Iodium


Iodium signs and symptoms of the homeopathy medicine from the Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica by J.H. Clarke. Find out for which conditions and symptoms Iodium is used…


      Iodium. Iodine. An element. I. (A.W. 126.53). Tincture.

Clinical

*Appetite, disordered. *Atrophy. Brain, atrophy of. Breasts, affections of. *Cancer. Chilblains. Chyluria. Constipation. *Consumption.* Coryza. *Cough. *Croups. *Debility. Diabetes. Diarrhoea. *Diphtheria Emaciation. Enteric fever. Galactorrhoea. *Goitre. Haemorrhoids. Headaches. Heart, hypertrophy of, affections of. Hiccough. Hydrocephalus. Iritis. *Jaundice. *Joints, affections of. Lactation, disordered. *Laryngitis. Leucorrhoea. Liver, affections of. Lymphatic swellings. *Melancholia. Mollities ossium. *Ovaries, affections of,* dropsy of. *Ozaena. *Prostate gland, enlarged. *Rheumatic gout. *Rheumatism. Salivation. Scars. *Seborrhoea. *Sterility. Syphilis. *Tabes mesenterica. *Throat, affections of. *Uterus, affections of. *Voice, affections of. *Vomiting. Worms.

Characteristics

The most prominent feature of the action of *Iodium is its power of causing absorption. It is this power which has made the drug such a favorite among old-school practitioners as a paint in all kinds of swellings. Given internally its power is much greater, the absorbents are stimulated to fresh activity, muscles, fat, tissues and glands waste away, and general emaciation is the result. When new growths and hyperplasia are present, these come under the action of *Iodium before the normal tissues. I have seen it given with excellent effect in the lower attenuations, when swollen and deformed joints have been left behind after an attack of acute rheumatism. Scrofulous and syphilitic indurations, effusions and tumours, and especially goitre, are equally amenable to its resolvent action. Emaciation of single parts. In this connection must be mentioned its power to set up a ravenous appetite. “Eats ravenously, yet emaciates,” is a keynote. It seems as if the waste of tissue set up the desire for absorbing great qualities of food. Absence of appetite is also among the effects of *Iodium, and either condition may indicate it. I once used it with excellent effect in the case of a young woman who had had a nervous shock, and had lost all appetite and desire to live. She was much emaciated, and had quietly made up her mind to starve herself to death. I gave five drops of *Iodium 3x in a wine glass of water half an hour before meal-times, and her appetite returned with such vigor she could not choose but eat, and was soon restored to a normal mental and bodily state. I have recorded another similar case of nervous shock producing rapid emaciation and vomiting cured by *Iodium in my book on *Indigestion. Both these patients were somewhat dark, and *Iodium is specially suited to persons of dark hair and complexion, dark, yellow, tawny skin. Herein it is the antipodes of *Bromium and *Spongia. Its mental symptoms are more marked than those of *Bromium There is increased erethism, patient very excitable and restless, moving about from place to place. Fears every little occurrence will end seriously. In his anxiety shuns everyone, even his doctor. Fixed ideas are among the *Iodium effects, also sudden impulses. A patient of mind had once been given *Iodine for goitre by an allopath. She was compelled to discontinue it because it produced this inconvenient symptom, impulse to run, she felt she must fall if she walked. *Iodium produces atrophy of nerve and brain tissue, as well as of other tissues (Allen mentions that is valuable in persistent headaches with vertigo in old people), and it also has a place in acute hydrocephalus, and in pleuritic effusions. In tubercular disease of all kinds, it may be called for: tabes mesenterica, pulmonary phthisis. In rheumatism and heart affections is has a large sphere. It is indicated by indurations or atrophy of testes, ovaries, and uterus. The salivary glands and pancreas are especially affected by *Iodium, and a diarrhoea of milky, whey-like stools, often indicative of pancreatic diseases, is especially amenable to its action. In pneumonia and phthisical affections with lung consolidation it is of great service. The chief indications are: Dyspnoea, cough with blood-streaked expectoration, tickling all over chest, weakness and emaciation, worse of symptoms in a warm room. This last, “worse by warmth,” is a leading modality of *Iodium In defects of growth, curvature of bones, and in children’s ailments, it follows well upon Calcarea In phthisis of rapidly- growing young people, thin and dark, it is especially indicated. There are many marked symptoms in the heart sphere: palpitation from slightest cause, sensation as if being squeezed, hypertrophy. With the heart symptoms there is a “gone,” exhausted feeling, and the patient is scarcely able to breathe or walk. C.S. McKay noticed lumbrici passed by an infant who had tasted *Iodine accidentally, and used the experience in another case, giving a dilute solution (one part of the O to three of water, of this three drops every three hours), and produced the expulsion of lumbrici when *Santonin had completely failed. An Ioduretted solution of *Kali-iod. (*Kali-iod. gr. xxxv., *Iod-gr. iv., *Aqua i., ten drops for a dose) has been used with success as a taeniacide, expelling the tapeworm, dead. Erethism is marked in *Iodium: nervousness, restlessness, twitching, subsultus tendinum and trembling, also sense of trembling in inner parts. Facial paralysis and epilepsy have followed suppression of goitre by large doses of *Iodium Weakness is excessive. Fainting on going upstairs. (General weakness and loss of appetite and pain in temples and pain in left chest as if something were being torn away: heart large – Cooper). Motion and exertion of all kinds worse. Sitting up better, and lying down worse dyspnoea and heart affections. Worse by warmth, by wrapping up, in a warm room. Worse in wet weather. Drinking cold milk better constipation. Better by eating, of hunger and other symptoms is another marked character of *Iodium Iodium* is a sensitive remedy, and many symptoms are worse by touch and pressure. Nash thinks *Iodium one of the remedies affected by the moon’s changes. In cases of goitre where it is indicated, he gives a powder of *Iodium c. m. every night for four nights after the moon has passed the full.

