Ripped From the Headlines: Vioxx Legal Settlement

Did you sell your Merck stock or did you hang onto it, thinking maybe they would win their law suit?

Well, they settled the law suit, to the tune of $4.85 billion to be paid to 45,000 to 50,000 US plaintiffs who suffered a heart attack or stroke from taking Vioxx.

There must be a law in the United States guaranteeing full employment for attorneys. I can't think of any other reason why someone would choose to use a drug to manage their arthritis rather than actually heal or prevent the arthritis by using homeopathy. This must be the explanation as to why someone would choose to take a toxic drug rather than a safe, natural therapy.

Homeopathy has been used to help people with arthritis since the time of Samuel Hahnemann, MD, the founder and developer of the principles of homeopathy that classical homeopaths still follow 200 years later.

There are many remedies for arthritis. The one that is most commonly thought of is Rhus Tox, a homeopathic dose of poison ivy. The symptoms that Rhus Tox causes and cures are typical arthritis symptoms: pain on first motion, better after continued motion, but with too much motion, the pain comes back again; pain better from warmth. Someone who has these symptoms could take Rhus Tox for arthritis pain in low potencies and get some relief from it for a time. But it wouldn't be healing it; it would be palliating the symptoms. This is certainly an honorable goal, especially since it won't cause a heart attack or stroke, but if you still have 20 - 30 years ahead of you, it is perhaps best to try to achieve healing.

When we find a homeopathic remedy, we match not only the physical symptoms, but also the mental and emotional symptoms. Below is a list of homeopathic remedies that heals people with arthritis and the corresponding mental/emotional symptom for having stiff and painful joints.

• Calcarea Carbonica: Calc Carb is calcium carbonate, so this obviously has a lot to do with bones and joints. It is natural to assume that this remedy will have an affinity for that area of the body. Calc Carb patients are generally very hard workers. In fact, we couldn't have a United States with out Calc Carbs. But they also don't ask for help and often undertake too much until they finally crash. They tend also to be very sedentary, since this Calc Carb comes from the inside of an oyster shell. Oysters aren't too mobile, thus the people who need Calc Carb choose to not be mobile. The best thing to prevent arthritis is to move. It builds up the synovial fluid between the joints. It is the only way to encourage the body to make more. So, an overworked person who doesn't naturally move around much, is a likely candidate for arthritis.

• Apis: A homeopathic dose of bees. They are also very busy (busy as a bee), but not as sedentary as Calc Carb. The symptoms of arthritis are that the joints are red and swollen and warm and are much worse from heat. The arthritis serves to slow them down when they can't slow themselves down.

• Benzoium Acidum: This remedy has an affinity for the urinary system and the joints. This results in gouty arthritis. People who need this remedy are always looking at the glass as half empty. Their arthritis just reinforces this idea. As in any homeopathic remedy, the dis-ease exists to enable the stories in our lives to continue in its own unique way.

The above information is not intended to enable one to choose their own remedy. Indeed, there are over 100 arthritis remedies, and these simple explanations might look like your story in a very superficial way, but would more than likely not be the correct remedy.

Rather this information is intended to give you some insight into the workings of homeopathy and a classical homeopath.