Plutonium nitricum: he has lost his inner light. homeopathy

Clique em Longevid!

by Marie Luc Fayeton

A man, 55 years old, comes for a consultation in December 2000. He has stopped using drugs between 1975/79, helped by Sulfur and Natrum muriaticum, and by the love of his wife.
“I’m heartbroken… with my wife. She told me certain things, out of the blue. Don’t take me wrong, she’s never cheated on me but I made it bigger than it was; a little fling without consequence before we met. I’ve surprised myself by behaving that way.”
“After taking Crotalus cascavella I was good. I always saw myself in front of a closed door and that has gone. There is a hatred in me that I’ve always known; it comes from deep inside, since childhood.”
Bearing in mind Crotalus cascavella’s themes of vengeance and desire to kill with a knife, I asked him: “Did you feel like avenging yourself from your wife’s first fling? Would you feel a sense of release if you knifed him in the back?
“No, not in the back but face to face, in a duel, even if I lose. I tell myself: ‘you are evil’. I’m agnostic. I admire the faithful, their problems are over. Me, I can’t situate myself and besides that, I’ve got that hatred.”
I offer the comment that “it is impossible to have faith, seeing that all you want is to be God yourself.” He still feels nostalgic of those drug induced states, where he felt “as God, possessing all knowledge like God”.
“Yes, I feel like starting again, I crave it, it’s crazy. I’m surprised to be that way. I feel that it would be very easy to become a tyrant; they get great pleasure out of it (in fact, he is a very nice man). To be generous anonymously is very hard. I’d like to but I can’t make that step. I can be like a pit-bull if I don’t control myself, if I don’t hold myself back. I was a nasty kid; I beat people up and behaved perversely afterwards. I could find the right words to torture people; you can kill with words. Even with animals, I would corner a dog and beat him. My father bought me a BB gun and I just shot anything that was alive, mercilessly; I killed lizards, chickens, etc. I didn’t question myself.” (Jeremy Sherr sees Plutonium nitricum as brute strength without wisdom).
“Then, came the drugs, with an intellectual, non-violent circle of friends; some of them opened my eyes, the violence stopped. When I come to see you, it’s like a drug; I come to get my fix, I can’t manage without it. Is it really honest? I can’t bear anyone having power over me. My behavior is basic, instinctual. I read the Bible under the influence of LSD and I just couldn’t; I was blinded by the pages, a huge light was coming out of the book, violent, not to say nasty, like sending a flash in someone’s eyes. I gave up reading and closed the book.”
Analysis:
His words immediately evoke in me the theme of the light in Plutonium: he has lost his inner light and refuses the light emanating from others, from outside. He looks for his drive inwardly; great men do not interest him, he cannot bear the light, and does not find sustenance in the outer world. As soon as he cannot draw light from his inner well, he despairs for the entire world. He wants to become divine from his own inner light and does not want to be guided by an external light. As a result, he is plunged into such a deep, dense night that he feels invaded by it, as by the bad spirits he is so afraid of.
Plutonium desires transcendence for itself and for the external world through self-illumination; it wants to be a powerful light which brings order to chaos through its own vibration.

Prescription: Plutonium nitricum 1M
Follow-ups:
January 2001: “I’m very well, very well. I’m just coming for my back. I’ve pulled something while moving 330 kg crates (the brute strength without wisdom: Plutonium nitricum). I continue with Plutonium nitricum 1M in water and successed.
March 2002: “I’m better. For a while, I didn’t feel any pain but for a month now, I’m stiff in the sacroiliac joints and I’m aggressive again. I’m not filled with hatred 24 hours a day, like I used to be, I manage to ignore it but after I got upset and pushed it down, I felt full of hatred.
February 2003: He is feeling well, come for morning stiffness in his back; dull pains and lack of flexibility. He has never had these “terrible crisis of abdominal pain” as before and yet, he carries paper boxes weighing 40 kg several times a day. The hatred? “It’s much better, it’s not obsessional anymore, and I’ve realized that it’s in me. It’s easy to be violent to let the steam out. For a while, I felt like I had come onto this earth to break the family cycle of violence. I would have never been able to continue to live as I was, it was hell; I just lived with the suffering from my past, like with a drug, to flame my hatred.” I give him Plutonium nitricum 30C
February 2004: He is feeling fine. His back is giving him problems again and he is tired. I repeat Plutonium nitricum 30C
Evolution:
Over the next few years, I prescribed with good results: Plutonium nitricum XM for hemorrhoids, in May 2005; Plutonium nitricum LM for stomach aches, after tensions at work, in Mars 2006; Plutonium nitricum 200 for bronchitis with a dream of monsters and one catching him, in May 2006. In February 2007, he comes back for gripping and twisting abdominal pain, at night or in the morning. “Before I was haunted by the past, now it’s by the future.” I prescribe him Anhalonium on a dream. In June 2007, he still has abdominal pain and trouble with hemorrhoids. He talks again about his hatred, which from time to time comes as a flush, and analyses it: “Why do I suddenly feel hatred for people? I’ve realized that it’s jealousy; hateful jealousy. I’ve put words on all this: ‘she hasn’t done anything to you, she just has what you don’t have’.” I prescribe Plutonium nitricum XM+1. In September 2009, Belladonna resolves a headache “as if my head was going to explode.” Otherwise, he is fine. In August 2010, he is still anxious; anxiety caused by anticipation over work issue since July. He is, nevertheless, a transformed man since taking Plutonium nitricum or in his own words: “out of hell”. He will probably need more repeats.   
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
The Helix Nebula: a gaseous envelope expelled by a dying star; NASA, ESA, and C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University)
 Chicago, Illinois. In the waiting room of the Union Station; Jack Delano 

Categories:
Keywords: hatred, violence, nastiness, godlike, loss of inner light, drugs
Remedies: Plutonium nitricum

Plutonium nitricum: I had an idea to make a bomb with chlorhydric acid and zinc. homeopathy

Clique em Longevid!

by Marie Luc Fayeton

B.Laden (we will call him as such!) is born in 1981. I met him in August 2000, while I was visiting his aunty who asked me to see him because he cannot keep a job. It always starts well: he appears clever, clear in his professional goals, mature, and stable, which impresses his boss but very quickly he is fired for incompetence and insolence.
- unable to obey and to be dependent on someone
- refuses any authority
- incapable of mastering his moods
He has always been quick to anger. He has burned the curtains and the carpet three times, as soon as he was tall enough to reach the matches.
Unable to make an effort:
“I’m feeling great, suddenly I’m asked to make an effort and then that’s it, I feel weak and I can’t do anything.”
Despite great physical strength:
“I’ve never lost an arm wrestle.”
“I don’t mind working 10 hours on my car engine but when I work for someone else, I get hot flushes, I lose my strength. Just thinking about it, I’m hot.”
Destruction, bomb, terrorism:
“I told my father: “All you’ve built in the last 50 years, I can destroy it in one second; you, your wife, your house, your garden, everything. Beat me, I swear, I’m going to burn everything down.”
“I’ve said to X. who didn’t want to pay me back: ‘I’ll burn your car down’. When someone owes me money, I just have to say ‘I’ll beat the shit out of you’ and I get the money back, then and there.”
“When I get heated, I put everything in the fire. Well, it’s not the fire, it’s the explosion. I get 25 litres of petrol and I put a match to it; you put the whole thing in the basement, it’s super powerful, it blows the whole place up. You hold the can with tape, you make a hole in the lid to put a cigarette in, you light it and BOOM!”
“I had an idea to make a bomb in a pressure cooker, with chlorhydric acid and zinc. You tape the whole thing and you wait 24 hours.”
“I’ve often thought that I could be a terrorist; that my job was to set bombs.”
He often talks of bombs he would set close to a nuclear power station, which would then explode and set off the next station, etc.
Drugs
“I smoke pot since the age of sixteen.”
Light
Nightmares
1: a room with no exit, where everything is dangerous. Only one way out: go through a phosphorescent trough to be transformed into a robot but with me, it didn’t work. There are some sort of men who are transformed in that trough.
There is a boss in that thing and I don’t want to hear about it. It’s like in my life.
At the end of the dream, I understand that I’ve got to dip my arms in the trough but with me there is no point, they go back to normal.
2: I have to breathe that same phosphorescent stuff to get high; it was a drug.
Analysis:
There is a resistance to undergo an evolution by the power of an external light, hence the inability to accept advice or orders from the father or the boss. When we associate this resistance with the bomb theme and the violent strength to the detriment of intelligent behaviour, Plutonium seems obvious. One, however, needs to have read the pathogenesis!
Prescription: Plutonium nitricum 1M
Follow-up:
A few months later, his aunty tells me that he has been metamorphosed by the remedy; he has found a job and all is going well.
When he has had a relapse and became agitated again, I have been asked to send a dose of the remedy and each time he has regained his composure; it has happened three times in two years. Since April 2002, I have not heard from him.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Categories:
Keywords: destruction, bomb, terrorism, resistance to evolve, refuse authority, anger, violence
Remedies: Plutonium nitricum

Californium nitricum: I feel like a fragmentation bomb. homeopathy

Clique em Longevid!

by Resie Moonen

The patient is a woman born in 1959. “I am stuck in my life. My son has a diagnosis of ADD and due to that I started to read all about it. I recognise myself in the ADHD picture. I take in too much and I have stored too much inside me. I am highly sensitive, I pick up too much stimulus, and I’m too acute in hearing, seeing, smelling; I feel the energy of other people. I flow into others and then too much comes into me. If there are too many people or too much busyness, then I pick up too much and lose myself; that’s when I have to retreat. It just happens, otherwise I don’t manage. If something comes from the outside then it is a great chaos inside me. I become forgetful and I get lost in my own chaos. If it is too much for me, I try to bring some structure into my life but I don’t manage to.”
“On one hand, I have a lot of impulses; I can be very enthusiastic, like a headless chicken. On the other hand, there can be no impulse at all. It is a mood disorder: either I am really fiery or really apathetic. The psychiatrist diagnosed ADHD recently, I recognise myself completely in the diagnosis of adult ADHD. “
“I have no filter. I hate the idea of psycho-pharmacy.  I took Ritalin a few times but it turned me into a zombie; everything became dull and there was only a mist in my head. I couldn’t use my mind anymore; I was slow and had no impulses at all anymore. It was like a narrow street with no colours, a terrible state to be in. It’s such a pity for all those children who have to use it and who can’t explain how they feel.”
She worked as a psychiatric nurse on a crisis intervention ward. The job was very heavy, with a lot of research and many new protocols to be implemented. She felt like the only woman in an underdog position. She has, however, “burst through all the barriers”, even when she was pregnant with her son. After coming back from pregnancy leave, she had a complete burn-out and she finally stayed home on a sickness benefit. She loves to dance and she can relieve her tensions that way.
“With the speed come the chaos and the multiplicity of impulses. It is as though everything goes faster! Through doing yoga, I have more contact with myself but it is still just “tricks” for me. I am a lively, associative, creative, and mobile person.” During the conversation her arms are going in all directions, away from each other. I ask her to repeat that motion. She says: “This is my essence: there is a core but it bursts apart like a fragmentation bomb or like firework, splintered. My centre bursts apart, it explodes. My whole life, I have been fighting an invisible enemy. I want to find a place that suits me and to be able to let go of the feeling that no matter how hard I try to do my best, I feel guilty if it doesn’t work out. I always looked for the cause of that failure in myself, taking on all the responsibility. I have fought an uphill battle, trying to be different than I am and it has made me very unhappy.”
“Sometimes there is a quiet place in myself, a valley; that’s me, too. It is quiet there; a base, a little nest. That’s where I need to look, that’s where everything begins and ends. I have always worked so incredibly hard!”
Physical complaints:
Poor sleep, light, often awake between 2 – 4 am. “Even in my sleep, everything comes in.” Wakes up with tension in the body. 
Painful SI joint, stiff in the morning; numb arms at night; lame feeling in the left arm.
Heart rhythm irregularities: “My heart races, fast and irregular, every day!”
Menopausal complaints: irregular menses, flushes, joint pains.
Prescription: Californium nitricum 200C, once per 2 weeks.
Follow-ups

After 2 months:
“So much has changed! It has become quiet inside me. For the first time, I have the peace of mind to enjoy myself. I am so much more content with myself. Before that, I felt that I was never good enough. Now, I feel lively, colourful, and wise. I can now feel “this is me!” and be happy with it. I am much more connected to my core and I enjoy that.”
Tell me about the “core”:  “It is like a soft fluid ball that stays together. Everything is in it but it stays together! My inner stream is stronger and there is less chaos.”
Prescription: continue with Californium nitricum 200C, once per 2 weeks.
After 4 and a half months:
“It is going well, I am much less fiery. I am less often pulled out of my centre. I have contact with an inner stream of energy but it is not so fragmented. I am much less chaotic, jumping from one thing to another; I experience a peace in myself. The core is wrapped up. It is a moving core but now it is as though there is a protective film around it so that the energy can’t fly out in all directions. There is something changing intensely. I always wrestled with myself, always made the wrong choices, doing that used to give me a kick. Now, I need to do that differently. I orient myself towards my work now. In my family, too, there is more peace now and for the first time I am enjoying that. The peace is so important for the children. For the first time, I feel my own base and I enjoy it!  My physical complaints are much less: my joints don’t hurt as much and my heart is quiet.”
After one year:
“I am completely centred. There is stability, sturdiness in me. I can manage my energy much better, hold onto it longer, which gives me more energy. In the past, I used to lose myself in things, go too deeply and intensely into them and then there was nothing left for me. This is an enormous improvement, now I am here, in every way, even if there is a lot going on around me. I used to have to focus on one thing, like a tunnel vision, and then I lost sight of the rest, but now I can oversee it all at once and that feels really good. I am much more present for the children and that is good for them, too. It is going much better with my hormones;  no more menopausal complaints, no more flushes, my moods are good, I feel stable. My periods are now less regular but they don’t give me problems, either before or after. My muscles, which used to be so cramped, are less tight and they don’t hurt. I don’t have any heart rhythm irregularities anymore. I stay in my own centre, I don’t lose my energy; it doesn’t shoot out in every direction anymore. I work two days a week in a stillness centre and I give massages there. I’d like to do that more. I enjoy the contact with people, I’m beginning to trust that I’m good at it.
6th follow-up:
Still centred, good energy. Menses regular, no complaints at all. Joints are good, no heart rhythm complaints, sleep is good. “I don’t feel like I am splintering anymore, that’s not going to happen to me. My energy is much better, I am busy expanding my work and I have more confidence in it. It is as though the remedy has brought something into my memory, something really good.” Quality of life? I’d say 85. I think it is higher than that but I don’t’ want to say so, just in case!”
Prescription: Californium nitricum, if needed.
Californium nitricum
Actinides:
-  all are radioactive
- the element falls apart by bombarding it, then it makes new elements
- characteristics: sensitive, feels acutely
Stage 12:
-overacting, overshooting, exaggerating
- everything is against me, an invisible enemy
- falling apart (disunite). I have lost everything in my life because of the chaos in me!
- cancer miasm: no boundaries, going over one’s boundaries, losing oneself, responsibility, task too heavy
Nitricum:
- compounds with nitricum are explosive!
- expansion, open, extravert, assertive, enthusiastic
- doing their best but not being seen
- bursting out, fierce, needs space, shooting in all directions
- problems with enjoyment
-stage 15:
 destruction, falling apart.
Nitricum according to Mahesh Ghandi
- A gas: diffuse, not concentrated
- everywhere
- difficulty focussing on issues
- loves open spaces, nature, freedom, aversion to restrictions (birth process)
- sensation of explosion
-the potential violence is largely held within nitrogen – it can explode at any moment.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
English defensive fragmentation grenade; historicair

