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DULCAMARA
Botanical Name:-
BITTER SWEET
Common Name:-
Mortal, Woody Nightshade, Felon Wort,Fever Twig, Violet
bloom, Scarletberry.
Medicinal parts used:
bark of root and twigs.
Description:-
Bitter sweet is a woody vine, with a shrubby stem
several feet in length, having an ashy green bark.
Leaves acute, and generally smooth, lower one cordate,
upper ones hastate. The flowrs are purple, and the
fruit a scarlet, juicy and bitter berry, which, however,
should not be eaten or used.
Bitter sweet is common to both Europe
and America, growing in moist banks, around dwellings
and in low damp grounds, about bedges and thickets, and
flowering in June and July. The berries ripen in auatumn,
and hang upon the vines for several months. After the
foliage has fallen the twigs should be gathered. Boiling
waer and diluted alcohol extract their virtues.
Properties and uses:-
Formerly this botanical was widely used in a variety of
conditons but now is employed chiefly for relief of skin
irritation. Dr. Kent has described
in his lectures on "Materia Medica" that Dulcamara
has been used a long itme by our mothers, in the form of
oitments as salve for ulcers. Well, it is astronishing
how soothing it is when applied externally to smarting
wounds.whether in solution or salve or any other way .
But it is a better medicine, of course, when indicated
by symptoms of the constitutional state; if used
internally i.e. Homeopathically.
In Homeopathy ,
Dulcamara is used in our daily practice in the following
type of ailments:-
Skin Affections(Hives/warts etc.)-Respiratory-RheumaticAffections-Cystitis.
Action:--
Hot days and cold nights towards the close of summer are
especially favorable to the action of Dulcamara, and is
one of the remedies that correspond in their symptoms to
the conditions found as effects of damp weather, colds
after exposure to wet, especially diarrhoa. Dr. Kent
says that it is a markedly an autumnal remedy. The
Dulcamara patients go though the summer very
comfortably; their catarrhal conditons to a great extent
pass away; the warm days and warm nights, because of the
even temperature, seem to agree with them, but as
soon as the cold nights come on and the cold rains come,
all their difficulties return; there is an increase of
rheumatism and of the catarrhal discharges.
It has a specific relation also to the
skin, glands, and digestive organs,mucous membranes
secreting more profusely while the skin is inactive. The
rheumatic troubles induced by damp cold are aggravated
by every cold change and somewhat relieved by moving
about. Results from sitting on cold, damp ground. Icy
coldness. One-sided spasms with speechlessness.
Paralysis of single parts. Congestive headache, with
neuralgia and dry nose. Patients living or working in
damp, cold basements (Natrum Sulph) Eruptions on
hands, arms or face around the menstrual period.
CONSTITUTIONAL TAINT:-
Psoric. Sycotic. Scrofulous.
Typical Subjects:- Persons of phlegmatic,
torpid, scrofulous constitution.Persons who are subject
to catarrhal, rheumatic and skin affections caused or
aggravated by cold, damp weather, or from changes from
hot to cold weather, esp. if suddent. Children whoae apt
to suffer from earache. Sickly patients with pallid,
sickly yellow face, threatened with acute phthisis.
Notes and features:
1.
Coldness . Coldness in occiput; in lumbar
region; in bowels; in sacrum. Icy coldness of
paralysed parts.
Catarrh.
Of various parts; of stomach, intestines, nose, eyes,
ears. Even the skin develops inflammatory conditions,
associated with eruptions.Catarrh is often characterized
by excessive secretion of mucus, caused by exposure
to damp, cold weather. Coryza from cold, damp, rainy
weather with sneezing, and then follows much thick,
yellow discharge. (Here it is confused with
Pulsatilla, which if administered wrongly
is apt to have very bad effect).
Paralysis.
Rheumatic paralysis. Paralysis, of the bladder. This
gives rise to involuntary discharge of the urine.
Paralysed part (say, arms) feels icy cold. "Paralysis of
vocal cords (aphonia) from sleeping over damp cellar."
Paralysis of single parts, esp, after taking cold.
Stiffness.
Stiffness at the nap neck. Stiffness of neck from a
cold. Lameness of small of back, from a cold.
Mind:-
Inclination to quarrel,/scold without anger..Mentally a
little confursed. Cannot find the right word for
anything. Delirium, during the pains at night and during
the heat. Internal restlessness. Great impatience.
HEAD:-
"Catarrhal
and rheumatic headaches in cold damp weather."
The headache is of catarrhal kind tht comes on from
every cold, damp spell, or from getting overheated from
getting into a cold draft after being overheated, or
getting overheated with too much clothing and then
throwing the coat off, will also belong to the
Dulcamaara state. Occipital pain ascending from nape of
neck. Headache relieved by conversation. Rejects things
asked for. Back part of head chilly.. Ringworm of
scalp.Scaldhead, thick brown crusts, bleeding when
scratched. Buzzing in head. Herpes Circinatus. Dr.
Kent says that Dulcamara will nearly always cure
the ringworms that Children, sometimes get in the scalp.
Eyes:-
Inflamed, after taking cold. Every time he takes cold it
settles in eyes. Thick, yellow discharge; granular lids.
Hay-fever; profuse, watery discharge, worse in open
air.Twitching, in cold air. Amaurosis
Nose:-
Dry coryza. Complete stoppage of nose.Stuff up when
there is a cold rain.. Thick, yellow mucus, bloody
crusts. Profuse coryza. Wants nose kept warm, least cold
air stops the nose. The Dulcamara coryza is worse
going out in the open air and better from motion. The
Nux vomica coryza is better ini the open air. The
Nux vomica patient ordinarly wants warmth and
warm air and a warm room, but with the coryza he is the
very opposite; he wants motion in the open air, he looks
for cool air, for it relieves the distressing sensation.
Coryza of the new born.Alleum cepa is made worse
in a warm room, like Nux Vomica, is better in
cold, open air. Commenses to sneeze as soon as he gets
into a warm room.
Dr. Kent
says,
"here
is a state that you will often find in the fall of the
year, somewhere about August 20th. They
sometimes call it hay fever. Every year as the nights
beocme cold, and there is cold, damp weather and fall
rains, he has a stuffing up of the nose with constant
sneezing and wants the nose kept warm. I have known
these cases at times to sit in a warm room with clothes,
wrung out of hot water, over the face and nose to
releive the distress, the catarrhal state of the eyes
and the stuffing up of the nose. Heat releives the
stuffing up of the the nose. These patients can
sometimes breathe with these hot clothes over the nose,
but if they go out into the night air, or a cold plac,
and especially if there is a damp, fall rain they suffer
much."
In nutshell, Dulcamara
"s
nose and eyes symptoms are < in the open air and > a
closed room.".
The Dulcamaara patient is so sensitive to newly mown
grass and dryng weeds tht he is obliged to absent himelf
from the country where they are found. For hay fever we
have especially to look up such remedies as have
complaints worse n the fall of the year. There are other
conditions that come on in the spring, sometimes cured
by Naja and Lachesis or some conditons
coming in June-"Rose
cold"cured
by different medicines.
Ears:-
Earache, buzzing, stitches, and swelling of parotids.
Middle-ear catarrh. (Merc.dulc;Kali
Mur.) The Dulcamara child is very susceptible to earache
Face:
Pale, with circumscribed redness of cheeks. Tettery
eruption on face. Milk crust. Twitchings in lips when
in cold air. Mouth drawn awry.Dr. Blackie calls this
remedy as
"a
red faced Calcarea Carb."
Mouth:-
Much mucus in fauces. Inflamed throat after taking cold.Another
useful point is that if you have a girl who gets a sore
throat with every period, it can only be only be one or
two remedies-either lac caninum or Dulcamara.
Similarily if there is a case of Urticaria with
sorethroat, then one should think immediately of two
remedies, the first being Apis, the second being
Dulcamara. Salivation. Dry tongue,
with much thirst and increased secretion of saliva.
Swelled tongue impeding speech and breathing. When
becoming cold there is difficult speech on account of
paralysis of tongue (and jaws.)
Facial neuralgia; worse,slightest
exposure to cold.
Stomach:-
Vomiting of white, tenacious mucus.Aversion
to food. Burning thirst for cold drinks. Heartburn.
Nausea accompanies the desire for stool. Chilliness
during vomiting.
Abdomen:-
Colic from cold. Acts prominently on umbilical region.
Cutting pain about navel. Swelling of inguinal
glands(Merc..)
Stool:-
Dr. Kent says that it is a wonderful
medicine for diarrhoea, at the close of summer, hot days
and cold nights with changeable stool, diarrhoea of
infants. Every year women bring their babies from
mountains, at the end of the season, and then, we get
some Dulcamara cases. One needs to be in the mountains
at the close of the summer season to know what the
condition is. If you go into the mountains at such a
time, either in the North or West, you will notice that
the sun's
rays beat down duiring the day with great force, but
along towards sunset, if you walk out a draft of cold
air comes down that will chill you to the bone. This
will make the baby sick; it is too warm to take the
child out in the middle of the day and so he is taken
out in his carriage in the evening; he has been
overheated in house during the day, and then this draft
in the evening . Dulcamara is suitable for conditions
that would arise from just such a state.As regards
stools they are green, watery, slimy, bloody,mucus;
especially in summer, when the weather suddenly becomes
cold;from damp, cold weather;and suppressed eruptions.
