Carb-a. Anhängsel

[Eugene Underhill]

All disease begins in the functional plane and, unless checked, progresses toward structural change and incurability.

Materia Medica: Carbo animals "indicated in the aged when there is a general enfeebled atonic condition with venous engorgement". "Diseases of elderly persons with marked venous plethora. Complaints in broken down, anemic individuals with glandular infiltrations and much hardness and induration". "Circulation feeble, stagnated and vital heat sinking to a minimum. Deficient reaction in elderly people".

Still in pathology, we note that "Carb-a. is frequently the remedy in chronic ulcers and fistulous openings where the walls tend to become hard and the discharge acrid. Swollen, painful, indurated glands in neck, axilla, groin and breast. This remedy has been one of the most suitable for old, stubborn, cancerous affections".

All of the above sounds very much like a case for the undertaker, but Carb-a. has a wide field in cases without indurations/infiltrations/ulcerations or observable pathology. Like any other remedy it may become indicated at any time of life.

Characteristic and reliable symptoms:

1st: exhaustion, weakness, enervation and general aggravation from apparently slight causes and small depletions. A mild case of diarrhoea appears to sap the patients vitality out of all proportion. A slight leucorrhoea is described as terribly weakening. A moderate menstrual flow is so depleting that it requires the next two weeks for the patient to get her strength back. Breast feeding becomes impossible, it wears her down. A man of 32 actually dreaded the sexual act because of the utter exhaustion which continued for days afterwards.

While night sweats in tuberculous subjects are often exhausting, a non-tuberculous individual requiring Carb-a. may complain that a very moderate amount of perspiration actually drains away his strength. Incidentally, the sweat of this remedy produces a very pronounced yellow stain.

Easily strained from lifting even small weights is a well verified symptom and one that is perfectly true to form. slight straining or overlifting causes dyspnoea, constriction of the chest and a feeling of debility out of all proportion to the apparent cause. Objects seem much heavier than they are. The ankles are easily sprained and turned while walking. Has to watch every step.

Carb-a. becomes slave to own routine. Any change may upset them (involving any extra effort, whether mental, physical, respiratory or digestive, whether conscious or unconscious). < change of altitude/climate/season. Any abrupt change in the daily routine may disturb the digestion or otherwise aggravate.

2nd: aversion to and aggravation from exposure to a very dry, cold atmosphere. A dry, cold wind which put pep into lots of people causes the Carb-a. patient much discomfort. It makes him feel sluggish and < in general. It is both the coldness and the dryness. He thrives best in a relatively moist atmosphere. Markedly < in a heated room with dry air. < close, poorly ventilated room. Feels the need of plenty of fresh air to breathe at night. Wants windows wide open but the head and neck must be well protected from the least draft. Some of these patients will sleep with a scarf or towel wrapped around the head and yet will complain at even a suggestion about closing the windows. However, they seldom, if ever, desire to be fanned, as is so characteristic of the vegetable carbon.

"Hearing confused, cannot tell from what direction a sound comes." A number of people talking in a group is most annoying. Shuns group conversations as much as possible. This confusion of sounds and difficult orientation of hearing has been observed in cases with only slight auditory impairment. It is probably of circulatory origin and on the venous side. Head noises may or may not be associated with this condition.

Mentally Carb-a. is retiring, anti-social and introverted. Aversion to company is often marked. Definitely not a mixer but may enjoy the company of one or two good friends. Not inclined to seek out new acquaintances. This is one of the most nostalgic remedies of the Materia Medica. Never contented, never at ease away from home and the farther away he is, the worse he feels. Nostalgia with a "mournful feeling of isolation." Anxiety and apprehension when far from home. It is not necessarily homesickness for family and friends. Home means a place, a local to a greater degree than with some remedies. The wife of a Carb-a. patient put it this way, "When we are on a trip my husband never feels contented until we are well on our way back home".

Sluggishness and lethargy are two words that apply to the Carb-a. patient. He lacks the energy and consequently the ambition to undertake activity of any kind. It is hard to get him started and he resents being prodded or hurried. After a hearty meal there is a feeling of congestion to the head and neck with drowsiness and loss of interest. This is relieved by dozing off while sitting in an easy chair. Lying down may aggravate rather than relieve. Only after the process of digestion is fairly well advanced does the patient resume his reading or other interest. Associated with the above symptoms an uncomfortable sensation of abdominal distension is common.

If awakened during the night, a vague feeling of anxiety and apprehension prevents easy return to sleep. Sometimes there is vertigo and with this a mild suffocative sensation. These symptoms are relieved by lying on a firm, rather high pillow, with the head and neck well protected from cold or draft and with an abundance of fresh air. All of which is indicative of a passive venous stasis, and inadequate venous drainage from the head and neck.

Coldness of the nose is often a very annoying symptom at night and may interfere with sleep during the winter season. Holds nose and tries to breathe through the mouth so the nose will warm and yet will not resort to the simple remedy of closing the windows because it would make him feel stifled and cause air hunger.

In the Materia Medica we find the following, "repugnance to fat and tobacco smoke." The latter we have verified many times. Tobacco smoke makes breathing difficult and causes nausea, so that many Carb-a. patients find it necessary to give up smoking. However, in the experience of the write, aversion to and aggravation from fat has not been observed, but rather the opposite, desire for fat and it agrees.

This is one of the remedies to consider along with Carb-v., other antipsorics and the nosodes for deficient reaction following some exhausting and debilitating illness-never well since a severe typhoid, pneumonia or a bad influenzal attack; pleurisy, whether pneumonic or tuberculous, where there is a remaining stitch which fails to clear under the apparently indicated remedy. It often requires the deepest acting remedies to completely overcome a persistent disease hangover.

Tuberculous subjects whether young or old, may require this medicine (tuberculous cervical adenitis where the glands take on a coppery or purple color and become hard and indurated, the typically sluggish type of case).

Carb-a. is suited to many cases of syphilis in the later stages of the disease. It has all the glandular indurations and infiltrations of this disease and the copper copper colored eruptions as well as the night aggravation. However, it will do nothing in absence of the grand characteristics of this wonderful medicine.

Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum