Rhus toxicondendron Anhang

 

[remedia.at]

Die Beschwerden dieses Arzneimittels entwickeln sich durch die Einwirkung von kaltem, feuchtem Wetter (Regen), besonders wenn der Patient vorher erhitzt war und

geschwitzt hat. Kommt es dann zu einer Erkältung, zu Grippe und zu Fieber, empfinden die Patienten Schmerzen in den Gliedern, als seien diese lahm, gequetscht oder zerschlagen.

Typischerweise bessern sich die Beschwerden durch fortgesetzte Bewegung, obwohl diese zu Beginn durchaus als unangenehm empfunden wird.

Diese Besserung durch Bewegung führt dazu, daß der Patient ständig in Bewegung ist. So entsteht der Eindruck einer großen Unruhe, die aber nicht mit der ängstlichen Unruhe von Ars. oder Acon. verwechselt werden soll.

Hat der Patient auch Rückenschmerzen, will er auf einer harten Unterlage liegen.

Die Beschwerden > Wärme; <: Kälte/abends/nachts;

Der Schnupfen ist heftig und der Kranke muß häufig niesen (richtige Anfälle). Die Absonderung aus der Nase ist dick, gelb und übelriechend.

Im Fieberfrost kann der Kranke das Gefühl von kaltem Wasser haben, das über ihn gespritzt oder gegossen wird.

Husten: trocken, quälend und in nachts besonders schlimm (so daß der Kranke nicht einschlafen kann, oder der Schlaf gestört ist). < Fieberschauer oder wenn der Patient

sich abdeckt der auch nur eine Hand unter der Bettdecke herausstreckt.

Wirkt auch auf die Gelenke, Sehen und Bänder. Deshalb kommt es besonders bei Verstauchungen und Zerrungen in Frage.

Wie bei den anderen Erkrankungen werden die Beschwerden durch warme Anwendungen und durch fortgesetzte Bewegung gebessert (obwohl die Bewegung anfangs nicht gut tut).

<: kalte Anwendungen;

Es ist gut geeignet für die Folgen von Überheben, zum Beispiel wenn dadurch Rückenschmerz oder Ischias auftritt.

Wie Arn. passt es für Zustände nach körperlicher Überanstrengung. Arn. hat im Gegensatz zu Rhus-t. <: Bewegung; >: im Freien;

 

[Gabriele Siemann nach Sankarans System]

General                                                                                                 General

soaking                                                                                                 too close

cold                                                                                                             Difficulties with close relatives

cold                                                                                                             bathing suffers from numbness

dislocation                                                                                                 Lack of maintenance, does not know where he belongs

distortion                                                                                                 Lack of maintenance, feels pushed out of position

sprain                                                                                                             Lack of maintenance, will be overwhelmed by feelings

fatigue                                                                                                 cannot protect himself from knowledge of his own

effort                                                                                                             Attempts to avoid any activity with knowledge

nerve agents                                                                                                 has difficulties to get in touch with the environment successfully separated

Sepsis.x                                                                                                 Feels easily offended

Nail and nail bed infection                                                                         Cannot successfully resist

yawn                                                                                                             Tries to finally get clear view

true vitamin B2 deficiency                                                                         Needs more stability

especially bad when sitting                                                                         feels blocked fast

Urogenital tract                                                                                    Partnership

urination at night                                                                                     ashamed (coming closer to his own feelings)

Genital:                                                                                                 + Creativity

itchy blisters on the prepuce and glans                                                Repent feelings when he tried to express themselves

Menopause                                                                                                 Conversion to one’s own perception of interests

Respiration                                                                                                 Give and Take

Whooping cough at night                                                                         Violent resistance, but which cannot be articulated, especially, when one’s sense of life is affected

Yellow-green secretion                                                                         Trying to get rid of internal toxicity. Especially when it comes to one’s ability to differentiate

Skin, glands, lymphatic system                                                            Protection arrangements, flowing with life                                               

“rough” skin                                                                                                 feels rejected and rejects

symmetrical itchy eczema                                                                        both emotional and intellectual repentance

itchy blisters on the prepuce and glans                                                Repent feelings when he tried to express himself

fissured tongue                                                                                     does not know what he will decide

rash                                                                                                             aggressive rejection

