
Abstract : Homeopathy has a wide spectrum of application in treatment of various illnesses. Its role in treating acute illness has been noted remarkably, by many homeopathic practitioners. It involves using highly diluted substances to stimulate the body’s natural healing processes. Homeopathy is based on the principle of “like cures like” (similia similibus curentur). Acute symptoms of various pathological illness can be well managed when treated according to totality of symptoms, and most similimum indicated medicine is given to the patient.
Keywords : Acute Diseases, Homoeopathic Management
Introduction
In microbiology, an acute disease is a short-lived illness that appears suddenly and causes a severe impact on the body; these diseases have distinct symptoms that require urgent or short-term care.
Dr Hahneman in Organon of medicine defined acute diseases as a result of rapid morbid process of the deranged vital force , their onset is sudden, have definite course and quick expression of action , they terminate within a short time either with complete recovery or death of the patient, In Aphorism § 73 of Organon of Medicine 5th ed he had stated that Certain injurious influence over an individual human being such as Excesses in food, or an insufficient supply of it, severe physical impression, chills, over heatings, dissipation, strains, etc., or physical irritations, mental emotions, and the like, are exciting causes of such acute febrile, he described it as only a transient explosion of latent psora, which spontaneously returns to its dormant state if the acute diseases were not of too violent a character.
Classification of Acute Disease.
Acute diseases have been classified by Dr hahnemann in Organon of medicine, as Individual, sporadic and epidemic, he instructed to form totality of symptoms in each case of disease and prescribe the most accurate indicated similimum.
Case Taking in Acute Disease
In acute diseases, Hahnemann stresses the importance of rapid case-taking with a focus on the symptoms as they appear at the moment. The practitioner should avoid overanalyzing and aim to capture the immediate symptoms to arrive at the most appropriate remedy swiftly.
Various Acute Ailments And Its Homeopathic Management
Fever –
Aconite Napellus– Onset is sudden and rapid,
Fever with marked cold stage, cold sweat along with icy coldness on face. Thirst and chilliness always present, Chilly on uncovering, dry heat and red face. Mental anguish ans restlessness. > sweating.
Bryonia – Fever with pulse full, hard, and quick. Chill with external coldness, Easy profuse perspiration, ailments from chagrin, mortification, anger < motion, warmth > rest.
Arsenic album – Septic fever with high temperature marked with adynamic. Paroxysm incomplete with marked exhaustion. Delirium worse at midnight with great restlessness. <midnight, from cold seashore. > heat, warm drinks.
Nux Vomica – Fever with excessive rigor and chilliness, the patient is chilly on uncovering, still does not allow being covered. <morning, mental exertion, after eating, touch spices, narcotics.
Gelsemium – Fever with dull, drowsiness and dizziness along with greater chill, specially up and down the back. Chill with No thirst, dizziness and prostration.
Belladona – Indicated in congestive stage of fever, head hot and painful, face flushed, pupils dilated, dry mouth, sleepy but cannot sleep.
Natrum muriaticum- Fever with continuous chilliness is very marked. Heat with violent thirst, Chill between 9 and 11 am. <Noise, music, warm room, 10 am > open air, cold bathing.
Rhus Toxicodendron – Fever with adynamia and restlessness, specially indicated in typhoid fever with tongue dry and brown; sordes; bowels loose; great restlessness. Intermittent; chill, with dry cough and restlessness. Chilly, as if cold water were poured over him,
Eupatorium perf- Fever with great soreness and aching of bones, Chill between 7 and 9 am, preceded by thirst, Nausea, vomiting of bile at close of chill or hot stage; throbbing headache, Perspiration relieves all symptoms except headache, Aching in bones of extremities with soreness of flesh, is associated with all the complaints.
Pyrogenum – Fever with Coldness and chilliness. Septic fevers. Latent pyogenic condition. Chill begins in back. Temperature rises rapidly. Great heat with profuse hot sweat, but sweating does not cause a fall in temperature.
