Ambra grisea


Dr. S.R. Phatak describes the clinically confirmed symptoms of the homeopathic remedy Ambra Grisea in his Concise Materia Medica, published in 1977….


Generalities

      It affects the NERVES, causing nervousness, twitches and jerks. It is adapted; to hysterical subjects; to thin scrawny women, to patients who are weakened by age and overwork; to The aged with impairment of all functions. Patients are worn out, yet over-impressionable. Shock due to business failure or due to the deaths one after another in the family. Weakness of upper parts of the body, with trembling of lower part. Slight or unusual things worse the breathing, worse the heart, start the menses etc. One sided complaints. Symptoms suddenly change places. Sensation of coldness, numbness, in spots or of single parts, fingers, arms etc., with twitching. Itching, trembling and ebullition. General pulsation. Numbness and torpor of the whole body esp., in the morning. Coldness of the body, with twitching. Effects of domestic shock, business worry. Loss of near relatives. Imaginations. Young modern society girls.

Worse

      Music. Presence of others. Embarrassment. Agitation, worry thinking of it. Overlifting. From any unusual thing. Morning. Warmth. Warm milk.

Better

      Slow motion, in open air. Lying on painful parts. Cold drinks.

Mind

      Memory impaired; slow comprehension. Dreamy. Flitting ideas or fixed disagreeable fancies. Imagines diabolic faces, sights. Melancholy; sits for days weeping. Awkward. Flitting, flighty talker, modern society girls. Dread of people. Desire to be alone. Cannot understand what one reads. Sad. Bashful; blushes easily. Hearing others talk or talking himself affects him. Time passes slowly. Aversion to laugh. jumping from one subject to another, never waiting to have first question answered. Music causes weeping and trembling.

Head

      Vertigo; senile; with weakness in head and stomach. Tearing pain in upper part of the brain. Brain, feels loose, falls to side lain on. Hair falls out. Confusion in occiput, also sprained feeling in. Headache worse blowing nose.

Eyes

      Stitching in the eyelids as if a stye were being formed. Eyelids; heavy, cannot open them though awake. Spots float before the eyes after sewing.

Ears

      Hardness of hearing, with cold sensation in abdomen. Deaf in one, roaring and whistling in the other.

Nose

      Bleeds while washing the face in the morning. Epistaxis; during menses. Stoppage mostly at night, must breathe through the mouth, with chronic coryza.

Face

      Twitching of the facial muscles. Cramps in lips; lips hot. Left cheek red. Flushes of the face, jaundiced colour. Embarrassed look. Lock-jaw in new born.

Mouth

      Profuse bleeding from the gums; offensive breath. Ranula. Sour mouth worse after milk. Salivation, with cough.

Throat

      Sensation as if a plug in throat, with difficulty in swallowing. Sore, raw, from exposure to air, worse motion of tongue.

Stomach

      After eating; cough and gaping and a feeling, as if food did not go down into the stomach. Eructations, with violent convulsive cough. Heartburn from drinking milk. Distention of stomach, after midnight. Thirstlessness.

Abdomen

      Flatulence, cannot have others present during urination and stool; worse during pregnancy. Sensation of coldness in the abdomen. Constipation, during pregnancy, and after delivery. Aching in small spot in the region of liver better pressure. Large flow of blood with stools. Sweat on abdomen and thighs. Frequent ineffectual urging for stool.

Urinary

      Pain in the bladder and rectum at the same time. Can not pass urine in presence of others. Feeling in urethra, as if few drops passed out. Urine; turbid even during emission, forming a brown sediment. Urinates more than drinks. Urine sour, during whooping cough. Burning, smarting, itching in vulva, during urination.

Male

      Voluptuous excitement of, and itching in genitals. Parts externally numb; burn internally. Erections, without voluptuous sensation. Impotence.

Female

      Itching of pudendum, with soreness and swelling. Itching labiae. Discharge of blood between the periods, at every little accident, after hard stools, walking a little longer etc. Leucorrhoea of bluish mucus; profuse. worse at night. Sexual desire increased. Lying down worse uterine symptoms. Menses too early and too profuse.

Respiratory organs

      Asthmatic breathing; in old people; worse by coition. Hollow spasmodic barking cough, coming from deep in chest, then eructation. Bluish, white expectoration. Cough; worse music; in presence of many people; talking, reading aloud, lifting weight. Loss of breath from cough. Cough with emaciation.

Heart

      Palpitation, with pressure in chest as from a lump lodged there; or as if chest was obstructed. Palpitation, with pale face. Anxiety at heart.

Extremities

      Cramps, in hands and fingers worse grasping anything. Left leg becomes quite blue, during menses. Twitching of limbs, with coldness of body, during sleep. Cramps, in legs and calves. Limbs go to sleep easily. Finger nails brittle. Drops what one is carrying. Coldness of hand (left), with headache. Sore and raw between thighs.

Sleep

      Cannot sleep from worry, must get up. Retires tired, wakeful as soon as touches the pillow.

Fever

      Frequent flushes of heat at short intervals. Sweat on slightest exertion esp. on abdomen and thighs.

Skin

      Itching and soreness esp. around genitals.

Related

      Bar-c; Ignatia

S.R. Phatak
A pioneer of Homoeopathy in Maharashtra, Dr Shankar Raghunath Phatak was born on 6th September, 1896. He did his MBBS from Grant Medical College, in 1924. Started his practice but somehow not satisfied with Allopathic Treatment.

He was convinced about Homoeopathy while going through Sir William Osler's writings on 'History of Medicine' so switched over to an entirely Homoeopathic Practice in 1932. He also started working on Homoeopathic literature along with his Practice.

He has contributed immensely to homoeopathic literature. He was an ardent follower of Dr Boger. His Repertory is based on Boger's ''A Synoptic key to Materia Medica'.