Learn the difference, how to stop a proving, how to manage aggravations, and why you should not be worried!
Bri Hurlburt 00:00
Hey everybody, welcome to Homeopathy at Home with Melissa. I'm Bri, here with Melissa again. Today we are going to cover something that we actually talk about often in our Gateway classes, provings and aggravations. Those might sound like big words or words you wouldn't associate with homeopathy, so if you're new, we'll talk about them today - what they mean, how to tell when you're experiencing one, and maybe some questions that we get often.
Melissa Crenshaw 00:32
one thing that I really love that you came up with, Bri, is instead of calling it an aggravation, calling it an acceleration, because that's really what it is. People get really worried about provings, but what I always learned in school, and I still see in my practice, is they're uncommon. They just don't happen, really. What we see is people take a remedy one or two times and have a brand new symptom and say that they've proved it.
Bri Hurlburt 01:23
I never even knew about proving when I first started using homeopathy. I just used the remedies, and I never had a worry about something going wrong or something happening. So, I'm wondering if maybe just the fact that we are so used to allopathic medicine creating side effects, that we almost are looking for a side effect or for something to go wrong.
Melissa Crenshaw 01:55
I've said this recently that, of course, my goal is to teach you all how to do this at home and how to do it well. So, I need to teach every aspect of it. It wasn't until I started teaching aggravations and provings, though, that I got all this worry. Before I became a homeopath, my homeopath just said there's nothing to worry about. There were no side effects. She didn't teach me about provings, so I had no worries about provings. Now, more people are worried about it because they know that it's something that could happen. The true definition of approving comes from this - a prover is a person who is a well person, who's not sick, who takes a remedy and develops symptoms from that remedy because they're well and don't need that remedy. Does that make sense?
Bri Hurlburt 02:52
So you're basically proving that the remedy works?
Melissa Crenshaw 02:57
Exactly. That that's what the remedy does.
Bri Hurlburt 03:02
It creates those symptoms in a well person. It's almost like the medicine in those remedies in a well person don't have a thing to act on. They aren't fighting the illness at all, because it doesn't exist there.
Melissa Crenshaw 03:25
That's right. So when you're sick and you take the wrong remedy, the only thing that happens is nothing. You don't prove it. If you continue long term, taking the wrong remedy over and over and over again, then you could definitely start having symptoms of that remedy. Here's my best example - Rhus Tox is the homeopathic poison ivy. If you were to take Rhus Tox every day without needing it, it's the wrong remedy. You're taking it for the wrong thing, then you could start having random itching. Poison ivy makes us itchy, so you could start having random itching. If that were to happen, then you stop taking the remedy and that symptom stops. It's very easy and simple, nothing to be scared about.
Bri Hurlburt 04:32
Something we get asked, too, is do provings cause symptoms of illness? If I took Arsenicum Album and the next day I threw up all over the place, or Colocynthis and I had really bad cramps, are those provings or probably coincidental that your symptoms are evolving or changing?
Melissa Crenshaw 04:55
If you've just taken the remedy a few times - one tim, two times, three times - or even just a few days, you can't prove a remedy that fast. It's likely your symptoms have changed through your condition. We have to remember that homeopathy's job is to move your body through the condition faster and easier than you would have without homeopathy. So, your symptoms change when you have a cold, cough, flu, stomach virus, whatever it is. Rather than it being a proving, that remedy was likely bringing something out, either as a result of the condition that you're dealing with, or something that you suppressed in the past, because that's it's job.
Bri Hurlburt 05:39
My brain just started putting this all together. Let's say I start with a cold and I have some congestion. I feel like what often happens is somebody takes Aconite and Bryonia or Ferrum Phos or something, doesn't stick to the four dose rule (I think what's often paired with thinking that they're proving is often not sticking to a remedy at all and jumping around), then later that day they'll take Sanguinaria and develop a headache or sinus pressure. Maybe what's actually happening is not a proving. Probably what's happening is an aggravation, like bringing up that symptom sooner than it would've presented without homeopathy. Is that what you're saying?