Bone, muscle                                                                                                 Stability and mobility

Lameness of the left arm and shoulder                                                cannot fight back emotionally, wants to carry any load

lumbar pain                                                                                                 finds it difficult to develop

rheumatism                                                                                                 flowing stimuli, which cannot be met. A current problem

stiffness                                                                                                 immobile

exhaustion                                                                                                 feels attacked and defeated

pain                                                                                                             Current Problems

Digestive tract                                                                                     Dealing with perception of one’s own interests

tongue dry                                                                                                 Life does not taste because it contains too little emotion

tongue cracked                                                                                    Decision problems

tongue occupied                                                                                     feels occupied by others

tongue red top                                                                                    is already in cautious attempts to identify the own interests, aggressively

bloody diarrhea                                                                                     Fear leads to loss of vitality

Heart, circulatory system, circulatory                                                Life force, life keep going, to energize

heart failure                                                                                                 own power has waned

nosebleeds                                                                                                  acute trouble with close relatives

at night                                                                                                 Difficulties when the own being is moved to the center

Nerves, sensations                                                                                     Dealing with life

Sadly, sadly                                                                                                Dealing with life

Tendency to cry (without reason), to be alone                                    Dealing with life

Depressed, anxious about the future, family and business                        Dealing with life

Ears:                                                                                                             Ability to listen and to take account of the circumstances

tubal deafness                                                                                     may not obey

Modalities                                                                                                 Circumstances

< Wet and cold weather                                                                         When it comes to emotions, which seem to be hard and repellent

< rest                                                                                                             When it is time to think about the own interests

< at night                                                                                                 If you are honestly approaching the inner core

< Pain drives out of bed                                                                         The acute problem is frightening and takes any protection

> Continued motion                                                                                     if you can avoid the problems

> Dry hot air                                                                                                 when feelings fade and you feel well thrived

> Sweat, dry heat                                                                                     if you can express your feelings to be well thrived

 

[Elaine Lewis and Lowanna Hugall]

A Day in the Life of Rhus Toxicodendron

The person who needs Rhus tox has a sensitivity that makes him very irritable. With Rhus tox, it’s all about having to move! Anything that causes stagnation within the body such as cold or water or ice will aggravate. Ice, for its hard, cold quality and the wetness of frozen water, is what a Rhus tox hates the most, perhaps this is why Rhus tox is easily comforted by anything that is warm and encourages a flow within the organism, including vigorous massage.

The central idea of Rhus tox is stiffness. They become all bound-up and unable to release the inner tightness they feel. This is seen throughout the Rhus tox symptomatology on all three levels–mental, emotional and physical.

Character is a picture of anxiety and restlessness, they are unable to relax. Constantly needs to stretch. They feel the urge to move to loosen up to keep from becoming the image of ice-cold and hard.

Now, with Rhus tox constantly moving they become anxious. The anxiety is from never being able to stay in one place for very long (“Anxiety, House, in“), progressing into

a state where they think something bad is going to happen (“Fear, superstitious“, “Ailments from anticipation, foreboding“). These foreboding feelings come from delusions that something terrible is going to happen (“Mind: Anxiety“, “Anxiety, future, about, Delusion: Murdered, will be“); these are examples of the well-known Rhus tox “Restlessness” on the mental plane (“Mind: Thoughts, rush, flow of; Mind: Suspicious“).

The Rhus Tox cycle:

Let’s see if we can find a Rhus tox or two! Now where are those little Rhus tox people? I can hear them but I just can’t see them, let us see if we can catch up with some of them. Look way over there! What fun! All those children enjoying themselves at their school athletics carnival. “BANG!” The starting gun fires and they all run off down the track. They are having a beautiful day, the sun is shining. The children, with all their might, race off down the track, it looks like a day full of racing and getting many ribbons for their achievements. Let’s see if there is a Rhus tox amongst them!

And there he is now!

Our Rhus tox boy has had a monumental day. “The best day ever,” he remarks and he has ribbons to prove it. He got three 1st , four 2nd and a 4th prize. Yes, you’re right he does look over-heated. In fact he says that he’s been getting very hot and even perspiring from all his fine effort. He has really over-exerted himself most of the day and is

now looking forward to getting home to rest and have a good night’s sleep.

