Exploring sarcodes: a very hurried man

As classical homeopaths, we know about sarcode remedies and most of us prescribe them. Still, we have very little information about sarcodes as group. I would like to present my understanding of sarcodes from my own cases and from what I have learned from my teachers, Rajan Sankaran and his team.  

The illustrating case is taken and analyzed using Sankaran's method of levels and sensation.

GK: Ghanshyam Kalathia; P: = patient; HG = hand gesture; my comments are in (brackets).

First consultation 4th, June 2007

A 35 year old businessman came to my clinic for treatment of allergic bronchitis; his verbatim report is as follows.

GK: Tell me all about your problem?

P: I have a problem of asthma; during asthmatic attacks there is a wheezing sound. This problem is my routine problem and I have become used to it. (Observation: He blinked his eyelids very fast and forcefully.)

GK: Tell me more about your asthma.

P: One and half years beforehand, I had severe acidity. At that time, I wasn’t even able to take any food, so I took some herbal preparations and I recovered completely from acidity. After that, my health was fine, but suddenly one night, I woke up due to difficulty breathing; I became scared from the wheezing sound of my respiration and my family members also got scared to see me in that situation, so they took me to the hospital immediately. After half an hour, I became totally normal but since then, I get these attacks every ten to fifteen days. I take so many therapies but nothing is very effective, so I came to you. (This is the level of names and facts.)

GK: What did you feel during the first attack? (shifting his level from fact to feeling.)

P: At that time, I got really scared, with much perspiration, but now, I have nothing to get scared of because I know that this wheezing happens due to a narrowing of my respiration tube. Almost all asthma patients have the same problems. Asthma is the enemy of sleep: during deep sleep, I suddenly had breathing problems (HG – he makes a fist with great speed.) and that arouses me because air is not able to come out of my lungs. I think my lungs get blocked and then they give orders to my brain and immediately brain awakens me. (His speech is very fast.)

GK: I understand, please go on.

P: During these attacks, I feel some heaviness in my chest as if my system is not ready to remove gases, so my breath neither comes in nor goes out; if at that time I take an asthalin (etophylin) inhaler then my system becomes normal. Since this asthma, I also have complaints of weakness – I feel that my legs start to get weaker.

 GK: Please tell me about weakness?

P: I am really scared to become paralyzed. I feel as if the functioning of my whole system is going to stop. I believe that the cells of my brain are dying.  Doctors tell me that it is nothing serious, but if I have nothing wrong, why would I get all these complaints?

 GK: What do you feel in your legs?

P: Suddenly my legs become loose (HG – he hangs his palm downward and oscillates it) as if there is not any power in them. It is as though my legs are sluggish, with no movement. (HG –hanging). I think that the activity and the blood supply of my brain become sluggish.

(His talking pattern is in the form of ‘as if’: that means these all are his perceptions, but they are still at a local level. With the next question, I try to make them generalized.)      

GK: Forget about your body; please tell me what is ‘sluggish’? (‘Sluggish’ has been mentioned more than twice).

P: Sluggish means there is not any power in you. Anything becoming totally loose (HG – hanging) is sluggish. An altered blood supply in your brain makes you sluggish. Blood makes you powerful, otherwise you become totally loose (HG – hanging) as if you are a plastic bag filled up with water.

(He shifted from ‘I’ to ‘You,’ that means he’s now generalizing.)  

 GK: Tell me more about ‘sluggish’ and ‘loose’?

P: Sluggish means it is not paralysis, but you have little or no movement. Your power is completely drained out. The experience of sluggishness is the same as when you have severe dehydration: in dehydration your body becomes totally loose (HG –hanging).

(He talk about ‘Experience,’ that means he is now at sensation level. He hangs his palm downward and makes very slow oscillatory movement when he describes sluggish repetitively, so I ask the next questions about HG.)

GK: When you talk about sluggishness you make some hand gestures, what is your experience of this? (I make the same HG).

P: Sluggish means you have very low blood pressure and it is not possible to move (HG – hanging) anything in your body. Your movement is because of your tone. Your blood has all kinds of bio-chemicals that keep your tone up. (HG – he makes a tight fist). If there is any alteration in your bio-chemicals then your body loses its tone very soon.

GK: Bio-chemicals? (New word)

P: I mean the contents of blood. In the blood, we have different kind of contents like cells, minerals, hormones, proteins, vitamins, etc. But if the blood’s ingredients are altered, then suddenly, your blood pressure goes down and from low BP and you feel weakness (HG –hanging). The body maintains all the contents of blood automatically and many processes are involved in it. So, finally, blood gives power (HG – he makes a tight fist) to the whole system.

(Here, HG of ‘hanging palm’ and ‘tight fist’ describe his energy pattern and ‘sluggish’, ‘loose’ and ‘tone’ are sensations, but to which kingdom do these sensations belong? His description “many processes are involved in maintaining the BP with the help of certain bio-chemicals” makes me think of sarcodes because ‘blood’, ‘processes’ and ‘bio-chemicals’ are words from physiology; my experience from other cases is that any sensation relating to physiology is a sarcode sensation.)          

GK: Now, tell me about your nature? (I want confirmation of sensations in other areas of his life.)

P: I’m a jittery kind of person, I want everything fast and I can’t bear waiting. Sometimes, I start fighting when something doesn’t happen my way. If I don’t find a solution then, I become restless because I want to solve everything very fast. When I chase any problem, I always go to the roots and I correct them very quickly.

GK: Tell me more about ‘I want all solutions’?

