Natrum Carbonicum


Dr. S.R. Phatak describes the clinically confirmed symptoms of the homeopathic remedy Natrum Carbonicum in his Concise Materia Medica, published in 1977….


Generalities

      Sodium Carbonate affects the digestion and nerves. The patient is oversensitive to open air; to music, to noise, to dietetic errors. Great debility; from any exertion; from summer heat. Puffiness. Relaxation; easy dislocation. Pains cause tremors, cold sweat, anxiety etc. Twitching in the muscles and limbs. Contraction of muscles, tendons. Emaciation. Anaemia. Ill effects of sunstroke (chronic); overstudy; strains. Children who cannot tolerate milk but thrive better on cereals. Children when asleep, jump, cry, grasp the mother, startled, nervous children. Swelling and induration of glands.

Worse

      HEAT of sun; weather (body). 5 a.m. Music. Mental or bodily exertion. Onanism. Milk. Dietetic errors. Drafts. Thunder- storms. Alternate days. Full moon. Vegetable diet; starchy food. Cold drinks when overheated.

Better

      Eating. Rubbing. Motion. Pressure. Wiping with hand. Boring into nose or ears with fingers. Sweating.

Mind

      Cross and irritable. Aversion to society; even that of their own family; her husband. Gloomy. Lively; talkative. Anxious and fearful worse thunderstorms; not from timidity, but from electric changes in the atmosphere. Playing on piano causes anxiety and trembling. Sensitive to presence of certain persons. Difficult slow comprehension. Music causes tendency to suicide; sadness; religious insanity. Occupied with sad thoughts. Indifferent.

Head

      Vertigo from wine; mental exertion; from exposure to sun. Headache; in hot weather; slightest mental exertion; working under gas light. Head pains out through eyes; head bent backwards. Feels too large. Falling of hair.

Eyes

      Dazzling flashes or stars before vision; on awakening. Dim eyes, has to wipe them constantly. Cannot read small print.

Ears

      Deafness; with recurring earache; with amenorrhoea. As if a bubble bursting in. As if something moved in ear on swallowing.

Nose

      Swollen or peeling. Red nose with white pimples on it. Catarrh, foul, thick, yellow or green discharge. Coryza worse least draft, alternate days. Stoppage at night. Violent sneezing. Post nasal discharge.

Face

      Pale, withered, bloated. Freckles; yellow spots; pimples. Lips swollen.

Mouth

      Dry. Bitter taste in the mouth; food tastes bitter. Vesicles and smooth ulcers in mouth with burning; mouth open. Toothache worse sweetmeats and fruits. Taste perverted; too sensitive. Affections of the under surface of the tongue. Tongue heavy, unwieldy, patient has difficulty in talking.

Throat

      Hawks much mucus from the throat. Must drink to swallow solids, from roughness, dryness of oesophagus and throat. Throat painful when yawning, and swallowing.

Stomach

      Digestion weak, worse by slightest errors in diet. Acidity. Aversion to milk; which causes diarrhoea. Acid dyspepsia with belching and rheumatism, better by soda biscuits. Greedy; always nibbling. Gastric pains better eating. Hungry 5 a.m. Always belching. Ill effects of drinking cold water when overheated. Waterbrash. Heartburn after fats.

Abdomen

      Flatus changes places, abdomen pouts here and there. Epigastrium painful to touch and talking. Diarrhoea from starches, milk. Stools; like orange pulp; in women at change of life. Sudden call to stool, without result or stools escape with haste and noise. Stools; black, hard, smooth, crumble. Colic with retraction of navel and hardness of skin.

Urine

      Urine of bright or dark yellow colour. Urine smells like horse’s urine, from vegetable or milk diet. Burning in urethra during and after urination.

Male

      Increased sexual desire with priapism and painful pollutions. Incomplete coition. Glans penis easily becomes sore. Nightly emissions. Sweats after coition. Discharge of prostatic fluid, at stool and when urinating; prostate affections.

Female

      Induration of cervix. Sterility from non-retention of semen. Leucorrhoeal discharge; offensive irritating, thick, yellow, ropy, preceded by colic. Menses late scanty, like meat washings. Motion as of foetus in uterus. Promotes conception.

Respiratory

      Cough; dry, tickling worse when entering a warm room; at 9-11 a.m. Loose hollow; with salty purulent greenish sputum. Cough, with coldness of left side of breast.

Heart

      Palpitation; from noise, rattling of paper etc.; on going upstairs; when attention is directed to something; when lying on left side.

Neck and Back

      Cracking in cervical vertebrae, when moving the neck. Boring at tip of left scapula. Cold between scapulae. Goitre; hard, with pressing pain. Tingling in back.

Extremities

      Heaviness of legs and feet, with tension in them, when sitting or walking. Ankles weak. Unsteady walk. Dislocation and spraining of ankles. Little obstruction on pavement causes him to fall or falls without apparent cause. Burning wrist and ankles. Locomotor ataxia, fulgurating pains better eating. Soles, tender; needles at; burn while walking. Jerking of hands, on going to sleep. Cramps from ankles to toes. Contractions of fingers. Poplitea, painful on motion. Folds of fingers and toes sore.

Skin

      Dry, rough; milky, watery. Blisters on small joints; tips of toes or fingers. Pustular eruptions. Sweats easily. Formication.

Sleep

      Drowsy; during day; after meals. Wakes too early in the morning. Amorous dreams. Sleeps with mouth open.

Fever

      Easy sweat.

Complementary

      Sepia

Related

      Lyc; Natrum mur.

S.R. Phatak
A pioneer of Homoeopathy in Maharashtra, Dr Shankar Raghunath Phatak was born on 6th September, 1896. He did his MBBS from Grant Medical College, in 1924. Started his practice but somehow not satisfied with Allopathic Treatment.

He was convinced about Homoeopathy while going through Sir William Osler's writings on 'History of Medicine' so switched over to an entirely Homoeopathic Practice in 1932. He also started working on Homoeopathic literature along with his Practice.

He has contributed immensely to homoeopathic literature. He was an ardent follower of Dr Boger. His Repertory is based on Boger's ''A Synoptic key to Materia Medica'.