Clostridium perfringens

Cause of food poisoning, and also of gas gangrene (myocrenosis). In some animals it is also the cause of ‘overeating disease’ or ‘pulpy kidney disease’ (enterotoxemia).

Vergiftung: Common form: intense abdominal cramps and diarrhea beginning 8 - 22 hours after consumption of foods containing large numbers of those C. perfringens bacteria capable of producing the food poisoning toxin. Ends usually within 24 hours but less severe symptoms may persist in some individuals for 1 or 2 weeks;

[Louis Klein]

A case of a six year-old girl who had severe Epidermolysis bullosa.

Epidermolysis bullosa (Weber-Cockayne syndrome) is a group of inherited disorders in which massive blistering of the skin develops in response to minor trauma. The mother was very protective of the child and of her 3 year old sister. Both had suffered from this inherited disorder. Both children would get large blisters on their feet, after walking a short distance, and also on their hands and waist from slight friction. The mother would curtail their activities and could be seen in my local community pushing them around in a carriage or cart.

My patient, the six year-old, also presented in a peculiar way. She entered wearing a hooded jacket and kept it on for the whole duration of the interview, even though the temperature outside was mild and the room warm. She did not make any eye contact with me and for the most part played quietly by herself facing the wall, away from me. When she did turn to talk with the mother, I could see that she was very pale and had a rather strained and morbid expression on her face.

Prior to seeing me for this first consultation, she had had her case taken by a good homeopath who was a student of mine. I had consulted on her case at that time and suggested Mancinella, as the sap from this tree can cause severe blistering on the skin. The Mancinella helped significantly but only for a period of about six months and on repetition failed further positive response.

She had suffered from diarrhea from a very young age. The mother said “when she was a baby she would always have her knees up and diarrhea shooting out onto her legs”. She was also getting continuous stomachaches and had been treated for “parasites” by a naturopath. As a baby she had an abdominal hernia surgically repaired.

The mother also said that she was very attached to her as well as to her sister. When I asked the child about this, she said, “I know why but I’m not going to tell you.”

She was home-schooled. She was a very intense, moody child, “not very cheery” but could focus on one project for long periods. She could slip into states of helplessness where she then became whiny or argumentative (her sister).

The mother said that the child “has a connection with people who are dying”. She insisted on frequently visiting her dying grandmother at the hospital and was there when she died. The mother

thought she supported her well during this and that the girl was OK afterwards. Grandmother’s cancer was diagnosed during the pregnancy of this child. The mother had been in a state of “horror”

when told that news.

From my experience the child was not going to fit not wellknown homeopathic remedies or even into many of the groups of unusual remedies with which I was familiar. Homeopathy had only an

imperfect response to this disease and so I set out to understand some of the roots of this crippling hereditary condition. I studied/contemplated the whole child, as well as the nature of the disease.

During this time I would see the mother either carrying the child or wheeling her round. I had difficulty choosing a remedy for the child. I decided to give this even deeper contemplation and also to try

and think in a more creative way. I wanted to find something in nature that could cause the problem and which would also encapsulate something of the child’s general state. When I focus more on what underlies the case, I always keep in my mind’s eye a picture of how the patient presented in the interview, thereby maintaining in a visceral way a real sense of the patient.Since I had some response from a first remedy made from a plant, I was now also looking for an underlying causative or miasmatic agent and for a reflection of this chronic disease in an acute state. After considering them, I ruled out modern underlying causative agents such as radiations, toxic metals and other chemicals and looked in the direction of a nosode.

I wanted to find something that would cause, in an acute disease, a great blister-like swelling as well as diarrhea. I looked, searching through various options. What finally came to me was gangrene – an anaerobic bacterium that, in gas gangrene, creates a huge blister and which can also cause a food-borne illness with severe diarrhea. I felt that if we could see how this same type of acute pathology was translated into a chronic condition then we would see its similarity to diseases where there is chronic blistering.

Not only that, when I thought of the child covering herself, and her rather dark personality, these seemed to match what I would conceive of as the general mental and emotional state of a homeopathic remedy made from an anaerobe like Clostridium perfringens (which was prepared but not proven). Lastly, Clostridium perfringens is a food poisoning agent and therefore covered the ‘chronic diarrhea’ aspect.

I am pleased to say that the child responded beautifully to just 2 doses of Clostridium perfringens C 30. She has been virtually blister-free, and hood free, for over 5 years. Her personality is now

cheery and wellbalanced. There is a similarity between this remedy and known homeopathic remedies which have blistering as a key aspect - particularly remedies like Manc. and Canth.

Clostridium perfringens follows these two remedies.

What dispositional symptoms do these better-known remedies share?

The main symptom is “Mind, delusions possessed” or “Mind, possessed of the devil”.

In the Clostridium perfringens patient there is a feeling as if they are possessed by something dark - they appear “gothic” and horrorfilled, similar to the chronic Canth. who, I have found, likes to wear black clothing and is rather dark in their demeanor. In distinction,

Manc. still retains a degree of innocence to their being but they also have this same tendency to be attracted to black magic and dark forces.

As I wrote in the first Focus Guide, my experience of Mancinella and of other Euphorbiaceae is that the mind is elastic and easily “blistered,” thus reflecting what can happen on the physical level.

