Simple first and second degree burns can be painful and may cause a degree of scarring. It’s good to know that homeopathy can help relieve the discomfort and minimize the risk of that scarring.

To help you understand your homeopathic options in these cases, I turn to great advice offered years ago by one of the best homeopathic physicians that ever lived – Dr. Adolph Lippe, MD.

Dr. Lippe is considered by many medical historians to have produced the best results recorded in the history of medicine. Certainty about his exemplary results is possible because he was required by law to submit his patient records annually to the Board of Health in the city of Philadelphia, where he had a very large and prosperous practice.

On the subject of treating burns using homeopathy he wrote the following:

"Every individual case will require its individual treatment according to the law of cure (similia similibus curantur), and, therefore, many remedies, not mentioned in this short essay, may be indicated in some cases as the symptoms accompanying such injuries, as well as the causes may indicate them.

1. The first degree (burn) is often caused by steam or from the contact of more or less hot substances; it produces a deep, not circumscribed redness of the skin without swelling, which vanishes when pressed upon the fingers. The skin peels off in a few days.

Remedies to consider: Arsenicum album, Belladonna, Euphorbium, Hammamelis, Rhus tox., and Terebinthina correspond with that condition of the skin. I have found Hammamelis the most efficacious remedy; the distilled preparation externally applied, will reduce the pain immediately.

2. The second degree burn, which is often caused by heated fluids, causes the epidermis to become either spontaneously or gradually elevated to a smaller or larger blister, filled with a yellow or transparent fluid. The redness and swelling of the skin are more intense than in the first degree, the pain severer—burning. The vesicles shrink and dry up, the fluid becomes absorbed and the skin is thrown off, or if they burst or are opened, the fluid emptied, the blister sinks in and dries up, a new epidermis is formed, or the place festers.

Remedies to consider: No remedies correspond closer to this condition than Cantharis, which if early enough applied will prevent the blisters from forming to any extent. Where they have formed, the tincture (or 30C potency in water) of Cantharis applied with a brush externally, will soon relieve the pain…”

As with any medical condition, consult with your physician if you have any concerns about the severity of your condition as it may first require medical diagnosis and/or intervention and monitoring.

About Dr. Lisa Samet:

Dr. Lisa Samet N.D. provides Washington Homeopathic Products with a weekly column on using homeopathy for the family. She's a naturopathic physician who specializes in homeopathic medicine and she's a partner with Dr. Andre Saine N.D. Dr. Samet graduated from the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in 1998 and has been practicing in Montreal since then. She was born and raised in New York.

Dr. Samet has chosen to focus on homeopathy because in her experience it is the deepest healing modality available in that it does not just soothe or palliate symptoms but can actually stimulate the body to start to heal itself. Dr. Samet sees patients in her Montreal office as well as remotely using Skype. Learn more here: Dr. Lisa Samet