 

Categories:
Keywords: ADD/ADHD, highly sensitive, chaos, bursting, exploding, like a bomb, fighting an invisible ennemy
Remedies: Californium nitricum

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Uraninitum and Uranium nitricum in hereditary spherocytosis. homeopathy

Clique em Longevid!

by Markus Kuntosch

At the end of her own consultation, a young mother mentioned that her 3 month old daughter had inherited the family’s disease; she was diagnosed with hereditary spherocytosis[1] and suffers from anemia (Hb 8mg/dl). If the haemoglobin declines further, she will need a blood transfusion. Her mother, her grandfather and his mother had the same form of anaemia. She herself underwent a splenectomy at the age of 9.
She asked if homeopathy could be of help. The waiting room was full, it was already quite late, and I did not have enough time for a complete anamnesis, so I just looked for a moment at the little girl. She had a pale grey face, was quite self-assured, and reminded me of a very old woman. When she looked back at me, I felt that she was scanning me with a kind of x-ray vision. The mother told me that she literally radiated heat when she had fever. So, what could be done?
Analysis:
She has a hereditary illness of the hematopoiesis, looks very old, scanned me with an x-ray vision and radiates heat.
According to Jan Scholten, the Uranium series represents old age. We can find hereditary diseases, genetic aberrations, and diseases of the bone marrow. The elements are too heavy and disintegrate under emission of radiation.
She is quite self-assured (> Stage 6), so I ruled out a radium salt. Another patient in our clinic, suffering from thalassemia[2], reacted well on Uranium nitricum. At this point, I did not see a clear indication for a salt, so I gave Uraninitum MK[3].
Follow up:
At the next blood check, 2 weeks later, her haemoglobin level had gone up to 9, 3 mg/dl. The pediatrician was satisfied and decided to wait for the transfusion. I saw her again 6 months later, her development was fine and she had started to crawl. Since the last MMR vaccination two weeks ago, however, she was out of balance. The first day after the injection, she had very high fever, up to 41deg.C, started to become irritable and cross, and the haemoglobin went down to 8 mg/dl.
First, I gave her the MMR-Nosode C200 but she kept on shrieking, did not sleep well, and had coryza with thick green mucus. Her mother also said that she protested heavily when she tried to fix the safety-belts of her child seat. The aversion to being bound made me think of a Nitricum salt and I gave her Uranium nitricum C200. Two days later, she was sleeping well again.
The pediatrician, having suggested a splenectomy for her, said that she also needed to be vaccinated against meningococci. Again, she had high fever and became aggressive, throwing herself on the floor and refusing to be cuddled. I repeated Uranium nitricum C200; the fever went down and two weeks later, the haemoglobin was almost normal! (11 mg/dl). In the last 18 months, I have repeated Uranium nitricum C200 three times, mostly for sleeping problems, and it has helped within one week, each time.

[1] Spherocytosis: A genetic disorder of the red blood cell membrane clinically characterized by anemia, jaundice (yellowing) and splenomegaly (enlargement of the spleen). In HS the red cells are smaller, rounder, and more fragile than normal. The red cells have a spherical rather than the biconcave-disk shape of the normal red cell.
[2] Thalassemia: thalassemias are a diverse group of genetic blood diseases characterized by absent or decreased production of normal hemoglobin, resulting in a microcytic anemia of varying degree.
[3] Uraninite is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2, but also contains UO3 and oxides of lead, thorium, and rare earth elements. It is most commonly known as pitchblende (Wikipedia)
Photos: Wikimedia Commons

Categories: Cases
Keywords: hereditary spherocytosis, old looking, x-ray vision, radiates heat
Remedies: Uraninitum, Uranium nitricum

Uranium and Iodum: a wise old child. homeopathy

Clique em Longevid!

by Deborah Collins

E. is a nine year old girl who suffers from congenital malformations, which affect her whole body. She has a tiny build, hardly as tall as a four year old, and most of her bones are deformed: extremely severe scoliosis, club feet, and a caved in chest, which has pushed her heart to the right side and barely leaves room for her lungs. Her forehead is large and misshapen, with a network of veins evident just under the surface, and her genitals are not properly formed. She has been under specialised care all of her life and her parents have sought help and advice worldwide. Her immune system is severely compromised; every sniffle results in a high fever and a cough, and because she is unable to spit up phlegm this usually leads to more antibiotics and often a prolonged hospital stay due to pneumonia. She has been hospitalised about 20 times in her short life and has needed antibiotics at least six times per year, as well as oxygen. Her parents have been fighting for her life all these years; they have had to keep her away from school or shopping centres, and have not been able to have visitors who might be harbouring a cold or ‘flu.
On seeing E. for the first time I was taken aback, not because of her deformities, for which I was prepared, but because of the image which flashed through my mind; the hell-fires of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Another striking element was a distinct yeasty odour.
E. has the look of an old wise person in a tiny body. Her parents confirmed that she is in many ways much older than her age. She was early in learning to read and write, and she has drawn three-dimensionally ever since she learned to draw. Her comments are often far beyond her years and she seems unperturbed by her condition despite her limitations. She is known to “guide” her mother when there is stress, as though she is able to see through the situation and find a solution. For example, E.’s mother scolded the dog for coming in the house with muddy paws and soiling the carpet. E. came to the dog’s defence, saying that it was not the dog’s fault; it is just what dogs do. Seeing that her mother was upset by this, E. apologised and consoled her mother, explaining how best to deal with the dog so that no one would be upset! 
It turned out that E.’s only great fear was that of fire; she could not tolerate any open fire in the house, including a gas hob, and would panic if a candle was lit. Fire sirens and reports of fire would greatly upset her. She is highly concerned about the welfare of others and can be very upset if she hears of any cruelty, especially to animals. The only behaviour problem that she displays is anger at not being allowed to play with her friends, when one of them has a cold.
Due to her severe deformities, in combination with her “wise old person” presentation, I chose to prescribe an actinide: Uranium 200C. The following two days, she was unusually sad, crying and clinging to her parents. Several weeks later, she began to cough again but was this time able to spit up phlegm. She developed a high temperature and become very hungry and restless. The symptoms looked like Iodine (hot, hungry, and restless), and I would have liked to prescribe Uranium iodatum, but this is not yet available, so I gave her Uranium 200 at the same time as Iodum 200. It was E. who led the way: “I will need this a few times and then I will be alright.” She placated her mother, who would otherwise have called in the doctor, with the usual recourse to antibiotics and possible hospitalisation. For the first time ever the fever and the cough abated and E. recovered without any other medication. Since then, she has had the occasional snuffle, which has been relieved immediately with a dose of Uranium. For the first time in nine years, E.’s mother has felt confident enough to go away for a week.
Ten months later, E’s health has improved so much that her mother has started to be more aware of her own health issues: “since I don’t have to worry about E. anymore.” And here E. takes the lead as well: “Oh Mom, you just worry too much. You need to learn to trust.”
Interestingly, besides the improvement in her general health, E.’s fear of fire has disappeared. She now likes to light the candle before dinner, blow it out, and then light it again. She is still concerned when she hears fire sirens, saying how dreadful it must be for the people whose house is burning, but she is not longer in a panic. Meanwhile, instead of being the worry of the family, E.’s is able to ward off colds and coughs, bouncing back immediately; her immune system seems to be the healthiest of the family!

Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945
Candle flame; Loadmaster, David R. Tribble

Categories: Cases
Keywords: congenital deformities, recurring pneumonia, wise old child, fear of fire, Hiroshima
Remedies: Iodum, Uranium

Uranium nitricum and hereditary lymphatic leukemia. homeopathy

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by Ulrich Welte

Bracing herself in the face of a hereditary blood disease: I see decay and death all over but I rise up against all odds.
She is a woman of 59 years, a therapist with Addison’s anemia* which is evolving into chronic lymphatic leukemia*. She looks younger than her age, bright, friendly, and always ready for a joke*; one could easily miss the seriousness of her state*. By and by, she comes up with a plethora of symptoms and complaints, which seem to have no end. There is a family history of CLL* (chronic lymphatic leukemia); her mother and sister have it, and her father died from bone cancer*. Her own blood count shows large unidentified cells* and atypical blasts (immature blood cells)*. She has swollen cervical lymph nodes*, high blood pressure, around 150/95, and because of Addison’s anemia*, she receives regular shots of vitamin B12.
She is lively and tries to take her fate from the bright side without being superficial*. She does not want to be a burden to others, which makes her especially sympathetic because there is no hidden egoism* behind her complaints. Her eyes are deep and radiate a strange power*, which does not want to take possession of others but let them be. Her gaze expresses an inner triumph over her own weaknesses. It feels as if she likes to play with situations and dislikes taking things too seriously*, although her condition is indeed serious because she can only handle her daily affairs with great restrictions. The longer she talks, the more one is surprised how lively she is under all these difficulties.
Her main complaint is her bowel problems. She has had constipation since she was 10 years old, with stinging, stitching pains in her right upper abdomen, as if someone is boring in with a sharp screwdriver. Only 6 weeks ago, she had a colonoscopy which showed putrid diverticulitis and ileocaecal abscesses. She finds relief with enemas and breathing exercises*.
She has had severe infections* during her whole life, but rarely with fever*. She has never been completely healthy; she was a sickly child* and was often closer to death than to life*. Before she was born, her mother had two abortions*. When she was born, she was a sad and puny child*. At the age of 2, she was paralysed for two days during an infection. She was suspected to have polio but it was not confirmed.
Did you have a striking experience which changed you?
“Yes, when I was nine my younger nephew died. I liked him very much. Then my mother thought that I should get acquainted with the reality of death*. She painted it nicely and dragged me to the morgue. There was the corpse of my beloved nephew: dead, with blue lips, and behind there were lots of others coffins with corpses*. It was a ghastly* scene, gruesome, and morbid*; death was horrible. It took me many years to get over it. From that time onwards, I had abdominal pains, cramps, and whenever I saw death or decay, I got abdominal cramps and also held my breath. Whenever I got sick, I was sure I would die. Wherever I went, I saw death and decay*; death seemed omnipresent*. I also had frequent anginas. Once, as I was very sick and close to suffocation, it was presumed that it was diphtheria because I could hardly breathe and the soft palate was paralysed. I lost a whole year then and slept most of the time, knocked out; I had to repeat this year at school. When I was 18, I had a putrid tumour at the root of the soft palate, which had to be operated; the operation took 7 hours. Many years later, during the climacteric period, I experienced again feelings of suffocation and fear of death*. It mostly came during the night, with palpitation; I thought it was the end and I would die from suffocation. Aconite helped me then.”
In spite of all her inherited weaknesses*, she slowly built up her constitution through a healthy and restrained life; she exercised regularly and lived a balanced life. She became skilled in the art of facing omnipresent decay*. When she came in contact with homeopathy, especially, things got better. Rosina Sonnenschmidt had helped her with Syphilinum and Uranium. Her infections became less frequent and less severe, and her blood count became better; the leukemic cells were reduced. In the last years, Phosphorus helped for chronic cough.
Her colour preference is warm yellow 3C and pure blue 15C. When looking at 3C she feels warm, calm, and relaxed; after looking longer, she feels a certain freedom rising up in her mind. With 15C, she feels wide, water, and moving freely in water.
Analysis and Follow-up
In retrospect, there are plenty of good hints for the Uranium series, as indicated by asterisks* in the text. She was even helped by Uranium in the past, and the main clinical direction (CLL and Addison’s anemia) also point in this direction. I decided, however, to follow the history of diphtheria with paralysis after the incident in the morgue, because she took this so seriously. Even many years later, she suffered from a tumour at the same spot, the soft palate, after many infections of the tonsils. A famous classical homeopath had already followed this trend of thought and given her Lac caninum but without benefit. The following Diphterinum intermezzo may be interpreted in many ways; it was, perhaps, necessary to clear a layer or needed in the drama, or it might not have been necessary, after all, and Uranium nitricum would have done the job straight away. Who knows?
After Diphtherinum 200, a veritable Pandora’s Box opened; 20-30 minutes after taking the dose, her old complaint of boring stitching pain in the right upper abdomen vanished. She then felt as if her throat was compressed; a tough membrane of slime formed on the epiglottis, which forced her to retch and gag and hawk, but she could not get rid of it, it was too gluey and tenacious. After a few days, she got very restless; she had nausea after eating and bright red bleeding gums when brushing her teeth. Her sleep, however, was more refreshing. After one week, she got worse; she could not concentrate, messing up dates and files in her practice. Her restlessness was very disturbing and she got vertigo with confusion; her blood pressure went up to 160/105. Her whole digestive tract seemed to burn from mouth to anus. “Everything is messed up, I can’t sleep although I’m dead tired, then I toss in bed and wake up frequently.”
Shortly after another dose of Diphtherinum 200, she had a spontaneous normal stool, which is very rare, but everything else got worse. “I’m so dizzy and restless in my head, as if the brain would burst.” In the course of the next week, she was less restless but “it is as if I have lost my brain, I cannot think, I cannot remember things, each mental task is a huge effort and exhausts me. I know this state from 10 years ago, when I looked at the Vatican ceiling frescos. It is like a cloud around my head, as if I have a veil before my eyes. I rub my forehead to wipe it off.”
Five weeks later she called, “I just survived a horrible flu.” She had tried several remedies on her own because she did not improve. Her concentration difficulties, particularly, were even worse than before and the constipation had also returned. ”It is like a swamp in my brain, like a fog, everything is in my head.” Two more weeks pass and she feels terrible; her head buzzes and aches, with constant dripping of pus from the nose. Her home physician has made a blood count, which shows abnormal white blood cells; L.U.C. (large unstained cells) went up to 10, atypical leukocytes, increased count of atypical blasts. The cervical lymph nodes became bigger; clusters of coherent lumps of the size of hazelnuts, painless to touch. He suggested a bone marrow biopsy. After a total of 3 months of therapy, the situation is worse than before.
It is only when she mentioned the expression ‘bone marrow’ that it finally triggered the idea of a remedy from the Uranium series, and then everything fell into place.

- Hereditary CLL. Lymph nodes with atypical leucocytes; Uranium series.
- She shows that she can brave the fear of decay and death and she proves that she can 
  overcome a seemingly inevitable fate; stage 6, Uranium.
- High blood pressure; nitricum
- hypochondriacal; nitricum.
Prescription: Uranium nitricum C30, plussing method (Ramakrishnan).
Then things went quite fast. In the first 2 weeks, her general well-being increased and the swollen lymph nodes melted away. After 3 months, she called just to thank me; she is completely fine, no complaints whatsoever, she just wanted to tell me the good news. She saw no reason to check her blood count since she is feeling so well. After another 6 months, she is doing fine.
                                               
Uranium salts and hereditary diseases of the blood
There are similarities between this case and that of another elderly patient who responds well on different Uranium salts since 12 years. He has hereditary thalassemia minor. His grandmother, who comes from the Mediterranean region, and her two daughters had inherited the disease. He is slightly obese, a passionate school headmaster, and is always ready with a smile, although he has frequent depressive phases. He has cultivated an attitude of taking things less seriously than they seem, without being superficial. He does not come across as artificial, it is a genuine humour. He does not like to complain, even when he is sick, but unlike Arnica, he tries to bring the doctor in a good mood by being cheerful. He was politically active in his younger days but without binding himself to a party. He would have liked to build up his own school to realize his model idea but this desire was thwarted by the realities of the present school system.
A younger patient, who responds well on Uraninitum, (see also Markus Kuntosch’s case) is suffering from a severe form of hereditary spherocytosis. Six family members have already had their spleens removed but he has chosen to not take this step and has opted for homeopathic treatment, which has been successful for the last two years. He was prescribed Uraninitum for the first time when he was 15 years old. He then had very high bilirubine levels (> 8 mg/dl, mostly above 5) and gallbladder colic due to bilirubine stones. He is strikingly hairy all over his body ever since childhood. After the first dose of Uraninitum, he had colic but then his bilirubine level sank to half of the original level. Since then, he takes it once a week and has made a beautiful development in the last two years.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
High-power magnification of peripheral blood smear showing chronic lymphocytic leukemia; Mary Ann Thompson
Death allegory
Pitchblende from Niederschlema-Alberoda deposit; Geomartin

