I have a wart – a big ugly plantar wart on my right heel. It is my stigmata. I mean that quite literally. I had plantar warts forever as a kid and it was awful – they physically hurt, the removal methods were barbaric, and I was teased.  I have a lot wrapped up in my wartiness.

The logical part of my brain is telling me that the presence a wart is a sign that my immune system is compromised and that there are obviously issues I need to address. The emotional part of my brain is saying hide it, ignore it, hide it, ignore it, hide it, ignore it…something I am tempted to actually consider were it not for the pain and that annoying logical part!…like I said, I have a lot wrapped up in my wartiness.

Things I have learned about warts:

1. Warts are caused by the virus HPV
Which means that, like all pathogens, you will only become infected by HPV (human papilloma viruses) if you are susceptible. Having a wart means your immune system is not functioning optimally. There are over 150 known types of HPV that cause warts.

2. Warts are superficial but tenacious
Warts form in the your skin/mucosa and cause rapid overgrowth in the top layers. It may take several months of slow, persistent growth beneath your skin/mucosa before you can even notice a wart.
- Plantar warts are warts that are formed on the pressure points of feet and driven inward…I am getting smacked with the symbolism here….

3. Conventional treat methods are largely ineffective
Conventional treatment methods still rely on the physical removal of the warty growth via burning or other mechanically methods. Since the immune weakness and susceptibility remains, warts treated conventionally often return despite the painful and invasive procedures.

This is the time of the year that drives me the most crazy – it feels like spring, it is starting to sound like spring, it is even starting to smell like spring (the nice spring smell – not that dog poop smell that comes first) – but the store shelves are still loaded with last year’s sad looking root vegetables and we are weeks away from any fresh local produce.

Luckily there are still a few bags of frozen peas hiding in my freezer - so I will eat delicious minted pea pesto and pretend it is from my garden.

In addition to the typical use of being tossed with pasta I also I eat this pesto: as a dip for crudité; as a spread for crostini or crackers or amazing sandwiches; with poached eggs; dolloped onto top soups and stews; with/in scrambled eggs (green eggs anyone?); on grilled protein; and, directly from a spoon into my mouth!

I woke up with a headache this morning  - what an awful way to start the day. If I had a corresponding amount of fun the night before then the headache would be justified, but I went to bed at a decent time after reading in my living room. I didn’t even have any wine with dinner! After guzzling a glass of water – dehydration is a common cause of headaches – doing some yoga to relieve the tension in my neck & shoulders and some breathing/mediation I realized the headache was not getting better. Homeopathy to the rescue.

I am happy to say that these days I very rarely experience headaches…at least unjustified ones. In my pre-homeopathy days I occasionally suffered from migraines and when I did nothing helped that pain. It flatted me for a day or 2. Sleep was my only salvation. I remember being so desperate for pain relief that I would chew sleeping pills trying to get the drugs into my system so that sleep would overtake me and numb the pain. I wish that I had known about homeopathy then.

Now as a practitioner I am actually able to help people that suffer from headaches and migraines. I commonly see reductions in headache frequency and severity in the people that I treat – often we are able to prevent the headaches all together.  It is great.

If you suffer from recurrent headaches, menstrual headaches or migraine headaches please consider professional treatment. In the interim you may find some acute relief from these homeopathic remedies commonly prescribed for head pain.