Ferrum Phos – Fever with Chill daily at 1 pm. Indicated in all catarrhal and inflammatory fevers; first stage, Worse, at night and 4 to 6 pm; touch, jar, motion, right side. Better, cold applications.
Coryza
Arsenic Album- Indicated in coryza with thin, watery, excoriating discharge. Nose feels stopped up. Sneezing without relief, specially indicated when coryza caused due to exposure of cold air and cold food.
Allium cepa – Specially given in acute catarrhal inflammation, coryza with Sneezing, especially when entering a warm room. Copious, watery and extremely acrid discharge. Feeling of a lump at root of nose. Fluent coryza with headache, cough, and hoarseness also useful when coryza is associated with Nasal Polypus.
Belladonna : Indicated in coryza associated with hot, red skin, flushed face, glaring eyes, throbbing carotids, excited mental state, hyperesthesia of all senses, delirium, restless sleep, Imaginary Odors. Tingling in tip of nose. Red and swollen. Bleeding of nose, with red face. Coryza; mucus mixed with blood.
Euphrasia – Indicated in Profuse, fluent coryza, with violent cough and abundant expectoration.
Natrum mur – Violent, fluent coryza, lasting from one to three days, then changing into stoppage of nose, making breathing difficult. Violent sneezing coryza. Infallible for stopping a cold commencing with sneezing. Use thirtieth potency. Loss of smell and taste. Internal soreness of nose. Dryness.
Pulsatilla – Coryza; stoppage of right nostril, pressing pain at root of nose. Loss of smell. Large green fetid scales in nose. Stoppage in evening. Yellow mucus; abundant in morning. Bad smells, as of old catarrh. Nasal bones sore.
Dulcamara – Indicated in coryza when nose stuffs up when exposure to cold rain, Complete stoppage of nose, Wants nose kept warm, least cold air stops the nose
Kali bichrome – Indicated in Snuffles of children, especially fat, chubby babies. Sticking pain in nose. Fetid smell. Discharge thick, ropy, greenish-yellow. Tough, elastic plugs from nose; leave a raw surface. Loss of smell. Much hawking. Inability to breathe through nose. Dryness. Coryza, with obstruction of nose. Violent sneezing with stopped-up sensation.
Sambucus– Coryza with suffocative cough, coming on about midnight, with crying and dyspnśa. Spasmodic croup. When nursing child must let go of nipple, nose blocked up, cannot breathe. Child awakes suddenly, nearly suffocating, sits up, turns blue. Cannot expire (Meph). Millar’s asthma.
Earache
Belladona – Tearing pain in middle and external ear. Humming noises. Membrana tympani bulges and injected. Parotid gland swollen. Sensitive to loud tones. Hearing very acute. Otitis media. Pain causes delirium. Child cries out in sleep; throbbing and beating pain deep in ear, synchronous with heart beat. Hematoma auris. Acute and sub-acute conditions of Eustachian tube. Autophony-hearing one’s voice in ear4.
Verbascum Thapsus – For Ear Pain And Hearing Difficulty
Verbascum Thapsus is the best medicine for managing ear pain and hearing difficulty along with a feeling of ear blockage. It is also highly recommended for ear pain of nerve origin. It is indicated when ear ache is part of the facial pain of nerve origin (Trigeminal Neuralgia). The pain is more pronounced on the left side and gets worse with the slightest movement. The ear is always dry inside5.
Merc Sol – For Earache In Case Of Sore Throat
This medicine is suitable to manage ear ache in cases of sore throat. The key feature to use this medicine is pain in the throat extending to the ears. Pain in the ears can be shooting or tearing type which gets worse at night from the warmth of bed. Thick yellow discharge from ears may be noted. At times, pus having foul odor gets discharged from the ears.
Plantago – For Earache Associated With Toothache
Plantago is a natural and highly beneficial medicine to manage pain in the ear related to toothache. Persons needing it complain of sharp pain in ears and teeth. The reason may be tooth decay.
Mercurius Dulcis
Otitis media; closure of Eustachian tube; ear troubles of scrofulous children; membrana tympani retracted, thickened and immovable.
Capsicum Annum
Burning and stinging in ears. Swelling and pain behind ears. Inflammation of mastoid. Tenderness over the petrous bone; extremely sore and tender to touch (Onosmod). Otorrhśa and mastoid disease before suppuration.
Diarrhea
Aloe socotrina – Diarrhea as if Feeling of weakness and loss of power of sphincter ani. Sense of insecurity in rectum, when passing flatus. Uncertain whether gas or stool will come. Stool passes without effort, almost unnoticed. Lumpy, watery stool. Jelly-like stools, with soreness in rectum after stool. A lot of mucus, with pain in rectum after stool. Hæmorrhoids protrude like grapes; very sore and tender; > cold water application. Burning in anus and rectum.
Arsenic album – Small, offensive, dark, with much prostration. Worse at night, and after eating and drinking; from chilling stomach, alcoholic abuse, spoiled meat. Dysentery dark, bloody, very offensive. Cholera, with intense agony, prostration, and burning thirst. Body cold as ice (Verat). Hćmorrhoids burn like fire; relieved by heat. Skin excoriated about anus4.
Podophyllum– Cholera infantum and morbus. Diarrhśa of long standing; early in morning; during teething, with hot, glowing cheeks while being bathed or washed; in hot weather after acid fruits. Morning, painless diarrhśa when not due to venous stasis or intestinal ulceration. Green, watery, fetid, profuse, gushing. Prolapse of rectum before or with stool. Constipation; clay-colored, hard, dry, difficult. Constipation alternating with diarrhśa (Ant crud). Internal and external piles4.
Ipecac –Stools Pitch-like green as grass, like frothy molasses, with griping at navel. Dysenteric, slimy.
Croton tigrinum- Copious watery stools, with much urging; always forcibly shot out, with gurgling in intestines; worse, drinking the least quantity, or even while eating. Constant urging to stool, followed by sudden evacuation. Swashing sensation in intestines.
Camphor -Blackish; involuntary. Asiatic cholera, with cramps in calves, coldness of body, anguish, great weakness, collapse, tongue and mouth cold.
Veratrm album- Constipation from inactivity of rectum, with heat and headache. Constipation of babies, and when produced by very cold weather. Stools large, with much straining until exhausted, with cold sweat. Diarrhœa, very painful, watery, copious, and forcibly evacuated, followed by great prostration. Evacuations of cholera morbus and true cholera when vomiting accompanies the purging.
Phosphorous- Very fetid stools and flatus. Long, narrow, hard, like a dog’s. Difficult to expel. Desire for stool on lying on, left side. Painless, copious debilitating diarrhœa. Green mucus with grains like sago. Involuntary; seems as if anus remained open. Great weakness after stool. Discharge of blood from rectum, during stool. White, hard stools. Bleeding hæmorrhoids.
Headache
Belladona – Headache with Much throbbing and heat. Palpitation reverberating in head with labored breathing. Pain with fullness sensation specially on foreheads, temporal and occipital region. Headache from suppressed catarrhal flow. Pain worse light, noise, jar, lying down and in afternoon; better by pressure and semi-erect posture. Boring of head into pillow; drawn backward and rolls from side to side. Constant moaning. Hair splits; is dry and comes out. Headache worse on the right side and when lying down; ill effects, colds, etc; from having hair cut.
Glonoinum – Throbbing headache with marked irritability Headache due to sunstroke; as in type-setters and workers under gas and electric light. Cannot bear any heat about head. Better from uncovering head. Very irritable. Cerebral congestion. Head feels enormously large, as if skull were too small for brain. Sun headaches; increases and decreases with the sun. Shocks in head, synchronous with pulse.
