Just a quickie today.
I am sure you have heard of the great eco-friendly Ecover range of cleaning products. Well, we are in a fabulous position of being able to save you money and help to reduce the environmental impact of packaging.
We have extended our range of Ecover refill stations to include multi-surface cleaner and fabric conditioner, as well as our original washing-up liquid and laundry liquid refills and we will be introducing the toilet cleaner from next week.
The scheme is really simple. Bring back your empty bottles, and we will refill them with exactly the same product and you can save significant amounts of money eg. laundry liquid 1.5l is usually £5.65 to buy, but the refill is only £4.50. Bargain or what!!!!!
Please help support us in this project, we think it is a fabulous idea for everyone and we are really proud to be able to offer the service. While we are being a bit cheeky asking for your support, could we also ask for your carrier bags when you have finished with them as we reuse them, saving even more rubbish from reaching landfill.
And on environmental great ideas, why not look at our OWL electricity monitors, which allow you to see exactly how much electricity you are using. We have saved so much money with one of these little gadgets - absolutely love them! They are really, really easy to use and will, I am sure, save you far more than you spend on the
cost of one.
Lots of love
Gill x
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Monday, 3 November 2008
Homeopathy part 2- Prescribing
In the previous blog I explained what homeopathy is and how the remedies are made. I thought this time I would look at how prescribing is done, and then do a few following blogs about the main remedies.
When prescribing homeopathically it is not really about prescribing for a condition such as a cold, but about the individuals experience of that condition. For example, imagine there was an accident - you would tend to find that people would react in one of two main ways; either "I'm fine, leave me alone" or they get a bit hysterical. These people have experienced the same event, but they are dealing with it in very different ways. In homeopathic terms, the "I'm fine (though my leg is broken, but I can still walk home)" response would be treated with Arnica, whilst the "Oh my God I'm going to die (if you look really carefully you'll see there is a tiny cut on my left pinkie)" reponse would indicate the remedy Aconite. If you get that bit we'll move on to the common cold.
If a homeopath was treating a cold they would ask a lot of questions, some of which may seem pretty irrelevant but they all add up to the overall picture of what remedy is best suited to treat the patients experience of their cold. Some of these questions might include:
"Was anything happening to you when it started?" - You might have got wet or had a row with someone or ate too much icecream. This may seem irrelevant but sometimes when you are a bit low anyway these seemingly trivial things are just enough to tip you over the edge
"What makes you feel better/worse?" - Some people feel better if they get up and keep busy, others need to lie down quietly and sleep, others are really thirsty and feel better if they drink lots of cold water while others want warm drinks, some might need the fresh air while others suffer from the slightest draught.
"Do you feel hot or cold?" - People experience the temperature in different ways. Some feel freezing, others are really hot, some have a fever and feel cold, others feel hot inside but feel cold to the touch. There is even one remedy where the patient feels freezing cold and must be wrapped up totally to keep warm, but craves fresh air so will still need the windows open at the same time.
And on to the charm that homepaths are famous for...
"Do you have much mucus? What colour is it? What is it's texture? - You have probably noticed that when you have a cold you sometimes have a runny nose, sometimes you haven't. Sometimes it only runs when you are indoors/outdoors/in a draught/have a hot drink.
And the corzya (snot,to you and me) can vary greatly too. Sometimes yellow, other times green, or watery, or slightly bloody. Sometimes it's like water, other times i's really sticky and thick, other times it just blocks you up and you can't breathe.
So the general idea is that each time an individual has a cold it will be different and it will vary from person to person too. Obviously some people have specific triggers - some suffer as soon as it gets a bit damp in autumn, others have more summer colds, others always have colds that go to their chest but there is often a bit of variation.
In order to prescribe then, what you would need is a list of the symptoms associated with the condition you are treating. The more unusual they are the better really - sneezing and coughing are not really much good as symptoms although the details about how and when they cough and sneeze may give some great clues to the right remedy. When you have a list of the symptoms you will need a book called a repertory and you look up the symptoms and see which remedies correspond to those symptoms. Basically by doing a little table you start to build up a picture of the most likely remedies and by reading the remedy picture itself you would be able to identify which of these remedies is closest to the cold experience your patient is having.
An easier way, when you first start out is to get a good book such as Miranda Castro's Homeopathy Guide and learn the different remedy pictures for the main remedies for colds, sickness, hayfever, earache, whatever you need (preferably before you need them). Another way is to get a Helios or Ainsworth Homeopathy kit which has all the remedies you are likely to need and include a guide to those remedies and how to use the kit. They are both extremely good, but Helios has a wider product range including one for Childbirth, a first aid kit, a small & large general kits and a travellers kit. They all have the basics plus some specifics for your individual situation.
It sounds complicated but you soon get the hang of it - for example, pulsatilla is a remedy that covers very changeable symptoms (including mood), it has greeny/yellow snot, often comes on after getting your feet wet, and in children can be characterised by them being really clingy and tearful.
Chamomilla on the other hand is a very cross remedy, it is often used in teething babies but that is not its exclusive use. They feel pain really severely and get very angry about it. The condition may also be brought on after being angry, and they don't like to be looked at or touched. In teething babies they may have diarrhoea which (here we go again...) may look like chopped spinach!
Arnica, as we have said, is the "I've only broken my leg, of course I can walk to the hospital 3 miles away, leave me alone, I'm fine". They can be very oversensitive. Or it can simply be to help bruising come out. People who need arnica tend to feel like they have "been kicked by a horse" or similar, and generally feel very painful, bruised and achy.
You generally start to get a feel for the main remedies pretty quickly and can see them quite easily with a bit of practice (though this is not the case every time - I wish it were!).
When you have a good idea of the remedy then you give it in whatever potency seems appropriate - I would suggest starting out using 30c's in most cases, though the Helios childbirth kit uses 200c's due to the intensity of the states during labour and birth. The remedies are given as needed, perhaps giving the remedy as the patient says they need one or when you see the symptoms are returning. There is a bit of a misleading 'fact' that I was told when I first started off, which was that you can't overdose on remedies - I would beg to differ. After inducing in myself a 5 day horrendous hangover by repeatedly taking Nux Vomica when it was the wrong remedy, I can testify that you can cause some temporary discomfort by taking too much of the wrong remedy. So if after 3 or 4 doses you are not seeing any significant difference start to relook at the case and see if you have missed something that might indicate another remedy, and represcribe.
So that is a basic rundown on how homeopathy is prescribed - at this point I would not expect you to be able to do a prescription, so don't fret if you still don't quite get it. As I said earlier, I would recommend either getting yourself a kit complete with instructions, buying a beginners book such as Miranda Castro's Homeopathy Guide (I actually use her mother and baby guide as I find it easier to follow), which has loads of information and some sample cases to practise on or contact your local homeopath to book onto an introduction course.
It is much easier than it sounds, honestly! And I have found that it is more effective, long-term and quicker than using painkillers, antibiotics and antihistamines. However on a serious note, if you have any doubt about a condition, are on medication or have any concerns about your health it is important to speak to a pharmacist or your GP before taking any course of action - better safe than sorry!
Next time, more on colds & coughs since it is a highy appropriate time of year for that one.
When prescribing homeopathically it is not really about prescribing for a condition such as a cold, but about the individuals experience of that condition. For example, imagine there was an accident - you would tend to find that people would react in one of two main ways; either "I'm fine, leave me alone" or they get a bit hysterical. These people have experienced the same event, but they are dealing with it in very different ways. In homeopathic terms, the "I'm fine (though my leg is broken, but I can still walk home)" response would be treated with Arnica, whilst the "Oh my God I'm going to die (if you look really carefully you'll see there is a tiny cut on my left pinkie)" reponse would indicate the remedy Aconite. If you get that bit we'll move on to the common cold.
If a homeopath was treating a cold they would ask a lot of questions, some of which may seem pretty irrelevant but they all add up to the overall picture of what remedy is best suited to treat the patients experience of their cold. Some of these questions might include:
"Was anything happening to you when it started?" - You might have got wet or had a row with someone or ate too much icecream. This may seem irrelevant but sometimes when you are a bit low anyway these seemingly trivial things are just enough to tip you over the edge
"What makes you feel better/worse?" - Some people feel better if they get up and keep busy, others need to lie down quietly and sleep, others are really thirsty and feel better if they drink lots of cold water while others want warm drinks, some might need the fresh air while others suffer from the slightest draught.
"Do you feel hot or cold?" - People experience the temperature in different ways. Some feel freezing, others are really hot, some have a fever and feel cold, others feel hot inside but feel cold to the touch. There is even one remedy where the patient feels freezing cold and must be wrapped up totally to keep warm, but craves fresh air so will still need the windows open at the same time.
And on to the charm that homepaths are famous for...
"Do you have much mucus? What colour is it? What is it's texture? - You have probably noticed that when you have a cold you sometimes have a runny nose, sometimes you haven't. Sometimes it only runs when you are indoors/outdoors/in a draught/have a hot drink.
And the corzya (snot,to you and me) can vary greatly too. Sometimes yellow, other times green, or watery, or slightly bloody. Sometimes it's like water, other times i's really sticky and thick, other times it just blocks you up and you can't breathe.
So the general idea is that each time an individual has a cold it will be different and it will vary from person to person too. Obviously some people have specific triggers - some suffer as soon as it gets a bit damp in autumn, others have more summer colds, others always have colds that go to their chest but there is often a bit of variation.
In order to prescribe then, what you would need is a list of the symptoms associated with the condition you are treating. The more unusual they are the better really - sneezing and coughing are not really much good as symptoms although the details about how and when they cough and sneeze may give some great clues to the right remedy. When you have a list of the symptoms you will need a book called a repertory and you look up the symptoms and see which remedies correspond to those symptoms. Basically by doing a little table you start to build up a picture of the most likely remedies and by reading the remedy picture itself you would be able to identify which of these remedies is closest to the cold experience your patient is having.