Categories: Cases
Keywords: hereditary lymphatic leukemia, decay and death, rising against all odds
Remedies: Uranium nitricum

Neptunium nitricum: wise beyond his years. homeopathy

Clique em Longevid!

by Patricia Le Roux

Neptunium is a radioactive remedy and a well-known actinide in homeopathy. It is completed by conjugated elements or salts (Neptunium muriaticum and nitricum). Neptunium nitricum is relatively unknown, unlike Neptunium muriaticum, which has been recently proved.[1]
The Neptunium element does not exist in nature; it is obtained by bombarding Uranium with slow moving neutrons. It has a very long half-life and seems less radioactive than Plutonium. The name Neptunium is derived from the planet Neptune. This planet is evocative of the sea with its aquatic aspect, clear and infinite. In mythology, Neptune is the god of the sea; of the great depths. From this picture, we can observe that patients needing Neptunium function in an altruistic communication system, which is the one of the third dimension of love: the universal love[2] 
History
Neptunium is a chemical element Np and atomic number 93. A radioactive metallic element, neptunium is the first transuranic element and belongs to the actinide series. Its most stable isotope, 237Np, is a by-product of nuclear reactors and plutonium production. Neptunium is also found in trace amounts in uranium ores due to transmutation reactions. As Neptunium comes after Uranium in the periodic table, it has been named after the planet Neptune, which comes after Uranus in the solar system.
Neptunium was discovered by Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson in 1940, at the University of California’s Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. The team produced the neptunium isotope 239Np (2.4 day half-life) by bombarding uranium with slow moving neutrons. It was the first transuranium element produced synthetically and the first actinide series transuranium element discovered.
Conceptual approach of Neptunium metallicum (Jan Scholten)

Neptunium belongs to the 7th series: sense of duty, strong energy that needs to be channeled. Alternates between hyper-activity and auto-destruction. It belongs to the 7th stage: he is active and practices.
The elements in the column are: Manganum (Mn), Technetium (Tc), Rhenium (Re)
We will reiterate the common symptoms as follows: he is in the apprenticeship phase. He must practice; he fine-tunes; he expects encouragement and praise; he has a good sense of cooperation; he helps.
Neptunium belongs to the Actinides (M. Plouvier-Suijs)
Altruism and communication
Wisdom and reflection
Observe and perceive
Sensitivity, compassion, and empathy
Universal truth
Bond with the grandmother
Keywords for Neptunium: high sense of responsibilities in people bursting with energy, he practices, he is about to blow up; he needs to practice to avoid disintegration.
Themes for Neptunium metallicum (M. Plouvier-Suijs)
- Communication
He likes to communicate with others. The communication is natural and authentic but not necessarily with a clear conclusion.
-Wisdom
He seeks wisdom. He has a certain perception of the after-life. Wisdom leads to the respect of others, particularly the doctor but also of people with expertise.
- Observation and perception
Observation is precise, sometimes reinforced. He perceived unusual things.
- Overview, transparency
He has an overview of the situation and is able to advice others about theirs. He likes to clean and put things in order (proving’s theme).
- Sensitivity, empathy, compassion
He is sensitive and full of compassion while communicating with others.
- Universal truth
He has values but has difficulties expressing them.
- Old age, grandmother
He has a specific bond with the grandmother; he is not dictatorial but encouraging.
Case
B., a nine year old boy, comes for recurring eczema since the age of three, in July 2005. B. comes from an intellectual and artistic family. The parents are separated; the father is a film director and the mother is a musician, soloist soprano from Great Britain. B. is an only child and lives at the rhythm of his parents’ shows and performances. His grandmother, the only emotional anchor of the family, often looks after him (Theme: grandmother, old age). B. is a child of above normal intelligence, with surprising abilities for analysis. He is bursting with energy (Theme: 7th series) and his parents describe him as ‘very tiring’ since a young age; as the mother comments, it seems that he cumulates the creative potential of both parents. B. is very keen on rowing, a sport widely practiced in his town, and is a judo champion.
When he decides on a task, he steadily works on it (practice: 7th stage) and keeps at it till completion. He suffers from isolation and is shunned by his school’s friends. He has, however, good relationships with people outside the school. He is anxious when he has to sit exams, as he has dyslexia and make numerous spelling mistakes.
He is good and quick at judging emotional situations, even showing real clairvoyance; he intimidated others with his intellectual abilities, which are confirmed by his excellent school results. His behaviour during the consultation is disconcerting; he is absolutely perfect, analyses his symptoms (observe and perceive), and pinpoints his aggravations and ameliorations, as if he was presenting his symptoms on a tray. One gets the feeling of an extremely wise child. At home, he is the perfect child; everything is organized and tidy, from his school bag to his home work!
When I ask him about his career choice, he turns to his mother saying: “You know, I can’t tell but I’ve told you…!” The mother has forgotten … After five silent minutes, he tells me that he wants to be a … priest! We are, at this time, 2010, in a very ‘eventful’ context regarding the church – pedophilia and others related issues – and to confess such a vocation is akin to dropping a radioactive bomb: an infinite ideal! 
Prescription: Neptunium nitricum 1M
Reaction:
A month later, the cutaneous lesions have subsided and the skin has taken on a more natural appearance. There is a re-occurrence of constipation, an old symptom from infancy, for which he received Sac Lac.
Follow-up:
Six months later, he is again anxious and worried for his future, with reappearance of cutaneous lesions but localised in the skin folds. I repeat Neptunium 1M.
I see him again a year later, and the eczema has completely disappeared.
Conclusion:
Neptunium belongs to the Actinides series, which central theme is energy and its equilibrium. Neptunium is shifting from the individual to the collective. He works at it with application and regularity, and reaches his goal.  

[1] Links no 2, 2001, Didier Lüstig and Jaques Rey (Ecole Hahnemannienne de Fréjus) have described the proving of Neptunium Muriaticum. 
[2] Didier Grandgeorge: L'esprit du remède homéopathique; ce que le mal a dit, Editions Edicomm, 2003
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Berlin-Mitte. Der Neptunbrunnen, die zentrale „Neptun“-Figur. Manfred Brückels
NASA photo of Neptune

Categories: Cases
Keywords: eczema, grandmother, bursting with energy, practices, wise, observe, perceive
Remedies: Neptunium nitricum

Actinides: the hidden camera and the broken mirror. homeopathy

Clique em Longevid!

