Salt is an essential part of human body. Its imbalance
produces diseases. Excessive intake of salt will not produce any ill effects in
those who have the habit of exercising daily, sweat profusely and also excrete
the salt in their urine i.e. their kidneys are functioning normally.
Natrum Mur is a profoundly active, long-acting medicine.
No part of the body is beyond its influence. Generally, the skin of a Natrum
Mur patient is very shiny. Due to the increased content of water in the blood,
the skin feels greasy as if oil has been rubbed over it. However, one should remember that every
patient may not necessarily exhibit all the symptoms or that all the relevant
symptoms must appear in each and every part of the body. For a remedy to be the
exact match, the basic as well as distinctive symptoms must be present in a
patient. However, it is not essential for every symptom to be expressed fully.
A patient of Natrum Mur feels tired and weak. Weakness, either physical or
mental, is always found in Natrum Mur patients. This is due to the imbalance of
Hydrochloric Acid, resulting in episodes of sudden severe weakness.
Natrum Mur is deeply related to malaria. In swampy areas,
malaria spreads through mosquitoes. Malaria causes breakdown of red blood cells,
resulting in anaemia and the resulting relative dilution of the blood
(haemodilution). These signs require the usage of Natrum Mur, which otherwise,
has no special affinity to wet marshy areas. The real connection of malaria is
with the mosquitoes. Wherever mosquitoes are present, malaria must also exist.
Generally, the mosquitoes are found in swampy and coastal areas. In such areas,
naturally, Natrum Mur would also be required to treat malarial fever and is one
of the best remedies against it. However, it should never be given to the patient
while the malarial fever is still rising, because under these circumstances,
Natrum Mur may produce serious ill effects or an immediate severe reaction.
Several different ways have been described to use Natrum Mur. One is that
either one should wait for the temperature to drop and then give the remedy, or
it should be given in high potency during the interval between the two bouts of
fever. In the case where Natrum Mur becomes effective, it will change the
timing of the fever. The fever will either come on earlier or later than its
usual time. If only the timing of the fever alters, but there is no decrease in
the duration or the severity of the fever, it proves that the remedy has not
been effective. In this situation, one must find another remedy without further
delay. The appropriate remedy should either result in immediate disappearance
of fever with no return, or will alter the timing and decrease the duration of
the fever. The fever may not then return, or will be much milder. If so, the
treatment should be repeated after the fever has subsided. The mental signs of Natrum Mur are strange.
In the beginning, the patient
feels victimized and is always obsessed with the feeling of being a
victim of some wrongdoings. Despite this, the patient does not like sympathy.
Furthermore, the patient
gets captivated with imaginary love. Even some old women get
captivated with this kind of hypothetical love. If love could ever be cured
with a medicine, then probably Natrum Mur will be the most appropriate.
If the fever does not subside for a long time and affects
the brain, then Natrum Mur should be tried. Natrum Mur has been found to be specifically
effective against the bad effects of grief and sadness on the mind.
Ignatia and Ambra Grisea are the best and promptly effective remedies during
the early stages of bereavement. Ignatia is a fast acting remedy, but its
effect is very short-lived, so it needs to be given repeatedly. Once the deep
grief becomes embedded into the mind of a patient, then he goes out of the
range of Ignatia. Ambra Grisea works better in these patients. Next, comes
Natrum Mur. It is my personal experience that with Natrum Mur, even the totally insane patient can
be cured. Natrum Mur patients are not aggressive; rather they either sit
quietly or become
indifferent to the world altogether and then gradually become
physically weak. They get
very angry, yet do not show violence. Their mind becomes slow and weak.
The patient, while talking, forgets and does not remember what he wanted to
say. Concentration is lost. Break in the continuity of thoughts in the midst of
talking is the symptom of Natrum Mur. However,
if while listening, someone fails to understand or there is a delay in
understanding, then, Plumbum will be more appropriate.
One symptom of the Natrum Mur patient is that reading causes tiredness.
He tends to cry like a chronic Pulsatilla patient. The Pulsatilla patient tends to cry repeatedly, though mentally
he is absolutely normal. The hands and feet of the Natrum Mur
patient remain cold, and he is also weak. He is inclined to cry with
or without a reason. If the ill
effects of grief on the patient are not cured with Natrum Mur and the disease appears deep-seated, then Silicea
might be helpful in such cases (Silicea is chronic of Natrum Mur).
