Lac Defloratum is said to have been prepared from skimmed
milk. I do not agree with this statement. I believe that the milk will still
have some fat particles in spite of being apparently skimmed. The milk definitely
becomes dilute after the removal of fat, but, a little bit of fat must remain.
Based on the homoeopathic view, if the medicine is prepared from ordinary milk,
it should have the same features as that prepared from skimmed milk because of
the residual amount of fat in it.
Lac Defloratum is very useful in children who are allergic to milk. They cannot digest milk and instead they
develop diarrhoea. Most often, one dose of Lac Defloratum CM may prove
effective, so much so that they will not get the allergy again. Sometimes, the
allergy may partially remain, or it may not respond to the treatment after some
time
.
Lac Defloratum is of a cold nature, while Lac Caninum is
of a hot nature. The patient of Lac Defloratum is very cool minded. He feels cold
even while clad in warm clothing in hot weather. Blowing lightly on the face
will make him feel cold. This kind of strong feeling for the cold is different
from that associated with Arnica, Lachesis and Psorinum. The patient feels
extremely cold all over. He is sensitive to the even the draft of cold air and
will start suffering from rheumatic symptoms. He hurts all over the body, but
more so over the head. This pain is not the result of any infection but is rheumatic
in nature. There is pain along the course of the nerves on the face and the
head. If the patient feels extremely cold, Lac Defloratum must be kept in mind
for his treatment. The symptoms become
relieved with warmth. However, the patient will never feel warm enough; he
stays cold. The symptoms become relieved with rest and local pressure. The skin
is very sensitive, as in many other homoeopathic remedies. The hypersensitivity
of the skin is due to the irritability of the nerves, but in Lac Defloratum, it
is due to the sensitivity towards the cold.
Lac Defloratum has mostly been overlooked in the treatment
of diabetes, even
though its singular use can cure the diabetic, if other symptoms of Lac
Defloratum are also present. A single dose in high potency may cure the
patient. I have seen diabetics getting better many times. Diabetes is not the
kind of disease that must need continuous treatment for every patient. A
suitable homoeopathic treatment can cure the diabetes completely, but in some
patients the treatment may have to be continued. Some symptoms of diabetes may be
present in a patient of Lac Defloratum even if he is not an established
diabetic i.e. the frequent passage of thick urine and intense thirst.
Homoeopathic remedies are related to specific groups of
diseases. Once the basic symptoms of a disease
are taken care of, other diseases with similar group of symptoms may also be
cured. When a patient hates milk, or his
symptoms become worse on taking milk, or he develops nausea, vomiting,
headache, eructation and gas in the stomach etc; a single dose of Lac
Defloratum CM can cure all these symptoms. At times, it may have to be repeated
after a while. If two such doses, one after the other, do not benefit, it
should be abandoned. If it is going to be effective, it is effective
immediately, or not at all. When the first dose has offered some relief but the
symptoms have recurred, a second dose may be tried but no more. The symptom complex of Lac Defloratum also
includes the aftereffects of malaria,
such as lack of blood (anaemia), swelling (oedema), symptoms of diabetes and
weakness of the heart etc. Instead of
trying to remember all the symptoms, one must remember that the nature of this
remedy is very cold. The skin is very sensitive to cold. Whenever there is
hypersensitivity to cold, and any of the symptoms pertaining to the heart,
malaria or diabetes appear, then Lac Defloratum will most probably be found
more useful in the treatment of all these diseases as well.
I have no personal experience of using Lac Defloratum for the treatment of heart problems, so I cannot say for sure as to
what potency would be ideal. However, while dealing with the
heart, the treatment should be started in low potencies. If the patient
starts getting better, this should be repeated and the potency
should
gradually be increased. The heart responds in a very slow
and steady way; therefore, only low potencies are safe The Lac Defloratum patient loses
his memory and avoids intellectual work. This medicine is also useful in the treatment of fatty degeneration of the heart and the liver
. This condition is commonly found in alcoholics but may be found in people who consume
too much fat. Streaks of fat start depositing in the liver, which gradually
increase with age. The affected part of the liver loses its function and cannot
produce chemical secretions in the required amount. The usefulness of this
remedy in the treatment of fatty degeneration shows that it dispels the bad
effects of fatty disease. A Lac
Defloratum patient is usually very sad.
He wishes to die and looks for a simple straightforward way to achieve it. He
is not aggressive. He is sad, with no sign of explosion. He wants an easy way
to die without much trouble. Perhaps the poet Ghalib was also of Lac Defloratum
disposition. He said: “I wish somebody would sing to me in such a beautiful and
enchanting way, with the voice having the speed and radiance of lightning so
that I may die without any discomfort”. What a lovely death! Alas, he did not
get such a singer to solve his problem.
