Cadmium sulfuratum, Bell's Palsy Treated with

Case
Patient Male, acute problem.
Born 23 Apr 52, seen 7 Feb 85. A planning surveyor in British Rail property department. The patient was a shy, socially inept and a very conventionally, old-fashioned clothed young man. He was in a dead end lack of initiative job and lived in a house with two women who looked after him.
He had complaints of flu since a few days, a fever, and an unsettled stomach. He cannot hold fluids, has no trouble swallowing, but a frontal headache which the central heating agg, since a few days ago.
Cold weather agg and appears to be the causation. Especially cold wind of which there has been much this February.
Complaints of paralysis after penicillin. He felt his face puffed up, but on observation it is not puffed up.
His LEFT eyebrow will not raise, his left eye will not stay shut or shut at all. There is left head pain, left nostril has a sensation as if swollen. He has a twitch on the left side of face which almost leads to a whole body spasm.
Patient has a history of nervous twitches when run down, a left collarbone fracture, blow to head left and some pain in left hip.
No involuntary urination, some sweat axillae at night; bowels NAD.


Analysis
Kent has the following intriguing rubrics;
FACE: PARALYSIS: Agar., all-c, anac., Bar-c., Cadm., Caust., Cocc., crot-h., Cupr., Cur., Dulc., form., Graph., iod., Kali-chl., Kali-p., Nux-v., op., petr., plb., puls., ruta., seneg., stry., syph., zinc.
FACE: PARALYSIS: right: Arn., Caust., hep., kali-chl., kali-p., Phos., plb., sil.
FACE: PARALYSIS: Left: All-C., cadm., Cur., form., graph., Nux-vom., spig., sulph.
FACE: PARALYSIS: cold, from: Cadm., Caust., Dulc., ruta.

How can we use this information? The patient's paralysis is from cold WIND, not bathing so we can eliminate Dulcamara. The only other strongly showing remedy is Causticum with a RIGHT sided paralysis, although there may be other possible indications in the patient's history. We do not have a three-legged stool, but have established that there is no escape of urine. I had never prescribed Cadmium sulphuratum before, indeed only a check in the abbreviations list showed me that it was not the metallicum. I had so far only considered this remedy as a cancer remedy in the writings of Grimmer.

Eye open sleep during.
Eye closed difficult (face seems swelling).


Follow up
Follow up was 7 days later and there was no trace of the problem at all, the main improvement was immediate, 75%, and then a gradual improvement of the remainder. No continuing treatment was sought.


Comment:
Cadmium metallicum was thought of as the remedy for "influenzosis" by William Gutman, (BrHomJ 51 pp20-21 1961). Grimmer characterizes the sulphuratum as having a fear of solitude, of mental work, worse from cold winds and a crawling sensation with paralysis on the face. A college note showed Cadmium sulphuratum to be prescribed in the CM every 20 minutes for severe 'flu! (was this a joke?), I once tracked down the source of this to Eric Powell's Natural Home Physician. Clarke confirmed the facial paralysis and cold wind aggravation. Clarke and Grimmer confirmed the unsettled stomach although associating it with yellow fever or cancer, but also with icy coldness and yet with sweat in the axillae. All this and more was confirmed by Hering in 7 pages!
Cadmium Sulphuratum 200C and S.L.

This patient was seen some years before the publication of the work of Jan Scholten on minerals and elements and provides a clear confirmation of the possible uses of Cadmium salts. It could be seen as anecdotal evidence. I prefer to see it as an interesting case study, an example of single case study (N=1).


Francis Treuherz MA RSHom FSHom, Registered Homeopath
2 Exeter Road (side entrance) - London NW2 4SP
+44(0) 208 450 6564 Phone / +44(0) 795 845 9446 Mobile
fran@gn.apc.org, www.homeopathyhelpline.com
Hon Secretary, Society of Homeopaths
francis_treuherz@homeopathy-soh.org, www.homeopathy-soh.org