Learning Disabilities & Homeopathy
Sequential Homeopathy: Drug-free Answers for Learning & Behavioral Problems
By Cindy L. Griffin, DSH-P, DIHom
Every day we hear from parents of children, as well as adults, with learning and behavioral problems. Two of my three children have mild learning problems from vaccine damage, so I feel a kinship with these desperate parents who have “tried everything.” My office team includes two other mothers with vaccine-injured children. Lindyl Lanham, my homeopathic colleague has a professional background in special education with visually and multiply handicapped children, and has a son who was diagnosed at age 4 as “needing special education help the rest of his life.” A few years later, he developed symptoms of Tourette Syndrome, a nervous system disorder with multiple involuntary movements, called “tics.” She, too, tried everything, short of drugs for her son’s problems. All our children have benefited most from homeopathy, along with appropriate educational interventions. All of our children are successful young adults, in mainstream classes and entering college and high school with little or no evidence of disabilities – and without drugs!
Our collective personal and professional experiences have spurred us to dig through a great deal of medical and alternative research to find the causes behind so many of the all too common learning, language, developmental and behavioral problems seen today to help our clients. A picture is gradually emerging that has already benefited our clients and our children. For every causative factor we discover we are finding answers in homeopathy to improve the system we use to help these many disabled or challenged children we now know as clients. Our entire goal has been to help change the lives of these children for the better.
Homeopathy has always been cause-oriented. Most of the parents we encounter express frustration that the drugs and nutritional approaches they have tried are not working at the cause of their children’s problems. They are tired of temporary fixes, not to mention all the side effects they see. Their children’s allergies, asthma, chronic sinus and ear infections, digestive problems and other issues seem to get worse with every drug therapy prescribed, so they come to homeopathy for answers. These problems just add to the difficulties of learning challenged children. Homeopathy steps up to the plate to change lives profoundly.
Homeopathy offers such an amazingly multifaceted approach to all sorts of chronic problems. First, we are constantly bombarded by toxins such as mercury, aluminum, and formaldehyde from vaccines, cooking utensils and storage systems, water, air and ground pollution, building materials and dental mercury amalgams. Homeopaths depend upon detailed descriptions of symptoms to determine which toxins may be present and causing problems. This leans heavily on the homeopath to recognize each toxin and its symptoms, but it also eliminates the need for elaborate and expensive testing. Specific homeopathic remedies are then used to gently and gradually nudge the body to eliminate the toxins through its own natural mechanisms, such as sweat, mucus, urine and stools.
Another common issue for children with learning problems is yeast infestation of the bowels. These children often have sugar cravings, as well as craving breads, cheeses and other products of fermentation. A typical ADD child’s preferred (though not beneficial!) diet is: CokeTM, CheetosTM, spaghetti, pizza, macaroni and cheese. They crave those things which feed Candida albicans, a systemic yeast. In children with developmental or learning disorders, it is especially prevalent in the digestive tract. It appears that a breakdown of the normal bowel flora and proliferation of Candida eventually erodes the lining of the gut, rendering it unable to produce the amino acids required to digest and absorb proteins. It is this protein absorption that feeds the brain’s communications centers. These are the children who cannot focus because they cannot filter out extraneous sensory input. In response to the excess stimuli they either withdraw into themselves, (“zoning out”) or in some cases, manifest their sensory overload with hyperactivity, self-stimulation or obsessive, ritualistic behaviors. Evidence from the work of William Shaw, Ph.D., and many others, shows that the more prevalent the yeast in children, the more severe their behavioral manifestations seem to be. Physiologically, the Candida itself can manifest as alternating diarrhea and constipation, or chronic diarrhea and constipation, even as serious problems as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or Crohn’s disease in extreme cases. Sequential homeopathy can offer an alternative to the typical conventional anti-fungal drugs in two ways. First, a homeopath is a “whole-health, whole-life specialist.” We see lifestyle issues such as stress relief, healthy diet and living conditions as central to good health. We advise that sugar, wheat flours and yeast products be eliminated as much as possible. Second, homeopathic remedies can cleanse remnants of previous antibiotics from the system, decrease the levels of Candida in the system, and re-establish the balance of normal healthy bowel flora. We also use certain homeopathic remedies made from healthy tissues, to “remind” damaged tissues to return to their normal, healthy state.
While focusing on long-term detoxification and healing, we individually match remedies to each client’s picture to give more immediate symptom relief. This, too, is one of the greatest miracles of homeopathy. Sometimes dramatic changes occur very quickly. In other cases, it may take several weeks or months before significant changes occur. In either case, we are always looking for long-term solutions and return of health, rather than lives tied to prescription drugs. For children with allergies we can use homeopathic remedies made from allergens to help desensitize from their common allergens. We have seen many children with mild to severe asthma eliminate inhalers and nebulizers as their symptoms are controlled by one set of remedies within days or weeks. Over the longer term, they shed mercury and aluminum from their systems and their allergic reactions greatly diminish to almost nothing. This, too, enhances a child’s ability to learn and function in the classroom.
For over 200 years homeopathy has offered drug-free, successful alternative answers to plagues and epidemics. For the new epidemics of the 21st century, homeopathy will grow in stature as it offers healthy, side-effect free answers to modern problems such as the current “epidemic” of autism. neurological and learning disorders. And as we face uncertainty from man-made or man-altered viruses and bacteria, homeopathy will just continue to do what it has for 200 years – treat the cause based on the individual symptoms. Individualized, systematic medicine is the only answer to today’s complex health issues. Homeopathy doesn’t just step up to the plate. It has 200 years of home-runs in its past.
