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NUX VOMICA


 
Nux Vomica is prepared from the seeds of an evergreen plant. The scent of its flowers is rather unpleasant. Its fruit is of orange colour. The seeds of the plant remain wrapped under soft hair. The remedy is prepared by grinding the seeds. In traditional medicines, it has been used in the treatment of extremely serious conditions, like plague, hysteria, rheumatism and rabies. Since Nux Vomica seeds contain many poisonous substances, therefore the homoeopathic medicine produced from the seeds is extensively used as an antidote to many poisons. Patients who have used different medicines in large quantities should be treated with Nux Vomica in order to dispel their ill effects and to give the patient’s body a fresh start. Nux Vomica is very intimately related to Sulphur. While restoring the natural body responses, Sulphur produces painful skin diseases. Nux Vomica cleanses the body of these skin diseases without suppressing the diseases back inside the body. Thus, Nux Vomica works as an extremely potent adjuvant of Sulphur. It ameliorates the skin diseases without impeding the useful functions of Sulphur. If haemorrhoids need to be treated with Sulphur, then Nux Vomica should also be used with it. Nux Vomica proves to be the best adjuvant in abating the
discomfort of haemorrhoids. 

Nux Vomica is also useful in the treatment of different allergies. Some people develop an allergy to rice or meat and develop hyperacidity. By the grace of God, with the use of Nux Vomica, the patients find instant relief. Nux Vomica has not been mentioned in any of the literatures as a specific treatment for rice allergies but based on its symptoms; I have tried Nux Vomica on such patients. In spite of the fact that Nux Vomica is of a hot nature and the rice allergy is related to a humid climate, it relieves the symptoms of allergy to rice.
Indigestion produces hyperacidity in the stomach. The patient becomes peevish and easily enraged. Such patients are usually thin and skinny. However, sometimes even fat people can develop hyperacidity in the stomach. For them, there are many other remedies available. Nux Vomica is the ideal homoeopathic remedy for the patients have certain habits that make their symptoms worse. For example they remain awake late at night, they work for a long time in a sedentary state and they do not exercise regularly. Excessive drinking in the western culture or eating too much oily food in the eastern culture produces hyperacidity. All such patients benefit from Nux Vomica.

Apart from the digestive system, Nux Vomica does not have any profound effect on other major internal organs. However, it does affect the external musculature, mucous membranes and the skin. A backache developing from sitting for too long can be cured with Nux Vomica. The Nux Vomica backache is usually localised at one particular area. If other symptoms of Nux Vomica were present, including gastric hyperacidity, then the profound weakness which appears suddenly in such patients would also be cured with Nux Vomica. During this weakness, the person may not even be able to move his hands. The patient feels instantly rejuvenated with Nux Vomica. It should be given in potency 30 to be repeated every few minutes.

The Nux Vomica poison slows down the peristaltic movement of the intestines. In healthy people, after taking food, the peristalsis beginning at the stomach must continue to the end of the intestines, so that the semi-digested food may be passed on. Normally this cycle should complete in fourteen hours. After fourteen hours, the contents remain inside the large gut to allow for the absorption of excess secretions. Thus a healthy person normally has one motion in twentyfour hours. If the system of peristalsis slows down the person becomes constipated, and if it becomes too speedy then diarrhoea develops, or sometimes the patient may have frequent solid motions, one after the other. Nux Vomica is an effective treatment specific for this condition.

Gastric dysfunction can often aggravate asthma. So asthmatics should avoid eating food that may upset their stomach and also food causing irritation of throat. Such foods would always precipitate their asthma. Extremely cold or sour things like pickles can also be very dangerous to asthma patients. Nux Vomica is very beneficial in the treatment of asthma due to hyperacidity. To prevent against the asthma related to the nasal cold, one should keep taking prophylactic remedies, so that the patient neither catches cold nor develops asthma since prevention is better than cure. Nux Vomica is also useful in the treatment of leg cramps. Given at the outset it offers instant relief. If the cramps are associated with symptoms like Belladonna, even then Nux Vomica, by itself proves to be curative. Regarding the cramps associated with Nux Vomica, there is some contradiction in that the backache becomes worse in the cold and the stomachache becomes worse from heat. The reason for this is that Nux Vomica contains many chemical compounds which behave differently on different occasions. Nux Vomica contains Belladonna and Cuprum, so some of the symptoms of Nux Vomica may aggravate from heat.

