A Book Review: Your Natural Medicine Cabinet by Begabati (Burke) Lennihan RN, CCH

by Richard Pitt

The author initially wrote a book called A HEALER IN EVERY HOME which was reviewed in a previous edition of the journal but has now produced a second book called YOUR NATURAL MEDICINE CABINET. The second book developed out of the first and  common theme of the books is the author’s attempts to bring homeopathy to a wider audience, to break through the barrier homeopathic writers often experience. 

The author begins the book, Your Natural Medicine Cabinet, with her personal story  of working in a health food store in Boston and introducing people to natural medicines. She writes in a way that reflects the whole idea of the book: simple, informal and eminently accessible. It is a pleasure to read and the whole introductory chapter gives an excellent introduction to the possibilities and challenges of exploring natural medicines and homeopathy in particular. In fact as the book is read, the author gives many recommendations and hints on a wide variety of health resources, beginning with diet and foods, expanding the book into much more than just another homeopathic remedy book, which can often be daunting for new readers to the subject. The food section is particularly amusing as she explores the infinite variety of food theories and diets, sympathizing with people’s confusion who may feel the need to resort to “Coke and pizza” from frustration.  Her book recommendations on many subjects are excellent and give ample information for people to explore further for themselves. It is a wealth of information. Even as a fellow natural medicine practitioner, there are many resources and book recommendations I knew nothing about. 

As the author begins to explore how to treat many basic conditions she still embraces a broad stroke of options, integrating homeopathic options with many other natural remedy choices. For each condition, listed alphabetically, she creates various sections, from Quick Fixes, Ongoing Care, Preventing Recurrence and Lifestyle Support. Using this structure she is able to give clear and simple guidelines for a wide range of natural solutions for many conditions. As with the many homeopathic books addressing clinical conditions, there is the similar challenge of which remedies to recommend and how much detail to go into and the author keeps it very simple. Perhaps a few more remedies could be mentioned occasionally, e.g., when treating coughs or the flu but as the saying goes, “Less is often more”.

Part Three of the book discusses Stocking Your Natural Medicine Cabinet and gives a wide range of homeopathic and herbal medicine options. A few more single homeopathic choices could have been given that are commonly found in most kits. However, she does give a lot of information on Cell Salts. She does give a nice overview of the themes/symptoms for each remedy, making the information eminently accessible for people new to homeopathy, including stories of the remedy working.  It is in the same style as the rest of the book: simple and accessible. 

Part Four discusses How to Use Homeopathic Medicines and in one part, she tells a hilarious story of when a security guard admonishes her for putting the remedies through the X ray, knowing that they are homeopathic remedies, as opposed to strange white tablets that could be drugs. She gives an excellent overview of how remedies work and how to take them and gives a good list of homeopathic books for more research. 

Part Five is called Your Support System and gives a good overview of all the support and options available for optimizing your health, including finding a good homeopath. Finally there is a section titled Notes, References And The Fine Print which gives more information on some of the subjects covered in the book, which is excellent for people needing to know more. 

The vision of the author was to find a way to allow people to have easy access to homeopathy but to do so within a larger context of Natural Medicine. This is why she didn’t use the word homeopathy in the title.  As she states: 

“The inclusion of other modalities is to make it plausible that it's not a book about homeopathy, it's a book about natural home health care, and it "just so happens" that at least 80% of the time, the first thing to reach for is a homeopathic remedy.”

“The aspects I really like to bring forward when I talk to homeopaths about it -

- It makes a more powerful presentation for homeopathy because it places it in the context of many natural modalities, and shows how homeopathy shines.

- It has an unusually good explanation of how to use remedies, for absolute beginners - like instructions for opening the blue tube!

- It has an unusually good explanation of how homeopathy works.

- It explains the value of seeing a professional homeopath, and of a CCH homeopath if one is available in the reader's community.

- It is meant as the best first book which then introduces people to Dana Ullman, Miranda Castro, Asa Hershoff  etc. It is not meant in any way to be comprehensive (hence all the remedies that are missing!) It's meant to be empowering - so it has to be not-overwhelming, as too much homeopathy can be overwhelming to people.”

This makes it clear what she has attempted to do with the book. 

In conclusion, the author has taken the model she developed for her first book and expanded it considerably in the 2nd book, doing an excellent job in empowering people to take more control of their health. She weaves homeopathy into a broad scope of natural healing options and helps to demystify it for those interested in finding out more. She writes in a very appealing style and this book is an excellent contribution to one’s homeopathic library and a perfect book to have available in one’s clinic. 

Begabati is offering this book to the homeopathic community just for the cost of production, when purchased by the case (US shipments only). She is contacting commercial publishers in other countries to have it translated and published there, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting local homeopaths. Please contact her at begabati@lydiancenter.com if you are interested in either.