PALPITATION AND FAINTING


Pathophysiology of Palpitation and homeopathic approach of it discussed by J.H. Clarke in his book diseases of heart and arteries….


PALPITATION AND FAINTING.

Of all the symptoms connected with the heart the most common is undoubtedly palpitation. It is a frequent accompaniment of actual disease of the heart, but it is safe to say that in nine cases out of ten in which it occurs there is no discoverable structural alteration of the organ itself.

The frequent, forcible and often painful pulsation of the heart coming in paroxysms depends on a disturbance in the nervous control of the heart. It is occasioned, as is very well known, by a variety of emotions, by over-exertion, by evil habits, by over indulgence in tobacco and coffee,. by injudicious drugging, by faulty dress.

In this chapter I shall not consider those cases in which palpitation occurs as a result of organic disease, nor those (dealt with in the preceding chapter) in which it forms one of the phenomena of exophthalmic goitre, or the condition called “Tachycardia” (rapid heart), where it is a permanent feature. I shall include here only those cases in which there is a liability to attacks on slight provocation, and those in which attacks seem to come on without any provocation whatever.

Women are much more liable to be affected with this form of heart disturbance than men, and the times when it is most troublesome are puberty and the climacteric. No doubt the difference in the organisation and temperament of the two sexes has much to do with this, but there is another factor which is accountable for a vast deal of the heart-suffering of women, and that is-dress. As soon as girls begin to grow up they are compelled to wear corsets, which, if they do not actually constrict the lower segment of the chest, do prevent the proper movement of the chest wall and hinder proper development. Nature has made the lowest ribs free to expand and dilate with the exigencies of breathing; dressmakers have infringed on this by substituting a rigid wall. The lungs not having sufficient room for their natural motion press on the heart and incommode its action. Not having proper room in which to dilate, it makes up for inefficient action by over-rapid action, and thus there is an attack of palpitation whenever any unusual demand is made on the heart and lungs. I need hardly add that when a good meal is added to the contents of the corset, the crowded state of matters is much increased.

The figure of a woman demands a somewhat different style of dress from that of a man, but the part on which the pressure ought to be put is the hips-the part which shelves outwards from the crest of the hip-bone to the prominence of the thigh bone (great trochanter) over the hip-joint.

No amount of pressure can do harm there. But the free ribs must be left free, and corsets should be made of some material which is not rigid but elastic, and which will allow the natural motions of the chest wall to take place. The “Curetta” corset and those made by the Jaeger company fulfil these conditions.

In the same connection may be mentioned another cause of palpitation, and this is, indigestion. Many people think they have heart disease when they have nothing more than indigestion. The heart and stomach are under the control of the same nerve, so that any injury to one is often felt sympathetically by the other. The stomach lies within the arch of the free ribs; anything therefore which lessens this space interferes with the stomach and cramps it for room, and is sufficient to cause indigestion. The heart and the stomach are only separated by the diaphragm, hence any over-distention of the stomach, whether by flatulence or food, is very apt to give rise to heart symptoms.

In young men one of the most frequent causes of palpitation is indulgence in tobacco. Tobacco has four favourite seats on which it expends the brunt of its action-the nervous system, the heart, the eye and the throat. It may be one of these only, or it may be a combination. I have seen the most abject terror of death in connection with disturbed heart’s action, produced by excessive smoking.

Another very fruitful cause of it (and this applies to both sexes) is the practice of vicious habits which are generally learned at school. In these cases it is one of many other symptoms, but often the leading one. It does not often lead to organic change, but it does sometimes. In one case, in a young man where there was both valvular defect and hypertrophy, under a prolonged course of Natrum mur. the valvular defect disappeared and also the palpitation with other subjective symptoms.

When the cause is known and removable, the clear indication is to remove it. But in these cases much help may be given by homoeopathy to relieve the sufferings entailed in breaking off old habits and stimulants. For instance, Nux vomica and Arsenicum will often enable tobacco devotees to break off their habit; Nux vomica, Sulphur, Lachesis, China, and again Arsenicum with several other medicines will weaken or destroy the craving for alcohol in drunkards.