by Margriet Plouvier-Suijs

In the following work I shall describe the Uranium series as a group and explain the possible etiology of the need for the remedy. This is a work in progress and we will need the help of many homeopaths to complete this picture.
The Actinides belong to the 7th series of the periodic system. In his book 'Homeopathy and the Elements', Jan Scholten uses the term “Uranium Series” to describe them.
The themes of the series, according to Jan Scholten are:
-Hydrogenium series: being, foetus, space
-Carbon series: ego, child, body
-Silicium series: friend, family, teenager
-Iron series: worker, adult, village
-Silver series: inventor, performer, middle age, city
-Gold series: leader, ripe age, country/world
Keywords for the Uranium series: 
Altruism
Communication, listening
Wisdom, (self) reflection
Observe, perceive
Overview, transparency
Sensitivity, sympathy, compassion
Trust
Universal truths
Old age, grandparent
Archetype: the testifier, the witness, the joker, the jester, the clown, the prophet.
Altruism:
This can be recognised in individuals like Mother Theresa: at a very old age she still cared for people who are widely ignored by the world in their need for help. Nelson Mandela, too, is a man who gave all his energy to change the system in South Africa. Although he was in prison for many years and suffered a great deal, he held onto his beautiful message for the world and puts all his energy into altruism: the only possible way to live well is by giving.
Communication:
They are very good at both verbal and non-verbal communication. This aspect is also seen in children; the language they use is not appropriate for their age. Whatever they say, they say it very precisely. For instance, a child of five, on being sent to her room became angry, saying: “Well, then, I’ll go to my bedroom and I will never return, neither to eat nor to drink!!" In her book “Psychological portraits”, Catherine Coulter describes the language of people who need the remedy Lachesis and gives the example of a child with such harsh language. The communication of the child needing Lachesis might resemble that of the child described above but contrary to Lachesis, there is no competitive element at all with the Actinides.
Wisdom, intuition:
They are wise but not in the sense of being clever; they have a wisdom which shows insight. The appropriate sense is intuition. They are clairvoyant and sometimes they simply know. They recognise when intuition is colored by emotion and they know the truth.
Observation, perception:
They see through people and their actions. They are adapted to several cultures and they will seldom be surprised by what happens. They can imagine every life-event, even the most inconceivable. The aim of living is to try to be at peace with others. In the cycle of life, each quality has different stages: victim, actor, indicter, judge, defender, we are condemned and finally we regret. People who need an Actinide know these stages and do not have any judgment in their observations.
Overview, transparency:
They observe as if everything is transparent. They understand what is going on the moment they see it. They do not filter. This way of looking at things is like using a hidden camera. Elderly people and little children observe the world around them in this way. The similarity between elderly people and children is that they do not react to the world but just observe; they have no emotion about it, they are objective and just watch. Observation here is pure and objective.
Old age:
The old age belongs to this series. In old age it is appropriate to be withdrawn while being present. They do not intervene.
Physical complaints:
Cancer, bone marrow disorders, leukemia. Congenital malformations, genetic deviations.
The hidden camera:
The Lanthanides were previously unknown and it is Jan Scholten who literally discovered them as homeopathic remedies. In Boericke there is only one lanthanide: Cerium Oxalicum.
In his book ‘Secret Lanthanides’ Jan Scholten explains the main theme of the Lanthanides, which is autonomy. Other themes are: searching, going deep, (self)reflection. To these themes, I would like to add analysis and thinking.
People who need Actinides do not use analysis, whatever they observe is transparent, they simply know. Insight and overview are there at the same moment. For that reason, I compare this way of observing to the use of a hidden camera: observation is pure and objective.
We learn this quality of observation in our profession as therapists. Hahnemann recommended this objective observation in the practice of homeopathy. While this quality is essential in our profession, it can become a source a problems in daily life. This objective observation of the way people deal with each other can be painfully difficult because of the sense of liability it creates. Again and again the questions arise: “What shall I do with the insight, the overview and the knowing? If all the tricks and game-playing in human behaviour are transparent to me, how should I react?” The only way to live with this quality is to develop compassion.
The broken mirror:
Children are most illustrative in showing the picture of Actinides. There is usually an etiologic moment in their life. I call this moment: ‘breaking the mirror’.
Soon after birth the baby has eye-contact with one of the parents, usually with some kind of recognition. From that first eye-contact the baby functions by ‘mimicry’; the parent and the baby reflect each other. Initially, the child identifies itself in this mirroring face. At the age of 9 months, the child is able to distinguish faces and indicate his/her preference, this is the period of timidity. The child develops the ability to remember his/her favorite face and gives it a name: “mummy”.
Thanks to memory, the child becomes aware of more than one face at a time:mummy and daddy. This is the awareness of the triangle: father, mother, and child. Until that time, the child was one unit with the mother and in this unity, communication was non-verbal. When the child becomes aware of the triangle, he begins to talk.
Thanks to the awareness of the triangle, the child recognises his own individuality. At the age of three, the child uses the word ‘I’ for himself. At the same age, the milk teeth are complete, the fontanel is closed, the child is able to jump (on the ground) and says “I”; “I want and I don’t want.”
In the course of the first years, the child learns everything by imitation. In that mirror he recognises himself. When, however, there is a dramatic event in those early years and the parents cannot handle the situation, the mirror can be broken. From that moment on the child no longer imitates the parents. At that moment, an Opium, Aconitum or other remedy-layer can come or cover up the previous openness.
Etiology of the Actinides:
If the remedy that is needed is an Actinide, something else will have happened at the moment of the dramatic event. Let us look at the moment of the first eye-contact between mother and child; the moment of recognition.
We are able to recognise someone we have known in a former life. If we, as human beings, reincarnate, it is possible that the mother recognises the newborn child and vice versa. Sometimes, the reincarnation is one of an old soul. At the moment of a dramatic event, if the parents are not able to handle the situation, the reincarnated part of the child takes the lead in the child’s life. The personality that learns ‘’how to do’’ by imitating others, the baby-instinct, will disappear. From that moment on the identity of that wise old person awakens in the child. That wise old person will help the parents to return to normal but it is possible that this state perdures in the child.
This is visible in the social behaviour and in the language the child uses. New words heard by him/her are immediately used in the correct context. For instance; a mother said to her 2 year old daughter: “you shouldn’t show off” and the little girl answered: "No, actress, no!”. The disadvantage for a child in this state is that his/her childlike expression disappears; for the mother it can be awkward to have this wise old guy on her lap! After the correct use of an Actinide remedy, these children can regain their child-appropriate behaviour.
In the history of adults who need an Actinide, I have seen this childhood trauma and the disadvantage of growing up in such a state. As infant or toddler, they lost contact with their own inner child. They have no experience of quarrelling or standing up for themselves for the ‘wise old person’ inside them did not allow that kind of childish behaviour. For adults, the correct application of an Actinide ‘brings the child back to life’. From that moment on, a growing resistance is developed, similar to the one of early childhood.
Case
A 37 year old woman comes with a complaint of lichen sclerosis. It started with a white spot on her clitoris after a course of antibiotics for endometritis due to an IUD. The spot was itching and desquamating, and eventually spread over the labia. She uses an ointment from the dermatologist containing steroids but this does not provide enough relief.
She has given birth to three children, the first of whom died one day after his birth at 28 weeks; she still has contact with this child. She cares a lot for others: she is helping a mother to take care of her handicapped child, who is blind and has cerebral palsy, a role which requires great sensitivity on the carer's part. She enjoys working, feeling useful, and she feels guilty when she is doing nothing. Many people ask for her help and she usually listens to them; for her, listening and being present is more important than doing the little things at home. She is thoughtful and reflective. Although she is positive, she has doubts about what she has said, mulling over and over about the questions and the answers given.
Analysis:
In the rubric “Skin, cicatrix white”, we find three remedies: Kalium bichromicum, Radium bromatum and Syphilinum. I chose an actinide because she is very sensitive in her communication. Stage 2 (Radium) is reflected in her cautiousness in expressing things and her doubts afterwards. Bromatum has to do with her feelings of guilt around doing nothing. I gave Radium bromatum 12K, which had a partial effec; the complaint decreased but there was still some itch.
The next remedy is Radium Iodatum, a fine-tuning of the previous remedy following a dream that she had about wanting to express her feelings by singing again and starting to paint. She dreamt of the name of the remedy for her itch but forgot it. Artistic endeavours belong to the silver series, and ‘forgetting’ is a word that fits Iodum. She received Radium iodatum 30K. During the next three weeks, there was a good reaction; she did not require the ointment as frequently but at the end of the holidays, she found herself in a stressful situation, having to arrange a babysitter in order to go back to work, and she needed the remedy again. Radium iodatum 1M was given, which worked well; she did not need any ointment for some time. Later, she received Radium iodatum 10M and the improvement continued. In the course of time, she did very well, needing less ointment. Her spiritual development grew, as did her relationship with her husband, and there was clarity around the child they lost.
Follow-up after 5 years: “In the course of time, I have come to realise that the symptoms of lichen sclerosis are related to feelings of guilt that remained unconscious for a long time. For months at a time. I am free of symptoms and then suddenly they show up again. Now, I try to discover my guilty feelings and analyse them, it helps me to let go and when I do, my complaints disappear too.”
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Uranium 235 atom; Stefan-Xp
Frederik de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos in January 1992;Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org)
The Preparation and Crystallographic Properties of Certain Lanthanide and Actinide Tribromides and Tribromide Hexahydrates; Materialscientist

Categories: Cases
Keywords: Actinides
Remedies: Radium bromatum, Radium iodatum

Melilotus and Indigo: two short cases. homeopathy

Clique em Longevid!

by Deborah Collins

Case one
A woman in her mid-thirties came for chronic migraines, which were becoming increasingly worse. There was hardly a week without a severe migraine; she tried to struggle on at her job as a teacher despite the pain, which made her vomit. When she arrived for the consultation, she was again in the middle of a migraine attack; I offered her to lay on a mattress, instead of harassing her with questions. She seemed to go into a trance state, whispering in a tiny voice: “They are coming.”  When I asked her, who was coming, she answered: “The men in black boots.” When she was finally well enough to speak, she said that this was an image that haunted her from time to time; having to hide away in the dark, while “dangerous people” searched for her. Her red face during the migraine, her tiny voice (even when well), her family background during the war years in Holland, and her deplorable past history with a sadistic brother made me think of Melilotus, which has the rubric: “fears to raise the voice”. Her situation resembled that of someone who has to hide, tense and silent, in order not to be taken away, like the Jews during the Holocaust. She was given repeated doses of Melilotus and reported that not only her migraines had disappeared but her ability to “speak up for herself” had improved. A craving for sweets, which she had not previously mentioned, also disappeared.

Case two
A teenage boy came due to chronic fatigue and an inability to concentrate, which he had had for most of his life but which had become much more severe after a bout of mononucleosis. Despite being bright and willing to learn, he could hardly get through his schoolwork and was usually in bed straight after dinner. He was pale, thin, slouched over, and exhausted. He came from a Jewish background and seemed to carry the weight of the Jews’ history on his shoulders. The typical post- mononucleosis remedies, such as Carcinocinum, Gelsemium, and Baptisia did nothing for him. Taking his aversion to peas into consideration, I looked for a remedy in the Leguminosae family. It was not until he had an acute ailment, however, that the right remedy became evident. He developed a left-sided facial neuralgia, which responded quickly to Indigo, one of the few Leguminosae with that complaint. After the remedy, his energy also increased, as well as his ability to concentrate. “The fog has lifted!” he said. He is now one of the last in the family to go to bed.
Photos: Wikipedia.org
Melilotus officinalis
Indigofera tinctoria

Categories: Cases
Keywords: migraines, speaking up for oneself, chronic fatigue, concentration difficulties, left sided facial neuralgia
Remedies: Indigofera tinctoria, Melilotus officinalis

Gymnocladus canadensis: life is no fun. homeopathy

Clique em Longevid!

by Maarten van de Meer

A fourteen year old boy complains of cough and tiredness. He has grown a lot during the past year, both in height and weight, and is now 180cm tall and of a sturdy built. He has been coughing for the past few weeks and it is getting worse. He coughs in fits, which almost make him vomit. He has received Ventolin and Flixotide from his GP, which help. Two years ago, he had whooping cough and was very tired; he just sat on the sofa, fiddling and wriggling. He has had respiratory problems since childhood, with a blocked nose. When he has a fever, he has nosebleeds.
History
He does not do much of the talking, he leaves this to his mother while he sits and listens in a neutral, not unfriendly manner. His mother tells:  “He always on the sofa, lying in a foetus position or with his head in his hands. He drags himself upstairs and finds everything ‘too much’. Despite being so sick and tired, he wants to go to school, saying: “I want to do that test.” He pushes himself but as soon as the most necessary things are done, he collapses. At home, all he does is lounge about. He loves to play rugby and wants to be good at it. He continues to go to school even though he just sits on the sofa like a bag of potatoes, before he leaves for school but he never complains.  He chooses to go every time, not just out of routine, and he does not want to have to be pushed. He even goes to school when he is sick: “I’ll go and if I’m not feeling well, I won’t go home. When I’m already at school, I don’t want to come back.”
He does everything with a big sigh: “I’m not feeling well.” He feels worse in the morning and he gets out of bed as though he is made of wood. After playing sport for some time, his attention falters and he becomes quite distracted. He starts again every time.
His mother describes him as follows: “His head is so heavy. He is always supporting his head, no matter where he is.” Sometimes he has headaches that feel like prickles in the top of his head and he also feels a bit dizzy.
He is a quiet, watchful, and very self-sufficient boy. He looks for easy solutions, is very direct, and names things without adjectives; he talks without frills. At home, he has a resigned attitude: “It is too much effort to play up or to resist, I don’t enjoy things but I will do what needs to be done.” He avoids confrontations with his parents; one can see him looking for other solutions but he usually just does what he is asked because complaining costs too much energy. He is very socially minded, has trust in people, and often mediates between people. Sometimes, he can be very angry without really knowing why.
Analysis
His main complaint is tiredness, similar to a post-mononucleosis picture. He continues to do what he has in mind, even if it is hard for him. He functions well socially and finds his own solutions. He has a sturdy build and an uncomplicated behaviour. These all point to a remedy from the Fabales order, but which one?
His heavy head, described in the literature in the rubric “Head, desire to lean on something”, is typical of the remedy Gymnocladus. Nosebleed with fever is known in Melilotus, which, along with Indigo is also known for spastic cough. A tired head, nosebleeds and uncomplicated behaviour can fit Belladonna, but there are no other characteristics of Solanaceae. The mental tiredness is found in the rubric “Mental work impossible” where the remedies Copaiva, Indigo, Gymnocladus, and Melilotus are named. The desire to lean on something has been cited in the generalities of Gymnocladus by T. Allen.
There is a typical alternation in his pattern.  He begins something if it really needs to be done or if it is nice to do, and then becomes completely floored. He tries to accomplish something but at the same time cannot be bothered. He knows what he wants to do but cannot manage it, or he postpones doing it. This pattern has been seen in previous cases of tiredness, which have reacted well to Gymnocladus.
Prescription: Gymnocladus canadensis 200K, one dose
Follow-ups
His energy improves, as do his ability for sports and study. His cough disappears, although he still uses Ventolin before rugby games. Three months later he has a relapse; his concentration deteriorates, he is irritable and cannot get going. During tests at school, he feels his belly contracting; “how can I manage?” His parents, who are rather domineering, are angry if he is not doing his best at school and put all his effort into sports.  It is, after all, possible for him to achieve something that they have not been able to achieve, if he studies hard (duty versus enjoyment, a Fabaceae theme). He avoids people who are attached to rules and regulations. He eats piles of sandwiches. A repetition of the remedy improves his energy almost immediately. It would seem that being under pressure from the outside world - parents, school, work, or social environment - having to achieve more than one feels capable of, can be causative factors for a Fabaceae indication.
Two years later, after a concussion while playing sports, he has another relapse. He is emotionally out of balance and insecure due to his poor school results. His concentration is good for a while and then disappears, which also happened in childhood. He is physically very restless, sometimes running through the room, and he has a mild stutter (stage 5). The enjoyable things in his life are not there, but the ‘duty’ of school and study remain. The situation is typical for this period of life but he experiences it as “my life is no fun, this is not what I want,” (Fabacaeae) and it brings on more complaints.  A repeat of the remedy brings peace again. The next year, after a serious injury stops his sport career, he develops eye problems (accommodation), which are helped by Manganum Phosphoricum. Manganum is an important component of many plants in the Fabales order and it is an important differential diagnosis for this whole group.
Photo: www.wikimediacommons.org

Categories: Cases
Keywords: tiredness, coughs, nosebleed, concentration difficulties
Remedies: Gymnocladus canadensis

