See french version on interhomeopathy.fr
2008 September
Samarium sulphuricum and rheumatoid arthritis
Case
A woman of 50 years age presents with rheumatoid arthritis. I t started at her feet and hands. Now she has inflammations in her metacarpal and proximal inter-digital joints, with swelling and deformities. Most of her toes have grown bent. She has arthritis in her left knee so she cannot walk well and comes with crutches. Her elbows are inflamed and she cannot stretch them completely anymore. Especially her left elbow is deformed with exostoses. Her wrists and ankles are also affected. The pains are worse from exertion and sport, wet and cold weather, before menses and from stress like having to rise too early in the morning. She has a lot of pain, but bites it away. She has a fear of becoming dependent and not being able to take care of herself anymore. The Roentgen photo's show deformed bones and lacking cartilage of the joints. She is treated by her rheumatologist with salazopyrin, Indocid, Ledertrexaat and Areva and anti TNF. The Ledertrexaat gives her stomach pains and once she developed a stomach ulcer. The Arena gives her hypertension, depression and headaches. She was also treated by a homeopath with Staphysagria and Aurum metallicum.
It all started 17 years ago when she was divorcing. She had been married 15 years. They met in the hippie time and traveled all over the world a lot like hippies, in India, in France picking grapes and the like. But he could be very aggressive when she did not do as he wished. She had a child, but he said that that should not have happened, it was a plague. His anger should not have happened, but she stayed. She always had a very romantic idea. She wanted to solve his problems with her love. She was naive, believed in the true love, " one has sex only when one wants to have a child from a man". He was arrogant, using drugs and marijuana. He always fell in love with her girl friends and wanted to have relations with them. She thought for a long time that that could be possible with the idea of "free love". He always let her down, but kept hanging on to her. At last she quit. She also stayed long to prove herself to her father. Her father had said to her before her marriage "Are you sure you want to marry him? It will give much grief!". So she went on, showing that she could do it as one does not start so easily with a marriage.
Family:
Her father was authoritarian and very hard. She looked up to him. He died from a heart attack. Her mother was soft and very protecting. She was the youngest of 5 children and says "I was spoiled emotionally". She was raised by her eldest sister who was 17 years older. She had to grow up fast, had to be "a big girl, strong, tough".
Past history:
As a baby she had convulsions. She also had abdominal cramps with constipation.
She has been anemic her whole life.
She has a tendency to hypo-tension.
Once she had a severe diarrhea for 3 days when traveling in India. She was very ill and cannot remember much of it anymore.
She was very happy during her pregnancy, but she gained much weight, almost 20 kilo. Labour was painful, but she would not scream. She had to let her husband come from a cafe and wanted to show what she could during the labour, thinking "when he sees what I can do he will stay with me".
Palpitations are periodically coming on. The first time she had it was when she was 20 after drinking cola. Since then she has it every five years. She can get it from eating Turkish fruit. She feels very tired then, her heart is throbbing and she has the feeling that electric currents are circulating around her heart.
She had an influenza before the arthritis started. She had a fever, she felt alternating cold, was very sweaty, had joint pains and headache and was so lame that she had to lie down. She felt her blood streaming through her blood vessels in a painful way.
Mind:
She is perfectionistic. She always wants to do something, cannot sit still. She does many things at the same time. She always was very active, could handle things, live for two and took people with her in her weird ideas. She becomes hyperactive from sugar.
She has fears of driving fast in a car, much traffic, crowds in festivals, many people in elevators or small rooms.
Dream: being beaten.
Dream: her child being taken away.
Dream: she is going up a mountain with a group, they are already quite high, then she falls and keeps on falling in the depth, she wakes frightened.
Dream: she is going up a mountain with a group, they are already quite high, she cannot go further and is left behind.
Generals:
Weather: desire for constant weather of around 20 degrees and a bit of sun.
Sweat: more since her menopause, which is a bit offensive.
Time : < 7 am.
Desire: vegetables, salad, goat cheese, sweet, white wine.
Aversion: mussels, oysters, shrimps, crab.
Food: < mussels, it once made her very sick with burning pains in her esophagus and stomach. Coffee makes her speedy.
Menses: abdominal pains the first day of menses.
Sleep: sleepless periodically.
Quality of life: 30; she feels like almost dead, loathes life.
Analysis:
Rheumatoid arthritis is definitely an auto-immune disease and as such a very strong indication for a Lanthanide. We can see many other Lanthanide themes in her case. She is from the hippie time, thinking in free love. She has an aversion to taking medicines and has a fear of becoming dependent, both strong indications of Lanthanides. As a child she felt different. She has an aversion to rules and has a desire for space and freedom. She is very sensitive. So the indications for Lanthanides abound.
The Stage that is mostly indicated is Stage 1, as she went on and on in marriage, trying to convince her husband of her love. She bites her pain away. She works and lives for 2. This is a typical thing for Stage 8, where they do and work the most. The Stage is also very nicely reflected in her dreams, where she goes up a mountain, going up meaning a Stage on the left, before the top, which is Stage 10. She is already quite high, so it must be near stage 10, something like stage 7, 8 or 9.
There is in this case a differential diagnosis with Stage 6 as she said that she wanted to prove that her love would work out well, proving being a typical expression of Stage 6.
The salt is Sulphur as the core of the problem is around her marriage and love. The disease started after her marriage was broken down. She has a very romantic idea about love. The sulphur part expresses itself physically in heart problems. She has palpitations and a feeling of electrical currents around her heart. The electrical feeling are indicating Lanthanides again.
In the idea of “free” love” we see the combination of Lanthanide in “free” and Sulphur in “love”.
Follow-up:
Within an hour after taking Samarium sulphuricum MK she gets cold shivers, is thinking about death and dying and she feels like she did in earlier times. This stayed the whole day. The next day she is ill, stays in bed the whole day, needs rest, is weak and weepy. The joint pains are worse, but she feels emotionally better.
After a week she feels more or less the same, takes the second dose and then starts feeling "O, this is good".
One month after Samarium sulphuricum she feels much better and more cheerful. She got her old energy back, feeling herself again. Shortly after the remedy she started to walk more straight instead of bend forward.
She also reconciled herself with her arthritis instead of fighting and biting the pain away. She can accept the medicines better. She feels less stiff, needs less medicines.
Three months and three repetitions of the remedy later, she feels better with her Arthritis. She can go upstairs. She takes her life in her own hands more and is happier. She can become angry with her boy friend, a thing that she never could in the past out her romantic idea of love. Her grudge against her husband is gone, she can meet him at family parties without getting upset as in the past.
Three months and three repetitions of the remedy later, she is further ameliorated. She has more energy, can walk 10 kilometer. She has more energy and less pain. She stopped eating gluten. She had a dream like she had in the past of a dangerous situation, like in a world war, but in the past she was very anxious with those kind of dreams and now she look at the situation without fear, but with love.
Three months and three repetitions of the remedy later, in total after 10 months her pain is almost gone. She has stopped all her medications except the anti-body treatment. She had gotten an influenza like she has had as a child. Her toes have grown normal, straight. Her elbow can straighten much more and the outgrowths on the elbows and hand joints have diminished. She has become very strong.
Her quality of life? 100.
In the past she has had Arum metallicum and Staphysagria without result.
Scholten, J.C.
Homeopathic Doctors Centre Utrecht
A woman of 50 years age presents with rheumatoid arthritis. I t started at her feet and hands. Now she has inflammations in her metacarpal and proximal inter-digital joints, with swelling and deformities. Most of her toes have grown bent. She has arthritis in her left knee so she cannot walk well and comes with crutches. Her elbows are inflamed and she cannot stretch them completely anymore. Especially her left elbow is deformed with exostoses. Her wrists and ankles are also affected. The pains are worse from exertion and sport, wet and cold weather, before menses and from stress like having to rise too early in the morning. She has a lot of pain, but bites it away. She has a fear of becoming dependent and not being able to take care of herself anymore. The Roentgen photo's show deformed bones and lacking cartilage of the joints. She is treated by her rheumatologist with salazopyrin, Indocid, Ledertrexaat and Areva and anti TNF. The Ledertrexaat gives her stomach pains and once she developed a stomach ulcer. The Arena gives her hypertension, depression and headaches. She was also treated by a homeopath with Staphysagria and Aurum metallicum.
It all started 17 years ago when she was divorcing. She had been married 15 years. They met in the hippie time and traveled all over the world a lot like hippies, in India, in France picking grapes and the like. But he could be very aggressive when she did not do as he wished. She had a child, but he said that that should not have happened, it was a plague. His anger should not have happened, but she stayed. She always had a very romantic idea. She wanted to solve his problems with her love. She was naive, believed in the true love, " one has sex only when one wants to have a child from a man". He was arrogant, using drugs and marijuana. He always fell in love with her girl friends and wanted to have relations with them. She thought for a long time that that could be possible with the idea of "free love". He always let her down, but kept hanging on to her. At last she quit. She also stayed long to prove herself to her father. Her father had said to her before her marriage "Are you sure you want to marry him? It will give much grief!". So she went on, showing that she could do it as one does not start so easily with a marriage.
Family:
Her father was authoritarian and very hard. She looked up to him. He died from a heart attack. Her mother was soft and very protecting. She was the youngest of 5 children and says "I was spoiled emotionally". She was raised by her eldest sister who was 17 years older. She had to grow up fast, had to be "a big girl, strong, tough".
Past history:
As a baby she had convulsions. She also had abdominal cramps with constipation.
She has been anemic her whole life.
She has a tendency to hypo-tension.
Once she had a severe diarrhea for 3 days when traveling in India. She was very ill and cannot remember much of it anymore.