But there are many cases in which the cause is not to be removed. In naturally sensitive persons, when the least excitement of any kind will set up palpitation, Ignatia and the serpent poisons are invaluable. Climacteric palpitations (which though far more common in women than in men are not by any means confined to one sex), are very frequently removed by medicines.

CASE XXV.-CLIMACTERIC PALPITATION CURED BY Glonoin.

Glonoin, the medicine prepared from Nitroglycerine, is one of the glories of homoeopathy. Almost as soon as the substance was discovered Constantine Hering, of Philadelphia, procured some and proved it. Soon afterwards Dudgeon and others in this country further tested its powers by taking it themselves. In these experiments the power of the drug on the heart and circulation was fully manifested, and it was not long before it was turned to very good account in practice. The allopaths have recently adopted the discovery, and even adopted the first Hahnemannian dilution of the medicine. The history of the discovery they are careful not to mention, and naturally enough they have not adopted the name Hering coined out of its chemical formula-they adhere to its longer title, Nitro-glycerine.

But to come to my case. The patient, a lady, just at the commencement of the menopause, was suddenly seized one day with violent palpitation, together with throbbing in the blood-vessels all over the body, and more especially the head. She was for the time so ill that she was unable to do anything, and had some trouble in getting to her bed-room.

A few doses of Glonoin quieted the storm in a very short time, and it never afterwards recurred in the same violence. When it did recur Glonoin soon relieved the patient.

Belladonna is another valuable medicine in cases of excited heart action. Probably Belladonna would have helped this patient if Glonoin had not been discovered, but not so promptly. The following case shows its power very well.

CASE XXVI.-PALPITATION IN AN ATTACK OF ACUTE ILLNESS. Belladonna.

A lady, 56, in the course of an attack of broncho-pneumonia was seized with a fit of palpitation of great severity; she could not lie down in bed, her face was flushed intensely, and she was in the greatest distress. The heart was evidently beyond the control of its usual nervous controlling influences.

Belladonna 30 was given at once. Almost immediately the attack moderated. A few more doses at frequent intervals put an end to it entirely.

CASE XXVII.-PALPITATION FROM WORRY. Ignatia.

Another patient about the climacteric suffered from distressing attacks of palpitation when anything occurred to give her annoyance or worry.

When things went smoothly nothing of the kind occurred. But when once set up the heart irritability continued a long time. I gave her Ignatia 30. This rapidly relieved the condition, and made her less susceptible to the effects of worry afterwards.

FAINTING.

Syncope or fainting is another common accompaniment of heart affections, but it is much more frequently met within patients who have no organic affection of the heart at all. The amount of danger attending it depends on whether or not organic disease is present, and on the cause which has given rise to the attack. Fainting from violent emotional disturbance may prove fatal even without the presence of organic disease; but in the vast majority of cases fainting is a temporary affection rapidly recovered from. I have known fainting caused in workpeople whose employment necessitated the use of charcoal fires. After a time they would become habituated to breathing the fumes; but at first it brought on fainting attacks.

A faint means that for some reason or other the heart’s action has become too feeble to send a sufficient amount of blood to the brain; and this results in temporary loss of consciousness and muscular power.

The cause of the collapse may be of nervous origin, as some sudden shock or emotion; or fainting may arise from some defect or weakness of the heart itself.

Many cases of fainting are in reality slight attacks of epilepsy; and catalepsy is responsible for many others. In the latter attacks there is some element of the trance condition. The patient becomes cold and rigid, and though unable to move is not entirely unconscious. In these cases and in many others Moschus will be found a remedy of the greatest value. And the value of Moschus is not by any means confined to the cases in which no organic affection is found : it will relieve fainting, and the tendency to it in many cases of badly damaged heart.

John Henry Clarke
John Henry Clarke MD (1853 – November 24, 1931 was a prominent English classical homeopath. Dr. Clarke was a busy practitioner. As a physician he not only had his own clinic in Piccadilly, London, but he also was a consultant at the London Homeopathic Hospital and researched into new remedies — nosodes. For many years, he was the editor of The Homeopathic World. He wrote many books, his best known were Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica and Repertory of Materia Medica