When I was talked into starting to write a blog I was assured that it would be just a case of writing interesting stuff about my experiences as a homeopath. So I merrily set of writing about things that I found curious, with the idea that if anyone ever did read it, they too might find it amusing or even interesting.
Little did I realize that, not only would people read it but then someone would ask for a topic to be covered. Not just any topic but Fungal nails and Athletes foot.
In previous blogs I have referred to the practice of homeopathy as being a bit like detective work. As we all know, one very famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes had his nemesis, namely Moriarty. Well my Homeopathic Moriarty is the Fungal Nail.
Before I trained in homeopathy I was practicing and teaching Surgical Chiropody and it was my interest in finding a cure for fungal nail conditions that led me to meet my first real homeopath, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In 1978 I met Taufiq Khan at a seminar and subsequently visited him at the hospital where he was doing his research in the Camden and Islington area health authority.
Mr Khan had come up with what he claimed was a new discovery, to whit, that Calendula TAGETES has the opposite effect on skin and nail to its close relative the common Calendula OFFICINALES. He had whole beds of Tagetes plants in the hospital grounds, which he was macerating and applying under a closed dressing to Corns, Callouses, Verrucae, in fact virtually any condition where the need was to suppress growth rather than stimulate.
I was deeply impressed and handed over my little all for a supply of his magic black goo. For several years thereafter I continued to experiment with Tagetes….. with disappointing results. One of the reasons undoubtedly was it dried up very easily and you were left with a hard dry black lump, so constant replenishing was needed, which few patients had the patience to do. (sorry for the pun.)
However the experience was not a total loss. I did gain a lot of knowledge at least of what DIDN’T work with these conditions along the way. I will share that information in another post soon....