How long?

Is the remedy helping you in your symptoms?

Did the homeopath tell you no coffee and no alcohol?

How much beer were you drinking and how often?

How much coffee did you normally have?

Homeopaths will tell you different things on this.

Some say if the remedy is correct, moderate coffee and alcohol
will not affect the remedy.

Some say you can have not more than 2 cups of coffee and
2 drinks a day.

I have found everyone is different. On some doing these things
has no effect. On others, it is obvious that the remedy stopped
acting after they drank coffee, But after a few months of
taking their remedy and no coffee they are feeling good now and
can have the coffee and it is not affecting how well they feel.

Dear N,

One would have to take your case on here to give a
good opinion on this.

There could be things going on - like the remedy
is a good match, but not the best match. Or if
the remedy is taken in water or just dry doses.

The state of your health at this time, liver health,
digestive health and so on, all could be factors here.

If you want to get a second opinion, you can do that.

Regards,

Simone

For the majority of patients, drinking coffee or alcohol in moderation does not interfere with the curative action of a remedy. The only time you need to ask someone to stop is if those substances are causing specific problems for the patient, or if it is clear that those substances are causing relapses after a remedy has helped.

It is often the patients who react most strongly to those substances who need to give them up (people who need them, are addicted to them, get strong 'positive' effects) if they want to heal completely, but for most of them you can get around that problem with appropriate potency/dosing.

Most of my patients continue moderate use of coffee, tea, alcohol, and other so-called 'prohibited' substances and they experience cure just as I would expect on the right remedy.

However, you have to be alert to the way patient's respond to medicines, and certainly keep in mind that removing various drugs from their daily routine might be necessary.

How long healing will take has no standard answer - I suppose you could say 'as long as it takes' although that isn't very helpful (despite being true). However, homoeopathy has structured guidelines for assessing whether a medicine is doing its job or not. The time this will take overall is extremely variable though, but as long as the indications for healing are there (we call this Direction of Cure) then we continue to apply the remedy or wait for previous dose to finish its work).

However, in my experience, for most patients, this is how things tend to progress.

1. There is an worsening (aggravation) of symptoms within the first 3-5 days of starting the remedy.

2. Aggravation tends to peak about 3-5 days after it starts and then diminishes. However, physical pathology (changes to the tissues) as well as a history of effective suppression by drugs or an general hypersensitivity can prolong this stage.

3. Once the aggravation diminishes you will begin to see improvements. If there is no reason for prolonged aggravation, I expect to see this begin by the second week after the start of the aggravation. Where those improvements appear is governed by a natural law we call Direction of Cure - most important areas to less important, from inside to outside, new symptoms to old symptoms.