Homeopathy for Pain

Natural solutions for acute pain that actually work

Pain is an important topic and one I am passionate about. Nothing in my learning, exploring, or training in homeopathy really addressed the topic of homeopathy for pain to my satisfaction. Not for REAL pain— intense, relentless, excruciating pain.

I did pick up clues here and there, but it has taken a lot of experimenting on my husband (who is a great test subject with all his athletic injuries), on myself, and with many, many clients.

I won’t say I’m done learning about homeopathy for pain, but I now know enough to share with confidence. I’m sure I will write more on this topic in the future, but for now I want to lay out the basics so you and your loved ones can start benefitting.

If you look in a homeopathic Materia Medica, there are a SO many homeopathic medicines that mention pain, including a wide variety of symptoms in every part of the body, and making broad use of vocabulary (digging, stitching, gnawing, throbbing, aching and many more pain descriptors).

And although I love my Materia Medica, in practice, when you, or a loved one, is in acute pain, you don’t want to (or won’t even be able to) spend hours with your nose in the books. And few people have every remedy on-hand or in all the potencies when they are needed.

So what can you be sure to own that has a high probability of helping many painful conditions?

(As an aside, from my experience, that one lesser-known remedy that mentions some obscure keynote that seems to match your specific neck pain, in all probability that will not be the one that will solve it for you. It MIGHT be, and, by all means, if the primary pain remedies don’t act, then do consider it. But don’t lose sleep imagining that if only you owned that one remedy all your problems would be solved. It just usually doesn’t work out that way. Besides that, there is rarely only one way to heal with homeopathy, usually there are multiple paths that will work.) 

Now, I’m going to try to keep this as simple as possible and give you two main options, and two alternates to consider for pain.

That way you can buy what you need (NOW) to have on hand when you need it, with a high likelihood that it will act. Keep in mind that the higher potency homeopathic medicines just are not available locally, so you do need to have them in your kit before you actually require them. 

And don’t forget, always check the Banerji Protocols first. I created a complete index that you can search for keywords. So if it’s kidney stone pain, for instance, search the index for ‘kidney’, and then look up the protocols in the book. (Yes, you must own the books, we all do, and they are invaluable.) Under Renal Stones (Kidney Stones) you’ll see what they recommend for that type of pain. Follow those instructions to begin.

Remember that line one of the Banerji Protocols was shown clinically to help 80% of the people with that diagnosis. (And Line 2, and 3 if there is one, the remainder of the people.)

For injuries, intense musculoskeletal pain, for ligament and tendon issues, for bones etc you can also reference the Banerji Protocols, to start with. However, this is where I’m going to add on to their recommendations, based on my real-world experience. The protocols are by no means wrong, it’s just often not enough. 

Remember, if it’s not acting, it’s not that homeopathy ‘doesn’t work’—  it’s either the wrong remedy, or often the wrong potency.

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Homeopathy for Pain Option No. 1

First off, here is a primary Banerji Protocol that includes pain remedies:

Musculoskeletal Disorders pg. 98

1. Rhus Tox 30C alternating with Bryonia Alba 200C, every two hours

2. Symphytum 200C alternating with Hypericum 200C, every three hours

Note: If you have a chronic pain condition that bugs you regularly, but not intensely, or a mild injury, something such as the above may work well. You can ALWAYS start with the protocols as they are written. If they aren’t acting, and it’s because the pain is intense, then considering a higher potency is a good idea. More on this below.

In addition, don’t forget Arnica Montana and Aconitum Napelles. Two other very important pain remedies.

Arnica is the homeopathic go-to for injuries (as discussed here), and would be used in a 30C, 200C or higher. 

Aconitum is not only good for the shock of an injury, it is a premier pain option to consider as well. Typically I’d use a 200C or higher in the Aconitum.

I find it is much easier to make a mix of the top pain medicines, rather than using one at a time. However, note that I HAVE tried them all one at a time, for various conditions, and what I discovered is that each will touch a different aspect of the pain. When combined they create a more full-spectrum approach, which is efficient and effective for many conditions.

