Proteus

“Brain Storm”

Angry adrenaline

Proteus is named after the shapeshifting sea-god of Greek myth whose stench was said to be rank.

Besides being worse for storms and sun, the proteus remedy has a strong connection with the sea in its connection with chlorite metabolism and the remedy Natrum Muriaticum, or sodium chloride.

Shapesifting is a good metaphor for hysteria, a trait this remedy has in spades. With Proteus, sudden onset is the keynote. It is a violent, aggressive, spasmodic remedy with cramps, tantrums and attacks of convulsions overwhelming the nervous system from the metabolism.

The patient is closed and uncommunicative, with stubbornness and fixed ideas, hence the relationship with the Muriaticum remedies. The have a delusion of importance and may fly off the handle if questioned or opposed even to the point of violence.

It has an affinity with the kidneys (the adrenal fear and sudden anger) and their role in chloride metabolism (muriaticum). Not only do Proteus have the symptoms of active adrenals: fear, stress, anger – a “fight of flight” response but this remedy is also known for its kidney and urinary tract infections.

The digestion is very sensitive and worse for eating, although overall the are better for it. Aggravated by wine and eggs but unusually, ameliorated by neat whiskey. Photosensitivity to UV light is interesting, since UV light is used to kill pathogenic bacteria in some water purifiers. This remedy is associated with prolonged nerve strain leading to a susceptibility to febrile and convulsive conditions.

The person is “stressed out” to the point of dizziness and indeed there is an increase in number of the Proteus bacterium in the gut when a person undergoes a stressful situation.

One of the functions of salt in the cells is the transmission of nervous electricity which comes in sudden flashes of communication around the body. The suddenness, association with salt and < for storms are connected in this way and underline all the suddenness and intensity of the physical and mental symptoms.

This stressed out state uses a huge amount of energy and this remedy has a large appetite and is ameliorated by eating. Proteus craves what aggravates it, especially eggs & meats. If they give in to their craving for beer & wine they pay for it with dire hangovers. The craving-aversion-desire cycle is a keynote of Proteus.

Sycotic Co.

“Irritability”

Chronic Catarrh

Diplococcus bacteria, like gonorrhoea, with strong affinities to the mucous membranes and the sycotic miasm. Like Gonorrhoea, infection with this bacterium results in states of chronic catarrh, placing it firmly in the province of the Sycotic Miasm, just as Bach had associated Morgan and all its skin conditions with the Psoric Miasm. Patterson successfully used Sycotic Co. to treat the Gonorrhoea of US GI’s stationed in Britain during World War 2 as a sort of “alternative Medhorrinum”

Patients who fit the picture of this remedy are beset with all sorts of fears. Of the dark, being alone and of dogs. There are convulsions and epilepsy in the picture. They are nervous, twitchy and irritable but attempt to hide all of this as they have the sycotic keynote “fear of obscurity”. They wish to be noticed and approved of. This is unlike Gaertner who is openly nervous and fearful with little thought as to the consequences of their appearance on their social standing. Sycotic Co. patients tend to be fat and flabby compared to the skinny Gaertner. They have the Sycotic ailments from anticipation.

Sycotic co is characterised by catarrhal, irritated conditions of the genito-urinary tract, lungs and gastrointestinal problems of acidity and diarrhoea. The mucous is thick, green and copious and effects the throat, sinuses and lungs, where they may also be asthmatic. Meningitis, as a swollen, irritated and angry conditions may call for this remedy.

There are lots of irritated reactions to food and airborne allergens. They have irritated conditions, especially of the genitourinary tract and the mucous membranes of the head and lungs.

They get diarrhoea with prolapsed rectums, acid conditions, headaches and vomit with digestive problems and emotional excitement. They may have IBS.

These are cold, sensitive pale patients with greasy skin, warts and herpes who are worse for cold, damp conditions yet ameliorated by the seaside. Unlike Medhorrinum, they are averse to and aggravated by oranges. They also have strong issues with eggs.

Dysentry Co.

“Apprehension”

The Heart Nosode

These are nervous, fearful and very hurried patients who fear everyting they do is wrong and is about to go wrong. They fear disaster in the future and this puts them in a perpetually hightly-strung state of fluster which precipitates chiefly in stomach and heart complaints. It is the “heart nosode“

The keynote “apprehension” is further towards terror on the fear spectrum.

They are hypersensitive to criticism and are beset with all sorts of nervous tics, twitches and fidgeting symptoms in their highly-strung state. They blush easily. They are panicky and everything seems to be an ordeal for them. They are afraid of going out, yet have claustrophobia, leading to the tubercular symptom of wanting to go out and wishing they were at home when they are. They are tense, restless, dizzy and extremely busy. They blush and stammer. It is a good remedy for postnatal depression, being a picture easily thrown into weariness and depression with much weeping.

They cry to release the effects of bad news and are averse to consolation. They like to spend a lot of time in bed recuperating from the stresses they experience. They are ameliorated for heat and for the open air.

Main physical complaints centre around the nerves, heart, circulation and digestion. The feel their tension in the epigastrium, they tremble, perspire, vomit, get diarrhoea, urinate and break out in rashes from their excitement. They get sinking and electric shock sensations.

They have the usual bowel nosode complaints of the skin and digestive tract, tending towards diarrhoea and ulcers. Their skin cracks split, re-heal and split open again. They get blinding headaches, nosebleeds and hayfever.

It is the affinity for the heart which stand out however with ailments from stress in the form of palpitations, tachycardia and pounding heartbeats. There is a characteristic fluttering sensations in both the heart and stomach.

The blend between Ars, Arg-nit and Tuberculinum symptoms is well marked here, along with the arsenicum nervous chilliness and amelioration from fresh air.

Afterword

Lacs,
Probiotics, Antibiotics and Autism

The Bowel Nosodes were developed amid the backdrop of the heyday of Antibiotics. Conventional medicine had conquered disease and the future was bright. Homeopathy languished as a result for a number of decades before reinventing itself outside of the confines of the more conventional model of disease treatment.

The irony is that it was the influence of the brave new frontier of medical microbiotics that brought the Bowel Nosodes into Homeopathy, yet it is only in latter years that they have come into their own as potential remedies for the very damage that that movement within conventional medicine has done to the intestinal flora of an antibiotic-using population. The bacteria have “won” a war that they did not start and modern biology is starting to realise that it has ultimately been a war with ourselves. What are animals other than masses of cooperating bacteria?

Bacteria outnumber our living cells by a factor of ten to one within our own bodies in symbiotic relationships built on trends started in nature eons before the arrival of mammals. They renew themselves at a rate of reproduction measured in minutes rather than years, giving them unparalleled capacity for adaptation to changing environments. Small wonder that the common theme for remedies made from bacteria is restlessness. Due to this fecundity we have antibiotic resistant diseases proliferating, exemplified in modern Ireland by MRSA, a condition both created and encouraged by antibiotics, the wonder drugs which the bacteria kingdom has taken in its stride.

One the one hand, conventional medicine seeks to obliterate all bacteria in a sick person in the hope of killing a select pathogenic few and on the other hand, vaccines inject those same bacteria directly into our bloodstreams, in systems of the body that are less able to cope with that kind of intervention.

The results are a modern blooming of digestive and assimilative disorders, allergies and intolerances of all kinds with their concomitant systemic and behavioural symptoms. Sound familiar? That’s because you’ve been reading about them in the remedy pictures listed above. In the Bowel nosodes we have important tools to address the imbalances that we have created by our misunderstanding of what role bacteria have to play in our health.

When a child is born, her bowel is quickly populated by E.coli and other non-lactose fermenting bacteria picked up by the child’s journey through her mother’s vagina. The first “probiotics” that we naturally receive are the species
Bifidobacterium which is ingested with breast milk, from which the remedy Lac Humanum is made.  These aid digestion, reduce allergic reactions and can even prevent tumour growth. From Cow’s milk, cheese and fermented foods such as yoghurt, sauerkraut, miso soup, kombucha, kefir and pickles we get the species Lactobacillus. These bacteria further aid digestion by breaking down lactose (milk sugar) and proteins, create digestive enzymes and limit the range of Ph within the gut, making it inhospitable for pathogenic species, yeasts and other parasites. The process that begins with mothers’ milk and continues with a healthy diet
brings our gut flora to a healthy balanced state, not too acidic, and with an ecosystem that works symbiotically with our nutritive needs making the body more efficient, nourished and resistant to pathology.