An easier way, when you first start out is to get a good book such as Miranda Castro's Homeopathy Guide and learn the different remedy pictures for the main remedies for colds, sickness, hayfever, earache, whatever you need (preferably before you need them). Another way is to get a Helios or Ainsworth Homeopathy kit which has all the remedies you are likely to need and include a guide to those remedies and how to use the kit. They are both extremely good, but Helios has a wider product range including one for Childbirth, a first aid kit, a small & large general kits and a travellers kit. They all have the basics plus some specifics for your individual situation.
It sounds complicated but you soon get the hang of it - for example, pulsatilla is a remedy that covers very changeable symptoms (including mood), it has greeny/yellow snot, often comes on after getting your feet wet, and in children can be characterised by them being really clingy and tearful.
Chamomilla on the other hand is a very cross remedy, it is often used in teething babies but that is not its exclusive use. They feel pain really severely and get very angry about it. The condition may also be brought on after being angry, and they don't like to be looked at or touched. In teething babies they may have diarrhoea which (here we go again...) may look like chopped spinach!
Arnica, as we have said, is the "I've only broken my leg, of course I can walk to the hospital 3 miles away, leave me alone, I'm fine". They can be very oversensitive. Or it can simply be to help bruising come out. People who need arnica tend to feel like they have "been kicked by a horse" or similar, and generally feel very painful, bruised and achy.
You generally start to get a feel for the main remedies pretty quickly and can see them quite easily with a bit of practice (though this is not the case every time - I wish it were!).
When you have a good idea of the remedy then you give it in whatever potency seems appropriate - I would suggest starting out using 30c's in most cases, though the Helios childbirth kit uses 200c's due to the intensity of the states during labour and birth. The remedies are given as needed, perhaps giving the remedy as the patient says they need one or when you see the symptoms are returning. There is a bit of a misleading 'fact' that I was told when I first started off, which was that you can't overdose on remedies - I would beg to differ. After inducing in myself a 5 day horrendous hangover by repeatedly taking Nux Vomica when it was the wrong remedy, I can testify that you can cause some temporary discomfort by taking too much of the wrong remedy. So if after 3 or 4 doses you are not seeing any significant difference start to relook at the case and see if you have missed something that might indicate another remedy, and represcribe.
So that is a basic rundown on how homeopathy is prescribed - at this point I would not expect you to be able to do a prescription, so don't fret if you still don't quite get it. As I said earlier, I would recommend either getting yourself a kit complete with instructions, buying a beginners book such as Miranda Castro's Homeopathy Guide (I actually use her mother and baby guide as I find it easier to follow), which has loads of information and some sample cases to practise on or contact your local homeopath to book onto an introduction course.
It is much easier than it sounds, honestly! And I have found that it is more effective, long-term and quicker than using painkillers, antibiotics and antihistamines. However on a serious note, if you have any doubt about a condition, are on medication or have any concerns about your health it is important to speak to a pharmacist or your GP before taking any course of action - better safe than sorry!
Next time, more on colds & coughs since it is a highy appropriate time of year for that one.
Saturday, 1 November 2008
The Rise & Fall of the Local Shop
What is your view of the position of the local shop? There is currently a real drive in the media to ‘Keep it local’, we all want our town centres to be vibrant and full of life, and we all value to importance of convenient shops local to us when we want to pop out and buy the odds and ends we don’t pick up on our trip to the supermarket. We all say that we value the local independent shops and bemoan the takeover of our high streets by the big chains.
But, in honesty, how many of us actually use our local shops regularly? I admit to being as much at fault as anyone – I have had my shop for almost a year and today was the first time that I went next door to the greengrocers to buy the vegetables I needed for tea. Like everyone else I value the convenience of the supermarket , the megastore at which I can conveniently park and pick up almost everything I could possibly want at a ‘bargain’ price. Like most people I am happy with the anonymity and lack of knowledge of the staff most of the time as I just want to get in, buy what I want and get out. The meteoric rise of the supermarket is no surprise and, in my opinion, is quite justified.
However, what about when we do need speciality products, or we need to pick up the vegetables we forgot to get at Tesco’s or we really need advice on what it is we need to buy? None of these things are available from the High Street chains, and if we are not careful they will be disappearing from our local shopping centres too. Not only is our convenience at risk but so is the heart of our local communities. Imagine for one second, Shoreham or Stenying town centres without the small independent shops or Ham Road in Worthing without it’s chemist and Co-op, or a shop- free Lancing. We think it will never happen, but in the States this is exactly what has happened – one Walmart per town, and that is where you buy everything, that is the reality in many American towns. Is that what we want? Really?
A customer of mine passed on a few words of wisdom from a colleague of mine in the local Shoreham greengrocers, if everyone in Shoreham spent just £1 a month in each of the local shops (of which there are not that many), the security of the local businesses would be assured. If fact each shop would take £19000 a month – unbelievable! Even spending just £1 a year would give these businesses are real fighting chance of survival through the recession and ensure the existence of the local town centres that we all say that we love and support. Otherwise, and this is unfortunately true, many of these businesses will not be coming through the current financial crisis and will be lost forever.
But, in honesty, how many of us actually use our local shops regularly? I admit to being as much at fault as anyone – I have had my shop for almost a year and today was the first time that I went next door to the greengrocers to buy the vegetables I needed for tea. Like everyone else I value the convenience of the supermarket , the megastore at which I can conveniently park and pick up almost everything I could possibly want at a ‘bargain’ price. Like most people I am happy with the anonymity and lack of knowledge of the staff most of the time as I just want to get in, buy what I want and get out. The meteoric rise of the supermarket is no surprise and, in my opinion, is quite justified.