Here is the homeopathic remedy ‘pain mix’ that lives on my counter:

Bryonia 1M + Rhus Tox 1M + Arnica 1M + Hypericum 1M. (I call it BRAH for short.)

I keep a ‘wet dose’ ever-ready. Three pills of each in a 1-2 ounce dropper bottle filled with pure water. A dose is a dropper in the mouth.

Here are some of examples of how I have used this ‘pain mix’ recently: 

-When my forearm got super flared up with something akin to tendonitis/carpal tunnel, I took the above twice a day for about two weeks until it was all better. (At first I couldn’t sleep it was so bothersome, and each day it improved a bit, until resolved.)

-When my husband got home from driving 15 hours in one weekend, I gave him a dose before he could even start to feel the effects of the long drive, and he was amazed how good he felt the following day. 

-A client of mine got tweaked with sciatica-type symptoms from driving too much, and a 2-3 doses a day put her back on track in just a few days.

-When my husband comes home from a mountain bike ride with injuries (very common), I give him a dose right away and then again in the morning, and if still needed we’ll continue twice a day until better.

Homeopathy for even more intense pain:

There are also times that the above will not be enough.

A couple of winters ago, my husband came home from skiing, having seriously re-injured his already sensitive and chronically problematic ankle. His pain was through the roof. A 10 out of 10. On top of the physical pain, he was in a restless and very worried state—  no position was comfortable and he was fixated on how he’d have to have surgery, and his skiing days were over.

I will still just learning about homeopathy for pain, so I’m sure I started with 200 potencies. But, in this case, I quickly realized they were doing nothing. I got out the Aconitum 10M. I gave him three doses in about 20 minutes, and after the third he totally calmed down, lay still on the couch, began to think clearly, and let me administer to him. I then gave him Arnica 10M + Hypericum 10M every half hour or so.  

The first night, in the middle of the night, he woke up every few hours feeling super restless and couldn’t get his ankle comfortable. The above 10Ms weren’t helping, so I added in Rhus Tox 1M and Bryonia 1M. After each dose of these, he’d be back asleep within about 5 minutes.

We continued the Aconitum 10M twice a day for a few days. The other four remedies continued SOS every hour to every few hours, each day becoming needed less frequently, until around day five we were at twice a day for the Arnica 10M, Hypericum 10M, Rhus Tox 1M and Bryonia 1M.

He was amazed at the healing progress, having had plenty of injuries in the past that we did not use homeopathy for. Even after he was much better, and able to navigate our many stairs with just a little care, I kept him on the Arnica 10M and Hypericum 10M twice a day for two weeks. This was partly because I could still see the improvements day by day, and partly as a test.

Right at day 13 I was thinking we should stop the 10Ms because he was so much better, but I decided to continue until he proved the remedies, as a test for how long one might take the 10Ms. The very next day (day 14) he came home and told me that his calves were strangely tender, and were getting increasingly so. That was the clue to the stop the remedies, and within a day all was well. (You can read more about this proving here.)

I also will add that he already was taking baseline homeopathy for his joints on a daily basis, including Symphytum 200C + Calcarea Phos 6X and some others, so the Symphytum from the Banerji Protocols was in his plan already, as well as others which were continued throughout this time. And since this episode, and as I have gotten better with chronic injuries, he is now at about 95% overall improved from this and his original injuries many years ago. Last year he was able to ski six hour days, including moguls, with hardly any painful moments.

More examples and notes on homeopathy for pain: 

If it’s low grade and chronic pain, you may need to take the 30 or 200 twice a day over many months to gradually uproot the painful condition. That doesn’t mean you can’t ALSO use a higher potency for a bit, but what you will find is that you cannot use the 1Ms and higher potencies for nearly as long. 

So, for example, if you are going to need the homeopathy daily for a year for a chronic condition, it probably needs to be 200C or lower. (Remember to check the Banerji Protocols!)

I have yet to see anyone be able to use a 10M one to two times a day for longer than two weeks before a proving begins. 

The 1Ms can be used substantially longer— for weeks, and I have even seen many months, but this really depends on the person, the condition and the remedies. 

(Again read my recent article about provings here. They are nothing to worry about. Just a signal that you are done with the remedy for the time being. You can always stop anything you are taking for a day or two to test.)

Now, if it’s acute and intense pain you either need to use the low to mid potencies OFTEN, or you need a higher potency. 

For instance, I had a friend with terrible tooth pain and she only owned Hypericum 200. In addition she was running low on her supply and didn’t have access to homeopathic medicines locally. So we put a dose in a bottle of water for her to sip, and she reported that after sipping it every every 2 minutes for a couple of hours, it brought the pain down from a 10 to a 3, which helped her get by until she could get to the dentist.

If she’d had a Hypericum 1M, she could have taken it every 5-20 minutes to start, based on how she felt, and probably would have achieved a similar result in a handful of doses, after which she could have taken it every 1-2 hours to manage the pain. (She might not have been able to decrease the frequency much because it turned out she had an infected tooth. In that case the cause had to be dealt with.) 

[It is NOT hard to know when to decrease the dosing for pain, because when there is no pain you will forget to take it. Then as the pain starts to creep back it will remind you. You can look at the clock to notice it’s been 3 hours, or whatever, and that becomes a new frequency. Or you just take it as needed, whenever the pain comes back. Simple.]

As a side note, you do not have to ‘get in front of’ the pain with homeopathy. If it’s the right medicines and potencies, they should act even after many days of intense pain.

If my friend had owned a 10M in the Hypericum, she could have taken it once, twice, maybe three times and waited to watch the pain calm down. The 10Ms act with a depth and increasing action that far exceeds the lower potencies. Often when I take a 10M I notice the action wavers a bit as it comes on over the course of about an hour or two, and then deepens throughout the day. A 10M might even ‘last’ for 12 hours or longer.

The 30C and 200C feel lighter and less deep (this is hard to explain, you have to try them yourself to know the internal sense of it), and dosing more often is clearly needed in intense cases. And in really intense cases they just will not cut it.

But if the pain level is lower, the 30 or 200 very well might meet it just fine. That’s what we are doing, essentially matching the potency to the pain level.

For instance my forearm pain wasn’t writhing in agony, but it was constant and preventing sleep. The 1M was a perfect match.

If however, you just fell off a building (and managed to live) you would probably need the 10Ms every couple of minutes. Or you’d need 50Ms.

I have not used 50M for pain yet, but recently a friend shared this secondhand story with me:

‘A retired physician in our class used [this] for her 19-year-old grandson who broke the radial head off his left arm. She used 50M potency in these three meds [Arnica, Bryonia and Hypericum] to get him off of pain meds in three days. And Cantharis for extreme burning pain, saving him a trip to the ER. I don’t know yet what potency of Cantharis.’

A simple approach, if you are unsure, would be to start lower and move up in potency if no results.

A few more examples:

-A client of mine in her 80s had a hip replacement last year. She could not get past the pain and really didn’t want to be taking the pharmaceutical drugs. She used the Hypericum and Arnica in a 200, with no results. I recommended she get the higher potencies. She was worried about them, as many are. (This is unfortunate, but a side effect of teachers not trusting their students and the general public to not be idiots.) She ordered the 1Ms and took them every hour for one day with only slight improvement. Next she went to the 10Ms, and in a few doses relief began to set in. Ahhhh, she said.  (This is when I stopped hearing from her every day. Almost always with my clients no news is good news. ‘Oh what pain?, oh yeah, that old thing, I haven’t had that for ages!’)

-A relative of mine who had a knee replacement started with the Arnica 200. I had told her in advance to get the 1M, but she didn’t until a couple of days post surgery when the pain was not letting up. When she received the Arnica 1M, she wrote to me SO happy because it made such a difference.

