Arnica [Arn]
Pain in region of heart, as if it were squeezed together (Cact., Lilium tigr.), or had got a shock, or blow. (Angina pectoris.)
Heart first rapid, then extremely slow.
Stitches in cardiac region: stitches left to right.
Pulse feeble-hurried-irregular.
Horror of instant death with cardiac distress in the night.
Imagines he has heart disease.
One of our greatest remedies for tired heart: dilated after strain or exertion.
“Arnica is the most remarkable heart remedy we possess.” Also “our biggest pick-me-up.”
Tired out from physical or mental strain.
Feels bruised, beaten, sore: bruises easily.
Restless because bed feels too hard.
Does not wish to be touched: fears approach.
Aconite [Acon]
Great distress in heart and chest.
Dreadful oppression of the precordial region.
Inward pressing in the region of the heart.
Palpitation with great anxiety and difficulty of breathing. Anguish with dyspnoea.
Sensation of something rushing into head, with confusion and flying heat in face.
Sudden attacks of pain in heart, with dyspnoea.
Aconite is Anxious; restless; with fears: fear of death.
Sudden acute conditions from chill, shock, fright.
All ailments and fears worse at night.
(Under Aconite Kent writes: “Sits up straight and can hardly breathe. Aconite has such a violent cardiac irritation, pulse fluttering, weak, full and bounding: sits up in bed, grasps the throat, wants everything thrown off; before midnight a hot skin, great thirst, great fear-everything is associated together. Sudden attacks of pain in the heart with dyspnoea breaks into a profuse sweat awful anxiety.”).
Spigelia[Spig]
VIOLENT beating of heart, so that he frequently could hear the pulsation, or so that the beats could be seen through the clothes.
Palpitation aggravated by sitting down and bending forward (rev. of Kali carb.)
Heart seemed to be in tremulous motion.
Worse for deep inspiration, or holding breath.
“Heart sounds may be audible several inches away.” (Nash.)
Must lie on right side, or with head very high.
Spigelia’s pains are stitching. Sharp neuralgic pains (chest, head, heart, eyes, etc.).
Worse for slightest motion.
Lycopus vir.[Lycps]
Protrusion of eye, with tumultuous action of heart. (Spigelia)
Eyes feel full and heavy; pressing outwards.
Cardiac irritability. Pulse frequent, small, compressible: or quick hard, wiry, not compressible.
Trembling hands.
(Lycopus is useful in exophthalmic goitre.).
Kali carb.[Kali-c]
Stitching pains-chest-heart, extort cries.
Stitches about heart and through to scapula.
Heart’s action intermittent, irregular, tumultuous, weak. Mitral insufficiency.
Leans forward resting on arms to take weight off chest (rev. Spigelia).
(One has seen Kali carb. following a few doses of Carbo veg., bring back to life a dying child, an old mitral case, with pericarditis with effusion, and pneumonia with pleural effusion. A visiting doctor said (she was lying forward, cold, almost pulseless, just giving last jerking gasps), “I’ll eat my hat if that child pulls round,” and she did-to come into Hospital again a couple of years later for a less severe breakdown.).
Kali carb.[Kali-c]
Has stitching pains (like Bryonia), but also independently of motion and respiration (unlike Bryonia).
Its worse hours are 2-4 a.m.
Has profuse sweat. Puffiness about the eyes.
Complementary to Carbo veg. (that “corpse reviver”).
Lilium tigr.[Lil-t]
Dull pressive pain in heart; sharp quick pain, with fluttering.
Roused from sleepy by pain as if heart were violently grasped, the grasp gradually relaxed, interrupting heartbeat and breathing.
Sensation as if heart was grasped or squeezed in a vice (Cactus); as if blood had all gone to heat: must bend double; (reverse of Spigelia).
Heart alternately grasped and released.
Heart feels over-loaded with blood.
Violent palpitation with throbbing of carotids.
Depression of spirits. Weeps.
Characteristics: Hurried feeling, as of imperative duties and inability to perform them.
Pressure on rectum and bladder. Terrible urging to stool, to urinate, all the time.
Bearing down with heavy weight, as if whole contents of pelvis would issue through vagina, but for upward pressure of hand.
Cactus [Cact]
Palpitation of the heart: heart squeezed.
Sensation of constriction in the heart, as if an iron band prevented its normal movement.
Several violent, irregular beats of the heart, with sensation of pressure and heaviness.
(Dull) irregular heart-beats, with necessity for deep inspiration. Congestion in chest.
Painful constriction lower chest; “a cord tightly bound round false ribs, obstructing breathing.”