Twilight finds him still hard at work, however; packing away the equipment and carrying the podium back to the equipment shed. For Rhus tox, twilight is not a good time and this is when many symptoms of the tensing up start. FAST FORWARD PLEASE!!

Later that night Rhus tox now home drinking tea. He starts to feel an anxiety within himself rising, no doubt because of night coming on (“Fear, at night“), he has an emotional fear setting in and as this begins to happen, he feels more stiff and tight. He explains to his mum that he has a general bound-up sensation everywhere throughout his body. (“Generals: Constriction“)

Mum can see he is emotionally irritable and to touch he is cold, his limbs especially. This cold, tight sensation is making him twist and stretch the muscles to stop the limbs from being so constrictive. (“Generals: Position, change of, ameliorates“) This is frustrating him immensely not to mention his Mum having to watch him squirm around the kitchen. He keeps getting in Mum’s way so she tells him to go and relax in front of the T.V. She is hoping this will take his mind off his discomfort, but once he goes to watch TV with his older sister, he tries to settle down but he just can’t sit still! He moves this way and that. The urgency that he must keep on moving and changing position becomes too much for Rhus tox and he groans (“Mind: moaning“) as he becomes more restless, and his sister’s complaints of “Sit down, I can’t see the TV!” irritate him still further (“Mind: Irritability, night“). He wants to sit still but “ggrrrr!” What an aggravation!

We see the dance of the Rhus tox begin. He gets up and moves, he changes position. In doing so he stretches and contorts his ligaments to stop the stiffening and the build-up of toxins in the muscles. The lactic acid builds up and this causes a restlessness that spurs him on. To stop moving now would mean an increase the toxins, not to mention the irritability.

The pain sensations of Rhus-t. includes numbness and prickling (“Generals: Formication“). His legs also feel dead and heavy like wood (“Legs: Wooden, sensation“). After much effort to continuously move about, Rhus Tox begins to tire from all the activity. The dilemma now is that he must rest. The relief he was experiencing from moving about is diminishing as he is now being over-powered by the urge to rest his tired body. Rhus-t. rests!! This rest causes again a build-up and intense irritability and so he has the urge to move and here the cycle starts again and continues many times.

Mum comes in to see what all the commotion is about and sees her son squirming all over the TV room. She suggests to him to go and have a hot shower. Finally, something that’s going to make Rhus-t. feel better!

As he walks out, she asks him to stick out his tongue. As suspected, there is a red area shaped like a triangle on the tip that he says also is painful, but more importantly for us a good conformation that Rhus-t. is needed (“Tongue: Red, tip, triangular“). Mum packs him off to the shower by telling him that she has put on the heating lamp in the bathroom and is warming his towel. Normally < for bathing but that is only if they get cold and today everything is all set up for him to have a nice HOT soothing shower. The shower will help him immensely as the heat will stimulate the flow within the body, easing the discomfort he feels. While he is showering let’s look at why he is suffering. The causations are many. He had a successful day, nothing wrong with that!

However, on top of winning all those races, he might also have won a medal for Over-Exerting, Heavy Lifting, and Going from Hot to Cold rather suddenly. It’s the Rhus Tox Triple Crown! What he needs are some warm clothes, a massage and anything else that will stop the stagnation he feels within his body.

Now let’s look at some other Rhus tox aspects.

Henrietta Housewife;

she’s a Rhus tox too. She doesn’t have a lot of energy and looks somewhat worn out (“Generals: Weariness). Henrietta becomes exhausted easily and quickly (“Generals: Weakness, sudden“). She can only do a little housework and then she needs to rest as her energy quickly depletes on any exertion. The nature of her energy comes in fits and starts; she is helpless in harnessing this erratic energy into a nice steady flow. Instead she must just be content to work on her house chores when she has a burst of energy and work until the energy is depleted and again she becomes exhausted. She has no choice, but must wait to recharge her energy and then is off again trying to clean the entire house before she again is exhausted.

Another factor is that she also has been very irritable (like Nux-v.). She gets annoyed if anything gets in her way, so the pets need to be extra diligent in these households!

