THERAPEUTIC HINTS ON DIABETES MELLITUS & INSIPIDUS


Should be strongly related to Diabetes, considering how profoundly it affects nutrition and metabolism. Has shown very good results in many cases. Patient is faint-hearted and has marked lack of self-confidence, want of moral and physical grit; lack of stamina. Sensitive to cold, with icy cold sweaty feet. Offensive sweat on feet, hands and axillae. Loss of power in legs. Crippled nails; white spots on nails.


While offering Therapeutic Hints on Diabetes, I am not ignorant of Dr. J.T. Kents remarks that so long as man is capable of believing that Diabetes and Brights Diseases are diseases, so long will man be insane in medicine as his mind is only directed towards the results of disease. I am using the word Diabetes not in the pathological sense in which it is commonly used and understood but as a word conjuring up before the mind symptom images of patients commonly believed to be suffering from Diabetes, and this is just for convenience of reference and study.

After all it is the patient who must be treated and cured, and his diseased organs and pathological conditions will automatically be made normal.

Diabetes is a constitutional disorder resulting in a disturbance of carbohydrate metabolism, i.e. of the normal utilisation and storage of carbohydrates, as evidenced clinically, among other factors, by persistent hyperglycaemia, with or without glucosuria, and characterised by want of nutrition of the whole body as well as organs.

Emaciation general and nervous debility, want of stamina, even Tuberculosis, many eye complications like cataract and retinal haemorrhages, and numerous skin lesions, boils, carbuncles etc. follow in its wake, accompanied by numerous symptoms and sensations which offer a rich field for homoeopathic prescribing.

Diabetes seems to have certain racial affinities, showing a preference for the Jews in Europe and the Hindus in India. The cause of the disease is a combination of ill-balanced rich carbohydrate diet, over-eating, sedentary habits, lack of sufficient physical exercise, and too much of worries and mental and nervous strain. Obesity is in most cases followed by Diabetes. Dr. Lawrence, in his book “The Diabetic Life” has emphasised that to be normal or a little under-weight is an insurance against Diabetes.

The treatment of diabetes would naturally consist of removal of the causes mentioned above, bringing the weight of the patient to normal, or in the case of the obese to a little below normal, and maintaining the weight there by a suitable regulation of diet keeping in view the body requirements with due regards to the nature of work the patient is called upon to do. Combined with this, suitable out-door exercise, avoidance of worry, undue mental strain, and other causes likely to tell upon the general health and vitality must be considered to be at least as much necessary as medical treatment.

Homoeo-therapy offers a wide range of medicines affecting the nutrition and metabolism of the body, and all these should prove to be excellent tools in the hands of prescriber for alleviating the Diabetics sufferings. The following list and the indications are only suggestive and not exhaustive. The remedies marked with an asterisk are Indian remedies which have been proved in very slow potencies, though not very satisfactorily and extensively; they deserve thorough provings and clinical verifications.

INSULIN – Though not a cure for Diabetes, it is undoubtedly a great boon for the diabetic, especially in advanced stages, in Diabetic Coma, in the course of acute infections, and when the patient is fast emaciating and running into a decline. As it is a natural hormone, there should apparently be no objection to its use simultaneously with the indicated Homoeopathic remedy, if need should arise.

As the indicated remedy establishes its curative action, it will be discovered that less and less Insulin will be required still after a time it will no longer be needed. The indicated remedy acts as a powerful Insulin activator. In most cases, especially in early ones, Insulin will not be required at all, and the indicated remedy along with dietetic and general management on the lines discussed above should be quite enough. While using Insulin, overdosing must be guarded against. Dr. Dewey mentions Epileptic convulsions and mental derangements having been caused by hypodermic use of this hormone.

ABROMA AUGUSTA – Diabetes Mellitus and Insipidus; albuminuria. Depressed, Irritable, fretful & easily excitable. Great exhaustion. Burning sensations. Excessive hunger & thirst for cold drinks. Flatulence. Weakness of vision. Impotence. Sleeplessness. Boils and Carbuncles. The tincture, 1x, 2x, & 3x have been proved and used with success.

ACID PHOS. – Diabetes caused by excessive grief, worry, mental and nervous overstrain, or by sexual excesses. Mental debility comes much ahead of the physical debility. The patient does not seem to realise or bother about his condition. Insomnia prostration, emaciation. Pain in the back and region of kidneys. Bruised feeling in muscles. Loss of appetite, excessive thirst. Urine copious, milky or water, loaded with sugar, phosphates, and oxalates. Marked sexual debility. Patient may be troubled with boils. Tincture to the 200th. have been used. Dr. George Royal recommends 10 to 15 drops of tincture or the 1st.

