BRYONIA ALBA


BRYONIA ALBA homeopathic remedy signs and symptoms from the Key to the Homeopathic Materia Medica by Alfred Pulford. Find the common uses of BRYONIA ALBA…


General Symptoms

      Worse from, and aversion to, least motion even of an eyelid or of talking, better from, and desires, perfect quiet and rest and not be paid any attention, coupled with irritability and great thirst for large quantities especially at long intervals.

ESSENTIAL

      Faint on rising up in bed, or even attempting to raise head from pillow. Mouth, lips and throat extremely dry, lips parched; nursing children will not nurse until lips are moistened. tongue white, or white down center. Easy perspiration, Better lying on affected side, the reverse of Belladonna pressure and heat, except eyes and teeth. Worse cold, touch and mental excitement. Pains sharp, stitching, like Kali-c. (Ranunculus bulb., cutting), lancinating. Everything puts one out of humor; hasty; peevish. Face dark red. Taste bitter, and to food. Pulse full, strong, hard and rapid. Nausea, on sitting up. Stools dry, hard and black as if burnt. Desires something but knows not what; children desire things, but refuse them when offered.

COMMENT.

Mind

      Unconscious, a.m., on rising. (L): Talks of business; delirium at daybreak, thinks one is away from home and wishes to be taken there; fears poverty; quiet during chill; sighs during sweat; unconscious, on rising up. delirium usually begins 9 p.m. and lasts throughout the night, while that of Belladonna begins at 3 p.m. and lasts until midnight. Worse on rising a.m., while Chamomilla is worse 9 a.m. Anxious uneasy feeling compels one to move; moves, yet screeches with pain. Better cold air, like Puls, wants windows open after which he goes to sleep. Desires both mental and bodily quiet. Worse if crossed, or from visitors.

Head

      Pain, a.m. in bed, on first moving; pain, from ironing; pain above left side eye, to occiput and finally over whole body amelioration lying on left side; pain in occiput, a.m., on waking, to shoulder while lying on back, better noon, and, in occipital protuberance, aggravation motion; bursting pain a.m., on first opening eyes. (L): Heat of heat, during chilliness; pain in heat, during constipation; pain in occipital protuberance; pressing pain, on coughing, and, in forehead, on stooping, and, over eyes, on motion; stitching pain, on stepping. All heat pains are aggravation motion, exertion and a.m. Pain in heat with all complaints requiring Bryonia Pain on first waking and moving even an eyelid, eyeballs sore, and a bruised feeling over (Nux vomica, on waking,, before moving). Natr-m. has head ache in a.m., and oily sweat, sour, on face, while the same sweat of Bryonia is more general over head, and the lips dry and cracked.

Eyes

      Dry, burning, itching tetter on lids; burning pain in canthus, night; cutting pain on opening eye; vision, blue haze. (L): Inflamed choroid, pain; aching on motion of eyes; burning pain in canthi; pressing pain on moving eyes; sore bruised pain on moving lids. Eyeballs sore to touch and motion, like Gelsemium, but Gelsemium is thirstless. Bryonia dioica is a popular drug for “black eyes” locally (Ledum cc internally).

Face

      Chewing motion of jaw; pain in face, aggravation exertion. Constant chewing motion of jaws and hasty drinking; if Bryonia fails, Helleborus; Belladonna has chewing motion of the jaws, but without the dry cracked lips of Bryonia

Mouth

      (L): Taste bitter, amelioration drinking.

Teeth

      (L): Pain, while chewing tobacco; jerking pain, now upper, now lower molars, when in upper and pressed by finger, it suddenly changes to the lower. Pain in teeth, amelioration lying on painful side, aggravation lying on painless side; pain amelioration pressure.

Throat

      Tearing pain and stiffness in sides of external throat.

Stomach

      Desires warm milk; disordered stomach, a sauerkraut; thirst for large quantities at long intervals; vomits food only; cold water only: Silicea (L): Nausea, amelioration drinking; pressing pain, aggravation motion. Drinks much and seldom, eats little and often; reverse of Arsenicum With all the gastric derangements, great sensitiveness of epigastrium to touch and vomiting of food. The stomach derangements of Bryonia absolutely require water as a dissolvement. Bryonia is a gourmand; Nux vomica, and epicure. Desires cold drinks during chill, yet they chill one dreadfully, but they ameliorate the stomach and abdomen. Sensitive in pit of stomach and all over abdomen, amelioration heat, yet desire to lie in a cool room.

Abdomen

      Pain, from uncovering, or, in left inguinal region, a.m.; cramping pain in navel, after taking cold; cutting pain, on inspiration. (L): Stitching pain in inguinal region, on inspirations; pain in liver, on coughing.

Rectum

      Diarrhoea, amelioration lying on back, aggravation sitting erect. Retention of stool is the more frequently the primary action of Bryonia; its secondary action is looseness of the bowels, which is more rare. When other Bryonia symptoms correspond, it permanently cures constipation, which few remedies besides Nux and Opi. are said to do.