Rhus tox, as said before, has many delusions and so they are better if they are kept active. By keeping active they have less time for reflection over what the future may bring. He or she is very suspicious generally and has a great deal of hostility (“Mind: Reproaches others“). She blames others and this quality has isolated her from society. Her life is a struggle and she starts to have the sensations of drowning in more ways than one. The metabolism slows down and liquid pools in the body. The body’s tissues become oedematous eventually leading the Rhus tox patient into congestive heart failure as their system is overwhelmed. As the body has slowed down and become congested with fluid the mind too degenerates, making the Rhus Tox confused and forgetful (“Mind: Confusion“).

If they live in a cold, wet climate these conditions will come on faster for the sufferer Rhus tox. Activity, warmth and dryness are the answer.

 

[Tom Whitmarsh]

Rhus tox produced from the plant commonly known as poison ivy which grows as a shrub or a woody vine, spreading all over the countryside as a weed in the Eastern USA and Canada.

The remedy was introduced into homeopathy by Hahnemann, who performed a proving which he published in the second volume of his Materia Medica Pura. The proper botanical name is now Toxicodendron pubescens, but homeopaths will stick to the well known name and its abbreviation until all the anomalies in the naming of homeopathic remedies (and there are many) can be ironed out. It is a member of the anacardiaceae or sumach family of plants. Anacardium is really the only other commonly used member of this family in homeopathy, although there are quite a few others in the materia medica which are not so well known.

Poisoning

A cardinal feature of many of the sumachs is their production of sticky oils, which dry on contact with air to a black lacquer. In Anacardium, this gives the name “marking nut”, as it is produced from the ink-like substance just below the rind of the covering of the nut which has been used to mark clothes for laundry. In Rhus tox, the lacquering oil induces allergic skin reactions in previously sensitised individuals. Up to 50% of the population of the USA, where poison ivy is endemic, is sensitive to the oil and much advice is available (for example on the internet) about avoiding rhus poisoning.

The oil, which binds to skin after even the slightest contact (even stroking a dog that has brushed past a poison ivy plant is enough) is called urushiol, after the Japanese word for lacquer. In Japan, another toxicodendron tree produces a lacquer used, for example, under applications of gold leaf to the Golden Temple in Kyoto. The oil is extremely potent, with only a nanogram needed to induce reaction in an individual, so just a quarter of an ounce would be enough to cause itching in every person on Earth! It is normal for the oil to stay fully active for five years even from dead plants. Samples of urushiol several centuries old have been found to cause at least an itch in some people.

Most people do not have a skin reaction to first exposure. In those who do, it can take seven to ten days to develop. Subsequent exposure, after this initial priming of the immune system to “recognise” the oil, induces a strong skin reaction within half a day to two days. There is inflammation, intense blistering and intolerable itching of the skin which continues for several days before healing and resolving.

Burning the plant releases urushiol into the air and can induce severe reactions in the lungs and eyes, so firefighters at bush fires can be at serious risk without protective equipment in regions where rhus is common. Notice that urushiol itself is not actually poisonous, except insofar as it induces an allergic response. The damage is done by the sufferer’s own immune system!

Rhus tox is a very “big” homeopathic remedy. By this I mean that it has many symptoms recorded in the homeopathic literature (repertories and materiae medicae).

Out of 1600 remedies described in a large repertory -The Complete Millennium- Rhus tox is at number 11 when the remedies are listed by number of symptoms described, with 11,400 entries. The areas which stand out for the remedy in the repertory are concerned with the limbs, with disturbed sleep, with fevers and with the skin.

Restlessness

Describing the plant and its oil leads on to the ideas or themes in the illnesses that the remedy made from it might be homeopathically used to treat. The plant spreads rapidly across uncovered ground and up supports such as trees, via long stems and aerial rootlets. It takes many different forms, as a vine, a shrub or a bush and even produces different forms of stem and leaf from the same root-stock. Dr Gibson, in his Studies of Homeopathic Materia Medica describes Rhus tox as a “restless plant”. This shows a major characteristic theme of the remedy; it is one of the most restless of remedies.