Natrum Mur – Throbs. Blinding headache. Aches as if a thousand little hammers were knocking on the brain, in the morning on awakening, after menstruation, from sunrise to sunset. Feels too large; cold. Anćmic headache of school-girls; nervous, discouraged, broken down. Chronic headache, semi-lateral, congestive, from sunrise to sunset, with pale face, nausea, vomiting; periodical; from eyestrain; menstrual. Before attack, numbness and tingling in lips, tongue and nose, relieved by sleep. Frontal sinus inflammation
Iris Versicolor- Frontal headache, with nausea. The scalp feels constricted. Right temples are especially affected. Sick headache, worse rest; begins with a blur before eyes, after relaxing from a mental strain.
Kali phos – -Occipital headache; better, after rising. Vertigo, from lying, standing up, from sitting, and when looking upward (Granat). Cerebral anćmia. Headache of students, and those worn out by fatigue. Headaches are relieved by gentle motion. Headache, with weary, empty, gone feeling at stomach (Ign; Sep).
Kali Bichrome- Vertigo with nausea when rising from seat. Headache over eyebrows, preceded by blurred vision. Aching and fullness in glabella. Semilateral headache in small spots, and from suppressed catarrh. Frontal pain; usually over one eye. Bones and scalp feel sore.
Epiphegus – Left sided headache with pressing pain in temples. Pressing pain in temples. Viscid salivation, constant inclination to spit. Headaches from nerve tire caused by mental or physical exhaustion, preceded by hunger.
Sanguinaria Canadensis – Indicated right sided periodic sick headache on exposure to sun. Pain begins in the occiput, spreads upwards, and settles over eyes, especially right. Veins and temples are distended. Pain is better lying down and sleeping. Headaches return at climacteric; every seventh day (Sulph; Sabad). Pain in a small spot over the upper left parietal bone. Burning in eyes. Pain in the back of head “like a flash of lightning”4.
Vomiting
Ipecac– Indicated in constant nausea and vomiting with clean toungue and much saliva. Vomits food, bile, blood, mucus. Stomach feels relaxed, as if hanging down.
Arsenic Album– Arsenic Album is a natural remedy for vomiting in cases of food poisoning and GIT infections. In cases where Arsenic Album is indicated, the vomiting may be green, yellow, bitter, sour, or clear. It may also contain blood in some cases. Vomiting appears soon after eating or drinking. Diarrhea with loose, watery, copious, offensive stool also arises. There is a complete loss of appetite with vomiting.
Pulsatilla – Pulsatilla is helpful for cases of vomiting with stomach derangement from taking fatty food like creams, pastries, ice creams. Abdominal colic, loose stool, and nausea appear with vomiting.
Cocculus – Nausea from riding in cars, boat, etc, or looking at boat in motion; worse on becoming cold or taking cold. Nausea, with faintness and vomiting. Aversion to food, drink, tobacco. Metallic taste. Paralysis of muscles preventing deglutition. Dryness of œsophagus. Seasickness (Resorcin. 1x). Cramp, in stomach during and after meal. Hiccough and spasmodic yawning. Loss of appetite. Desire for cold drinks, especially beer. Sensation in stomach as if one had been a long time without food until hunger was gone. Smell of food disgusts (Colch).
Veratrum – Veratrum Album is very beneficial in cases of vomiting attended with diarrhea. Vomiting is accompanied with continued nausea, retching, and weakness. The vomiting is copious and forcible, of bile or food and drink. Vomiting and diarrhea are usually attended with cold sweat especially on the forehead. Ther stool is frequent, watery, gushing with abdominal cramps or severe pinching colic. Pains may also appear in calves and feet. During stool, the person feels chilly and may shiver. Episodes of fainting may appear with the above features. Veratrum Album is also a top listed homeopathic medicine for treating cholera infection5.
Cuprum – Nausea with Hiccoughs. Vomiting, relieved by drinking cold water; with colic, diarrhœa, spasms. Strong metallic taste (Rhus). When drinking, the fluid descends with gurgling sound (Laur). Craves cool drink4
Camphor– Suited to patients with copious vomiting and nausea with Voracious appetite. Thirst for cold water, but is vomited as soon as swallowed. Averse to warm food. aggravated by drinking and least motion. Craves fruit, juicy and cold things, ice, salt. Anguish in pit of stomach. Great weakness after vomiting. Gastric irritability with chronic vomiting of food4.
