Dormagen, Germany - If you are coming down with a bad case of flu or your menstrual cramps won't let up, you may need a remedy that is simple and safe. Many people reach for Schuessler salts. Available in both tablet and ointment form, the salts can replace some medicines for minor ailments. For more serious illnesses, they can be used in conjunction with traditional medical treatment or homeopathic therapies. Their effectiveness is not scientifically proven, however.
The salts were named after Wilhelm Heinrich Schuessler (1821- 1898), a German physician inspired by the discoveries of pathologist Rudolf Virchow, his countryman and contemporary. Virchow originated the concept that disease is caused by changes in the body's cells.
"Schuessler investigated the main minerals that various human cells are made of," explained Hans-Heinrich Joergensen, vice president of the Dormagen-based German Biochemical Association (BBD). In muscle tissue, for example, Schuessler found that potassium phosphate and magnesium phosphate predominate.
According to Schuessler, illnesses arise when there is an imbalance or deficiency of these minerals in the body - when they are not in the right place at the right time, in other words. Schuessler salts, which he called "means of functioning," are meant to redress the imbalance. Schuessler himself worked with 12 salts. His successors added 12 more.
"Many illnesses can be treated with a single salt," remarked Veronika Neundorfer of the Bonn-based Association of German Non- Medical Practitioners. Salt number three, iron phosphate, is used for the first phase of an acute infection, and number seven, magnesium phosphate, for colic, migraines, and cramps in the calf. For exhaustion, a combination of other salts is used.
Schuessler salts are useless for advanced or serious illnesses, however. "Hormonal disorders in general aren't treatable with Schuessler salts," Neundorfer said, citing one example. But she added that if a hormonal disorder had been triggered by, say, exhaustion, "the exhaustion can be treated with Schuessler salts, possibly curing the hormonal disorder."
Usually taken in tablet form, Schuessler salts also come as ointments, which is a relatively new development. "The ointments are often rubbed on the bellies of infants with colic," Neundorfer said.
"They also work very well on haematomas and painful joints."
But the tablets or ointments alone are insufficient. "Schuessler salts can only improve the absorption of minerals, not replace them," noted Bettina Knoerr, a lecturer at the Sebastian Kneipp Academy in the German town of Bad Woerrishofen. Every Schuessler therapy should go hand in hand with proper nutrition, she said.
If salt number two, calcium phosphate, is taken for bone or growth pains, for example, then it should be supplemented with calcium-rich foods like potatoes and broccoli.