Stool

      Yellow, mushy.

Urinary

      Sudden urging to urinate, if desire is not attended to feels as if urine had escaped, which is not so. (L): Sediment pink.

Genitalia

      Dropsy of uterus, during day; pain in ovaries, amelioration lying on painful side; rheumatic pain in uterus; stitching pain in ovaries, on breathing. (L): Menses brown; stitching pain in ovaries, aggravation motion. Menses suppressed, if she becomes overheated from exertion, such as ironing or washing a few days before the period, next time she will have a harder time than ever.

Larynx

      Pain in trachea. In laryngitis and bronchitis, the cough is usually dry hacking, abdominal muscles sore, aggravation night and motion, coming into a warm room and after eating or drinking, amelioration heat.

Respiratory

      Asthmatic breathing on entering a warm room from open air, or difficult before, from same cause.

Chest

      Pain amelioration lying on abdomen; aching pain, in sternum; burning pain in sides aggravation moving arms; stitching pain, on inspiration, left to right; tearing pain, in sides, on motion. (L): Right lung inflamed; rheumatic pain in pleura, amelioration lying on painful side, aggravation sneezing pain in middle of chest, amelioration pressure of hand; pain in sides, on laughing or inspiration; burning pain in right side; cutting pain during inspiration and motion; pressing pain during cough; sore bruised pain amelioration sitting erect, and, under sternum, on coughing; stitching pain, during chill and fever, amelioration lying on painful side, and, in sides on motion, and, in sternum, on coughing. Follows Aconite in pneumonia, after Aconite has eliminated the restlessness and anxiety, like Iodium, but not the high fever.

Back

      Tearing pain in sacro – iliac symphyses. (L): Pain in lumbar region on turning, turning in bed almost impossible (Nux vomica, must sit up first); stitching, shooting pain on coughing or motion.

Limbs

      Gouty pain, lower limbs; drawing pain, hip, amelioration pressure; stitching pain in wrists, when hands become warm, and, in hip and thigh, while walking bent; stiffness after fright, and, of upper limbs, before epilepsy; tension in ankles, on motion; stiffness on beginning to walk, amelioration rest. (L): Pain in elbows, aggravation motion; pain in lower limbs, sciatica, aggravation motion, amelioration lying on painful side; drawing pain in elbows, on motion; stitching pain in upper arms, on motion; stiff elbow and painful stiffness of knee; rheumatic swelling of elbow, and, of foot, p.m. (Apis, at night). Hot swelling on backs of feet. In all forms of rheumatism, acute, chronic, muscular or articular, there is generally profuse easy perspiration.

Sleep

      Dreams busy, or of events of previous day.

Chill

      Begins in lips. (L): Begins in finger tips. Comes on a day or two after the exposure to cold; Aconite and Belladonna immediately. Chill from getting wet, like Calcarea and Rhus; from sleeping in damp room or bed: Aranea Violent dry cough, racking, pleuritic stitches in chest and region of spleen.

Heat

      Burning fever, 9 to 12 p.m.; continued fever, 9 to 12 p.m.; dry heat night on motion. (L): In the p.m. and after lying down in bed; 9 p.m.; burning heat, before midnight, Arsenicum after midnight; chill absent before midnight, Arsenicum after; desire to be quiet during all stages.

Sweat

      10 p.m., during chilliness; 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. sweat amelioration all complaints, and is free (compare Aconite). Copious, oily, sour; as if mixed with oil: China.

Skin

      (L): Burns, mental excitement; receding rash, in eruptive fevers, or slow evolution. Shiny swelling; cold sense in ulcers. The remedy in measles and scarlet fever, when the eruption does not develop well, has also done good work in developing chickenpox and smallpox.

General

      Sense of heat, p.m. in bed. (L): Aggravation 9 p.m.; weak forenoon, Sulphur, afternoon; amelioration lying on affected side or painful side. Affected parts very hot, dark or pale red. There are several symptoms of Bryonia that oblige one to sit down or lie down, and several that are increased by standing or walking, but on the contrary, there is secondary action, in which the symptoms are better motion, lying or sitting cannot be endured, which is more common in Bryonia than is frequently supposed. Children who do not wish to be carried, as it aggravation, the reverse of Chamomilla It is said that Bryonia and Calc-c. resemble each other and should never be given one after the other without an intercurrent drug between. Alumina is its chronic. Before the troubles of Bryonia get started, one complains of being tired and languid, does not wish to speak or move; the complaints develop slowly. Injury to joints, where Arnica fails.

Alfred Pulford
Alfred Pulford, M.D., M.H.S., F.A.C.T.S. 1863-1948 – American Homeopath and author who carried out provings of new remedies. Author of Key to the Homeopathic Materia Medica, Repertoroy of the Symptoms of Rheumatism, Sciatica etc., Homeopathic Materia Medica of Graphic Drug Pictures.