Silicea is
also chronic of Pulsatilla. Natrum Mur should not be used
repeatedly without good reason, because its excessive use can cause an imbalance of the salts in the blood. There is no harm in
the occasional
repetition of this remedy, but it should not be repeated
too often in one day. The Natrum Mur patient feels very thirsty. During the headache, the patient
feels as if being hit with a hammer over various parts of the head. Light hurts
the eyes. Movement aggravates this condition. From this point of view, Natrum
Mur resembles Bryonia. Constipation in Natrum Mur
is more severe than that in Bryonia.
Natrum Mur is the chronic, as well as the antidote of Apis. The Natrum Mur patient suffers from chronic backache. He feels weakness in his arms, legs and particularly the knees. The skin around the nails of
the hands (cuticles) becomes fissured due to dryness and
the legs become insensitive. The Natrum Mur patient does not like to eat bread or oily
food. The patient feels very hungry but after eating food, he feels tired and
weak. He feels burning sensation in the
chest, also hardness and a piercing sensation over the liver. After taking
food, the stomach becomes heavy and distended. Hunger pangs cause a fainting
sensation over the stomach.
The Natrum Mur patient is highly strung and does not
tolerate even the slightest noise. A sudden sound causes a headache. The
patient is intolerant even to the rustling sound of paper. The Natrum Mur patient is very cold. However, his symptoms
aggravate in a heated room. He likes the open air. From this point of view,
half of the constitution of Natrum Mur resembles that of Pulsatilla. Despite
feeling cold, the patient likes to go in the open air. In the open, physical ailments ameliorate
but the mental ailments aggravate. One must keep in mind these subtleties in
the nature of this remedy. The constitution of a Natrum Mur patient changes
frequently and rapidly. When the patient sweats, he catches cold, which however
gets better in the open.
Natrum Mur affects the skin also. Eczema, itching and inflammation are
found mostly at the hairlines. This is typical of Natrum Mur. Both dry pimples
as well as discharging boils form. There
is itching as well as a pins and needles sensation on the skin.
Pus exudes from the itchy spots. Scabs also form, which then peel off
in pieces. One symptom of Natrum Mur that resembles
Sarsaparilla is that the patient starts ageing
prematurely. In Natrum Mur, the headache
starts either after midnight or in the morning after nine o’ clock.
Severe morning headache is a symptom of Gelsemium. Usually in Natrum Mur, the
ailments, which either start due to heat stroke or during malarial fever,
continue from nine o’ clock in the morning till night. The headache usually starts at the nape
of the neck and spreads to the backbone. Natrum Mur is related to
several back conditions. Especially if there is a sudden attack of “lumbago”,
then Natrum Mur works very well in the early stages. The symptoms of a Natrum
Mur patient usually become worse on lying down in a soft bed. The backbone
becomes relatively very sensitive. There
is discomfort and pain along the nerves (sciatica). The patient feels comfort,
when lying on a hard surface.
Symptoms related to the prostate gland are also present in
Natrum Mur. There is considerable delay in the onset of urination. The urine comes
in drops followed by the feeling of discomfort and unsatisfaction because of
incomplete evacuation of the bladder. Sometimes,
the patient feels pain either at the end of urination or afterwards. During
walking, laughing or coughing, urine
may be passed involuntarily (stress incontinence). For bed-wetting
at night, Natrum Mur with Kali Phos is very useful. Usually this problem i.e. bedwetting is found in children during deep
sleep.
In Natrum Mur, either there is severe constipation or diarrhoea. In Natrum Mur, the patient, despite having an excellent
appetite, remains slim and thin. Along with a burning sensation in the stomach, there is palpitation. While eating, the patient sweats. The
patient craves salt. He feels better on an empty stomach. After eating
food, there is heartburn and the acidity increases, along with excessive salivation
from the mouth.
As it has already been mentioned, Natrum Mur is an excellent treatment for malaria.
Every type of malaria is included i.e. whether with daily fever or with relapsing fever. The most dangerous
type of malaria is the one in which the fever returns every third
day. This type of fever does not easily leave the patient. Natrum Mur
is very beneficial in this kind of fever. Repeated use has proven
that by giving Natrum Mur, the fever starts coming on the second day
instead of the third day, and then slowly disappears completely in
eight to ten
days.