The use of formula and cow’s milk with babies breaks that cycle. It is further damaged by the heavy use of antibiotics early in life. The non-lactose fermenting bacteria become dominant, creating their own more acidic, congested environment, hampering the assimilation of nutrients, congesting the gut and creating a septic environment much more favourable to yeasts and parasites such as worms (Many of the Bowel Nosodes listed above have worms in their picture). They can even penetrate the gut wall, causing the spread of toxins to other systems of the body, compromising the overall immunity.

The pictures of the Bowel nosode remedies reflect this influence of non-lactose fermenting bacteria on human health and the systemic impact of impaired assimilation of food. Acidity in digestion with its attendant ulcers, headaches and bilious attacks. Eruptions and warts on the skin of the extremities. Vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation and a whole host of food intolerances, cravings and allergies.

The lack of adequate nutrition and release of toxins leads to primal behavioural states of fear, stress, anger and nervous tension; all expressed in the remedy pictures above.

In practice Morgan Pure follows well from Lac Humanum. This makes sense from the perspective of the bowel flora and its process of development from birth. The connection between the bowel nosodes, the Lac remedies and remedies made from the substances involved in nutrition, such as Lactic Acid, Saccharinum Officinarum and other sugars is a topic that deserves further research..

Finally, reflecting some of the remedy pictures above that have short attention spans, hyperactivity or are fearful and introspective. It has been found conclusively that the bowel flora of autistic spectrum, hyperactive and ADD/HD children consistently show a higher percentage of non-lactose fermenting bacteria. The Bowel nosodes may well assist us in the treatment of these conditions that are on the rise in modern society which in turn are connected, albeit controversially, with both antibiotics and vaccines.

References

Books, Journals, Web Resources

Synoptic Materia Medica 2 Franz Vermeulen, Emryss, Haarlem, 2003

Monera – Kingdom Bacteria and Viruses, Vol 1. Franz Vermeulen, Emryss, Haarlem, 2005

A Treatise on the Bowel Nosodes. Dr. Y.R. Agrawal, Vijay Publications, Delhi, 2003

The Bowel Nosodes. Dr. John Paterson. B.Jain, Delhi 1998

Remedy Notes 2. John Wallace, SrP Press, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK, 2003

The Bowel Nosodes: A group of neglected remedies. Ai-ling Makewell. Interhomeopathy.org, August 2006

http://www.interhomeopathy.org/index.php/journal/entry/bowel_nosodes_a_group_of_neglected_remedies/

Bowel Nosodes, My Clinical Experiences Ai-ling Makewell, InterHomeopathy.org, August 2006

http://www.interhomeopathy.org/index.php/journal/entry/bowel_nosodes_my_clinical_experiences/

Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism,ADD/ADHD,Dyslexia,Dyspraxia,Depression,Schizophrenia,
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD. Medinform Publishing, 2004

Wikipedia References http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Anaerobic organism, Bifidobacterium, Biotin, Diabetes mellitus, Escherichia coli, Fructooligosaccharide, Lactic Acid, Lactic Acid Bacteria, Lactobacillales, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactose, Probiotic, Proteus (Bacterium), Salmonella, Salmonella Enterica, Vitamin K, Gut Flora

Bifidobacteria: their significance in human intestinal health

Ishibashi N, Yaeshima T and Hayasawa H.
Morinaga Milk Industry Co. Ltd., Nutritional Science Laboratory, 5-1-83, Higashihara, Zama-City, Kanagawa, 228-8583, Japan

http://nutriweb.org.my/publications/mjn003_2/mjn3n2_art6.pdf

Lac Maternum or Lac Humanum … How do We Choose? Patricia Hatherly, Homoeopathic Links 2007; 20:63-67

“This article first appeared on Scribd http://www.scribd.com/”

Mark O’Sullivan BA (hons) Lic.I.S.H ISHom, is a registered homeopath based in the Dublin Holistic Centre . He also teaches introductions to Homeopathy and the Bach Flower Remedies. www.homeopath.ie