Natrum Muriaticum
Source: Common Salt, NaCl, chloride of sodium.
Natrum Muriaticum is not only a polychrest remedy but also a deep acting and long acting remedy which makes it a medicine of par excellence in the Homeopathic Materia Medica.
This remedy is generally considered to be indicated in the following ailments:-
1. Anxiety 2. Migraine 3. Constipation 4. Skin disorders
"Salt is so common an article of diet that it has been assumed that it could be no use in medicine". Dr.Kent says that this has been only the opinion of men who operate entirely on the tissue remedies. There are no constitutional effects from crude salt but when given in potentised form, it shows its medicinal effects on the constitution. However, the prolonged taking of excessive salt causes profound nutritive changes to take place in the system and there arise not only the symptoms of salt retention as evidenced by dropsies and oedemas, but also an alteration in the blood causing a condition of anaemia and leucocytosis. There seems also to be a retention in the tissues of effete (free radicals) materials giving rise to symptoms loosely described as gouty or rheumatic gout. The proving of Natrum Muriaticum are full of such symptoms.
Typical Subjects: For the anaemic and cachectic constitution, whether from loss of vital fluids such as profuse menstruation, seminal losses, or mental affections, great emaciation: losing of flesh while living and eating well.. Irritable, cross when spoken to, cry due to the slightest cause; gets into a passion about trifles, especially when consoled. Awkward, hasty and drops things due to nervous weakness (Apis, Bov.).
Notes and features:-1. Mental depression, sad and weeping; consolation aggravates.
2.Great emaciation, even while living well; shows most in the neck (Abrotanum of lower extremities).This remedy suits marasmus from defective nourishment; the neck is thin as under Cal.Carb, and the appetite is ravenous, though the patient grows thin. Craving for salt is a useful indication.
3.Anaemia with bursting headaches, especially at the menses, also school girls headaches. A good medicine for migraines in such cases.
4.Mucous Membranes: Great dryness of mucous membranes from lips to anuz; lips dry and cracked, especially in the middle; anus dry, cracked, fissured; constipation.
5. Heart: palpitates, flutters, intermits, pulsates, violently, shaking the whole body; < lying on left side.
6.Itching eruptions, dry or moist; < at the margins of the hair. Warts on palms of hands (sore to touch, Nat.). Hang nails; skin around the nails dry and cracked; herpes about the anus, in border of hair.
7. Modalities; <10 to 11 a.m. (many complaints) especially malarial affections; lying down, especially on left side; heat of sun or heat in general ; abuse of Quinine, relieved by sweat.
8. For bad effects ; of anger, nitrate of silver; too much salt; craves salt and salty things.
Mental Symptoms: Natrum Mur is indicated in Psychic causes of disease; ill effects of grief, fright, anger, etc. Depressed patients, particularly in chronic diseases There is in fact , a long chain of mental symptoms; hysterical condition of the mind and body; weeping alternating with laughing; irresistible laughing at unsuitable times; prolonged, spasmodic laughter. This will be followed by tearfulness, great sadness, joylessness. No matter how cheering the circumstances are she cannot being herself into the state of being joyful. She is benumbed to impressions, easily takes on grief, grieves over nothing. Wants to be alone to cry. Unpleasant occurances are recalled that she may grieve over them Consolation aggravated the state of the mind-the melancholy, the tearfulness, sometimes bring on anger. She appears to bid for sympathy and is mad when it is given. Headache comes on with this melancholy. She walks the floor in rage. She is extremely forgetful; cannot cast up accounts; is unable to meditate; forgets what she was going to say; loses the thread of what she is hearing or reading. There is great prostration of mind.
Dr Kent says that "unrequited affection brings on complaints. She is unable to control her affections and falls in love with a married man. She knows that it is foolish, but lies awake with love for him. She falls in love with a coachman.She knows that she is unwise, but cannot help it. In cases of this kind, Natrum Mur will turn her mind into order and she will look back and wonder why she was so silly. This remedy belongs to hysterical girls.
In a mental state where Ignatia temporarily benefits the symptoms, but does not not cure, its chronic, Natrum mur should be given. It is as well to give Nat. mur at once if there is an underlying constitutional state too deep for Ignatia.
The Natrum mur patient is greatly disturbed by excitement, is extremely emotional. The whole nervous economy is in a state of fret and irritation < from nose, the slamming of a door, the ringing of a bell, the firing of a pistol, <music.
The mental complaints are > in the open air. Complaints come on in the warm room, worse in the house, she wants the open air. She takes cold easily from sweating, but is generally > in the open air, though worse in getting heated.<by sufficient exertion to heat up but > by moderate exertion in the cold air.
All the Sodiums are, without exception, hypersensitive-sensitive to noise, surrounds, music, thunder and to people. They are always rather keyed up and restless. They constantly complain that whenever they attempt to relax, or as they are falling off to sleep, they are liable to get sudden muscular jerks.
Both Nat. carb and Natr. ,mur have the general nervous tension of Natrum, but one is a chilly patient, the other warm blooded.
Face: The face is sickly looking, oily, shiny, as if greased , yellow, often chlorotic, covered with vesicular eruptions around the edges of the hairs, the ears and back of the neck. . Earthy complexion. Fever-blisters. But Dr. Blackie writes in her book,"Classical Homeopathy". "I think the ordinary textbook description of Natrum Mur, is misleading. They tell you that Natrum Mur. patients have an oily skin, but you do not get the waxy pallor which Kent stresses. You are much more likely to get a patient with a fair amount of color and very often, a tendency to flush. When you are talking to them, or if they are embarassed, they tend to get a high, irregular color. The circulation is unstable, they quickly become embarassed, the pulse runs up very quickly, and it is then you get the oily look. The modern woman does not come into your room with a greasy nose, but before you have done with them they tend to be greasy across the forehead.".
Head: Headache: Throbs. Blinding headache(Iris versicolor, Kali bich.). Aches as if thousand little hammers were knocking on the brain, in the morning, on awakening, after menstruation. Chronic headache, semi-lateral from sunrise to sunset with pale face, nausea, vomiting, periodical(Every day, or third day, or fourth day;) beiginning at 10 to 11 a.m., lasting until 3 p.m. or evening. from eyestrain; menstrual. Before attack, numbness and tingling in lips, tongue and nose, relieved by sleep. with zig-zig dazzling, like lightning in eyes, ushering in a throbbing headache, which is worse from eye strain. Anaemic headache of school girls.; nervous discouraged, broken down. Frontal Sinus inflammation.
Eyes: Feel bruised, with headache in school children. Muscles weak and stiff. Letters run together. Sees sparks. Asthenopia due to insufficiency of internal rectii muscles. (Gels, and Cup. Acet. when due to external muscles). Pain in the eyes when looking down
Nose:- `Colds with watery, transparent discharges , causing vesicular eruptions about mouth and nose which burst and leave thin crusts and scabs. Running colds with watery, clear, frothy discharge, worse on going into cold air and on exertion; great dryness of posterior nares. There is entire loss of taste. Post Nasal dropping of mucus. It also removes the tendency to take cold.
Mouth:- Blisters like pearls around the mouth are found in Natrum mur. ; especially in intermittents. If the upper lip is much thickened or swollen, not of an erysipelatous character, we think of three remedies, all of which have it, Bell, Calc, Natrum Mur. Deep painful fissure in the middle upper lips given in Guiding Symptoms which may also some time present in the lower lip.
The another marked feature of Natrum Mur is Numbness, tingling of tongue, lips and nose. Tongue mapped. (Ars. Rhus; Tarax.) Loss of taste. Immoderate thirst. Sensation of hair on tongue(Silicea, kali Bich).
Stomach:-Hungry, yet loose flesh.(Iod) [After eating Natrum patient feels weary and sleepy, while the Iodine one feels better]. Heartburn, with palpitation. Unquenchable thirst. Sweats while eating. Craving for salt. Aversion to bread, to anything slimy, like oysters; fats. Throbbing in pit. Sticking sensation in cardiac orifice.The stomach and liver are closely related. The stomach is distended with flatus. After eating there is a lump in the stomach. It seems to take a long time for food to digest; < from eating. There is a great thirst for cold water, sometimes there is relief from drinking, sometimes the thirst is unquenchable.
Rectum: Obstinate constipation. Stools dry, crumbling(Am.mur,Mag.m)Burning pains and stitching after stool. Anus contracted, torn, bleeding. In constipation of young people who are subjected to acne and comedons, Natrum mur should be thought of.
Urine: Pain just after urinating (Sars.). Increased, involuntary when walking, coughing etc. Has to wait a long time for it to pass if others are present (Hep.,Mur.ac,).There is also a continued urgin, he must pass the urine often.
Male: Impotence with retarded emission; the emission occurs even after coitus.
Female: Natrum mur. is useful in the complaints of women, in troublesome menstruation. There is a great variety of menstrual complaints; menses too scanty or too free, too late or too soon. The headaches of Natrum Mur are apt to occur after the menstrual period, as if caused by loss of blood and you know that China also has throbbing headache in such cases. In Nat. mur the headache occurs whether the menses be scanty or profuse.Dr. Kent says, "We cannot individualize from the menstrual symptoms, we must do it from the constitutional state. Examine every possible function to be sure you have all the symptoms. Examine every organ, not by examining it physically, for results of diseases do not lead to the remedy, but examine the symptoms." Suppressed menses (follow with Kali carb). Hot during menses.
Respiratory: Cough from a tickling in the pit of stomach, accompanied by stitches in liver and spurting of urine (Caust; Squiilla) Stitches all over chest. Cough, with bursting pain in head. Shortness of breath, especially on going upstairs (Calc.)Whooping-cough with flow of tears with cough.
Heart:-Natrum Mur. has strong action upon the heart and circulation, as the following marked symptoms indicate: "Fluttering of the heart with weak faint feeling, worse lying down. Irregular intermission of beats of heart and pulse, worse on lying on left side. Violent pulsations of the heart which shake the body" (Spigelia). All the se symptoms are more markedly present in anaemic subjects with constitution generally weakened by grief, sexual excess, loss of blood and other debilitating causes. It is especially efficacious in subjects suffering from abuse of Quinine.
Extremeties: Pain in back, with desire for some firm support(Rhus ; Sep.). Every movement accelerates the circulation. Palms hot and perspiring. Arms and legs, but especially knees feel weak. Hangnails. Dryness and cracking about finger-nails. Numbness and tingling in fingers and lower extremities. Ankles weak and turn easily. Painful contraction of hamstrings (Caust). Cracking in joints on motion. Coldness of legs with congestion to head, chest, and stomach.
Sleep: Nervous jerking during sleep. Dreams of robbers,. Sleepless from grief.
Skin:- Greasy, oily, especially on hairy parts. Dry, eruptions, especially on margin of hairy scalp and bends of joints. Fever blisters. Urticaria; itch and burn, itching after exertion. . Crusty eruptions in bends of limbs, margin of scalp, behind ears. (caust)Warts on palms of hands. Eczema; raw, red, and inflamed; worse eating salt, at seashore. Alopacia. Greasy skin.
Fever: In fevers it is among Hahnemann"s too well known remedy. In intermittents it is especially useful in cases suppressed, not cured by Quinine, and its leading characteristic is in the time of the appearance of the chill.:-
Natrum appears characteristically at 10 to 11 a.m.
Eupatorium Perfoliatum at 7 a.m.
Apis Mell. At 3 p.m.
Lycopodium at 4 p.m.
Arsenicum alb. At 1 to 2 p.m. or a.m.
Coldness of body and continued chilliness very marked.
The fever, headache, and all other symptoms of Natrum are relieved by sweating, as are those of Arsenicum also. Heat: violent thirst, increases with fever. Fever-blisters. Sweaats on every exertion.
Modalities:
Worse:
At about 10 a.m. or 11 a.m.
At the sea-shore or from sea air
Heat of sun or stove.
Mental exertion talking, writing, reading, noise, music.
Lying down, consolation.
Better:
In the open air (Apis mellifica, Pulsatilla nigricans0
Cold bathing
Missing regular meals.
Lying on right side (on painful sided:- Bryonia alba, Ignatia amara, Pulsatilla)
Tight clothing, pressure on back.
Relations:
Complementary to Apis mellifica, Sepia, Ignatia amara. Acts well before and after them.
Natrum Mur is the chronic Ignatia amara.
Antidote: Arsenicum Alb.
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