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Acorn Health Blog

What we love is great health...

...and we like to write about how we can all achieve better health, naturally. Sometimes tips on how you can DIY to better health and sometimes on the therapies that can make a difference to you, your health and wellbeing.
Thank you for reading, We hope you enjoy :)

A Festive Guide to Homeopathy: From Sniffles to Stuffed Turkeys

General Health & Wellbeing, Therapies Posted by JadwigaPosted on Thu, November 20, 2025 12:55PM

Christmas brings cosy lights, full tables and the odd moment when our bodies remind us they’re not quite as cheerful as the season. Between cold winds, rich food and whirlwind schedules, December can leave anyone feeling a little off. Homeopathy can be a steady hand through it all, offering gentle support when winter chaos takes over.

Here are some of the most common holiday hiccups and my favourite remedies to help you through them:

Winter Colds and Sniffles

Aconite
Best for the very first stage of a cold. Think sudden onset after being out in biting wind. The person feels on edge, chilly and restless. Good for stopping things before they snowball.

Belladonna
Great when a cold comes with heat, redness and a throbbing head. Eyes glassy, cheeks warm, a bit irritable. Symptoms appear fast, often with a flushed face.

Gelsemium
Perfect for the slow, heavy, weak kind of cold or flu. Droopy eyes, low energy, wants to be left in peace. Shivery without being truly cold.

The Classic Christmas Overload (Food Edition)

Nux Vomica
Ideal after too much food, drink or caffeine. Suits the person who feels irritable, bloated, crampy and wants silence. Great for the morning-after feeling.

Arsenicum Album
Useful when something simply didn’t agree with you. Burning stomach or gut, loose stools, restlessness, wanting sips of water. Often better with warmth.

Carbo Veg
For that “my stomach is a balloon” sensation. Bloated, full of gas, wants fresh air, feels worse lying flat. Good after rich, fatty meals.

Indigestion from Mixing Foods or Eating Too Late

Pulsatilla
For those who feel heavy, bloated, queasy and want company. Worse from rich or creamy foods. Changeable symptoms and often more emotional than usual.

Lycopodium
Fullness after even a small meal, strong bloating, tight waistband feeling. A tendency to feel fine earlier in the day but worse late afternoon or evening.

Holiday Busy-ness and Stress

Ignatia
Good for emotional tension, lump-in-throat feeling, sighing, mixed moods, sudden tears. Often helpful when the holidays stir up more feelings than expected.

Gelsemium
For anticipatory nerves before gatherings, events or hosting. Heavy limbs, wobbly stomach, shaky confidence.

Cocculus
Useful for exhaustion from doing too much, staying up late, broken sleep or caring for others. Foggy head, spaced-out feeling.

The “I’ve Done Too Much” Body Aches

Rhus Tox
Stiffness that eases with movement. Ideal after decorating, shopping or wrapping marathons. Often worse after rest and better once they get going.

Arnica
For general post-effort soreness. Overworked muscles, bruised feeling, “don’t touch me, I’m fine”. Helps settle the body after long active days.

Christmas doesn’t have to leave you feeling like you’ve run a marathon while covered in glitter. With the right remedies at hand, you can support yourself through the season with more comfort and fewer grumbles. As always, if symptoms are severe or persistent, seek medical advice.



Spotlight on: Aconite, a remedy for fever and shock

General Health & Wellbeing Posted by JadwigaPosted on Sat, February 20, 2021 03:48PM

Aconite, Aconitum, Wolf’s Bane or Monkshood (due to the curious shape of its flowers), is a highly poisonous plant which can be found in mountainous regions of Europe and Asia. Even being in a close proximity to this plant can cause symptoms in those who are very sensitive to it, yet you can find it growing in abundance beside the mountain paths and clearings.

Why would I mention Aconite as a remedy for shock and fever is it’s so highly poisonous?

Because a Homeopathic preparation of Aconite is completely non-toxic! 
Homeopathy depends on a like-cures-like scenario, so symptoms helped by remedy made from Aconite will be similar to the effects of its poisoning.