Melissa Crenshaw 06:28
That's right. The aggravation is, like you call it, an acceleration of your current symptoms. So, your cough gets worse or you throw up a little bit more for just a time or two. I don't want to scare people, but the point of homeopathy is to get it out of your system so that you can be done with it, right? If your cough gets worse, that's where people freak out and say, "Oh, my gosh, I'm getting worse, I have to stop this remedy. This remedy is making me worse. I know that when I took this remedy, I got worse." Homeopathy's job is to bring it out, so you might get worse before you get better. We have to remember that.
Bri Hurlburt 07:18
I know I've probably shared it in the Gateway classes, but when I first experienced an aggravation, I only remember hearing that it was a good thing. I had heard that a fever was a good sign that the remedy was working, and it was when I used Belladonna when I was getting the flu. I took Belladonna, and within an hour, my fever spiked. I was miserable, but I remember thinking that was a good sign. I took another dose, and by the next morning, I'm not kidding you, I was better. It was one terrible night, but I woke up feeling like 100% better. Not even how you usually wake up after the flu, like a little bit hung over from being sick. I literally woke up better. That still happens for me. A fever tends to be the thing that is accelerated the most often for me, and that's kind of where I got that idea of "acceleration." I feel like it pushed it out of my body super fast and intense. And then it was done.
Melissa Crenshaw 08:35
Yeah. If we know that that's how homeopathy works, we can expect it and we can hang in there and stick with it. There is also an analogy I love of aggravations versus proving to the biblical truth that we are to endure trials, but we are not to endure attacks. Sometimes the enemy attacks us. We're not to endure attacks from the enemy. We ARE to endure trials. Trials come and they make us stronger and we learn and we grow. We were never promised an easy life here on earth, but when the trials come, we look to the Lord and we move through those. It doesn't feel good, but we keep going. We do endure that. We are not to endure attacks from the enemy. So, the comparison is we endure aggravations but we do not enter a proving. If you really were to have a proving, you shut that down - you stop taking the remedy and it stops.
Bri Hurlburt 09:53
That's so good. You have several of those spiritual analogies and I love it. I was gonna ask a question about aggravations, too, in that sense where we endure them. What about if they're super intense, maybe with a chronic issue or something, you don't have to push through until you're miserable. So, what are some ways that you can manage an aggravation?
Melissa Crenshaw 10:30
That's right. You can slow down. If the aggravation is too big, and it's making you miserable, you don't have to do that. You can slow down on the frequency of the dosing, and that's what I would do. I wouldn't stop taking the remedy because your aggravation is a good sign that the remedy is the right choice and is doing its job. But you can slow down and back off. Let's say the protocol says to take it twice a day, and maybe you only take it once a day. For some people that are very sensitive like me, if a remedy says to take it twice a day, I probably could take it once a week and have the same outcome.
Bri Hurlburt 11:12
You are very sensitive. I have been secretly hoping that maybe the more I use homeopathy the quicker I'll respond to it. I think it might just be who you are, though.
Melissa Crenshaw 11:27
Maybe. I do think it's how long, too. I've been using it for more than 20 years. It also depends on how old you are. After 20, 30, 40 years of using allopathy, that hurts the body systems and you almost have to retrain the body because you spent all those years shutting everything down, suppressing everything. It's like the dog has been caged up or chained up in the backyard for years. It doesn't know what to do when it gets free! After that long, your body doesn't know what to do either.
Bri Hurlburt 12:17
This kind of gets into the terrain theory, right?
Melissa Crenshaw 12:21
Yeah. So, when your terrain is strengthened, then you move through sickness easier. You may become more sensitive to the remedies and not have to use them as much, but it should definitely be easier and easier to use the remedy. I worked with a classical homeopath in the beginning and I didn't treat anything acutely. She didn't do anything with my acute conditions. She told me to take vitamin C and elderberry and Echinacea and astragalus. So, I had already been using homeopathy a long time before I started treating acute conditions in myself and my family.
Bri Hurlburt 13:05
Okay, what about the opposite end? If you're taking a remedy and it's working some but wears off quickly, what would you recommend? My brother-in-law has bad allergies, and he's been taking Apis 30 and he is eating those like candy. He says they do work, but then he needs more very soon after.
