VERATRUM ALBUM

VERATRUM ALBUM

(White Hellebore)

Verat.

This drug presents a vivid image of collapse, characterized by extreme coldness, blueness, and weakness. It is marked by post-operative shock, featuring cold sweat on the forehead, a pale complexion, and a rapid, weak pulse. Cold perspiration is common across various symptoms. Key features include profuse, violent retching and vomiting, as well as vomiting, diarrhea, and cramps in the extremities. Surgical shock is also notable, along with excessive dryness of mucous membranes. Symptoms may include “coprophagia” and violent mania, alternating with silence and refusal to communicate.

Mind: The mental state is marked by melancholy, stupor, and mania, leading to a lethargic demeanor with a lack of awareness. There may be sullen indifference, intense excitement with shrieking and cursing, puerperal mania, aimless wandering, and delusions of impending misfortune. Episodes of pain may be accompanied by delirium that drives the patient to madness, resulting in cursing and howling throughout the night.

Head: Features may appear contracted, with cold sweat on the forehead and a sensation resembling a lump of ice on the vertex (indicative of apoplexy). Headaches are often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and pallor. The neck may be too weak to support the head.

Eyes: Eyes may have dark rings, appear staring and turned upwards (as seen in epilepsy or meningitis), and lack luster. There can be lacrimation with hyperemia, and the eyelids may feel dry and heavy.

Face: The face shows sunken features, with coldness at the tip of the nose and on the face. The nose may become pointed, and there can be tearing sensations in the cheeks, temples, and eyes. The overall complexion is very pale, blue, collapsed, and cold.

Mouth: The tongue appears pale and cold, with a cool sensation reminiscent of peppermint. It is dry in the center and not alleviated by water, often producing salty saliva. Toothache is common, with a heavy feeling in the teeth.

Stomach: There is a voracious appetite, accompanied by a thirst for cold water, which is quickly vomited. Patients may have an aversion to warm food, hiccups, and experience severe vomiting and nausea triggered by drinking or minimal movement. Cravings may include juicy, cold fruits and salt, with anguish in the stomach and significant weakness after vomiting, leading to gastric irritability and chronic food vomiting.

Abdomen: Patients report a sinking, empty feeling, accompanied by cold sensations in the stomach and abdomen. Pain often precedes stool, with cramps and a knotting sensation in the abdomen and legs. There may be a feeling as if hernia would protrude (similar to Nux-v.), with sensitivity to pressure and swelling accompanied by severe colic.

Stool: Constipation due to rectal inactivity, accompanied by heat and headaches. In infants, constipation can occur from very cold weather. Stools are large, requiring significant effort, leading to exhaustion and cold sweats. Diarrhea is painful, watery, copious, and forceful, causing great fatigue. Evacuations resemble those in cholera morbus and true cholera, especially when vomiting occurs alongside purging.

Female: Menstrual cycles arrive too early, are profuse, and cause exhaustion. Dysmenorrhea features coldness, purging, and cold sweats. Fainting occurs from minimal exertion, and sexual mania often precedes menstruation.

Respiratory: Hoarseness and weak voice. There is rattling in the chest with excessive mucus in the bronchial tubes that cannot be expelled. Coarse rales are present. Chronic bronchitis may affect the elderly (Hippoz.). A loud, barking cough is followed by gas eructation and worsens in warm rooms. A hollow cough with low tickling causes cyanosis, and coughing is triggered by drinking, especially cold water, often leading to involuntary urination. Coughing may occur upon entering a warm room from the cold (Bry.).

Heart: Palpitations occur with anxiety (angina pectoris) and rapid, audible breathing. The pulse is irregular and weak. “Tobacco heart” results from chewing tobacco. The heart may intermittently malfunction in weak individuals with hepatic obstruction. It is an effective heart stimulant in homeopathic doses (J. S. Mitchell).

Extremities: Joints experience soreness and tenderness. Sciatica causes sharp, electric-like pains. Cramps occur in the calves. Neuralgia affects the brachial plexus, leading to feelings of swelling, coldness, and paralysis in the arms.

Fever: Chills accompanied by extreme coldness and thirst.

Skin: Blue, cold, clammy, and inelastic, resembling death. Cold sweat and skin wrinkling occur on the hands and feet.

Modalities: Worsens at night and in wet, cold weather. Improves with walking and warmth.

Relationship: Compare with: Veratrinum (electric pains, muscle twitching); Cholas terrepina (calf cramps); Camph., Cupr., Ars., Cupr-ar. (intermittent cold sweat); Narcissus poeticus (gastroenteritis with severe abdominal pain, fainting, trembling, cold limbs, and irregular pulse); Trychosanthes dioica (diarrhea, liver pain, dizziness post-stool); Agaricus emeticus (vertigo; craving ice-cold water; burning stomach pain); Agaricus phalloides (cholera, stomach cramps, cold extremities, suppressed urine). Veratrinum increases vascular tension and promotes toxin elimination through skin, kidneys, and liver.

Dose: Use from the first to thirtieth potency; for diarrhea, not below the sixth.