ACIDUM LACTICUM. – Chilly, rheumatic, dyspeptic subjects; voracious hunger; costive bowels; waterbrash; nausea better eating. Lump in the throat; keeps swallowing. Trembling of the whole body while walking. Lower dilutions, 1 to 30 are recommended.

ARGENTUM MET. – Has been recommended by Hahnemann in certain forms (insipidus variety) of Diabetes. Urine turbid, frequent, profuse, especially at night, and of sweetish taste and odor.

ARGENTUM NITRICUM. – Depression, apprehension and tremulous weakness. Marked flatulence; eructations of gas, painful distension, burning. Ravenous appetite with marked craving for sweets. The patient is sensitive to heat. The 30th. potency has been recommended.

ARSENICUM ALBUM. – Has produced glucosuria in the healthy in both toxic and non-toxic doses. It has an elective affinity for the brain, the nervous system, and the glandular organs, ranging in action from simple irritation to total destruction. It is rich in many diabetic symptoms like weakness, restlessness, emaciation, great thirst, sharp burning pains ameliorated by heat as often found in Diabetic (Neuritis) Diabetic gangrene. Think of it in fastidious persons who are much upset by uncleanliness and disorder.

BRYONIA. – Should not be over-looked. Hepatic disorders, bitter taste, constipation. Patient is languid, morose, dispirited and may lose strength owing to inability to eat.

CEPHALANDRA INDICA. – Diabetes Mellitus and Insipidus. Morose, fretful, disinclined to exertion. Giddiness, weakness, and excessive thirst after urination. Loss of appetite and increased flatulence. Burning sensations amel. by cold application. Oversensitive to noise and external impressions.

CHELIDONIUM MAJ. – Dr. C.G. Raue mentions it for cases with enlargement of liver, icteric colour of face, great weakness and emaciation, bloated face. He recommends 10 drops doses of the tincture.

CHIONANTHUS. – Caused sugar to appear in the urine of provers; also traces of bile. Thirst frequent and copious urine, constipation, with bileless light coloured stools. It suits diabetes due to liver disorders. Dull sore pain over the region of the liver. Yellow skin and sclera. Dry sensation in the mouth though filled with saliva. Drowsy, listless, weak.

CUPRUM ARS. – Has been used by Dr. George Royal with frequency and success next to Arsenicum Alb. As ranking symptoms he mentions cramps in the legs aggravated at night and ameliorated by heat, and varicose ulcers with tendency to become gangrenous. Copious urine suddenly becomes very scanty, drowsiness with tendency to coma. The 3rd. potency recommended.

GYMNEMA SYLVESTRE. – Diabetes Mellitus and Insipidus. Despondent. Weakness by profuse urination. Burning sensations. Thirst for large quantities of water. Impotence. Flow of urine and sugar increased by sexual intercourse. Tincture and lower decimal dilutions have been recommended.

HELONIAS DIOICA. – Portrays the picture of a typical class of Diabetics, those enervated by indolence and luxury, or those worn out with hard work. Urine profuse, clear, saccharine, phosphatic, albuminous. Tired; strained muscles burn and ache. Constant aching and tenderness over kidneys; back tired, weak, and aching. Great langour and prostration. Numbness of the feet while sitting, going off by motion. Complete impotence. Profound melancholia. Patient feels better by mental diversion and by remaining engaged. Tired, anaemic, backachy females with consciousness of the womb; menses too frequent, too profuse; leucorrhoea; pruritus vulvae.

IODIUM. – Is similar to the peculiar symptoms of Diabetes Emaciation in spite of ravenous hunger, much thirst, hepatic and gastric troubles, copious secretion of urine. Pulmonary symptoms, tendency to eruptions and furuncles. It has a strong affinity for glands. Patient is melancholy, impulsive, and sensitive to heat.

LAC DEFLORATUM. – Patient feels completely exhausted even without doing anything; great fatigue when walking; very unwell from loss of sleep. Sad and despondent; desires death; averse to seeing and meeting people. Sick headache. Obstinate chronic constipation where rectum seems paralyzed and injections and cathartics have failed; after prolonged straining the stool recedes (cured when Silica failed). Copious, watery, sugary, albuminous urine. Very chilly and sensitive to cold. Obesity, fatty degeneration, or emaciation. Only high potencies, 200th. and above have been recommended.

R. S. Rastogi
R. S. Rastogi
B.A., M.D.S.
Dehradun, India