However, what about when we do need speciality products, or we need to pick up the vegetables we forgot to get at Tesco’s or we really need advice on what it is we need to buy? None of these things are available from the High Street chains, and if we are not careful they will be disappearing from our local shopping centres too. Not only is our convenience at risk but so is the heart of our local communities. Imagine for one second, Shoreham or Stenying town centres without the small independent shops or Ham Road in Worthing without it’s chemist and Co-op, or a shop- free Lancing. We think it will never happen, but in the States this is exactly what has happened – one Walmart per town, and that is where you buy everything, that is the reality in many American towns. Is that what we want? Really?
A customer of mine passed on a few words of wisdom from a colleague of mine in the local Shoreham greengrocers, if everyone in Shoreham spent just £1 a month in each of the local shops (of which there are not that many), the security of the local businesses would be assured. If fact each shop would take £19000 a month – unbelievable! Even spending just £1 a year would give these businesses are real fighting chance of survival through the recession and ensure the existence of the local town centres that we all say that we love and support. Otherwise, and this is unfortunately true, many of these businesses will not be coming through the current financial crisis and will be lost forever.
Monday, 27 October 2008
Intro to homepathy
We often have people coming into the shop and ask about certain conditions and what they can take. As someone who uses homepathy as my main healthcare resource it is often something that I would recommend, and find the responses quite interesting.
There seems to be 3 standard responses;
1. No idea what it is, don't ask, just want to feel better
2. Oh yeah, homeopathy , I use it all the time
3. No way, never used it, it doesn't work and it's dangerous
I thought I would just do a little bit about the history of homeopathy and 'how it works' and follow up with some remedy pictures over the next week. I'm not planning on being controversial, if you don't like homeopathy I don't want to get into a debate really but I am happy to answer genuine questions so please feel free to get in touch. If you don't like homeopathy then that's cool with me and I certainly wouldn't try to convince you except to say that if you try it you might be pleasantly surprised.
First of all, I really don't know how it works, and to be honest I don't think anyone really does know at this point. But I also think this doesn't detract from the fact that it does work for me and my family and the patients I have treated, not always perfectly but I would think that is to do with my ability to prescribe rather than the remedy itself! During my last 2 c-sections I had epidurals (obviously) and then no pain relief at all following the op, just my remedies which I self prescribed. After each one I was up and about within 2 hours and was home the following morning. This is not something I am recommending without discussion with your GP and medical practitioners, but it worked for me and the doctors at the hospital were genuinely amazed by my recovery. I've got the kids through colds in a day, bruises in a matter of hours and calmed my hysterical 8 year old immediately with one dose of aconite after he had a fall at school among many other things. It has been almost my sole healthcare resource for about 9 years now
Is it placebo? I wish it was...it would make prescribing an awful lot easier. I have had more than one occasion (quite a few more than one) where I have prescribed the wrong remedy and nothing has happened, and then changed the remedy and had a full and complete recovery. It follows logically (at least to me) that if it was placebo then it wouldn't matter what remedy you gave, the result would be the same. There is also the argument that it works on animals, babies, plants etc and they have no idea that they are meant to get better when they take the tablet. And quite frankly even if it was placebo, why the hell not - if it makes me better and has no side effects I don't actually care whether it is placebo or not. But as I say I wish it was placebo, it would be alot easier.
My thoughts are that we simply don't know yet how it works - once upon a time we didn't know how electricity worked, or gravity, or cars, or fire even but they worked too and eventually we found out exactly how they worked. And as a by-the-way, we don't actually know how anaesthetics work either but we all take them for granted (and very fortunate we are to have them).
Anyway, homeopathy is not a new thing. It was 'invented' by a guy called Samuel Hahnemann back in the 18th century. He was a GP who decided that there must be a better way than leeches (which are still handy little critters today though), drilling holes into peoples skulls to let the bad spirits out and dosing people up with copious amounts of mercury and silver nitrate. He wasn't the easiest of blokes by the sound of things - he was just a wee bit arrogant (which becomes very clear if you read his writings), but he definately put alot of effort into putting the system together. I won't do any more of the history at this point as it is a bit long, except to say that historically homeopathy has been practiced by doctors and it's provision is written into the NHS charter, so at some point it was recognised as a mainstay of the British Health Care system. This remains true in Europe, where it is practised by GPs and hospitals and is a major part of health care in countries like India where the health system is much less drug based and more holistic.
So how does it work - well, on each bottle you will see a little number, usually followed by a 'c' or less often an 'x'. This indicates the number of times that the substance had been diluted. So I will run through how they make a 3c solution and you can work out the rest from there:
The substance to be used is selected (let's use arsenicum - arsenic) and is made into a dilutable form. Imagine there is a row of 3 test tubes in front of you. You take one drop of the substance and put it into the first test tube, then add 99 drops of water to the same test tube. This gives you 100 drops of liquid in the first test tube. The test tube is the sucussed (basically shaken and banged about), this was historically done by banging it on a hefty bible. That bit seems to be the bit that does the work of turning it into a remedy - no idea how, but there are several theories around which are trying to explain it. When you have banged it 100 times then you put that test tube back in its rack.
Now you take one drop of the succussed solution in test tube one (now a 1c solution) and put it into test tube number 2. Then add 99 drops of water to the second test tube, so you have 1 drop of the 1c solution plus 99 drops of water = 100drops in total in test tube 2. Now succuss in the same way (with the bible) and you have a 2c solution. Now put test tube 2 back in it's rack.
Take one drop of the 2c solution and put in test tube 3 along with 99 drops of water (100 drops of liquid in the test tube) and succuss again. You now have a 3c solution.
Get the picture? Obviously, you need to be a careful with some substances you use to make remedies as they are often poisonous (for reasons I will explain in anther blog), so remedies are made by qualified homeopathic pharmacists and are only sold in potencies which are so diluted that they are no longer poisonous, for example you wouldn't buy 1c of arsenicum to be on the safe side.
The two most common potencies (ie. number of dilutions) is 6c and 30c so the first means it had been diluted and succussed 6 times and the second means it has been diluted and succussed 30 times. Generally you can use either potency but most commonly people tend to use 30c's for acute complaints but it doesn't really matter that much, one might just work a bit better than the other but if the remedy is right then it should work anyway. Its a bit like having 1 or 2 sugars in your tea I suppose, one might taste a bit better to one person and the other might taste better to another person but in the end the sugar has sweetened the tea.
This is getting a bit long so I will stop now and do a how to prescibe blog tomorrow. Hope this made sense, but if you have any questions you can get in touch via the vits n' pieces website at http://www.vitsnpieces.com/ . Tomorrow I will do a bit about prescribing and how to take remedies. Speak then xx
There seems to be 3 standard responses;
1. No idea what it is, don't ask, just want to feel better
2. Oh yeah, homeopathy , I use it all the time
3. No way, never used it, it doesn't work and it's dangerous
I thought I would just do a little bit about the history of homeopathy and 'how it works' and follow up with some remedy pictures over the next week. I'm not planning on being controversial, if you don't like homeopathy I don't want to get into a debate really but I am happy to answer genuine questions so please feel free to get in touch. If you don't like homeopathy then that's cool with me and I certainly wouldn't try to convince you except to say that if you try it you might be pleasantly surprised.
First of all, I really don't know how it works, and to be honest I don't think anyone really does know at this point. But I also think this doesn't detract from the fact that it does work for me and my family and the patients I have treated, not always perfectly but I would think that is to do with my ability to prescribe rather than the remedy itself! During my last 2 c-sections I had epidurals (obviously) and then no pain relief at all following the op, just my remedies which I self prescribed. After each one I was up and about within 2 hours and was home the following morning. This is not something I am recommending without discussion with your GP and medical practitioners, but it worked for me and the doctors at the hospital were genuinely amazed by my recovery. I've got the kids through colds in a day, bruises in a matter of hours and calmed my hysterical 8 year old immediately with one dose of aconite after he had a fall at school among many other things. It has been almost my sole healthcare resource for about 9 years now
Is it placebo? I wish it was...it would make prescribing an awful lot easier. I have had more than one occasion (quite a few more than one) where I have prescribed the wrong remedy and nothing has happened, and then changed the remedy and had a full and complete recovery. It follows logically (at least to me) that if it was placebo then it wouldn't matter what remedy you gave, the result would be the same. There is also the argument that it works on animals, babies, plants etc and they have no idea that they are meant to get better when they take the tablet. And quite frankly even if it was placebo, why the hell not - if it makes me better and has no side effects I don't actually care whether it is placebo or not. But as I say I wish it was placebo, it would be alot easier.
My thoughts are that we simply don't know yet how it works - once upon a time we didn't know how electricity worked, or gravity, or cars, or fire even but they worked too and eventually we found out exactly how they worked. And as a by-the-way, we don't actually know how anaesthetics work either but we all take them for granted (and very fortunate we are to have them).
Anyway, homeopathy is not a new thing. It was 'invented' by a guy called Samuel Hahnemann back in the 18th century. He was a GP who decided that there must be a better way than leeches (which are still handy little critters today though), drilling holes into peoples skulls to let the bad spirits out and dosing people up with copious amounts of mercury and silver nitrate. He wasn't the easiest of blokes by the sound of things - he was just a wee bit arrogant (which becomes very clear if you read his writings), but he definately put alot of effort into putting the system together. I won't do any more of the history at this point as it is a bit long, except to say that historically homeopathy has been practiced by doctors and it's provision is written into the NHS charter, so at some point it was recognised as a mainstay of the British Health Care system. This remains true in Europe, where it is practised by GPs and hospitals and is a major part of health care in countries like India where the health system is much less drug based and more holistic.
