Werkboek Klassieke Homeopathie

By Valerie Sadovsky, RSHom(NA), CCH

Remedy chart

For centuries Chamomile tea was very popular in Europe as a remedy for hysterical and nervous affections in women. Cold infusion of the flowers has been used for a variety of digestive complaints, such as colicky flatulence, heartburn, diarrhea, loss of appetite and slow digestion. Externally it has been used as an antiseptic and anti-inflammatory. It belongs to the Compositae family, which also includes Arnica, Bellis perennis, Cina, Millefolium, Meristica sebifera and Taraxacum.

ESSENCE

Mostly the remedy for women and pre-teen kids. Sense of intense pain (emotional or physical) or suffering she must get relief from immediately. Can be very selfish in that respect ("I am in pain and I don’t care about anyone else"). Very childish in her attempts to get attention by any means. She demands everything to be done her way, ordering everyone around. If due to "bad" behavior the relationship starts to crumble, she may suppress her anger, since she needs that person around. Then she starts whining and complaining to anyone who is willing to listen. Suppressed anger usually comes out as extreme irritability during menses. In adults, well suppressed Cham. may look like Nux-v., Bell., Nat-mur. or Coff.

MENTAL SYMPTOMS

- OVERSENSITIVITY to PAIN and EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

- EXCESSIVE IRRITABILITY ("too ugly to live with") … ugly, cross, uncivil and quarrelsome … vexed at every trifle … UNSYMPATHETIC ("I’m in pain, heck with everyone else") … selfish … not connected

- ANGRY WITH PAIN … asking for consolation, but is not > from it, push you away … demanding & impatient ("I need help now, if you cannot help me right away, I’m going to find another doctor") … capricious; demands something then throws it away

- AVERSION to be being SPOKEN TO or TOUCHED (Cimi.)

- CHILD wants to be CARRIED; is only quiet when carried or rocked.

- Delusions: she is INSULTED

- Fears: of TOUCH (may aggravate pain) … of WIND

GENERAL SYMPTOMS

- EXTREMELY PAINFUL complaints, as if nerves are raw … pain seems out of proportions

- Generally warm, but many local complaints are > from heat

- Aggravation of complaints from: ANGER … COFFEE … WIND … during dentition

- Children’s complaints are > when they are being ROCKED, sometimes rocked hard

- General aggravation at 9 a.m. or 9-10 p.m. (Eric is not sure about that)

PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS

Neurological: spasm and convulsions, esp. in children.

Head: one cheek red, another pale (Aco., Ip.) … facial neuralgia … toothache (< heat, > cold, usually not abscessed) … OTITIS MEDIA (child wakes at night crying, inconsolable, angry and must be carried (often provoking late night calls waking the doctor), won't tolerate being touched or examined, hysterical when physician attempts to look in the ear) ... TEETHING (irritable infants, sore gums, often provokes diarrhea)

GI: COLICKY pains … diarrhea during teething … stool with "rotten egg" odor … stool like cut spinach (Arg-nit.) ... abdominal pain, < touch, coffee … relieves the nausea and vomiting from narcotic use …

thirsty for cold drinks

Uro-Genital: uterine hemorrhage after anger … severe dysmenorrhea, pains may extend to thighs (Vib., Xanth.) … severe labor pains, markedly irritable

Extremities: burning of soles at night (Sulph.)

PRIME INDICATIONS

1. Excessive irritability; aversion to being spoken to and touched.

2. Oversensitivity to and despair from pain.

3. Pain and heat, hot sweat, numbness, thirst.

4. Worse coffee; worse anger.

5. Dentition aggravates; diarrhea, grass-green, hot, sour stool, smell of spoiled eggs.

6. Worse beginning of and during menses.

ETIOLOGIES

Ailments from ANGER … ABUSE OF COFFEE or narcotics … DENTITION

AFFINITIES

MIND … NERVOUS SYSTEM … GI TRACT … liver … women … CHILDREN

MODALITIES

<: ANGER … NIGHT (Nux., Coff., Staph.) … DENTITION … cold (air, damp) … WIND (are dreadful of wind) … COFFEE (Nux-v) … narcotics … alcohol … touch (don’t let the doctor to examine them)

>: BEING CARRIED … mild weather … heat ... cold applications … sweating

SENSATIONS

Pain with NUMBNESS of the affected part(s) … oversensitivity of the sense organs to fresh air and WIND … EMOTIONS FELT IN STOMACH (Calc., Coloc., Kali-c., Mez., Nux-v., Phos.)

PAINS

INTOLERABLE, drive to despair, mad with pain or magnifies her pain and prostrated with pain … extremely sensitive to every type of pain … COLICKY … SPASMODIC … earache: sore, stitching, sticking

DISCHARGES

- Stool, flatus, belch: smell like rotten eggs (Arn., Sulph.)

- CLEAR MUCOUS (if emotional state looks like Cham., but mucous discharges are purulent, it is not Cham.)

CHILDREN

Little dictators. Sometimes it manifests only in acutes, sometimes "I want it my way" is chronic. Very reactive and intense in their reaction. Warm. May look like Sulph., except that Sulph. has a desire to please on some level since he wants recognition. Cham. doesn’t, she is almost like Bell. (Bell. & Cham. are complementary.) Also, unlike Sulph., who is very independent, Cham. requires attention all the time. Also, unlike with Sulph., you don’t feel a connection with Cham.

