Essential oils and homeopathy

Can someone use essential oils at the same time in a homeopathic treatment?

When someone, whether human or animal, is undergoing homeopathic treatment, the question often arises whether essential oils can be used. Menthol (e.g. from peppermint) and camphor should be mentioned in particular.

Eliane Zimmermann has already described the combined application in her blog here and here . Since there are always uncertainties, we asked a specialist.

Fabienne Gigandet tells us about her experience:

Fabienne Gigandet is a graduate Homeopath, author of “Homeopathy for Children” and “Homeopathy for the Whole Family”. Every druggist knows her, among other things as a valued specialist lecturer at the ESD – University of Applied Sciences for Druggists. In addition, she is the Vice-President of Homeopathy Switzerland and Vice-President of the EFHPA . You can find more information on their website (here).

Homeopathy was founded in the 1790s by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann. To present this therapy in more detail at this point would go beyond the scope. In short: in homeopathy, with the help of diluted and potentized substances, the self-healing powers are stimulated by means of the finest stimuli. Hahnemann has always attached great importance to the fact that his clients avoid “health-impairing” factors. In his large work “Organon der Heilkunst”, 6th edition, which deals with the way homeopathy is used, he wrote in paragraph §260:

“For the chronically ill, it is therefore all the more necessary to search for such obstacles to healing, since their illness has usually been aggravated by such harmful effects and other pathological, often unrecognized errors in the way of life.”

To this end, Hahnemann published entire “prohibited lists” in which clients were asked to avoid coffee, tea, perfumes, spicy dishes, raw “medicinal” herbs, alcoholic beverages, etc. In addition, it was assumed that especially strong-smelling substances can negatively affect the remedy of homeopathic medicines. In this case one speaks of an antidote. An antidote (from the Greek αντίδοτον , from αντί = against and δίδωμι = to give) is a (material) antidote to poisons, toxins, drugs or other substances that affect an organism. In homeopathy, this is used to describe what can disrupt or completely prevent the homeopathic remedy. Camphor is a general antidote in homeopathy, and coffee and menthol or peppermint are also widely used. These are the results of Hahnemann’s approach at the time.

Over the years, more and more experience has been gained, so that it is now quite well known which homeopathic remedy actually reacts “negatively” to which other substances.

And in very few cases today essential oils are listed in the average antidotes. This prompts me and my colleagues to use essential oils in addition to homeopathic therapy.

Children in particular respond extremely well to the therapy combination, be it with colds, where the chügeli internally show their self-healing powers and, for example, thyme oil is used externally in the form of inhalation, pads or room fragrances or when the little ones are plagued by abdominal pain for various reasons. Abdominal colic can be relaxed with lavender oil, sweet orange or fennel, stomach ache due to the increased need for affection is made easier by the scent of the tonka bean. And especially in the latter case, it becomes clear that the application itself can move mountains: the abdominal massage of a loved one is twice as good! Since Sigmund Freud at the latest, it has been known that intimate contact with the skin in the first few weeks of a baby’s life plays a very important role in the further development of the psyche.

As the saying goes: whoever heals is right. And I’ve never found that homeopathy while using essential oils at the same time didn’t work.

Text written by Fabienne Gigandet, dipl. Homeopath
www.homoeopathie-gigandet.ch