The Homeopathic Treatment of COVID-19, Homeopathic Remedies in COVID-19

Advanced confirmed COVID-19: Response to Homoeopathic Medicine

Introduction

COVID-19 began in China in late 2019, and was officially recognised in early 2020, declared as ‘pandemic’ on March 11, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO).1 In North America, there was a concerted effort to limit treatment of COVID-19 positive patients to conventional medicine only, although the types of treatment were far from uniform and often debated in the medical literature. In homoeopathy, the patient’s symptoms act as the guiding light to selection of homoeopathic medicine, meaning that a large array of medicines is available depending on the symptoms expressed by the patient’s vital force.

Case history

DA was a 65-year female and the aunt of a long-standing patient of nearly two decades. She lived with her daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren, a boy and his older sister. Somehow all members of this household contracted COVID-19 in March-April 2020. DA was sent to hospital because she lost 10 kg due to severe diarrhoea and vomiting. She spent eight days in hospital, receiving only intravenous fluids, saline, but not total parenteral nutrition, and then was discharged back home to her extended family as the hospital required her bed and her condition didn’t worsen. At the time of discharge, her oxygen saturation was 75%; when she was admitted into hospital, it was 70%. She was not placed on ventilator or oxygen in hospital because her condition was not deemed as severe as that of other patients.

On May 5, 2020, her niece called me to complain that her aunt DA was bed-ridden, COVID-19 positive, and had been sent home around 10 kg lighter, but in no better health than when she was admitted into hospital. There was, however, one additional issue, she spoke fluent greek, not english, a language that she barely understood even though she used to live in North America for over a decade. The niece, SB, stated that she would translate her words, so  her aunt’s case was taken. Due to distance and the COVID-19 lockdown, the case was taken entirely over the telephone with SB doing the translation.

Conversation with the patient:

May 5, 2020

Doctor: How can I help you?

Patient: I am toxic. I have this terrible odour and stuff is coming out of me!

Doctor: What is the odour?

Patient: I am toxic, I am like “burnt rubber” or a “nasty chemical!”; no one else can smell it but I can! I tried water to flush it out, but it does not go away!

Doctor: Go on.

Patient: I cannot get out of bed. If I go to the bathroom, I am exhausted. It takes all of my strength to urinate and then I have to stay in bed the rest of the day to recover; I have no energy and I need to be up and doing things for my family; cook, bake…

Doctor: What else?

Patient: I am shaky when on my feet, have to hold onto things to get around, but then am exhausted and have to lie in bed for hours

I have a slight sore throat that goes from the right to my ear; it is sharp like a knife; I had that when this began. It was like a bad cold.

Doctor: What else?

Patient: I got the flu vaccine, but I heard that increases my risk for COVID-19! I am bed-ridden and cannot be with or help my family, this is terrible!

Observation:

At that moment, DA was too exhausted to continue talking so her niece, SB,was asked about DA as a person. She said that her aunt was lively, affectionate, desired to talk, used to help people and always hug the members of the immediate and extended family. She could not identify any food cravings, except that she liked greek food; fish, seafood, vegetables, salads, and ate a healthy diet which she also cooked and fed to her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. Until COVID-19, DA did the cooking and housework because the rest of the household worked and attended school. She said that her aunt was about 162 cm tall and usually weighed 68 kg, so now she must be 58 kg or less if she had lost 10 or more kg. She also described her as active, energetic and upbeat. Due to COVID-19, the niece had not seen her aunt in several months since lockdown.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis of COVID-19, in the early days of the pandemic, was done by nasal swab taken from deep within nasal and sinus passages.2 The RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test makes an RNA extraction from human nasal samples with transcription of RNA into complementary DNA (cDNA) and PCR amplification of DNA to determine which virus(es) are present in order to establish the diagnosis.2,3The ICD code 10 diagnose for COVID-19 is UO7.14 PCR testing is available for saliva samples as well. Her homoeopathic diagnosis was an altered vital force that tried to expel the virus through vomiting and diarrhoea, but left her debilitated and weakened. However, in weakened state, she produced a number of symptoms that could help one find her simillimum.

Case analysis

The symptoms considered included nose odours imaginary and real.5 ‘Chemical’ was too small a rubric as was ‘burnt’. Offensive was better with around 50 remedies, and the sub-rubric ‘within the nose’ had 12 remedies. I could not find rubber as an odour. The ubric ‘affectionate’ was also taken into consideration which had around 80 remedies.6

The differential diagnosis of homoeopathic medicines included Sulphur, Belladonna, Calcarea phosphorica, Phosphorus and Pulsatilla nigricans. Hepar sulphuricum might have been an option because of her throat to ear symptoms, as it was the early stage when she was transitioning from cold to full COVID-19 but she was past that now..

DA lacked the mental state one associates with an ill Sulphur, congestion, discharges, selfishness, anxiety, and indifference to others.7 Belladonna has congestion, throbbing, shocks, restlessness, and delirium, but DA seemed sincere, present and truly concerned about her inability to help her family.8 Calcarea carbonicum has cravings that did not match those of DA, Calcarea carbonicum is chilly , tend to be apprehensive when ill, thework and the desire to complete their tasks is an important symptom, while she had none of that.9 Phosphorus can be sad and prostrate, but her weakness was due to poor oxygenation, while Phosphorus is often fearful and anxious, but she did not seem so afraid despite her poor health and poor prognosis.10 Pulsatilla nigricans is generally thirstless, chilly, short of breath, such symptoms in different parts of the body can cause dyspnoea, and they can have a loss of smell or smell bad odours as a result of catarrh, especially on the right side.11,12,13

Prescription

Pulsatilla nigricans 30CH was prescribed. She was weakened, her oxygen was dangerously low, and it was uncertain to predict if it was the correct medicine. She was prescribed the remedy by plussing; two pellets in a small, clean glass jar of about 200 mL with a lid, shaken ten times and given a sip, holding it in the mouth for 10-20 seconds, and repeat this for 5 doses about 15-20 minutes apart. Her niece picked up the medicine that day and couriered it to her overnight. She began taking the medicine on may 6, and again on may 7,2020.

Follow-Up

On the morning of May 8, 2020, her niece, SB, reported that her aunt began the medicine around noon on May 6, and by that evening, was feeling much better. She got up on May 7 and felt so good that she made breakfast for the whole family, then went for a 2 km walk, and felt even better after the walk, went to the grocery store to stock up on groceries for that evening’s meal. The patient was immediately cautioned that without testing, it cannot be confirmed whether she was shedding viruses, hence she should also conserve her new-found energy. She also reported that her aunt had black and red spots on her arms and legs that were almost completely gone the next day, her face felt cold, her oxygen wentup to 96%, and while the smell was still there but it was much reduced. Patient was advised to continue Pulsatilla nigricans 30CH with plussing for another two days, and then only as needed.

The next follow-up was a phone call on June 23, 2020, wherein DA said that(in greek, with translation by her niece SB) she couldn’t explain how thankful she was and how well she was. The odour took a week to go away but she felt like her old self. , Since May 10, she did not take any medicine. Another follow-up on October 22, 2020, confirmed that DA was still feeling like her normal self, her family was doing well, and she didn’t  repeat Pulsatilla nigricans 30CH since early May.

Discussion

This patient displayed many of the symptoms associated with a COVID-19 infection including alteration in smell, often reduced in the early stages, profound fatigue, poor oxygenation, and the easy bruising signs that she did not reveal in our initial interview.14,15 Like the many thousands of patients who have contacted COVID-19, she seemed headed into the “long haul” state associated with fatigue, weakness, waxing and waning of diverse infection symptoms.14,16 COVID-19 begins as a respiratory condition but quickly moves into the circulatory, nervous and other systems leading to a diversity of symptoms that can be serious, and in some patients, fatal.14,15 Pulsatilla nigricans matched her symptoms picture and vanquished her symptoms quickly, without side effects, and she was able to return to her former productive and happy self (Organon of Medicine P1-4).17 The plussing approach was used in order to give several doses in a short time with slight changes in potency. It is found to be very beneficial in serious pathologies and weakened patients when the prognosis is poor or guarded.

Conclusion

Thus, the homoeopathic plussing prescription of Pulsatilla nigricans 30CH in a matter of hours returned the patient to full health and life function  after which he had no relapse compared to many of the long haul COVID-19 positive patients.

References

1.World Health Organization. WHO characterizes COVID-19 as a pandemic. March 19, 2020. www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/ novel -coronavirus-2019/events as they happen. Accessed November 11, 2020.

2.Santiago I. The worldwide test for Covid-19. ID Tech Ex molecular diagnostics 2020-2030 and biomedical diagnostics at point of care 2019-2029. Accessed June 11,2020.

3.Lab Corp. Lap Corp COVID-19 RT-PCR test EUA summary. Burlington, NC. Accessed June 11, 2020.

4.ICD10Data.com. 2021 ICD-10-CM Codes PCS Medical Coding Reference. National Center for Health and Statistics for World Health Organization. Accessed November 11, 2020.

5.Schroyens F. Synthesis. Edition 9.1.  Homoeopathic Book Publishers, London, UK. 2004. p.568.

6.Schroyens F. Synthesis. Edition 9.1.  Homoeopathic Book Publishers, London, UK. 2004. p.4.

7.Vermeulen, F. Concordant Materia Medica. Merlijin Publishers, Haarlem, Netherlands. 1994. pp.1890-1907.

8.Vermeulen, F. Concordant Materia Medica. Merlijin Publishers, Haarlem, Netherlands. 1994. pp.316-330.

9.Vermeulen, F. Concordant Materia Medica. Merlijin Publishers, Haarlem, Netherlands. 1994. pp.415-443.

10.Vermeulen, F. Concordant Materia Medica. Merlijin Publishers, Haarlem, Netherlands. 1994. pp.1553-1569.

11.Vermeulen, F. Concordant Materia Medica. Merlijin Publishers, Haarlem, Netherlands. 1994. pp.1643-1658.

12.Vermeulen F. Concordant Reference. B Jain Archibel. Belgium. 2011. pp.1643-1658.

13.Hering C. The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica. Pratap Medical Publishers, New Delhi, India. 1891. pp.593-594.

14.Maxwell E. Living with Covid19: often called Long Covid. National Institute for Health Research. Bethesda, MD. 2020. 29p.

15.CDC Similarities and Differences between Flu and COVID-19. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/flu-vs- covid19.htm accessed September 4th, 2020.

16.Shenoy N, Luchtel R, Gulani P. Considerations for target oxygen saturation in COVID-19 patients: are we under-shooting. BMC Med. 2020 Aug 19;18(1):260.

17.Hahnemann S. Organon of the medical art. 6th Edition. Translated S Decker, Edited and annotated WB O’Reilly. Birdcage Books, Richmond, WA. 1996. pp60-61.

About Author:

Paul Richard Saunders, PhD, ND, CCH, DHANP

Professor of Materia Medica and Clinical Medicine

Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine

Posted By

Homeopathy360 Team