Berberis is also very effective for joint pains. Its use
promotes the excretion of injurious acidic substances through the urine and the
body feels relieved. The joint pains decrease. The Berberis patient feels irritation
and itching as if something is creeping inside the nose. Often, the cold settles in the left nostril
and becomes chronic. The mouth is dry and the tongue sticks due to dryness. It
feels burnt and abrased. Sometimes, there is frothy sputum at the mouth with
the consistency of thrashed cotton which does not, however, make the mouth
moist. Sometimes blisters develop on the tongue. In men, there is undulating pain along the course of the
spermatic cord, which becomes worse during infection of the kidney and the bladder.
The patient cannot empty his bladder completely and keeps on straining to
evacuate himself fully. Sometimes the urine contains pus or mucus and
sometimes, also red cells. The urine smells extremely foul. The undulating type
of pain at the shoulders, arms, hands, legs, feet and the nails, associated
with generalised weakness, are the special symptoms of Berberis Vulgaris.
The typical sign of Berberis pain is that it starts at one
point and spreads out, radiating like the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
The kidney pain also behaves in the same way. The throbbing pain
radiates downwards towards the bladder and upwards towards the back
and the liver. The pain radiating downwards reaches the testicles
through the nerves. Often, the patient feels intense desire to pass
urine when he stands or walks, and the urge is uncontrollable. At the
urinal, when one passes urine, although a major portion is passed, the weak
stream of urine is never-ending. It appears as if the kidney is continuously making
urine.
Regarding the urinary symptoms of Berberis, either the
urine is plenty and dilute or sparse but thick and smelly due to an excess of
waste products. The frequency or relative infrequency of urination are both present
in Berberis Vulgaris. When the urination is copius, the kidneys are washed out
and the bad smell of the urine dissipates.
When the urine becomes less in quantity, it becomes deep-coloured and
offensive. When the quantity of the urine is decreased, the patient feels a
burning sensation along the urethra. The
kidney pain of Pareira Brava usually radiates only in one direction and that is
often from the kidney down into the thigh. In Berberis Vulgaris, however, the
pain from the kidney or the gall bladder radiates in all directions. In this
particular symptom pertaining to the gall
bladder pain, Berberis is very effective. In a week to ten days, the
stones of the gall bladder start breaking and are excreted in the stools.
In Berberis Vulgaris, the joint pains resemble gout in
that they affect the small joints of the hands and the feet much more, as
compared to the joint pains involving the big joints (in Rheumatism). The pains
in the hands and the fingers, like Benzoic Acid, are deeply related to Berberis
Vulgaris. The pain at the hip or the leg starts as soon as the person stands up
and worsens after walking a short distance. The feet also hurt, especially the
heels and the soles. In gouty pains, Benzoic Acid may prove to be the best
substitute of Berberis Vulgaris. Both may also be used alternately.
Experienced homoeopaths believe that when the heart becomes weak secondary to
liver failure, Berberis first corrects the state of the liver and as
a result, the heart becomes normalized automatically. When there is a retention
of acidic products and urea in the body, Berberis Vulgaris mobilizes them from
there and redirects them to the blood. They
are then excreted through the kidneys. When acidic matters increase in the
blood, they can affect the heart. The heart will not improve unless these
acidic waste products are excreted. Otherwise, Berberis Vulgaris does not have
any direct effect on the condition of the heart. If during the use of Berberis
Vulgaris, the heart is adversely affected, the patient should be made to drink
a lot of water so that the amount of urine increases. The waste products and
acidic matter can be washed out of the body rapidly thus preventing them from
affecting the heart again. During a severe cramp, the Berberis Vulgaris patient
cries uncontrollably. The gouty pains of Berberis become worse on movement. The
patient walks very slowly and guardedly. The symptoms take time to disappear.
The patient feels as if the head is wrapped in something.
In Glonoine also, there is a feeling of the head being tied up in a bandage. A
cap and buttoned-up collars are unbearable. But in Berberis Vulgaris, even if
there is nothing covering the head, the person feels as if something is holding
tight. As in Psorinum, the patient also feels bouts of hunger pains. One
symptom of Berberis is that the person feels as if he has been stabbed in his
liver and gall bladder with a knife. The pain radiates like fireworks in all
directions from the affected part of the body.
In Berberis, the patient is jaundiced and the stools become claycoloured. In this condition, Carduus Marianus may also
be given along with Berberis Vulgaris to enhance its beneficial effect. These two
remedies work as adjuvants to each other. In the case of liver diseases, I give
Berberis Vulgaris in the form of mother tincture, while in kidney troubles and
gout, I use it in potency 30. Berberis Vulgaris and Carduus Marianus have
similar constitutions. Berberis
Vulgaris is useful in the treatment of severe kidney
pain as well as kidney stones, but it has to be used over a long
period so that the stones gradually dissolve and are excreted. Berberis
Vulgaris has no affect on the Oxalic Acid stones. The oxalate stones are very
hard, and they are treatable by using ultrasound rays. In my experience, Silicea
and Calcarea Flour 6X given together for some time, dissolve and then expel the
oxalate stone.
In Berberis Vulgaris, one of the symptoms is that the
mouth feels sticky due to thick, sticky sputum. Small spots develop on the tongue that feels
raw. In the morning, one feels nauseated and has a burning sensation in the
chest. In Berberis, with movement and on standing, the legs start hurting, and
the urinary symptoms intensify.