/s into the teaspoon where it will dissolve quickly. And then and give the liquid straight from the spoon.

✓ Crush hard tablets between two spoons and tip the powder into the mouth or mix with a little water first.

✓ Nursing mothers can take the remedies themselves … it will transmit via her breastmilk.

15

WET DOSE

✓ The tablets can be dissolved in water which makes it easy to repeat doses or to give to children or the elderly.

• Dissolve 4 tablets in 4-8 ounces of water and stir vigorously. A teaspoon can be taken at a time as a dose, stirring vigorously before each dose, or people can just sip as needed.

• Mag phos works best taken in ‘warm water’ (not hot water) if there is easy access.


NUMBER OF TABLETS

✓ According to the manufacturer’s recommendations.

✓ Typically 4 for an adult and 2 for children (and 1 for infants).

✓ Some people just take 1 tablet per dose. The more you take the quicker you will need a replacement bottle.

17

POTENCY

✓ My go-to/preference is 6X (not the 6c or 30c) potency.

✓ Some salts are insoluble up to an 8X or 9X (Calc phos, Calc fluor, Silica)

✓ You can use lower potencies if available: typically a 3X.

✓ You can use higher potencies (8X, 9X, 12X or even 24X).

18

REPETITION

✓ Repeat the remedy according to the severity of the symptoms:

• Severe: every 1/2 -1 hour (high fever, bad pain).

• Moderate: every 2 - 3 hours (bearable pain, cough)

• Mild: every 4 - 6 hours (able to carry on working)

✓ Stop on improvement:

• Take it less often if there is moderate improvement.

• Stop taking it as soon as there is a significant improvement. ✓ Repeat it as needed: repeat the same remedy if it helped and the

same symptoms return—starting and stopping as needed until completely better.

19

TONICS OR LONG TERM REMEDIES

✓ Tonics or long term remedies can be taken more routinely (i.e. for a fracture or osteoporosis):

• 2-4 times daily (e.g., tiredness after flu or osteoporosis etc.) for 7-10 days at a time.

✓ Breaks should be taken from time to time for salts that need taking long term

• Breaks of a week a month for salts that need taking for many months.

• Or they can be taken Mondays through Fridays with the weekends off.


STOP THE CELL SALT/S IF …

✓ Stop the remedy: if it clearly isn’t working after an appropriate length of time

and select another and/or move on.

• 6-12 doses: for severe or moderate complaints.

• 2-5 days: for mild complaints

• 7-14 days: for tonics.

✓ People should stop if they experience any worsening of their symptoms.

✓ If someone is sensitive to a particular cell salt and they take it for too long, it can make their current symptoms worse (a homeopathic aggravation) or they may get symptoms you didn’t have before (an unintentional proving). Taking breaks

of 1-2 weeks from a remedy will enable you to spot this particular pattern.

21

ALTERNATING REMEDIES

✓ Some tissue salts work well together—like Calc phos and Ferrum phos (for anemia), Calc phos and Kali phos (after an acute illness), or Calc phos and Mag phos (for cramps and growing pains in youngsters).

✓ Two remedies can be taken on the same day but preferably not at the same time unless they are already combined in a ready made formulation.

✓ I advise patients to make a relationship with their remedies and use their symptoms and/or their intuition/gut feelings about taking them and repeating them.

22

BE CREATIVE

✓ 2 Salts

• One Salt: On Waking + Mid-afternoon

• One Salt: Mid-day + Bedtime

• Or one salt for a week and the other for a week

✓ 3 Salts

• On waking

• At mid-day

• Bedtime

23

COMBINATIONS

✓ There are some combinations available—a number of cell salts combined into one tablet.

✓ Most combinations make good sense.

✓ Check out the individual component salts to make sure they make sense for your particular complaint or complaints.


PRACTITIONERS NOTES

Many patients like (or even expect) to take something on a daily basis. Those completely new to homeopathy find the single dose and wait strategy hard to believe and harder still to come to terms with if it doesn’t work. Cell salts can be your placebos … just like the Greek Homeopaths. Or they can be a bit more than that … they can enhance the healing process in all kinds of nice ways. Give after a first consultation while you work up a constitutional remedy. They can be given as an intercurrent between big remedies where you want to go softly softly for a while—for a few weeks or even longer.

25

MORE PRACTITIONER NOTES

You don’t have to be so clever but you do have to be thoughtful. Think Keynote Prescribing. Ask what your patient what is bothering them most and select a cell salt that addresses it. And say so. Pick a salt that cleverly fits several of their symptoms. Ideally you want to select a salt based on more than a single symptom. If you are using homeopathic software then filter your searches by the cell salts to see which salts cover most or all of the main symptoms. Check your rubrics … if you have more than one rubric expressing the same idea then combine them otherwise your results are skewed.

26

THINK 3-LEGGED STOOLS

You need 3 good legs to be more certain your remedy will help (your stool will stand up!)

✓ Main Complaint (description/diagnosis)

✓ Etiology

✓ Symptoms including modalities

• Where/what/how/when?

✓ General state especially if different from normal

✓ Mental state especially if different from normal

27

A WORD ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

✓ Some Cell Salts have beautiful synergistic relationships with each other.

✓ Some are OK—neither good nor bad

✓ Some have antidotal relationships—will counteract each other.

✓ See Chart (p. 16) for relationships between ‘Cell Salts’.

✓ Use these Relationships books

• Abdur Rehman’s Encyclopedia of Remedy Relationships

• Blasig and Vint’s Remedy Relationships)


GENTLE LITTLE SOULS … REALLY?This range of remedies is a curious one. Some are fairly small, specific remedies with not too many indications. Some are big, beautiful polycrests.