So how does it work - well, on each bottle you will see a little number, usually followed by a 'c' or less often an 'x'. This indicates the number of times that the substance had been diluted. So I will run through how they make a 3c solution and you can work out the rest from there:
The substance to be used is selected (let's use arsenicum - arsenic) and is made into a dilutable form. Imagine there is a row of 3 test tubes in front of you. You take one drop of the substance and put it into the first test tube, then add 99 drops of water to the same test tube. This gives you 100 drops of liquid in the first test tube. The test tube is the sucussed (basically shaken and banged about), this was historically done by banging it on a hefty bible. That bit seems to be the bit that does the work of turning it into a remedy - no idea how, but there are several theories around which are trying to explain it. When you have banged it 100 times then you put that test tube back in its rack.
Now you take one drop of the succussed solution in test tube one (now a 1c solution) and put it into test tube number 2. Then add 99 drops of water to the second test tube, so you have 1 drop of the 1c solution plus 99 drops of water = 100drops in total in test tube 2. Now succuss in the same way (with the bible) and you have a 2c solution. Now put test tube 2 back in it's rack.
Take one drop of the 2c solution and put in test tube 3 along with 99 drops of water (100 drops of liquid in the test tube) and succuss again. You now have a 3c solution.
Get the picture? Obviously, you need to be a careful with some substances you use to make remedies as they are often poisonous (for reasons I will explain in anther blog), so remedies are made by qualified homeopathic pharmacists and are only sold in potencies which are so diluted that they are no longer poisonous, for example you wouldn't buy 1c of arsenicum to be on the safe side.
The two most common potencies (ie. number of dilutions) is 6c and 30c so the first means it had been diluted and succussed 6 times and the second means it has been diluted and succussed 30 times. Generally you can use either potency but most commonly people tend to use 30c's for acute complaints but it doesn't really matter that much, one might just work a bit better than the other but if the remedy is right then it should work anyway. Its a bit like having 1 or 2 sugars in your tea I suppose, one might taste a bit better to one person and the other might taste better to another person but in the end the sugar has sweetened the tea.
This is getting a bit long so I will stop now and do a how to prescibe blog tomorrow. Hope this made sense, but if you have any questions you can get in touch via the vits n' pieces website at http://www.vitsnpieces.com/ . Tomorrow I will do a bit about prescribing and how to take remedies. Speak then xx
Thursday, 23 October 2008
The power of perception
In Shoreham at the moment the council are running a mystery shopper scheme, the aim being to help businesses by telling them about the customers experience of being in their shop. What a great idea! I think we are really lucky in that, because we are a community business we know most of our customers, and they are really good at telling us when we are getting it wrong - and also when we are getting it right, which is lovely!
It did make me think about the power of our perceptions and how they affect our lives. I don't think it's as simple as having a 'glass is half full/empty' attitude, though that is certainly part of it. Take the so-called credit cruch, a great soundbite if I ever heard one! I know that there have been job losses and that people and business have lost money due to the problems within banking and housing and I would no way want to belittle that - if you have really been affected then I you have my best wishes and I hope that things look up for you soon. This isn't really about the credit crunch as much as about attitudes to it - especially mine, which you may relate to.
Personally we haven't really been affected that much, the shop pays its bills but doesn't really make any money so as long as it carries on that way we are in no worse position than we were. My husband does work for a bank but his job is pretty secure we think, and yes, the price of fuel has gone up and our house price has gone down but that is the point I guess.
We do have a seven seater car, because there are six of us, not just because we wanted a big car so it does use alot of fuel, and also produces more pollution than we would like. So what do we do? Well we could gripe and complain about the cost of fuel, which I admit we did do for quite a while but we could also take a deep breath, put on some sensible shoes and get walking instead of jumping in the car. We live about a mile from school so it is a bit of a trek to walk all the way there and back, with a 3 year old, a buggy and two exhausted schoolchildren. So we don't walk all the way but we drive to my daughters school, leave the car there and walk down to my son's school to pick him up and then we walk back to the car. And you know what, it's lovely! The kids get to interact with their environment, I get to talk to other grown-ups and the kids get to play with their friends. It also encourages us to just pop to the park as we walk past the gates - which the children love. We NEVER used to go to the park when we drove. And it is actually quicker too. Will we keep it up when it's raining or freezing cold in the winter? I don't know, I would like to think so but either way I am not going to beat myself up about it - every day that I do walk is one day that I have cut my fuel usuage and reduced my carbon emissions. It really doesn't need to be all or nothing, just small steps every day will make all the difference.
So the question is - has the fuel increase improved or reduced the quality of our lives? I know what the children would say, they get to see their friends, go to the park and see the flowers and the spiders, it is a bit of a no-brainer really!
Same goes for energy costs. We, like everyone, noticed a huge increase in fuel bills in the recent years but we were terrible about leaving lights on and things on standby. Eventually we bought an OWL energy monitor and it has saved us a fortune! We are stocking the meters in the shop now as I so strongly believe that they are amazing and everyone should have one. All you do is attach a little clip to the electric cable near your meter, which you then plug into the a little box which measures your fuel consumption. There is a really clear monitor that you put in an obvious place and it tells you how much electricity -in monetary terms you are using per hour. Let me give you an example of how it has worked for us; one morning I was heading out the door to take the kids to school, as usual half the lights in the house were on and pre-monitor I wouldn't have thought twice about it. I did however notice the meter, which was showing we were usng a shocking 70p an hour! I took 2 minutes and ran round the house switching things off - including the iron which I had left on, and the rate dropped down to 4.1p a minute. It turned out I was out for 10 hours that day, which even with my maths adds up to £7 saved in one day, and it potentially stopped the house being burned down. We haven't had an actual bill yet, but since we are now aware of our usage I would bet the £29.99 it cost for the meter that it has paid for itself at least twice over.
So is the credit crunch really the end of the world as we know it, or just a trigger to think about how we spend our money? Should we be scared just because we are being told to be, or should we be lokking at how it has really affected us at a personal level and focus on those things? And lets face it, the credit crunch is a fabulous marketing tool for those pack 'em high, sell 'em cheap companies - we all know who they are - that got us into this state in the first place.
Lots of love
Gill x
It did make me think about the power of our perceptions and how they affect our lives. I don't think it's as simple as having a 'glass is half full/empty' attitude, though that is certainly part of it. Take the so-called credit cruch, a great soundbite if I ever heard one! I know that there have been job losses and that people and business have lost money due to the problems within banking and housing and I would no way want to belittle that - if you have really been affected then I you have my best wishes and I hope that things look up for you soon. This isn't really about the credit crunch as much as about attitudes to it - especially mine, which you may relate to.
Personally we haven't really been affected that much, the shop pays its bills but doesn't really make any money so as long as it carries on that way we are in no worse position than we were. My husband does work for a bank but his job is pretty secure we think, and yes, the price of fuel has gone up and our house price has gone down but that is the point I guess.
We do have a seven seater car, because there are six of us, not just because we wanted a big car so it does use alot of fuel, and also produces more pollution than we would like. So what do we do? Well we could gripe and complain about the cost of fuel, which I admit we did do for quite a while but we could also take a deep breath, put on some sensible shoes and get walking instead of jumping in the car. We live about a mile from school so it is a bit of a trek to walk all the way there and back, with a 3 year old, a buggy and two exhausted schoolchildren. So we don't walk all the way but we drive to my daughters school, leave the car there and walk down to my son's school to pick him up and then we walk back to the car. And you know what, it's lovely! The kids get to interact with their environment, I get to talk to other grown-ups and the kids get to play with their friends. It also encourages us to just pop to the park as we walk past the gates - which the children love. We NEVER used to go to the park when we drove. And it is actually quicker too. Will we keep it up when it's raining or freezing cold in the winter? I don't know, I would like to think so but either way I am not going to beat myself up about it - every day that I do walk is one day that I have cut my fuel usuage and reduced my carbon emissions. It really doesn't need to be all or nothing, just small steps every day will make all the difference.
So the question is - has the fuel increase improved or reduced the quality of our lives? I know what the children would say, they get to see their friends, go to the park and see the flowers and the spiders, it is a bit of a no-brainer really!
Same goes for energy costs. We, like everyone, noticed a huge increase in fuel bills in the recent years but we were terrible about leaving lights on and things on standby. Eventually we bought an OWL energy monitor and it has saved us a fortune! We are stocking the meters in the shop now as I so strongly believe that they are amazing and everyone should have one. All you do is attach a little clip to the electric cable near your meter, which you then plug into the a little box which measures your fuel consumption. There is a really clear monitor that you put in an obvious place and it tells you how much electricity -in monetary terms you are using per hour. Let me give you an example of how it has worked for us; one morning I was heading out the door to take the kids to school, as usual half the lights in the house were on and pre-monitor I wouldn't have thought twice about it. I did however notice the meter, which was showing we were usng a shocking 70p an hour! I took 2 minutes and ran round the house switching things off - including the iron which I had left on, and the rate dropped down to 4.1p a minute. It turned out I was out for 10 hours that day, which even with my maths adds up to £7 saved in one day, and it potentially stopped the house being burned down. We haven't had an actual bill yet, but since we are now aware of our usage I would bet the £29.99 it cost for the meter that it has paid for itself at least twice over.
So is the credit crunch really the end of the world as we know it, or just a trigger to think about how we spend our money? Should we be scared just because we are being told to be, or should we be lokking at how it has really affected us at a personal level and focus on those things? And lets face it, the credit crunch is a fabulous marketing tool for those pack 'em high, sell 'em cheap companies - we all know who they are - that got us into this state in the first place.
Lots of love
Gill x
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
It's a big job but somebody's got to do it!
We are constantly looking at new products, and trying to meet the needs of all our fab customers, at home or on the web. It is kinda hard to get it right, but not for lack of trying! And no, this isn't a whinge about how hard the life of a health food shop owner is cos I actually love what I do. It is, however, a request for help.
We are in a weird position at the moment, with the move of the supermarkets into the health food and supplements market. We are in the niche of being the place that people come to when they can't get what they want in the supermarket, but there is a reason that the supermarket doesn't sell these things - they are not big sellers, after all the supermarkets want to sell as much as they can so if people are going to buy it then they will be selling it. And at the same time the supermarkets are buying in the top sellers in bulk and selling them off cheaper than we can often buy them in for.
However - and this is the biggie, we can meet the need for these more unusual little products but we need to know from you what those things are. Where we are able to help is by providing that personal service, and for those who don't know already, if you let us know what you need we can probably order it in for you. So if you are in and can't find what you want then don't just walk away, let us know and we can try to help. After all, thats what we're here for and we are more than happy to oblige.
It's a changing world and for all we small businesses talk about how difficult it is for us to compete against the supermarkets, I actually think that it gives us a huge opportunity for us to provide you with the fabulous service that only we can, and that you deserve. So let us know what it is that we can do for you.
We are in a weird position at the moment, with the move of the supermarkets into the health food and supplements market. We are in the niche of being the place that people come to when they can't get what they want in the supermarket, but there is a reason that the supermarket doesn't sell these things - they are not big sellers, after all the supermarkets want to sell as much as they can so if people are going to buy it then they will be selling it. And at the same time the supermarkets are buying in the top sellers in bulk and selling them off cheaper than we can often buy them in for.
However - and this is the biggie, we can meet the need for these more unusual little products but we need to know from you what those things are. Where we are able to help is by providing that personal service, and for those who don't know already, if you let us know what you need we can probably order it in for you. So if you are in and can't find what you want then don't just walk away, let us know and we can try to help. After all, thats what we're here for and we are more than happy to oblige.
It's a changing world and for all we small businesses talk about how difficult it is for us to compete against the supermarkets, I actually think that it gives us a huge opportunity for us to provide you with the fabulous service that only we can, and that you deserve. So let us know what it is that we can do for you.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
New blog - how exciting!!
Gosh, here I am being all technical. Well actually here I am asking my husband to show me how to be technical. My hubbie, Mark is our resident techie and put together this blog and also our website with the webshop. It's all new to me but it is all really exciting.
Isn't it amazing - our very first order on the website actually came from Amsterdam! I really love our little shop and we have a real community feel to the shop, and it's lovely to think that we can be involved in people's lives and can make a real difference. I love the fact that, not only do we have the fab therapists upstairs for when you need particular support, but also that we can provide the resources so that you can look after yourselves on a day to day basis. Now though, we can expand that out and do our bit over a bigger area.
As this is my first blog I would like to do a bit of an oscar speech, if that's OK. I would really like to say thank you to everyone who has given both me and the shop their support in the last year since I took over the shop. It has been a bit of a rollercoaster because, if you know me you'll know, I haven't had any experience of running a business before and between that and the kids it's been pretty full on. We have taken on a great bunch of therapists this year, including Claire Yuill who is our physio and also a clinical pilates instructor and Sandry Koo, our acupuncturist. The list is really long and if you have a mo it would be worth having a look to see who we have now - it's all on the website.
And, of course, what can I say about Laura and Dandy - fabulous girls, I don't know what I would do without them. When I started we had seven staff, all doing crazy hours and it kinda felt like you never saw the same person twice. Now we have me and the two superstars running the whole ship and they are doing a great job - I hope it feels that it's a bit more consistent and things are more organised now, it certainly does to me.
Thats loads for tonight, and there is loads more that I wanted to say but I'll do it gradually over the next few weeks. I'm planning to let you know what's going on in the shop, what's gonna happen, new products and also things like recipes, advice on different conditions and articles on different vitamins and remedies. Also I was planning to just have a chat about what's going on generally in health food, shoreham and life, the universe and everything.
If there is something you want me to talk about then get in touch at contactus@vitsnpieces.com and I will see what I can do. Hope you enjoy!
Isn't it amazing - our very first order on the website actually came from Amsterdam! I really love our little shop and we have a real community feel to the shop, and it's lovely to think that we can be involved in people's lives and can make a real difference. I love the fact that, not only do we have the fab therapists upstairs for when you need particular support, but also that we can provide the resources so that you can look after yourselves on a day to day basis. Now though, we can expand that out and do our bit over a bigger area.
As this is my first blog I would like to do a bit of an oscar speech, if that's OK. I would really like to say thank you to everyone who has given both me and the shop their support in the last year since I took over the shop. It has been a bit of a rollercoaster because, if you know me you'll know, I haven't had any experience of running a business before and between that and the kids it's been pretty full on. We have taken on a great bunch of therapists this year, including Claire Yuill who is our physio and also a clinical pilates instructor and Sandry Koo, our acupuncturist. The list is really long and if you have a mo it would be worth having a look to see who we have now - it's all on the website.
And, of course, what can I say about Laura and Dandy - fabulous girls, I don't know what I would do without them. When I started we had seven staff, all doing crazy hours and it kinda felt like you never saw the same person twice. Now we have me and the two superstars running the whole ship and they are doing a great job - I hope it feels that it's a bit more consistent and things are more organised now, it certainly does to me.
Thats loads for tonight, and there is loads more that I wanted to say but I'll do it gradually over the next few weeks. I'm planning to let you know what's going on in the shop, what's gonna happen, new products and also things like recipes, advice on different conditions and articles on different vitamins and remedies. Also I was planning to just have a chat about what's going on generally in health food, shoreham and life, the universe and everything.
If there is something you want me to talk about then get in touch at contactus@vitsnpieces.com and I will see what I can do. Hope you enjoy!
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