(These examples were prior to settling on a ‘pain mix’. I now recommend people start with the 1M or 10M mix for knee and hip replacement surgery and most injuries.)

-One final story, this time an animal. My friend’s cat started to add very strange. He seemed to be biting his own tongue, and was drooling terribly, and bleeding from the mouth. At first we thought it might even be rabies, as he’d been bitten by an unknown animal and had had an infection some months prior. I researched heavily online and found a condition called FOPS (Feline Orofacial Pain Syndrome). When I sent a video of how these cats behave, she said it looked just like her kitty. Based on what remedies she owned, we started him on Hypericum 10M + Aconitum 1M + Arnica 10M + Chamomilla 1M every three hours, continuing through the night. By the next day he was very much better, and continued to improve each day. After about 10 days she switched to the Banerji Protocol for neuralgia (which is what FOPS is in cats). Though instead of the Hypericum 200 that is used in the protocol, she kept him on a 1M.

(See the Banerji Protocols Book pg 76 for Facial Pain/Neuralgia, which includes trigeminal neuralgia.) 

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Homeopathy for Pain Option No. 2

Now, the above will help MANY types of pain, but definitely not all.

In the Banerji Protocols you will often see Belladonna used for pain. This was probably their top pain medicine, and for good reason, it covers a great many types of pain.

You’ll find Belladonna in the Banerji Protocols for headache and migraines, for appendicitis pain, gallstone pain, feverish with pain, gout pain, eye pain, ear pain, abscess pain, throat pain, ovarian cyst pain, uterine pain and menstrual cramps, liver pain, cancer pain, and even some types of acute arthritis pain. 

I have used Belladonna with success for all of these and more.

If you have any of the conditions that there are protocols for, do start with them for best results.

(It is a very useful exercise to go through the protocol books and look at everywhere Belladonna is used. Sometimes it will be combined with other remedies (such as for headaches), but even in these cases I have found that often just the Belladonna will act on its own.)

The Banerjis typically use Belladonna in a 3C SOS (such as every 15 minutes or so). The 3C isn’t easy to get in the US, but Belladonna 6C is a good alternative. Personally, I always just go for the Belladonna 30C, I find it to be more reliable. But I have had reports of people who felt the 6C was better for them. You might need also a 200C, and I know of a woman who has used the Belladonna 1M in a mix for intense sharp back pain that nothing else was touching.

(I still have never needed the 1M in Belladonna, but I do own it in case.) With Belladonna it is not necessarily about the higher potencies.

This is the pain mix the woman used:

Belladonna 1M + Chamomilla 1M + Aconitum 1M. (More on Chamomilla below.)

In my experience pain usually falls into one of the above categories. So if one isn’t helping, then the other will: The BRAH mix or the Belladonna.

Sometimes it seems incredible that a 10M of Hypericum just will not touch the pain. But in that case try the Belladonna 6C or 30C. You may be amazed.

Again, the more intense the pain, the more often you must dose, so the Belladonna might be taken as often as every 5 minutes to start, then spreading it out as it gets better. Give it a good 5-6 doses before deciding anything. 

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Two additional options for pain:

If the above fail, or aren’t enough, you may try these:

One additional pain remedy is Chamomilla, just mentioned above. It’s especially good for that type of pain that makes the person really edgy or feel hopeless. I call it the ‘Waaaaah!’ remedy. It might be a baby—  or your husband acting like one. ;-) It could be someone who is grouchy and cranky because of the pain, they might not want to be touched, or just feel like everything is ‘off’. It might be a woman who is in tears because of the pain, be it period cramps, neck pain, or gout pain. It’s also a top medicine for ear pain. The Banerjis use in a 30C, but I usually go for higher potencies. 

Chamomilla can go in a mix with others if appropriate. Often I’ll test the Chamomilla separately, then if helpful I will add it to a mix for ease. It could be Chamomilla 30, 200, or 1M.