When would you benefit from a dose of Homeopathic Aconite:
* let’s say you’ve been out for a walk. The weather has turned quite cold just recently and the wind felt even colder. Upon coming back home you are feeling ‘chilled to the bone’, can’t seem to warm up and just KNOW that this will result in you ending up with a cold, fever or even flu!
* forwarding from the above scenario where you didn’t take Aconite as soon as you came back home (which would have nipped any development of symptoms ‘in the bud’), you wake up flushed and bothered with a fever of 39 degrees! How did it spike up so high? You try to sit up and all of a sudden you feel pale and need to lie back down. Only problem is that you can’t find a comfortable position in your bed. On top of that, you are feeling too hot, then too cold and you are starting to worry that you might not make it till lunch time!
* you have experienced an accident (or narrowly missed one!) which resulted in feelings of intense panic, like the proverbial ‘deer in the headlights’. It might have left you feel paralysed, shaky and your heart might have felt as if it was about to burst out of your chest. It might have happened an hour or a year ago but you can’t seem to shake off the feeling you experienced in that situation, it can even come back in form of nightmares which feel so real that you wake up and sit up bolt straight in you bed, trying to figure out if it really was just a dream or if it was happening again.

In essence, you can take a dose of Homeopathic Aconite if:
* you are experiencing an illness which has came on all of a sudden and with great intensity (like a sudden fever after feeling completely healthy the day before). 
* the symptoms you are experiencing have not been present for more than 48hrs
* you are having a panic attack with palpitations and conviction that you will die soon

If you have never used homeopathy before, here are some pointers:
* please do not touch the homeopathic granules with your hands, tip one granule onto the lid before putting it in your mouth
* don’t swallow the homeopathic remedies! They don’t absorb through your digestive system like the medicines you might be used to, please allow for them to dissolve under your tongue
* please leave 15-20 minutes between taking your remedy and having something to eat or drink (apart from water, which you can drink as much and as often as you want!)
* 1 granule = 1 dose. Taking 2 (or more) granules of the remedy will not make it work any faster or stronger, homeopathy works a bit like an ‘information’ therapy- it lets your body know where and how to bring back the balance and, once it’s done that, your body if fully capable of applying all of the needed changes. This also means that it’s impossible to overdose on homeopathy- whether you take just 1 granule or the whole remedy vial at once, your body will still receive one dose of the information.
* for sudden problems, you can take up to 3 doses of the remedy within 24 hours, each dose will act as a further ‘nudge’ for your body to deal with the symptoms. If, after 48 hours your symptoms change or have not improved, please get in touch with a homeopath as it’s very likely that you may need a different remedy!
* peppermint, camphor and menthol act as antidotes to homeopathic remedies. If you diffuse one of them as essential oils or have a peppermint tea whilst taking homeopathy, you have a very good chance of the remedies not working!

Jadwiga James



Coughs and Colds, Naturally!

General Health & Wellbeing, Therapies Posted by JadwigaPosted on Wed, March 18, 2020 04:07PM

Despite it already being Spring time, it looks like the season of colds and coughs is nowhere near left behind yet!

The recent outbreak of Coronavirus is not helping the matters in any way, with current NHS advice to self- isolate (which I urge you to follow) on sign of any symptoms which may relate to corona, it becomes very frightening to start noticing a bit of a sore throat or the dreaded cough in yourself or your loved ones!

Whilst there is no current cure or proven treatment for the circulating strain of coronavirus, there are many tried and tested approaches to coughs and colds which may come very useful when used alongside other measures.

With this in mind, my top 4 herbs for a sore throat and dry cough are:

  • Licorice root- which has a very strong soothing and anti-inflammatory action- you can try it as a syrup, lozenges or even as tea!
  • Marshmallow root- known to relieve cough which is dry and hacking in character- cost commonly found as a tea or extract
  • Plantain- especially useful for coughs which seem to have no end and there’s some wheezing involved
  • Slippery Elm- has a coating and soothing action for throat- you can try it as a tea

My top 4 homeopathic remedies for dry coughs are:

  • Aconite- if the cough seems to come on suddenly and ‘out of nowhere’, especially if accompanied by high fever and a lot of feelings of anxiety
  • Bryonia- especially useful if the cough causes a splitting headache and you feel like holding your sides in order to cough
  • Kali Carb- if you need to sit up in order to be able to get relief whilst coughing and the attacks usually come on at night
  • Phosphorus- if the cough is a result of a tickling sensation and causes burning in your chest

but:

  • If you feel very cold and swallowing causes a stabbing pain in your throat (especially if it travels to your right ear), please try Hepar Sulph!

There are many remedies, both herbal and homeopathic, which could be used for cough symptoms and, in order to be of the most benefit, need to be chosen to the exact symptoms you are experiencing.

If you are looking to support your immune system in this stressful and taxing time, I can recommend my top 3 supplements:

Our Homeopath, Jadwiga James, is offering Skype, Whatsapp and Vsee consultations to support you in managing your symptoms. You can contact her directly by emailing: comp.med.clinic@gmail.com