.Urine:- Must urinate
when getting chilled. The patient says:
"Doctor,
if I get chilled , I must hurry to urinatae; If I get
into a cold place, I have to go to stool, or to urinate."So
we see that the symptoms come on when the patient is
cold and re better when he is warm. Any catarrhal
trouble of the bladder is better in the summer and worse
in the winter. Even it cures a form of acute Bright's
disease which commenses in the above mentioned
conditons.Strangury, painful micturition. Urine has
thick,mucus; purulent sediment. Retention of
urine from wading with bare feet in cold water
Female:-
Suppression of menses from cold or dampness. Before
appearance of menses, a rash appears on skin;or
sexual excitement. Dysmenorrhoa, with blotches all over;
mammę engorged and sore, delicate, sensitive to cold.
Another grand feature is sore throat with every
period, Herpes on mammae. Suppressed secretion
of milk after taking cold in child. bed.
Respiratory:-
Cough worse cold, wet weather, with free expectoration,
tickling in larynx. Cough, hoarse, spasmodic.
Whooping-cough, with excessive secretion of mucus.
Winter coughs, dry, teasing. Asthma with dyspnoa. Loose,
rattling cough; worse wet weather. Cough after
physical exertion.The patient complains of intense
oppression of chest, from accumulation of mucus, after
taking cold. Must cough a long time to expel phlegm.The
cough is worse lying and in a warm room and better in
the open air.
Back:-
Rheumtic lameness and stiffness in the back from taking
cold better by motion. Stiff neck from every exposure
to cold. .Pain in small of back; as after long
stooping. Stiffness and lameness across neck and
shoulders, after getting cold and wet.
Extremities:-
Paralysis; paralyzed limbs, feet icy cold. Warts
on hands. Perspiration on palms of hands. Pain in
shin-bones. Rheumatism alternates with diarrhoa.
Rheumatic symptoms after acute skin eruptions
Skin:-Adenitis,
Pruritis, always worse in cold, wet weather.
Herpes zoster, pemphigus. Swelling and indurated glands
from cold. Vesicular eruptions. Sensitive bleeding
ulcers. Little boils. Red spots,urticaria,
brought on by exposure, or sour stomach. Humid eruptions
on face, genitals, hands, etc.Warts, large,
smooth, on face and palmar surface of hands. Anasarca.
Thick, brown-yellow crusts, bleeding when scratched.
Fever:-
Pulse:
Small, hard and tense, especially at night. Chill:
Mostly toward evening, spreading from back, not relieved
by external warmth. During the pains. With violent
thirst. Heat: General, dry, burning, over entire
body., And burning in back. with flightiness, without
thirst. Sweat: Offensive, over entire body at
night and in early morning, during day, more on back,
axillae and palms of hands. Suppressed and entirely
wanting.
Modalities:-
Aggravting influences:-
Most symptoms worse evening and night. The patient is
susceptible to cold, damp (foggy, rainy) weather, which
causes various kinds of ailments. Worse from
being chilled, esp,. suddenly chilled,
after being overheated. Such conditions
naturally give rise to suppression of sweat. And,
Dulc, is wonderfully suited to combat the effect of
such suppression. In point of fact , a Dulcamara,
patient is affected by suppressed discharges and
suppressed eruptions, often due to the effect of
cold. Supression of milk from cold. Suppression of
menses from cold. It should be noted that suppressino of
discharges and eruptions is the mother of such ailments
as Rheumatism, sore-throat, dropical swelling, headache,
paralysis, asthma, etc., all being due to a cold.
Ameliorating factors:-
Warmth ameliorataes most symptoms. Also > by moving
about.
Comparisons:-
Effects of exposure to wet, and emelioration by motion:
Rhus-tox. Rheumatic paralysis: Rhus-t, Caust.
Hastry speech and actions: Bell, Hep, Lach. Sulph.
Paralysis of Lungs: Solania.
Drug Relationship:-
Incompatible:
Bell;, lach. Complementary:-
Bar-c. Follows well after: Bry., Calc-c., Lyco.,
Rhus-t., Sep., Verat-alb.
Potency:
30, 200.
SUMMARY OF INDICATIONS:-
Skin Affections(Hives/warts etc.)-Respiratory-RheumaticAffections-Cystitis.
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