The wet dose method is easy and makes it much more affordable. When you require acute doses it’s easy to go through a tube of pills in a couple of days. One, you really don’t want to run out when you need it, and two, you don’t want to hold back on getting relief because of the money.

Remember that homeopathy does not just provide relief, but works to uproot the condition. If the pain is helped with homeopathy, but isn’t getting better as the days go on (meaning you still need to dose constantly and can’t even think about spreading out the doses), you may need to get a diagnosis as to why.

As a bonus, Chamomilla can be wonderful for sleep. If my husband takes Chamomilla in the evening, he will fall asleep while watching TV. It just completely relaxes him. So now Chamomilla 200 lives by his bedside for nights when he’s wakeful or restless. One dose and he’s back asleep in minutes.

In my experience, Chamomilla is gentler than some other remedies. (Some are ‘hard hitting’ in comparison and can’t be repeated too often.) I know of a woman who takes the Chamomilla 1M once or twice every night for pain + sleep and has been doing so for almost a year.

And the second additional pain remedy is Magnesia Phosphorica, commonly known as Mag Phos.

The Banerjis use Mag Phos in a 3X. Again, it’s easier for most of us to find a 6X or a 6C. Both are good options. I know people who prefer the 6 potencies. I like the Mag Phos 30C, and actually, these days I usually go for straight for the Mag Phos 200C. I also know women who use the Mag Phos 1M for intense menstrual cramps. It’s also a good one for many types of back pain, neck pain, etc.

It is known particularly for spasming and cramping, and includes restless legs. If my legs are jumpy when falling asleep, one dose of Mag Phos 30 or 200 will have me calm and asleep in minutes.

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At some point, I will do a separate post on menstrual cramp pain, as there are more layers and other helpful medicines. In the meantime, you can check out the Banerji Protocols (see Dysmenorrhea on pg. 71) for many good options. You can also check out Boiron’s combinations, such as Cyclease. These may point you to other good remedies, which you can purchase in a 30 or 200 if the combination acts but not well enough.

Generally speaking, for painful periods either Mag Phos 6 or 30 and/or Belladonna 6 or 30 work beautifully, taken as needed, which may be often at points. Arnica 30 or higher is another good one. All three could even be combined. 

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And, yes, there are other great homeopathic medicines for pain, such as Ruta Graveolens, Coffea, Colocynthis, HyperArs and many more, but my goal today was not to list them all (there are many sites that do that), but to give you the top ones that I use over and over again with great success. 

There are always more options in homeopathy, so many in fact that we can become overwhelmed. My goal is always to make homeopathy as efficient, practical and useful as possible, and to give you the real deal that many homeopaths withhold. This is the medicine for the people, and I want everyone to be able to know, to trust and to use these incredible remedies successfully in their own lives.

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Here is a starter list of the homeopathic pain remedies discussed above, for you to consider adding to your kit. Depending on what you own already, for $100-200 more you’ll be prepared to handle most pain that comes your way.

Aconitum 200C, 1M, 10M

Arnica 30C, 200C, 1M, 10M

Belladonna 6 (X or C), 30C, 200C, maybe 1M

Bryonia 30C, 200C, 1M

Chamomilla 30C, 200C, 1M

Mag Phos 6 (X or C), 30C, 200C, maybe 1M

Rhus Tox 30C, 200C, 1M

Symphytum 200C

As always, I don’t know your situation so none of this should be taken as specific recommendations. You must use common sense for your own life and work from the level you are currently at. With practice and learning your ability to help yourself and others will grow.

It is a shame that more people aren’t talking about the high potencies in homeopathy, and that some people are afraid of them. By using the 1Ms and 10Ms where indicated you will gain experience and also more appreciation for the power that homeopathy offers in alleviating even the most intense pain— with no side effects, no addictions, nothing but relief and healing. 

I have been working more and more with 10M and higher potencies recently, and will have much more to report in these pages in the future.

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Until next time!

(And yes, as promised in the last article, I will be writing about Homeopathy and Suppressions soon.)