She was very happy during her pregnancy, but she gained much weight, almost 20 kilo. Labour was painful, but she would not scream. She had to let her husband come from a cafe and wanted to show what she could during the labour, thinking "when he sees what I can do he will stay with me".
Palpitations are periodically coming on. The first time she had it was when she was 20 after drinking cola. Since then she has it every five years. She can get it from eating Turkish fruit. She feels very tired then, her heart is throbbing and she has the feeling that electric currents are circulating around her heart.
She had an influenza before the arthritis started. She had a fever, she felt alternating cold, was very sweaty, had joint pains and headache and was so lame that she had to lie down. She felt her blood streaming through her blood vessels in a painful way.
Mind:
She is perfectionistic. She always wants to do something, cannot sit still. She does many things at the same time. She always was very active, could handle things, live for two and took people with her in her weird ideas. She becomes hyperactive from sugar.
She has fears of driving fast in a car, much traffic, crowds in festivals, many people in elevators or small rooms.
Dream: being beaten.
Dream: her child being taken away.
Dream: she is going up a mountain with a group, they are already quite high, then she falls and keeps on falling in the depth, she wakes frightened.
Dream: she is going up a mountain with a group, they are already quite high, she cannot go further and is left behind.
Generals:
Weather: desire for constant weather of around 20 degrees and a bit of sun.
Sweat: more since her menopause, which is a bit offensive.
Time : < 7 am.
Desire: vegetables, salad, goat cheese, sweet, white wine.
Aversion: mussels, oysters, shrimps, crab.
Food: < mussels, it once made her very sick with burning pains in her esophagus and stomach. Coffee makes her speedy.
Menses: abdominal pains the first day of menses.
Sleep: sleepless periodically.
Quality of life: 30; she feels like almost dead, loathes life.
Analysis:
Rheumatoid arthritis is definitely an auto-immune disease and as such a very strong indication for a Lanthanide. We can see many other Lanthanide themes in her case. She is from the hippie time, thinking in free love. She has an aversion to taking medicines and has a fear of becoming dependent, both strong indications of Lanthanides. As a child she felt different. She has an aversion to rules and has a desire for space and freedom. She is very sensitive. So the indications for Lanthanides abound.
The Stage that is mostly indicated is Stage 1, as she went on and on in marriage, trying to convince her husband of her love. She bites her pain away. She works and lives for 2. This is a typical thing for Stage 8, where they do and work the most. The Stage is also very nicely reflected in her dreams, where she goes up a mountain, going up meaning a Stage on the left, before the top, which is Stage 10. She is already quite high, so it must be near stage 10, something like stage 7, 8 or 9.
There is in this case a differential diagnosis with Stage 6 as she said that she wanted to prove that her love would work out well, proving being a typical expression of Stage 6.
The salt is Sulphur as the core of the problem is around her marriage and love. The disease started after her marriage was broken down. She has a very romantic idea about love. The sulphur part expresses itself physically in heart problems. She has palpitations and a feeling of electrical currents around her heart. The electrical feeling are indicating Lanthanides again.
In the idea of “free” love” we see the combination of Lanthanide in “free” and Sulphur in “love”.
Follow-up:
Within an hour after taking Samarium sulphuricum MK she gets cold shivers, is thinking about death and dying and she feels like she did in earlier times. This stayed the whole day. The next day she is ill, stays in bed the whole day, needs rest, is weak and weepy. The joint pains are worse, but she feels emotionally better.
After a week she feels more or less the same, takes the second dose and then starts feeling "O, this is good".
One month after Samarium sulphuricum she feels much better and more cheerful. She got her old energy back, feeling herself again. Shortly after the remedy she started to walk more straight instead of bend forward.
She also reconciled herself with her arthritis instead of fighting and biting the pain away. She can accept the medicines better. She feels less stiff, needs less medicines.
Three months and three repetitions of the remedy later, she feels better with her Arthritis. She can go upstairs. She takes her life in her own hands more and is happier. She can become angry with her boy friend, a thing that she never could in the past out her romantic idea of love. Her grudge against her husband is gone, she can meet him at family parties without getting upset as in the past.
Three months and three repetitions of the remedy later, she is further ameliorated. She has more energy, can walk 10 kilometer. She has more energy and less pain. She stopped eating gluten. She had a dream like she had in the past of a dangerous situation, like in a world war, but in the past she was very anxious with those kind of dreams and now she look at the situation without fear, but with love.
Three months and three repetitions of the remedy later, in total after 10 months her pain is almost gone. She has stopped all her medications except the anti-body treatment. She had gotten an influenza like she has had as a child. Her toes have grown normal, straight. Her elbow can straighten much more and the outgrowths on the elbows and hand joints have diminished. She has become very strong.
Her quality of life? 100.
In the past she has had Arum metallicum and Staphysagria without result.
Scholten, J.C.
Homeopathic Doctors Centre Utrecht
Categories: Remedies
Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, Samarium sulphuricum, salazopyrin, Indocid, Ledertrexaat, Areva, anti TNF
Remedies:
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