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Therapies Bach
Flower Remedies
Flower essences link to homoeopathy
The Bach flower remedies originally created by Dr Bach are used to treat
many different types of ailments. The thirty-eight flower remedies are
gaining an increasingly popular profile in alternative self-help circles.
It came to Bach’s attention that
symptoms of deep disharmony in the patient, such as anxiety, despair or
aggression could be draining on the body. He explains that "
during my nursing career, I remember constantly being aware of patients
who needed some emotional help--those who were frightened about a
forthcoming operation, those who were shocked and despairing after being
given their diagnosis and prognosis, others who were down in the dumps
because they couldn't go home as soon as they had hoped. There were also
the 'ward clowns' who tried to make everyone laugh with their good humour
and little pranks, yet felt no less anxious, worried or depressed than anyone else. Patients
seem to fit into categories: the nervous ones, the depressives,
the jovial types, the moaners, those who demand attention
and
those who shun it. I feel sure that every nurse has noticed the different
'types' of people who fill hospital beds-ordinary people who seem to take
on a new persona as soon as they get into their pyjamas and become a
'patient'. Somehow, their identity gets folded up and put away in their
locker along with their outdoor clothes and other reminders of the outside
world." (1)
During his career Dr Bach became
interested in the work of the founder of homoeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann
Prior to his discovery of the Flower remedies, he demonstrated that
non-lactose-fermenting bacteria in patients' stools could be used as
remedies and later formed the basis of some of the Bowel Nosode remedies
used effectively in homoeopathy. (2)
Often considered similar to homoeopathy,
the Bach flower system of medicines uses the principle of extremely minute
forms of medication to prescribe the most appropriate remedy.
Although both systems are different, say
the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital NHS Trust (3), some common ground
exists between the two systems and they clearly have a complementary role
which is perhaps insufficiently recognised.
Sources:
(1) Bach Flower
Remedies: a personal commentary on the work of Dr Edward Bach. Howard J
Bach Centre,
Oxon, UK.
Complement Ther Nurs Midwifery, 4:148-9, 1998 Oct
(2) The relationship between homeopathy
and the Dr Bach system of flower remedies: a critical appraisal.
van Haselen RA.
Br Homeopath J, 88:121-7, 1999 Jul
(3) Source: Leary B Windycroft,
Derbyshire, UK. Br
Homeopath J, 88:28-30, 1999 Jan
©
The Internet Health Library 2000
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This page was last updated on 30 November 2006 13:56:05
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