Melissa Crenshaw 13:26
In that situation, I would tell him to get a 200.
Bri Hurlburt 13:29
That is actually what I told him. I actually am making him your allergy protocol and doing all of that. That's kind of opposite of an aggravation, but when you know a remedy is working, you would up the potency before you would change the frequency.
Melissa Crenshaw 13:48
So, you could change the frequency, but if he's dosing himself that often then I would increase the frequency first. If that's not working, then increase the potency. If the remedy is working, then don't leave it.
Bri Hurlburt 14:12
Right. That's what I told him. I think Apis is a good choice, but maybe we'll change the potency and take it less often hopefully. Over time, just like you just said, it's retraining his body. He's always treated it with Claritin or Flonase or other suppressive medicines. I don't know if you have anything else to add, but I just think it's interesting how we worry so quickly. Maybe this is going on a tangent, but I know something you are passionate about is the worry and the fear. Could you speak a little bit to the underlying issue may be more our worry or our fear, or the baggage we're carrying from what we think we know about medicine rather than provings or the remedies we're using?
Melissa Crenshaw 15:22
That is so good. That's really good. I had such anxiety when I first started using homeopathy. I was on Lexapro, and I was so worried about what this homeopathy thing that I'd never heard of before was going to do. Again, this was more than 20 years ago, so I remember emailing her and constantly asking her questions. She probably was like so tired of me. So, if you are anxious, that's really the problem. We have these irrational thoughts and worries. Worry is Ignatia. When we worry about all these things - when you're worried about proving too much - that's really the mental thing that you need to be treating, rather than looking at everything and saying, is this a proving? Don't worry! I'm telling you, don't worry about it. I don't see them. I don't see provings. The one example that I gave with the Rhus Tox was a person who took it for three years when it wasn't working.
Bri Hurlburt 16:50
And it went away within a week of stopping the remedy after three years of being on it!
Melissa Crenshaw 16:54
Yeah. And all he had was some itching. He was like, "Yeah, my legs are itching." I'm like, "Okay, stop the Rhus Tox." Done. Simple, easy stuff. This is not big deal stuff.
Bri Hurlburt 17:05
Right. It didn't give him poison ivy after a few doses or anything. That is really reassuring. I think it's really easy when we get into this world of taking ownership and more responsibility of our health to just second guess. You feel like you might do something wrong. When you're doing it with our children, when you're giving somebody advice and you give them a remedy, it can be hard. When you're giving people stuff and then they develop a new symptom, or it gets worse, I can totally relate to that almost irrational worry. I just think this is a really timely and perfect topic to cover, and to hear from you. You've been practicing for a long time, you see people way more often than we do, so you can just tell us to chill.
Melissa Crenshaw 18:08
Yeah, it just doesn't happen. I wouldn't worry about it at all. I don't worry about it at all. Again, it's good to know what a proving is. One last thing that I think we didn't say about a proving is that you are only proving a remedy if you get a new symptom that matches the remedy. Have you ever had that symptom in your life? Who can really remember? What if you're 50 years old and you have something that came up that might've been something you had when you were 10 that's coming back out? That's not a proving. So, what if you don't remember? If you don't remember ever having that before, then you go and look in the Materia Medica. Read the remedy, and if it matches, stop taking the remedy and see if the symptom goes away.
Bri Hurlburt 19:01
You know what, that is another good point to make and something to consider. Because as you start using homeopathy and your body is triggered to handle this acute illness, but also maybe you're taking a remedy to help deal with these headaches you get randomly. That remedy could aggravate something unrelated to your current acute illness, and that feels like something totally different, but maybe it's really helping uproot something you've carried or suppressed for a long time.
Melissa Crenshaw 19:34
Yeah, that's probably what's really happening. I hope that was helpful information about provings versus aggravations and hope that just helps to ease your mind that you don't really don't to worry about it.
Bri Hurlburt 19:53
Thank you very much. Again, you are always very wise and so helpful. Thank you!
Melissa Crenshaw 20:01
Thank you for being with me. It makes it much more fun!