P: If you don’t find a solution then you are gone. If you drop down when fighting, then your opponent can overpower you. If you don’t have any power (HG – tight fist) then what is the difference between you and a water-filled bag? You are nothing. (HG – hanging)

GK: Please describe ‘water-filled bag’?

P:  A water-filled bag is completely loose (HG – hanging). It has no tone and no capacity to do anything. It’s dropped whatever way you want to drop it, it’s moved whatever way you want to move it. It has no capacity to stand tight (HG – tight fist).

(Same story of ‘loose’, ‘tight’ and ‘tone’)

GK: Please tell me about your dreams?

P: I never remember any dreams.

GK: Your interests and hobbies?

P: I am very fond of driving the car at speeds of 120-140 km/h. I never get tired of driving continuously for 400 to 500 km.

Prescription: Histamine 1MK

Analysis

His description of physiological words ‘blood’, ‘processes’, ‘bio-chemicals’ makes me think of sarcodes, but I don’t know the sensations of ‘sluggish’, ‘loose’, ‘tight’, ‘tone’. I look up all the sarcodes and from the materia medica come beautiful references.

A. Murphy’s materia medica (Important words are written in bold)

Histamine is a capillary vessel dilator, an arterial vessel constrictor, a hypertensive in carnivores and herbivores; it constricts the bronchi and arouses the smooth tissues of the intestine, the uterus and the gastric and pancreatic salivary secretions and is normally used in the form of Histamine bi-chlorhydrate, which serves as stock for homeopathic preparations.Histamine has general asthenia as after physical exertion. Dryness of the mucous membranes. Feeling of constriction in different parts of the heart. Quivering and cramping contracture of the muscles. Irritable, susceptible, impatient with the need to walk up and down. Sensitive to the slightest trifles. Impatient, restless, with the need to move from place to place aimlessly. Quarrelsome, melancholic, sad, prostration which disappears by forceful walking. Waiting makes him particularly nervous, needs to walk up and down. Pain and gastric constriction when receiving news or remembering a painful experience. Contracture and muscular twitching of the eyelids and around the eyes. Spasmodic closing of the eyelids.Allergic and psoric constitutions. Asthma or chronic bronchitis with lack of air, feeling of oppression or constriction in the chest. Coughing fits which almost choke him.

B. Synoptic materia medica

"It is a powerful stimulant of gastric secretion, a constrictor of bronchial smooth muscle and a vasodilator [capillaries and arterioles] that causes a fall in blood pressure." [Stedman's][See: Jayesh Shah, Hurried and quarrelsome - Two cases of histamine, Homoeopathic Links, 3/97]

Constriction and Dilatation are the basic potentials of Histamine which are expressed as ‘tight’ and ‘loose’ in this case, so finally everything makes sense.  

Follow-up after one month

GK: How are you?

P: I’m fine. Since taking your medicine, I had two wheezing attacks, but this time they did not last too long. I took an inhaler and I recovered immediately.

GK: What about other complaints?

P: No other complaints except this asthma. The weakness in my legs is gone now.

GK: Any dreams?

P: I remember one… I had an examination and the bus did not come on time; I can’t tolerate waiting, so when the bus finally came, I fought (verbally) with the driver.

Plan: There are not many changes in his emotional state, but he starts improving at a local level, so wait and watch.

Follow up after six months

His wife calls me one morning to say that her husband has severe acidity. He is on a liquid diet because he can’t bear simple food. He has eructations and sometimes he vomits. I advise her to repeat the dose: he recovers quickly from the acidity.

Follow up after ten months

GK: How are you?

P: I’m fine. Thank you. During the last six months, I have not had a single attack of asthma. Unbelievable! One dose can cure acidity? In the past, I took 3kg of herbal powders to treat the acidity, but you cured me with only one dose!

GK: This is true; if your medicine is perfectly matched with your state then sometimes we get miraculous results. Tell me what differences do you notice between the past and now?

P: I used to be a very jittery kind of person, but now I think first before making any decision. In the past, I couldn’t wait for anything; I wanted everything straight away, but now, I first take a look at the situation and then I act accordingly. These changes make me business-wise also. In short, now I feel young.

(My observation: he speak slowly now and he has very little spasmodic blinking.)     

Until today, he has not had any complaints; he required four doses of histamine 1MK in total.

Information on sarcodes

You can find further information about sarcodes in my article “The Language of sarcodes” in ‘Homeopathic Links 1/10’. These are some selected paragraphs from the article.

A sarcode is prepared from healthy tissue and that tissue has a useful and healthy function. Why would anybody require a remedy made from useful and healthy tissues? When the whole being responds as if it were that one part, this can be considered as disease and that person requires a corresponding sarcode (See The Sensation in Homoeopathy, page: 681).A sarcode is prepared from healthy tissue, so it has a direct relation to physiology. The physiological process, phenomenon or function is the sensation of a sarcode.Sarcode patient’s language is often confused with the language of minerals because they sometimes speak about functions, but a mineral's function is related to structure. The mineral sensation is expressed as… “I'm missing something” or “I'm losing something,” while sarcode function is expressed as…“I must function properly, perfectly, appropriately and as required, neither more nor less.”

The sarcodes are prepared from healthy tissue or secretion, so they have the potential of that particular tissue. If we understand that potentiality of tissue then we can easily prescribe sarcodes.

Let’s look at the Histamine case with regard to potentiality. First, you ask the question: why does the body require histamine? What is role of histamine in the body? Histamine is meant for capillary dilatation and arterial constriction, or dilatation and constriction of smooth muscles, so dilatation and constriction is the potentiality of histamine. If somebody’s whole being responds as if he is histamine, then we prescribe histamine and it makes him more ‘human’.  

Photo: Philippe Pierson