Cough
Bryonia Alba— For a Dry Cough
Tough mucus in larynx and trachea, loosened only after much hawking;
worse coming into warm room5.
Antimonium Tart— For a Loose, Rattling Cough
Velvety feeling in chest
Rapid, short, difficult breathing
Cough and dyspnœa better lying on right side–(opposite Badiaga).
Spongia Tosta— For a Cough with Dryness In Air Passages
Sore throat; worse after eating sweet things. Tickling causes cough. Clears throat constantly.
Cough abates after eating or drinking, especially warm drinks5.
Drosera Rotundifolia— For cough worse on lying down
Spasmodic, dry irritative cough, like whooping-cough, the paroxysms following each other very rapidly;
Cough very deep and hoarse; worse, after midnight; yellow expectoration, with bleeding from nose and mouth
Hepar Sulph— For loose cough with thick, yellow expectoration
sensation as if a plug and of a splinter in throat.
Cough excited whenever any part of the body gets cold or uncovered, or from eating anything cold
Croup with loose, rattling cough; worse in morning
Arsenic Album— For an Asthmatic Cough
Unable to lie down; fears suffocation. Air-passages constricted
Suffocative catarrh. Cough worse after midnight; worse lying on back. Expectoration scanty, frothy. Darting pain through upper third of right lung5
Corallium Rubrum— For a Cough from PND (post nasal dripping)
Hawking of profuse mucus.
Cough with great sensitiveness of air-passages; feel cold on deep inspiration.
Worse in open air, changing from a warm too cold room.
Constipation
Nux Vomica – For Constipation With Constant Ineffectual Urge For Stool5
incomplete and unsatisfactory; feeling as if part remained unexpelled
Alternate constipation and diarrhœa-after abuse of purgatives.
Mind Very irritable: sensitive to all impressions
Bryonia Alba – For Dry, Hard, Stool In Lump Form5
hard, dry, as if burnt
brown, thick, bloody
worse in morning, from moving, from cold drinks, every spell of hot weather.
talks of business.
Alumina – For Constipation With No Urge To Pass Stool For Days
Even a soft stool is passed with difficulty. Great straining.
Constipation of infants (Collins; Psor;) and old people from inactive rectum.
Confused as to personal identity.
Opium – For Dry, Hard Stool In Form Of Balls5
Obstinate constipation
no desire to go to stool.
Round, hard, black balls.
Feces protrude and recede (Thuj; Sil)
Complete loss of consciousness,Patient wants nothing.
Alumen – For Extremely Hard Stool Like Stone5
No ability to expel stool. Marble-like masses pass, but rectum still feels full. Itching after stool.
Dyspepsia
Iris Versicolor – For Sour, Bitter Belching and Heartburn5
Burning of whole alimentary canal
Frontal headache, with nausea
Robinia – When Acidity Symptoms Worsen At Night
sour, eructations
profuse vomiting of an intensely sour fluid (Sulph ac)
Natrum Phos – For Heartburn and Difficult Swallowing
Yellow, creamy coating at the back part of the roof of the mouth. Dysphagia.
Sour eructations, sour vomiting, greenish diarrhœa
Carbo Veg – For Bloating and Heartburn
Eructations, heaviness, fullness, and sleepiness
Eructations after eating and drinking. Temporary relief from belching
Burning in stomach, extending to back and along spine
Aversion to milk, meat, and fat things.
Nux Vomica – For Acidity from spicy food, coffee, alcohol10
Epigastrium bloated, with pressure s of a stone, several hours after eating.
Desire for stimulants.
Loves fats and tolerates them well (Puls opposite)
Dyspepsia from drinking strong coffee. Difficult belching of gas.
Wants to vomit, but cannot.
Arsenic Album – For Burning Pain in Throat
Cannot bear the sight or smell of food. Great thirst; drinks much, but little at a time.
Burning pain.
Dyspepsia from vinegar, acids, ice-cream, ice-water, tobacco
Pulsatilla Nigricans – For Acid Reflux from Fatty Food5
Averse to fat food, warm food, and drink
Dislikes butter(Sang)
Thirstlessness, with nearly all complaints
Dyspepsia, with great tightness after a meal; must loosen clothing.
Some examples of Epidemic disease treatment
According to Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, in an epidemic the most severe symptoms of the clinical condition presented by the population in question should be the basis for selecting the medication that is as similar as possible to them, and which should be administered to individuals who have been exposed to the disease but have not yet developed it. This medicine is called the genus epidemicus.
Homeopathy has been used to treat epidemic diseases since the time of Hahnemann, who used Belladonna to treat scarlet fever. Since then, several approaches using homeopathy for epidemic diseases have been proposed, including individualization, combination remedies, genus epidemicus, and isopathy6.
A modern example of the use of genus epidemicus was reported by a group in India that performed a double-blind placebo-controlled trial using Bryonia alba to prevent Chikungunya fever during an epidemic of this viral disease in 2007 7. . Out of nearly 20,000 healthy individuals in each group, 12.8% of those receiving Bryonia developed the illness compared with 15.8% of those taking the placebo (p ¼ 0.03). This translates into a relative risk reduction of nearly 20% in contracting Chikungunya. These results are promising and hopefully will encourage more researchers to evaluate this approach.
In 2006, a homoeopathic preventive Eupatorium 30C was distributed to 1061 people with significant prevention (p < 0.0001).i
Another preventive trial was conducted by CCRH in 2007 where homoeopathic medicine Bryonia 30C was distributed as a preventive to 19, 750 people in Kerala and Bryonia alba 30C was found to be better than placebo in decreasing the incidence of chikungunya in Kerala8.
Potency and repetiotion in acute illness
In acute diseases every 4,8,12,16 and 24 hrs, in severe cases even hourly repetition. Same medicine may be repeated several times but only till recovery ensues or it ceases to do good or presents with new symptoms.
Some Important Mother tinctures used in Management of Acute diseases.
Cascara sagrada- Headache, gastric
Melilotus alba- Headache
Euphrasia officinalis- Conjunctivitis
Avena sativa- Acute coryza
Millifolium – Epistaxis
Plantago- Toothache , sensitive to touch
Phytolacca decandra- Tonsillitis
Robinia- Acidity
Azadirachta indica- Fever periodic
Justicia adhatoda- Cough
Conflict of Interest- No
Conclusion
The most similimum medicine indicated in each case of disease works infallibly in management of each individual case of disease. The remedy is chosen based on the totality of symptoms, including physical, emotional, and mental states, key symptoms, peculiarities, and modalities are considered.
References
https://www.robertopenacivilsurgeon.com/acute-diseases
Dudgeon RE, organon of medicine, Fifth and Sixth Edition Combined B. Jain Publishers, 2010.
https://www.slideshare.net
Boericke W. Pocket manual of homoeopathic Materia medica & repertory: Comprising of the characteristic and guiding symptoms of all remedies (clinical and pathogenetic) including Indian Drugs. New Delhi: B. Jain Publishers (P) Ltd.; 2018
https://www.drhomeo.com
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1055/s-0038-1649487.pdf
https://www.ccrhindia.nic.in/
https://www.homeobook.com
Keynotes Rearranged and Classified with leading Remedies of the Materia Medica and Bowel Nosodes Including reportorial Index HC ALLEN M.D Tenth Edition
Author
Dr Urvashi Diwakar, Dr Deepak Prasher
1B.H.M.S PG Scholar, Department of Homoeopathic Repertory,
D.N. De Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
2 B.H.M.S DNHE, PG Psychology, Practicing as Diet and Mental Health Consultant at New Delhi.