If a salt is constitutional (a similimum or a similar remedy) for someone they are going to have a spectacular response to it. If that happens you really really really want to be on top of guiding them and especially helping them to understand that continuing to take it might be counterproductive. They can inadvertently ruin the good response by taking it for too long.

They won’t want to stop.“If you carry on taking it when you don’t need it you run the risk of bringing your symptoms crashing back.” Explain Explain.

29

BE A FARMER

Plant seeds … just a few at a time. Check the soil first Then add compost before sowing. Don’t dig them in! Water often. Let the seeds come up on their own. Remember not all seeds germinate. Don’t be sad.

30

ASTROLOGY

What do you know? Not know? How? See p. 19 of the handout for a quick summary/look up Sometimes patients talk about it—especially when giving their date of birth. “Yeah I’m a typical (gemini)” If they volunteer that kind of response I will ask if they have had their chart done. It can be helpful to know if they have ‘no water’ or ‘all air and fire signs’ or heavily earth etc. As we go through the remedies we’ll consider the astrological correspondences. There are more than a few. Some British homeopaths give cell salts routinely/alternating: typically the sun sign + the opposite.

31

CALCAREA FLUORICA (CALC-FLUOR. OR CALC-F.)AKA calcium fluoride.

Making Bones About It Affinities:

▸ Bones

▸ Teeth

▸ Ligaments

▸ Muscles ▸ Veins

Astrology: Cancer


COMMON COMPLAINTS

Saggy, Draggy, Flabby ... for muscles, ligaments and/or veins that have become worn out, flabby and lax.

For tissues that have lost their elasticity and tone.

▸ Prolapsed uterus or bladder (with dragging down sensations).

▸ Hemorrhoids (that itch and bleed).

▸ Varicose veins.

Cracked, chapped, dry skin (anywhere).

Hard, swollen glands or swellings.

33

STRUCTURAL COMPLAINTS

Joints are inflamed and painful.

Back is inflamed and painful.

Pains

▸worse on beginning to move

▸better for continued movement

Joints crack.

34

STRENGTHEN TEETH & BONES

Infants or children who are producing cavities.

Post menopausal women (osteopenia).

The elderly where bones are thinning with age (osteoporosis).

After a serious injury, especially a fracture.

▸ For lumps that develop on bones (after a bad bruise to a bone or a fracture, for e.g.) or around joints (after a bad sprain) i.e. bone spurs etc.

▸ Alternate with Calc-phos and/or Silica.

35

GENERALLY ...Warm-blooded (hot).

Worried—esp. about money/misfortune.

Worse first moving after rest (Rhus-tox.)

Better continued movement

Weather: worse

▸ changes in weather

▸ damp or rainy or stormy weather

▸ humidity


ASTROLOGY: CALC-FLUOR. = CANCER (CRAB)✓Astrological Affinities

•Stomach

•Breasts

•Digestive tract

•Womb

•Pancreas

Opposite sign/salt = Capricorn/Calc-phos.

37

CALCAREA PHOSPHORICA (CALC-PHOS. OR CALC-P.)AKA calcium phosphate or phosphate of lime.

General Tonic for Worn Out Peeps Affinities:

▸ Bones

▸ Muscles

▸ Teeth

Astrology: Capricorn

38

COMMON CAUSES & COMPLAINTS

Weakness after a period of mental work (like studying for exams).

Weakness during the convalescent phase of an illness. During/after a growth spurt (infants, children, and young adults).

Teething.

Cramps in legs, especially when walking (alternate with Mag phos).

Simple anemia (alternate with Ferr-phos).

Growing pains especially in the muscles or long bones of the legs.

Pains in knees or elbows as the joints catch up with the bones during the growth process. (Specific for Juvenile Osteochondritis).

39

COMMON SYMPTOMS

Builds strong, healthy teeth in infants, children, or adults.

Strengthens weak enamel or cavity-prone teeth.

Strengthens the health and strength of bones after a fracture—when it can be given in alternation with Calc fluor and/or Silica.

Stiff neck, especially from a wind or draft. Simple tension in the neck and trapezius muscles (the triangles between the points of the shoulder and the neck) from exhaustion or after physical stress and strain. Headaches (nondescript) in schoolkids. Stomachaches (nondescript) in schoolkids.


GENERALLY ...Sensitive to the cold and to drafts.

Pale and thin.

Arms and legs feel heavy and weak.

Difficulty concentrating.

Discontented/disgruntled/dullness.

Loss of appetite.

41

ASTROLOGY: CALC-PHOS. = CAPRICORN (GOAT)✓Astrological Affinities

• Skeletal structure • Bones • Joints • Knees • Teeth

Opposite sign/salt = Cancer/Calc-fluor.

42

CALCAREA SULPHURICA (CALC-SULPH. OR CALC-S.)

AKA calcium sulphate or gypsum.

Yellow, Blood-streaked Stuff

Affinities:

▸Blood ▸Mucous membranes

▸ Skin

Opposite action of Silica (healing/sealing)

Astrology: Scorpio

43

PUSSY BOILS, ABSCESSES & WOUNDS

For boils or abscesses that are discharging a thick, lumpy yellow (or blood-streaked) pus but not healing.

Wounds that are slow to heal, that have become infected and pus-filled, especially with thick, lumpy yellow (or blood-streaked) pus.

“Deeper Hepar”


miranda castro - the health hub

Documents