If the diseases of Natrum Mur have become very complicated
or have become chronic due to the wrong treatment, then Sulphur 200 will be found
very effective in delineating the underlying symptoms of these patients
clearly. Sulphur, being a profoundly active remedy, may also cure some of these
diseases. Natrum Mur also clearly brings out and clarifies the symptoms of the
patients with complicated fevers that have gone out of hand. When the fevers
become complicated, they may adopt different forms. When malaria deteriorates further, the symptoms
become very complicated. Sometimes the symptoms appear as pain and at other
times, they may appear in some other way.
A very eminent English doctor has said about malaria that with the exception
of pregnancy, it can mimic any disease. It complicates the symptoms so much so
that doctors may not arrive at the root cause of the disease. In this regard,
both Natrum Mur and Sepia play a very important role. When given in high
potency to a healthy person, Natrum Mur sometimes proves to be very useful in
protecting against the general tendency towards malaria. Similarly, Arnica 1000
(or higher potency) along with Arsenic 1000 (or higher potency) has often been
found to be very effective when given as a precautionary measure against
malaria.
In Natrum Mur, like Hepar Sulph, the patient feels as if
something has got stuck
inside the throat. The patient tries unsuccessfully, again and again
to remove the entrapped thing from the throat. He feels as if a thorn is stuck
inside. However, if something like fishbone or something else is really stuck
in the throat, then Silicea has the ability to expel it. Sometimes, in Natrum
Mur, the throat becomes very dry and ulcers develop.
Soft swellings,
which pit on pressure, resembling those resulting from a honeybee sting, are
also found in and are treatable with Natrum Mur. That is the reason why Natrum Mur is very effective in treating the symptoms of bee-sting.
If Natrum Mur is used in combination with Arsenic and Ledum, it benefits the
patient astonishingly fast. Furthermore,
Carbolic Acid is very famous as the fast acting antidote of bee-sting venom.
Natrum Mur is chronic of Apis. Chronic means that if a
remedy, which works for a short while and then stops working, then
another remedy takes its benefits further. The second remedy is called the chronic
of the first. The swelling of the Apis, if not fully cured with Apis, will
completely disappear when treated with Natrum Mur. Similarly, some other diseases, which are not completely cured
with Apis, will also be cured when the patient is treated subsequently with Natrum
Mur. Therefore Natrum Mur is called the chronic of Apis. Natrum Mur is a good treatment for weakness following
childbirth. If a woman’s
general health weakens after delivery, apart from Kali Carb, Natrum Mur is also
very effective. Natrum Mur restores the health of the woman. If post-childbirth backache is
not cured with Kali Carb, then it can be cured with Natrum Mur. If there is some kind of deficiency in the mother’s milk,
due to which the child is not thriving normally or the milk dries up too
soon, Natrum Mur should be used. Natrum Mur rectifies the internal
defect
due to which the child does not grow properly, as well as
increasing the quantity of milk according to the need of the child. Natrum
Mur is the best treatment
of the emaciating, underfeeding and wasting
disease
of the children (Marasmus). The emaciation process starts from the
upper part of the body and then spreads downwards. Sometimes, this disease is secondary to some disease of the
mother; therefore the mother should also be treated.
Irregularity of periods,
excessive bleeding, leucorrhoea causing burning and itching, depression and sadness before the onset
of periods, heaviness in the lower part of the abdomen getting
worse in the morning, are all the symptoms of Natrum Mur. The gums become swollen and bleed. The
teeth become loose and sensitive to cold and cold
air. Teeth hurt after eating food and at night, and the pain may
also spread to the ears. A layer of dirty foam-like material deposits over the
tongue. There is a feeling of hissing, as if a hair is stuck on the tongue.
The heart beats fast on going up the stairs or lying on
the left side. Furthermore, there is a
feeling of cold over the heart. There is a feeling of tightness and suffocation
in the chest.
Whooping cough with watering of the eyes, severe headache and
also worsening of the cough on movement on taking deep breathing and upon getting warm in bed are common symptoms of Natrum
Mur. The symptoms of Natrum Mur aggravate in the coastal areas.