The poor air quality we are experiencing in NSW from the bush fires right now can be helped with the use of certain homeopathic remedies. It is best not to combine them but to use the one that best suits your symptoms so I have listed a few below. I am available for consultations for this condition, but those of you with a homeopathic first aid kit may find you have some of these remedies already. If you have pre-existing medical conditions aggravated by the air quality always seek advice from an experienced practitioner before taking any of these remedies.
Arsenicum – For smoke exposure with anxiety. Eyes burn and stream. Nose burns and streams. Cough is dry and worse at night. Tremendous anxiety especially about what is going to happen—and restlessness.
Bryonia – Soreness in larynx and trachea. Hoarseness, Worse in open air. Dry, hacking cough from irritation in upper trachea. Cough, dry at night, must sit up. Worse after eating or drinking. Frequent desire to take long breath; must expand lungs. Difficult, quick respiration. Heaviness beneath the sternum extending towards the right shoulder. Worse going into warm room.
Calcera carbonica – Tickling cough, troublesome at night. Painless hoarseness; worse in the morning. Suffocating spells; tightness, burning and soreness in chest. Chest sensitive to touch or pressure. Longing for fresh air.
Carbo Vegetabilis -Wheezing, cough with burning in chest. Short of breath. Oxygen starvation. Must be fanned. Hoarseness. Cough with itching in larynx. Sore and raw chest. Rattling of mucus in chest. Exhausted, weak. Cold clammy skin, cold breath. Better: cool air. Worse: evenings, open air, warm damp weather.
Causticum – Hoarseness with pain in chest. Larynx sore. Cough with raw soreness of chest. Cough with pain in hip. Better drinking cold water. Pain in chest with palpitation. Cannot lie down at night.
Euphrasia – For simple smoke exposure with irritation to eyes and possibly nose and no other symptoms. Eyes stream and burn—lids are red, swollen, and sensitive. Nose streams but does not burn. There may be a little daytime cough. The eyes stream on coughing.
Natrum arsenicum – Great sensitivity to smoke. Useful when the indicated remedies haven’t helped much or at all. Eyes dry and painful. They stream and smart on going out into the smoky air. Sinuses feel blocked and are painful. Racking cough. Lungs feel full of smoke. Headache from the smoke.
Silica – To help the body eject inhaled particles. Nose dry and blocked—no sense of smell or taste. Sinuses stuffed up and painful. Dry, irritating cough from inhaled particles. With lumpy, yellow mucus.