Nux Vomica has proven to be the best general remedy for the

treatment of common day-to-day leg cramps. It is also very effective in the treatment of sleeplessness. For example, Nux Vomica is the best alternative for drug addicts and people with the habit of taking sleeping pills. I often start the treatment of drug addicts with Nux Vomica. With some exceptions, all the patients have benefited from the treatment. Once, a young drug addict was brought to me by his parents. Obviously, they were very worried and dismayed. The patient was being treated for drug addiction with sleeping pills, yet he could not sleep even with heavy doses of hypnotic medicines. I advised him to take Nux Vomica 30 three times a day, and kept his sleeping pills with me. I assured him that if he could not go to sleep during the night, he could come and take the sleeping pills back from me in the morning. That night, for the first time in a long time, the patient enjoyed sound sleep. In the morning he told me that with sleeping pills, he could never have comfortable sleep, whereas with Nux Vomica, he had slept comfortably. His sleeping pills remained with me for a long time as a souvenir. Thus, Nux Vomica has proven to be a very useful medicine for treating the side effects of drug addiction and also for getting rid of the habit of using sleeping pills. If Nux Vomica alone is not fully effective, Chamomilla should also be given along with it. Together, besides acting as sedatives, they also dispel the ill effects of the addictive drugs.

Nux Vomica is the best remedy for sleeplessness resulting from a heavy workload, lengthy talking or some sort of mental anguish. Nux Vomica is also an excellent antidote for the ill effects of coffee. By the grace of God, the people who lose sleep due to drinking coffee can instantly go to sleep with just one dose of Nux Vomica. The patient goes to sleep right away without a feeling of preliminary drowsiness.  Morning dizziness is a symptom of Nux Vomica. Probably, the patient did not get a good night’s sleep and the mind was not properly rested, resulting in dizziness. In some sensitive individuals Nux Vomica 200 can cause sleeplessness. Generally nux vom 20 is more effective for sleep than Nux Vomica 200. One learns the proper use of the potencies from keen observations and long experience.  If the nasal discharge solidifies clogging both nostrils, it produces severe headache. The pain becomes worse on bending forward. The patient feels pressure inside the head. The nose remains blocked all the time. This condition is called a sinus problem. Nux Vomica 1000 given at night proves to be extraordinarily effective. By the morning, the patient sneezes a lot, expelling the liquefied nasal discharge and clearing the nose. There are some other possible remedies too for this condition. However, one should always start the treatment with Nux Vomica.
One symptom of Nux Vomica is that in women, menstruation becomes irregular. If the periods start earlier than the usual time, they become prolonged. However, if the periods start delayed, they stop relatively earlier. Bryonia also has a similar symptom, with the difference that in Bryonia, the menstrual irregularities become worse on movement. In Nux Vomica, the symptoms are not affected by movement.

In Nux Vomica, there is a feeling that the uterus is prolapsing downwards. There is a feeling of uneasiness in the bladder and one feels like passing urine frequently, but in small quantity. The patient develops constipation, which keeps alternating with diarrhoea. In Nux Vomica, the haemorrhoids itch a lot. The stools are rather small though frequent. The peristaltic movements of the intestines become slow. The stomach secretes an excessive amount of acid. However (unlike Pulsatilla), a Nux Vomica patient can digest oily food. Nux Vomica is an excellent appetizer and an equally well appetite suppressant. Patients getting hunger pangs should be treated with Nux Vomica. Many such patients can get an asthma attack due to hunger. Once they are treated with Nux Vomica, they do not get asthma. In Nux Vomica, the headache begins mostly in the area above the eyes, getting worse on moving the eyeball. It feels like a stabbing pain. On going into sunlight or on opening the eyes in the sunlight, the headache intensifies. The headache aggravates in the morning and after eating food. Sometimes during the headache, the patient may also bleed from the nose. Severe constipation is common. The headache is also related to haemorrhoids. The patient cannot tolerate noise or touch. The mouth tastes bad. In the morning, the patient feels nauseated but does not vomit. After eating food, the patient feels pressure and pain in the stomach. The patient cannot tolerate even light pressure on the stomach. The lower part of the stomach appears swollen and heavy like a stone. At the onset of an asthma attack, the cough begins a day before the stomach upset. The chest
rattles with the accumulation of secretions in the lungs. Other symptoms of Nux Vomica are a dry or suffocating type of cough associated with blood in the sputum, the onset of headache and backache on coughing, a burning sensation in the backbone which becomes worse at three or four o’ clock in the morning, and relief of suffering on resting at noon time and on sweating. In Nux Vomica, small sores develop inside the mouth. The margins of the tongue become yellowish-white and fissured. The gums become swollen, are white and bleed. There is a feeling of being choked and pinching in the throat, which appears to be spreading to the ears.  There is an interesting symptom of Nux Vomica. Some bad-natured and malicious persons always backbite and keep finding faults in other people. Treatment with high potency Nux Vomica restores their normal thinking. They do not remain jealous of others either.  However, it is not essential that every Nux Vomica patient be of jealous nature. A Nux Vomica patient wakes up in the later part of the night and cannot go back to sleep again. He feels drowsy in the morning. He may feel sudden weakness in the arms and legs. The symptoms become worse after eating food, mental overwork, eating oily spicy food and in dry cold weather. The patient feels better in the evening, on taking rest, on being pressed locally, and in humid climate.