The patient of Lac Defloratum feels dizzy even on raising
his arm. His dizziness is like that of Conium. In Conium,
the patient feels dizzy on lying down or closing his eyes, while the bed spins
around him. In Lac Defloratum too, the situation is somewhat similar, while in
Lac Caninum, the patient feels dizzy while walking, and he finds the entire
world swinging around him. He finds himself in a fantasyland. Similarily a
patient of Cannabis has his own imaginary world, in which he feels like he is
flying or floating in the air. Its prominent sign is that perception of the
passage of time is affected. Sometimes
the passage of time seems to flow rapidly, while in the state of grief and
sorrow, time stands still for him. There is a kind of strange situation in Lac
Defloratum time is prolonged with the feeling of joy, whereas normally, a good
time passes away rapidly. The mind of a Lac Defloratum patient is not focused
on something in particular but goes astray. He trusts nothing.
In Lac Defloratum there is one particular characteristic
that the women suffer from headache before and after the periods. The headache
occupies the nape of the neck, the forehead and the temples. Yellowish offensive leucorrhoeal discharge, before and after the periods, is also a solid sign of Lac Defloratum. Once both
these
symptoms are present, the treatment becomes very easy. Lac Defloratum is also useful in the treatment of vomiting
during pregnancy. When a female patient with a cold body who has a tendency
towards being overweight develops diabetes,
Lac Defloratum may be a possible treatment for her. If a woman
delivers an overweight child, while on normal food intake, it may very well be
that her diabetes may be passed on to the child. If she is of a cold
constitution, and her body remains cold then Lac Defloratum can offer a
complete cure. Therefore, it must be
used without any delay as soon as the diagnosis is made. Obese ladies with the
feeling of cold all over and who are unable to digest milk will find this
medicine very useful. It will also cure the vomiting during pregnancy in any
woman who does not have a natural distaste for milk, but in pregnancy is unable
to digest it. All the symptoms pertaining to the stomach dysfunctions result
from the inability to digest milk. If the indigestion is due to not being able
to digest milk or due to fatty food, the commonly used remedy is Pulsatilla.
The nature of Pulsatilla is very hot, while that of Lac Defloratum is very cold
and this is the main
distinguishing factor between the two.
A patient of Lac Defloratum has extreme photophobia. He feels a gritty
sensation in the eyes. The vision is blurred. A patient of Lac Defloratum grinds his teeth at night. The
grinding of the teeth may also be due to an infestation with worms or due to
the swelling of the gums. Similarly, stomach upset and the indigestibility of
the milk can also result in grinding of the teeth even in the absence of worm
infestation. These three possibilities must be kept in mind. In the presence of worms, the child develops
a severe itch over the nose, and the margins of the nose as well as the margins
of the lips become yellowish. The second symptom is that the patient feels very
hungry. Both these symptoms can be best treated with Cina, while Sabadilla is
also very useful.
The third symptom of Lac Defloratum is nausea, however there is
no vomiting, except very rarely. In this respect, it is somewhat similar to Ipecac
but in Ipecac the vomiting is relatively more frequent.
The constipation
in a patient of Lac Defloratum is very severe; even more severe than in Silicea. Sometimes straining may lead
to rupture of the veins but the stools are not passed. Such patients can
develop piles or hernia. In Lac Defloratum, the patient passes urine freely, and
has a headache, like Gelsemium. Gelsemium also is of a cold nature, but the difference
between Gelsemium and Lac Defloratum is that in Gelsemium there is no thirst at
all while in Lac Defloratum there is severe thirst. In Lac Defloratum, the
urine is abundant and light yellow in colour, but it may also be thick and
darkish in colour indicating that albumin is being passed. Lac Defloratum will
be found very useful in treating this condition if other symptoms of Lac Defloratum
are also present.
A strange sign of Lac Defloratum is that when exposed to
extreme cold, there is loss of control over passing urine. This is more common in
women than in men. There is incontinence.
The small muscles (sphincters) become insensitive due to exposure to the cold
and become temporarily non-functional. A similar situation occurs in Causticum
but there, it is due to permanent paralysis. Gradually worsening incontinence
of the urine can also be found in Kali Carb.
In Lac Defloratum, the condition is temporary. As soon as the exposure
to cold is over, urination comes under voluntary control. Lac Defloratum is also useful in the
treatment of backache
associated with menstruation. While menstruating, the patient happens
to dip her hands in extremely cold water, the periods will cease immediately, and
some other ailment may ensue. Therefore, such ladies had better take the
precaution of refraining from using very cold water during their periods.Lac Defloratum is also useful in the treatment of heart
disease especially the cardiac
asthma in which the heart is weak and there is a shortness of
breath. On breathing, the lungs press on the heart. Similarly, this symptom is found in Spongia in its own form.
In a patient of Lac Defloratum, only the fingers may be cold
rather than the whole hand and will not warm up at all. The one
exceptional situation is that its headache gets better only in the cold,
even though the patient is already feeling extremely cold, like in Phosphorus.
But the Phosphorus patient would want to protect himself with
warm clothing except for his head, which he would like to keep cold. Nothing but only the cold can offer him relief. Other
symptoms of Phosphorus are quite different from Lac Defloratum