Great constriction (sternum) “compressed by iron pincers.”
“It is the nature of Cactus to constrict.”
Tightness and constriction about head-chest- diaphragm-heart- uterus:-clutchings.
Chest as if filled with hot gushes of blood.
“Cactus has a profound curative action upon the heart.”
Fear and distress. Such violent suffering
Screaming with the pain.
Determination of blood to an organ:-chest-heart. “Blood always in the wrong place.”
Strong pulsations felt in strange places-stomach- bowels-even extremities.
“11 o’clock remedy: 11 a.m. and 11 p.m.”.
Sepia [Sep]
Violent palpitation of the heart and beating of all the arteries, in bed. Stitches in heart.
Violent palpitation of heart, as if it would force its way through chest wall; relieved by walking a long distance, and walking very fast.
The Sepia patient is indifferent: hates fuss.
Tendency to ptosis and dragging down, especially in pelvic organs. (Lilium tigr.)
Profuse perspirations, especially axillae.
General relief from motion-food-sleep.
Digitalis [Dig]
Sensation as though heart stood still, with great anxiety: must hold breath.
Pulse very slow:- thready, slow, intermittent.
Heart has lost its force; beats more frequent, and sometimes irregular.
Sensation as if heart would stop beating if she moved. (Gelsemium must move or it will stop.)
Respiration difficult: sighing: stops when she drops off to sleep.
Digitalis affects heart and liver: jaundice – white stools, with very slow pulse. (Kalm.)
Diarrhoea and nausea with heart disease.
Kalmia [Kalm]
Violent palpitations of the heart with faint feelings: with oppressed breathing.
Wandering rheumatic pains in region of heart, extend down left arm. (Lat. mact., Medorrhinum)
Heart disease, after frequent attacks of rheumatism, or alternating with it.
Hypertrophy and valvular insufficiency, or thickening after rheumatism; paroxysms of anguish about heart, with dyspnoea and febrile excitement.
Remarkable slowness of pulse (Digitalis). Pulse very feeble: or, heart’s action very tumultuous, rapid and visible (Spigelia)
“When rheumatism has been treated externally and cardiac symptoms ensue.” (Kent.).
Naja [Naja]
A great heart medicine, only proved in low potencies, so we lack the finer indications.
Heart weak. Post-diphtheritic heart. “for a heart damaged by acute rheumatism.”.
Aurum [Aur]
Frequent attacks of anguish about the heart, and tremulous fearfulness.
Violent palpitation of the heart.
Congestion of heart, notably with the Aurum mental symptoms.
Rheumatism that has gone to heart (Kalm.).
Acute rheumatism with desperate heart conditions; extreme dyspnoea; impossible to lie down.
A queer symptoms-heart seems to shake, as if loose, when walking.
The Aurum mental state is profound despondency and melancholy.
Disgust for life. Tendency to suicide.
Great anguish increasing into self-destruction.
Absolute loss of enjoyment in everything.
Terrible melancholy after the abuse of Mercury.
Pains wander from joint to joint and finally settle in the heart.
Aurum mur.[Aur-m]
Is also very valuable in heart troubles.
Hering (Guiding Symptoms) says “Angina pectoris (next to Arnica indispensable).”
Heaviness, aching, sensation of rigidity in heart. Cardiac anguish. Sticking in heart.
Latrodectus Violent precordial pains extending to axilla and down left arm and forearm to fingers, with numbness and apnoea. mactans Violent precordial pains and pain left arm, which was almost paralysed.
Pulse uncountable : quick and thready.
(A great medicine for angina pectoris.).
Spongia [Spong]
Constricting pain (cardiac) with anxiety.
Attacks of oppression and cardiac pain (<) lying with head low. Anxious sweat.
Palpitation: violent, with pain, gasping respiration : suddenly awakened after midnight with suffocation, great alarm, anxiety.
Awoke often in a fright, felt suffocating (Lachesis).
Lips blue (Lachesis).
Angina pectoris: contracting pain in chest, heat, suffocation, faintness, anxious sweat. (Exophthalmic goitre.).
Lachesis [Lach]
Cramp-like pain in precordial region, causing palpitation with anxiety.
“Heart feels too large for containing cavity.”
Bluish lips. Cyanosis. (Spongia.)
Intolerance of touch or pressure on throat-larynx- stomach- abdomen.
As if something swollen in pit of throat would suffocate him.
Worse after sleep. (Spongia.)
“Lachesis is one of our most useful remedies in heart troubles, acute or chronic; the peculiar suffocation, cough, and aggravation from constriction being the guiding symptoms.” (Nash.).
