Natrum Sulphuricum


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


Generalities

      Sodium Sulphate or Glauber’s salt_is a remedy for hydrogenoid constitutions; where complaints are such as due to living in damp houses; basements, cellars; patients cannot eat even plants growing near water, nor fish. It specially affects OCCIPUT and LIVER, Pancreas. Sudden violent effects; in ailing patients. Piercing pains; at short ribs (left); in hip (left) worse rising or sitting down. Yellow; watery, secretions, stools, skin, vesicles etc. Thick yellow green pus. Fulness. Sour, bilious and lithaemic. Sycosis. Pains worse thinking of them. Epilepsy, or Petit mal, after head injuries. Suppressed gonorrhoea. Dropsy. Fistulous abscesses. Mental troubles arising from a fall or other injuries to head. Trembling.

Worse

      DAMP; weather; night air. Cellars. Lying on left side. Injuries; to head. Lifting. Touch. Pressure. Wind. Light. Music. Subdued light. Late evening. Vegetables, fruits. Cold food and drinks. Lying long in one position.

Better

      Open air; warm dry air. Change of position. Breakfast. Lying on back.

Mind

      Sensitive and suspicious. Sadness worse music or subdued light; sitting near a stained glass window. Fear of crowd, of evil. Suicidal impulses; has to use self control to prevent shooting himself. Melancholy. Cheerful after stools. Mental troubles arising from injury to head or ill effects of falls. Intermittent attacks of mania. Does not want to speak, and feels that nobody should talk to him.

Head

      Crushing or gnawing in occiput. Headaches worse by noise, stooping; during menses; light, eating; better in dark room; vomiting. Salivation with headache. Vertigo; better head sweat. Meningitis, spinal. Scalp sensitive, hair combing painful. Vertex hot. Brain feels loose when stooping. Head jerks to side (right).

Eyes

      Granular lids. Photophobia; on waking in morning. Heavy lids. Conjunctiva yellow. Crawling in. Eyes hot as if.

Ears

      Piercing stitches in ears; worse damp weather.

Nose

      Runs water at night. Nosebleed, before and during menses, stops and returns often. Sneezing, with fluent coryza. Thick yellow discharge.

Face

      Yellow; pale; sickly. Itching of face.

Mouth

      Slimy, thick, tenacious, white mucus. Bitter taste. Dirty brown, or greenish yellow, thick, pasty tongue esp. at base. Tip of tongue feels burnt. Toothache better by holding cold water in mouth. Gums burn like fire. Salivation during headache. Blisters on palate. Burning in mouth as from pepper.

Throat

      Thick yellow mucus drops from posterior nares. Swallowing impeded. Burning in pharynx during menses.

Stomach

      Desire for ice and ice cold water. Thirst at the start of fever only. Aversion to meat and bread. Slow digestion. Concomitants to nausea. Green bilious vomit. Acid dyspepsia with heartburn and flatulence. Starchy food, milk and potatoes disagree.

Abdomen

      Liver region sore, tender; worse deep breathing; stepping; jar; heavy, worse lying on left side. Hepatitis; duodenal catarrh. As of a lump below liver. Clawing in gall bladder. Colic better rubbing or kneading abdomen, lying on sides. Cramps at umbilicus. FLATULENCE; incarcerated; painful; pushes here and there; right abdomen. Rumbling, gurgling in bowels, then sudden noisy spluttering stools; after rising in a.m.; or drives from bed. Foamy or yellow diarrhoea; mixed with green slime. Stools involuntary, when passing flatus etc. Loose morning stools. Great size of the fecal mass. Jaundice, after anger.

Urinary

      Frequent urination. Diabetes; brick dust or white, sandy sediment. Polyuria.

Male

      Gonorrhoea, chronic; discharge thick, greenish; little pain. Condylomata. Itching of glans or penis, of scrotum.

Female

      Herpetic vulvitis. Leucorrhoea; yellowish green, following gonorrhoea; with hoarseness. Nipples retracted.

Respiratory

      Dyspnoea. Asthma, sycotic; in children as a constitutional remedy, worse early morning. Loose but violent cough; better sitting; must hold the chest or sides. Pain, piercing through lower left chest. Every fresh cold or any unusual exertion, brings on an attack of asthma. Breathing short while walking; constant desire to take deep, long breath. Asthma, with early morning diarrhoea. Expectoration, greenish, copious.

Back

      Piercing pains between scapulae. Sharp cutting pain in back spreading upwards like a fan. Violent pains in back of neck and base of brain. Lumbar region pains if one attempts to retain the urine.

Extremities

      Inflammation around root of nails. Runarounds. Hangnail. Pain in hip joint worse rising or sitting down. Sciatica on rising from sitting or turning in bed; no relief in any position. Throbbing, piercing in heels. Vesicles on soles. Burning below knees. Oedema of feet. Trembling of hands on waking and also when writing.

Skin

      Itching while undressing. Watery yellow blisters, wart-like red lumps all over the body.

Sleep

      Dreams of fighting; of running water. Awakes; from pain, from flatulency.

Fever

      Chilly, cannot get warm even in bed. Heat with aversion to uncover. Foul axillary sweat.

Complementary

      Ars; Thuja

Related

      Coloc; Glon; Med; Pulsatilla

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'.