People who might be helped by Rhus tox for example, have joint pains which have to be relieved by very regular movements. They cannot sit in the chair in the consulting room for more than a few minutes before getting up for a short walk and a stretch. They toss and turn all night, unable to find one position comfortable for long. When they are still for a while and do get some sleep, waking up is very painful as the relative immobility of the night has quickly rendered them extremely stiff. Thus the first few minutes of the day are spent “limbering up”. Once a little flexibility is restored to the joints, the pain lessens considerably and they can continue their restless search for comfort through the day – the right balance of action and rest.

There is a particular kind of restlessness caused by a stiffness of the neck which can only be relieved by stretching it and moving the head about. There may be accompanying headache relieved by the stretching. Pains in general are better for heat (eg a hot bath or shower) and worse for cold and damp. Similar modalities apply to the severe lower back pain experienced by some who are helped by Rhus tox. This also has the characteristic of being better from lying on a hard surface.

As a “general” symptom, this restlessness can feature in areas other than the purely physical. If a constant need for motion suggests an external restlessness, so we can talk of the restless mind that just can’t settle, there is an internal restlessness. Part of the picture in someone helped by Rhus tox might be restless dreams of great exertions like swimming or rowing, or of working hard in their occupation or of “roaming over fields”. Sleep is interrupted too by pains and by anxieties or illogical apprehensions that something bad is going to happen. Anxiety might drive someone out of bed and there may even be fear of going to sleep. In fact all symptoms are worse at night, another important general feature. This must in some part be responsible for the recorded moroseness at night, when bad things from the past come back to haunt the sufferer.

The restlessness can be seen in tossing and turning during fevers. Rhus tox is disproportionately highly represented in the sections of the repertory that deal with chills, fevers and perspiration (which mostly date from the pre-antibiotic days when the exact pattern of fever was an important observation to make in a sick person). It should be thought of when restless states with a high fever particularly worsen at night, for example in ’flu.

Stiffness

A few moments reflection on the nature of the poison ivy oil might help to explain the very well known joint and muscular stiffness associated with illnesses which are helped by Rhus tox. On contact with air and with the skin, a lacquer is produced. A lacquer is an inflexible, shiny, stiff film. One could image a joint coated in a lacquer being very difficult to get moving at first, but becoming freer with repeated movements. This is exactly the Rhus tox situation. Whenever initial movement is difficult, stiff and painful, but continued movement eases, Rhus tox is likely to be helpful.

In arthritis, this easing will often be followed (perhaps later in the day) by a worsening again as tiredness begins to take its toll. Rhus tox pain is classically worse in the cold and especially the damp and better for warmth. This sounds like an awful lot of sufferers’ arthritis and so Rhus tox is very widely successful in joint problems. It has often been said that it is too easy to give Rhus tox in arthritis. The detail is the important thing. Careful attention to the story might show most of these features, but actually the pain is better immediately on movement, rather than there being an initial aggravation before relief. The remedy Rhododendron might turn out to be more appropriate in this situation. Really extreme damp sensitivity in the joints (“I can predict the rain the day before it comes”) could well be best helped by Dulcamara.

If we go on to think about what the general characteristic of “stiffness” might mean on a mental plane, we can see that some people who do well with Rhus tox can be emotionally unbending, with a tendency to hold feelings back; they find it difficult to respond to others. In the end, when they are worn out by all the pains, this can turn into fixed ideas and superstition.

Skin

A very frequent use of Rhus tox is to help blistering skin diseases. The analogy is with the itchy, painful rash produced by contact of the plant sap with the skin of a sensitive individual. Thus, it is

a major remedy to help the pain of shingles, which is caused by a herpes virus. Many homeopathically trained GPs use Rhus tox as their first line treatment for cold sores around the lips, also herpetic in origin, but any inflamed, intensely itchy rash, especially if there are fluid-filled blisters (like some forms of eczema) can benefit. The itch is often better from bathing with scalding hot water.

There are other features which are hard to fit into this analogical approach (looking at the characteristics of the way the remedy substance fits into the natural world and comparing it with the way a disease fits into a human life). A feature of Rhus tox is said to be that there may be a bright red tip to the tongue. On the food desires front, there can be a craving for cold drinks and especially cold milk.

 

 

Vorwort/Suchen                                Zeichen/Abkürzungen                                    Impressum