Gymnocladus canadensis: too tired to hold her head up. homeopathy

Clique em Longevid!

by Maarten van de Meer

A seventy year old woman comes for kidneys problems. Her ureters are blocked by scar tissues after repeated infections. Seven years ago, two catheters have been inserted. She is on permanent antibiotic treatment and two times per year the catheters need to be replaced and the ureters cleaned. She experiences severe pain every day.
This complaint was treated with Equisetum 12 DH; this potency was originally prescribed because it was the only one available. The remedy seemed to work well: the pain decreased, antibiotics could be stopped, the scar tissue growth was reduced, and the catheters needed to be replaced only once a year, as a precautionary measure. Cystitis continued to occur and was only partially relieved by other homeopathic remedies; Sarsaparilla, Cantharis, Terbentina, Solidago, Senecio, and Berberis. Uva ursi was given as a herbal tincture and repeated doses of Equisetum were sufficient to keep the situation under control, although once or twice per year, antibiotics were still necessary.
History
Her husband died twenty years ago. She lives alone, above a franchise business, which is functioning well. Last year she had a heart attack. When the cleaning lady comes to help with household chores, she likes to work along with her, otherwise she just sits as she is tired most of the time. The pain is variable, she has days with pain and days without. The heart complaints, for which she receives Nitrobat, returned due to life-threatening situations with her grandchildren, which make her very tense. She feels as though she is ‘all nerves’. On the one hand, she feels that she needs to do all that she can for them, on the other hand, she is so tired that she often just wants to lie on the sofa. With a sigh, she says that she misses the courage to greet the day and that the pleasure in the little things of life is gone. She does not know if she will be strong enough to cope with all that needs to be done each day. She starts out each morning, does what she can, then finds that it is too much for her and she needs to lie down again. Yet from time to time, she manages to pull herself up and to enthusiastically and forcefully go about her tasks. She does not want to talk with her children about her worries or about her situation; she does not want to be a mother whose children have to worry about.  She talks in heaves and sighs, constantly leaning her head on her hands, with her elbows on the table. She looks like a frail and fragile little bird. She feels bone tired, right down to her hands and feet. She often needs to support her head due to pain in her neck. After many years of wavering, she has finally decided to move into a smaller home, simply because she could not manage anymore.
Analysis
Her attitude and the situation of the last years fit the theme of the Fabaceae: the overwhelming tiredness, the will to carry on despite being tired, her joyless situation, and the fact that she is loathe to ask for help, preferring to manage by herself. She finds it simply logical to look after herself financially and emotionally, and to organise her own life. She does not even think of accepting the limitations imposed by old age. The doubts about how to proceed, delaying the decisions, always stopping and starting, the changeability of the complaints, all these fit stage 5. The tiredness and the need to lean her head on her hands fit Gymnocladus.
Prescription: Gymnocladus Canadensis 200K, one dose
Follow-up
Her energy and her sense of peace increase dramatically. She makes the move without problems and has no more complaints of tiredness. The urinary tract infections are reduced and it is only four years later that I see her again, this time due to arthrosis. Between times I see her grandchildren, who have positive reports about her well-being. The arthrosis seems to be related to the infections, and this responds well to Pyrogenium. The bladder and kidney problems are kept under control as before, with Equisetum.

Categories: Cases
Keywords: exhaustion, nervousness, joylessness, independence
Remedies: Gymnocladus canadensis

Lama, lágrimas e morte: a jornada de Thiago Guimarães no rio Doce. Não é homeopatia, não.

Thiago Guimarães - @thiaguima Da BBC Brasil em Londres

Regência é um lugar especial para o fotógrafo Leonardo Merçon, de 34 anos. Desde a adolescência, a vila na foz do rio Doce, norte do Espírito Santo, era parada obrigatória para a prática de surfe.

Ali ele conheceu uma comunidade de 300 famílias, entre pescadores, caboclos e descendentes de índios, com uma característica marcante: a preocupação em conservar a natureza.

"É uma população organizada, acostumada a brigar pelo local, que é um santuário ecológico mesmo. Muitos escolheram viver ali", diz Leonardo.

No último final de semana, naquele mesmo local, o fotógrafo acompanhou o momento em que o povoado se tornou vítima do maior acidente ambiental da história do Brasil.
Um dos trechos mais preservados do rio Doce foi tomado pela lama de duas barragens da Samarco (Vale e BHP Billiton), rompidas no último 5 em Mariana (MG). Cerca de 25 mil piscinas olímpicas de rejeitos de mineração se deslocaram – e ainda percorrem – mais de 600 km até a costa capixaba.
"A água verde do rio se misturou com a lama até tudo ficar marrom. Os moradores estavam chocados, tentando ajudar de alguma forma", conta Leonardo, sobre o momento em que a mancha se espalhou por 10 km de praias na foz do rio.

Expedição de emergência

O testemunho em Regência foi a última escala da segunda expedição de Leonardo pelo rio Doce desde o desastre de Mariana.

Acompanhado por dois colegas do Instituto Últimos Refúgios, organização ambiental sem fins lucrativos que fundou em 2011, o fotógrafo acompanhou as consequências da tragédia por diferentes cidades: Governador Valadares, Resplendor, Conselheiro Pena, Aimorés, Baixo Guandu.

Em Governador Valadares (MG), a maior cidade da região, sem água por uma semana em razão do desastre, veio a consciência do tamanho do problema.
"Ali tomamos um susto e vimos que era muito mais feio do que imaginávamos. Começamos a ver milhares de peixes mortos, camarões, caramujos que saíam da água para morrer queimados em pedras quentes, só para não ficar na água. Vimos peixes de 10 kg mortos e moradores desavisados recolhendo tudo para consumo", relata.

Após essa primeira viagem de três dias – "assustadora", na definição de Leonardo – os recursos terminaram e o grupo voltou a Vitória. Mas logo conseguiu doações para pegar a estrada novamente, desta vez para registrar o impacto do deslocamento da lama até a foz do rio.
Para o fotógrafo, foi possível perceber que a lama está descendo o rio em blocos. "Em cada lugar a lama assume uma aparência diferente, o que talvez explique a diferença nas análises de qualidade da água".
Na semana posterior à tragédia, por exemplo, a Prefeitura de Baixo Guandu (ES) apresentou análise da água do rio Doce que apontava concentração elevada de metais pesados, como mercúrio, arsênio e chumbo. Dias depois, outro exame da lama do rio em Valadares apontou metais em limites toleráveis.

Alerta

Independentemente da discussão ainda em aberto sobre a qualidade da água do rio, os danos à natureza, segundo Leonardo, são gigantescos. "As pessoas não têm noção. É mais grave do que possam imaginar."
O impacto, diz o fotógrafo, não se restringe a ambientes aquáticos. "Jacarés, capivaras, lontras, mas também bois, cachorros, aves migratórias – todos foram afetados."

Para ele, o mais triste e chocante da passagem pelo rio foi acompanhar o relato de pessoas que tiveram a vida revirada pelo desastre. Em Aimorés, Minas Gerais, sua equipe registrou o choro de um pescador diante da paisagem marrom.
O homem, chamado Benilde, chorava ao recolher peixes mortos no rio, sustento da família. Dizia fazer aquilo para ter provas do "crime" em curso.
"Quando o encontramos estávamos fotografando peixes e camarões morrendo em Aimorés. Ele apareceu remando com seu barquinho de madeira, recolhendo lentamente peixes mortos, como em luto. Ele disse que estava recolhendo os peixes porque achava que ninguém acreditaria nele se contasse que todos os peixes do rio estavam morrendo. E chorou ao contar o que estava acontecendo e o que o rio significava pra ele", conta o fotógrafo.
"Meu filho me perguntou quando iria ter a chance de pescar um dourado, e não tive coragem de responder", disse ainda o pescador, segundo o relato de Leonardo.
"Ninguém nunca viveu isso", diz o fotógrafo. "A vida no rio Doce foi toda morta."