I have also found that the patient who needs Clostridium perfringens likes to wear a hat, a hood, or something else that covers the head. They can also Clostridium Perfringens Nosode wear dark clothing. They are reluctant to reveal anything of themselves and would rather remain enigmatic. It is a state where we see a “gothic” type of personality, where the person is attracted to horror and also to death,

in a way that is similar to many of the homeopathic remedies made from fungi. In fact, all the Clostridiales are good miasmatic remedies related to, or following on from, homeopathic remedies prepared from fungi.

Clostridium perfingens has a dispositional state that we witness in a patient who follows an ascetic and penitential religious practice. In this, we see the underlying theme of “mortification” which is present in all the nosodes made from potentially gangrenous bacteria. As described in the introduction to the Clostridiales order, mortification has a number of primary meanings.

One of the meanings of “mortification” that applies to the religious state just discussed, is “the practice of asceticism by penitential discipline to overcome desire for sin and to strengthen the will”. The patient can suffer from deep shame and sees the religious and penitential lifestyle or vocation as a way out of this shame.

We can also see the black religious garb itself as part of the ‘look’ of this miasm.

This penitential aspect of the theme can manifest in differing degrees and situations. I had a male patient in his sixties who had done well on Cadm-s. for many years. In the initial visit, his chief

complaints were allergies and depression. After a number of years of doing well, at a follow-up appointment, he suddenly showed up wearing a black cap (toque) pulled tightly over his head and other dark-coloured warm clothing. He kept the clothing and cap on throughout the interview, even though the room was quite warm. At this appointment he was again moderately depressed but

not as bad as the first appointment. He described how he and his wife lived a frugal, vegan lifestyle – even though he craved meat and luxury to a certain extent. He and his wife were very critical

of any divergence on such matters. In this case, the ‘mortification’ (you could say) has to do with a lifestyle choice.

On top of this, his current depressive state had been trigged by being falsely accused of abusive behavior by a previous student. The alleged event had taken place over 20 years ago.

Currently, he was having gruesome dreams of people being held hostage and being sliced up by the person holding them hostage. I asked him if he had had any episodes of food poisoning and he

replied affirmatively- when he was younger, and he described the episode as being very serious. With the characteristic

dark clothing and cap, ‘mortification’, false accusation, dreams and a history of food poisoning, I prescribed Clostridium perfringens nosode. Inthe follow-up, his clothing had changed and was

cap-free.

He presented Clostridiales with a dramatically sunnier and consistently happier mood which has continued in subsequent follow ups.

The meaning of the word mortification also extends to pathology and we see this in gangrenous states: “the death of one part of the body while the rest is alive; gangrene; necrosis.”

This may be an important remedy for the treatment of gangrenous states, although I have had no experience yet with this pathology using this particular nosode.

In addition to the case mentioned, I have had other successes treating individuals with Epidermolysis bullosa using homeopathically-prepared Clostridium perfringens. However, I don’t have enough patient experience with this disease to say whether other types of Clostridiales nosode made into homeopathic remedies might achieve a similar result or, whether other nosodes may be indicated. The challenge for homeopathy is also that many such patients will need a range of different first prescriptions before the Clostridium perfringens can work in such a wonderfully deep way.

Cause: Food service germ.’ ‘Cafeteria cramps.’ Conditions are favourable for C. perfringens in food that has been prepared hours before it is to be served and then kept warm or at room temperature.

Tissue gas: the name given by mortuary workers to the action of C. perfringens on dead bodies.

Is widely distributed in the environment and frequently occurs in the intestines of humans and many domestic and feral animals. Spores persist in soil, sediments, and areas subject to human or animal fecal pollution.

Perfringens food poisoning is the term used to describe the common foodborne illness caused by C. perfringens. A more serious but rare illness is also caused by ingesting food contaminated

with Type C strains. The latter illness is known as enteritis necroticans or pig-bel disease.

The common form of perfringens poisoning is characterized by intense abdominal cramps and diarrhea which begin 8 – 22 hours after consumption of foods containing large numbers of

those C. perfringens bacteria capable of producing the food-poisoning toxin. The illness is usually over within 24 hours but less severe symptoms may persist in some individuals for 1 - 2 weeks.

A few deaths have been reported as a result of dehydration and other complications.

In most instances, the actual cause of poisoning by C. perfringens is temperature abuse of prepared foods. Small numbers of the organisms are often present after cooking and multiply to food poisoning levels during cool down and storage of prepared foods. Meats, meat products, and gravy are the foods most frequently implicated.

Institutional feeding (such as school cafeterias, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, etc.) where large quantities of food are prepared several hours before serving is the most common

circumstance in which perfringens poisoning occurs. The young and elderly are the most frequent victims of perfringens poisoning.

The bacterium can also cause tissue necrosis, bacteremia, emphysematous cholecystitis and clostridial myonecrosis (gas gangrene). The last named is a deadly form of gangrene;

it progresses rapidly, expanding within internal tissues, leading to toxemia and shock.

Appearance of Patient: Gothic, dark quality (not always)/wearing a head-covering.

Vergleich: Siehe: Nosoden

Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum