Magnesium is a mineral, one of six alkaline earth metals - along with beryllium, calcium, strontium, barium and radium - that make up the second column of the periodic table. In nature, it can only be found as a salt, that is, in combination with other minerals such as magnesium carbonate, magnesium sulphate, magnesium citrate, to name but a few. Elemental or free magnesium that is not combined with another element is a highly flammable, lightweight, shiny gray solid that can only be produced artificially.
The Hope Homeopathy Clinic
Mafi Kumase is a small town of 2500 persons in the Volta region of Western Ghana, about an hour from the border with Togo. Other than its technical high school and a weekly market, it is a fairly nondescript place: basically a crossroads with low slung shops, cinderblock houses and simple structures that serve as churches. The main thoroughfare is busy with 2-, 3- and 4-wheeled vehicles, herds of goats and groups of schoolchildren.
To the outsider's eye, what is most striking are a handful of buttes that rise up in and around the town as well as the plastic garbage strewn everywhere. The buttes make for nice hikes and views over the surrounding fields of cassava and okra. The plastic is an eyesore and probable health hazard that makes one not want to look too closely.
The Hope Homeopathy Clinic is located just at the outskirts of town on the main road. It consists of a few rooms and front porch of a house set back behind some shops and another home. But it is a well-utilized facility that everyone in town knows - along with the man who created and runs it.
A Case of Lyme Disease
Jill's adventure with Lyme Disease began in 2010, some six years before our first consultation, or at least that is what she thought. It first manifested as muscle stiffness, severe indigestion and tremendous fatigue. As with so many cases of Lyme, her condition was not correctly diagnosed initially. Jill was told she had GERD (gastric reflux) and had surgery for that. Perhaps because her sister was diagnosed with Lupus (the autoimmune illness Systemic Lupus Erythematosus or SLE), she too was told that was the problem and was treated for it. Nothing seemed to help.
Autopathy
15 years ago a Czech homeopath by the name of Jiri Cehovsky unveiled a unique form of treatment that he called 'Autopathy'. With antecedents in a number of ancient healing arts as well as drawing heavily on the principles of homeopathy, autopathy - as the name implies- is a form of self-treatment that is applicable to a broad range of ailments both acute and chronic, physical and mental. Amongst many conditions that can be treated, it has been shown to be especially effective in the treatment of skin diseases like eczema and pathologies of uncertain cause such as autoimmune diseases.
Haiti, Cholera and Homeopathy
A weather disturbance known as a 'tropical wave' was detected off the Atlantic coast of Africa on September 25th of this year. Although it sounds like a tropical wave is a surfing term, in fact, it is used to describe a meteorological event where an elongated area of low pressure - an 'atmospheric trough' - forms along a north-south axis. Tropical waves tend to move westerly across the tropics causing cloudiness or storms, but can also lead to tropical cyclones.
This particular event was dubbed 'Invest 97L' at the time - an 'invest' being meteorology-speak for a weather disturbance which is being monitored for cyclone development. As it moved westward over the next three days, Invest 97 reached the West Indies, becoming an organized weather system with sufficient strength to be dubbed Tropical Storm Matthew.