NOTES

- "It ought not to be given to those who bear pain patiently and with resignation. I mention this rule here, for it is of very great importance" - Hahnemann.

- "There is in Chamomilla a little thread of symptoms and nearly always found running through it. This is a spiteful, sudden or uncivil irritability" - Guernsey.

- Whenever a case or a syndrome is accompanied by great irritability and anger (or if the complaint is initiated by anger), we must consider Cham. (Staph., Coloc., Nux-v.) - Morrison.

- One of the main remedies to use for Opium withdrawal symptoms (interestingly Cham. has numbness too, but with pain)

- Acutes are usually accompanied by fever (101, or >)

DIFFERENTIALS

Restlessness: Nash differentiates the restlessness of Aco. & Ars. from that of Cham. by the absence of fear of death. Cham. "would rather die than suffer".

Hepar: in acutes mental state resembles Cham., but they don’t require constant rocking, they are chilly and tend to yellow mucous (Cham. to clear mucous)

Diarrhea: Cham., is often followed by Sulph., because both produce the same stools, with soreness of the anus. If there is much tenesmus with these symptoms, Merc. is the remedy. If the stool is < in the morning, and comes with a gush, think of Podo. and Sulph.

SOURCES

Morrison, Desktop Guide

Murphy, Homeopathic Remedy Guide

Vermeulen, Prisma; Farrington, Clinical MM

Roger notes

Chamomilla

Allen’s keynote for Chamomilla, he says too ugly to live with. So you may have to kill them to deal with it, especially the kids — irritable, whinny, complaining kids that are crying all the time. Even in their sleep they are crying. It is the main remedy for little kids or older people crying in their sleep. Not where they wake up and cry, but they cry during the sleep. They never wake up. Especially in infants with a toothache or teething, or toothaches that are worse from warmth, better from cold. Like we said it is one of the most important remedies for otitis media. It is very important for diarrhea. There is this kind of mental state where the diarrhea is a green spinachy kind of diarrhea in infants with this kind of mental state, or colics, with this kind of mental state, especially with the symptom that they want to be carried. The capriciousness of the young kids. They want something. They demand it. It doesn’t have to be the impossible things like Bryonia, but if they want something, they demand it and when they get it, they throw it away. If they want something, demand it, and then they throw it away, but instead of throwing it away, they throw it at you, think of Cina. It goes that one step further.

Now Chamomilla has a marked aversion to being touched. We said what remedies for aversion to being touched? Anitimonium Crudum. Kali Carb. And Tarentula. Now, the characteristic time of aggravation for Chamomilla is when? 9:00 A.M. Especially there can be fever at 9:00 A.M. A real characteristic is somebody gets angry and then comes on to complain, now that’s different — it’s mostly Chaniomilla, and that can be anything. It can be uterine hemorrhaging, fevers that come on after being angry, but there is a slight difference. Mostly, you will think of what remedies? Staphysagria and? Colocynthis. In those two, it is more with suppresion of the anger. This is maybe he gets angry, shouts but still comes on the complaint.

With the fever you may get this characteristic of one hot red check and one cold pale check. I have seen that. They are usually hot. They are worse from heat. The feet are hot and they put them out of the covers. It is one of the remedies for that. What other remedies for that? Sanguinaria. Medorrhinum. Sulphur. Pulsatilla. Sanicula. Sanicula, when they put their feet out of the covers and they have what other characteristic symptom? Sweating head.

Another characteristic is fear and sensitivity to wind. Fear of wind is the main remedy and sensitivity that means it may bring on complaints. It may bring on an otitis media or something else. Which remedies are aggravated by wind? Nux, Lycopodium, Chamomilla, Aconite, Causticum. Mostly those.

They are really nasty people though. Get that ingrained in your mind. They may be nasty from anything. Angry, nasty people.

Memory card

Chamomilla

Adapted to nervous, excitable temperaments, especially in women and children; children during dentition; rheumatic diathesis.

Every degree of ill - temper; fits of spiteful irritability; uncivil even to best friends (no underlying ill nature like Nux-v.); confesses the fault but repeats it; affirms "cannot help it, I feel so". Children peevish, nothing pleases; quiet only when carried and petted.

Oversensitiveness to all unpleasant stimuli especially pain which seems intolerable, at night causing patient to jump out of bed and walk about, pain accompanied by alternating with numbness.

Great sense of debility out of all proportions to the seriousness of the disease.

All discharges hot (sweat, stools, etc.)

Local heat; of hands and feet; one cheek flushed and hot, the other pale and cold.

Dentition diarrheas; hot, acrid, green stools, odor of rotten eggs.

Menstrual and puerperal disorders with characteristic pains and irritability; menses excessive with dark clots.

Ailments from anger and violent excitement; also from abuse of stimulants.

Patient < heat and hot applications yet not > by cold; sensitive to damp, cold weather and to high winds especially about the ears; < evening and night.

Note: A swift - acting but not very searching remedy

Keynote: Oversensitiveness.