Relations.

Iodium must be compared with Iodoform and Kali Iodium The febrile, inflammatory, and skin symptoms of Iodium Are more violent and pronounced than those of the other two. K. Iodium Has less erethism than Iodium, has better from warmth (though both have better in open air), and Kali-iod. Has not the excessive appetite of Iodium or the general better from eating. Iodium is *antidoted by: Starch or wheat flour mixed with water (to large doses). *Antidotes to small doses: Ant-t., Apis, Arsenicum, Belladonna, Camph., Chi., Chi. Sul., Coffea, Hepar, Opium, Pho., Sp., Sul. It *antidotes: Mercurius *Follows well:* Mercurius, Hepar (croup), Arsenicum *Followed well by:* Ac., Arg- n., Calcarea, Mercurius Sol Pho., Pul. *Complementary: Lycopodium *Compare: Bromium (Bromium has light hair and complexion, Iodium dark, Borax Carrion-like odor of ulcers), Chlorum, Natrum mur. (ravenous appetite yet gets thing – Natrum mur. especially about the neck), Kali Iodium (Talkative as if from alcohol), Barayta carbonica (tabes mesenterica, extreme hunger, emaciates, talkative, averse to strangers, Barayta carbonica suited to dwarfish persons, has not the intolerable crossness of Iodium, which is worse than that of Antim crud.), Alumina (apprehensive, fears), Apis (joint effusions, sensitiveness, hydrocephalus), Cact. and Spigelia (heart), Hydrast. (uterine affections), Arsenicum, Calcarea, Cin., Silicea and Staphysagria (ravenous hunger), Hyo. (loss of voice, Iodium antidotes this), Sul..

Causation

Nervous shock. Disappointed love.

SYMPTOMS.

Mind

Lachrymose disposition and mental dejection. Melancholy hypochondriasis, sadness, heart-ache, and anxiety. Fear: shuns persons. Anxious apprehensions. Restless agitation (with inclination to move about), which will neither permit the patient to remain seated, nor to sleep. Irresistible impulse to run, feels she will fall if she walks. Cross, irascible, peevish. Heart palpitates “like lightning” when thinking of real or imaginary wrongs. Sudden maniacal impulses, to murder. Excessive mental excitement, with great susceptibility. Illusions of moral feeling. Loquacity and immoderate gaiety. Hesitation and irresolution. Indolence of mind, with great repugnance to all intellectual labor. Fixedness, immovableness of thought. Delirium. Effects of amorousness, of disappointed love.

Head

Confusion of the head (with aversion to earnest work). In the morning, dizziness. Vertigo, throbbing in the head and all over the body. Vertigo with red face, palpitation, hysteria, nervousness. Headache, in hot air, as well as from the prolonged movement of a carriage, or from a long walk, and worse by noise and speech. Pain, as from a bruise, in the brain, with want of strength in the body, as from paralysis. Acute pressive pains in the forehead. Headache, as if a tape or band were tightly drawn around the head. Pressure on a small spot, above the root of the nose. Congestion in the head, with beating in the brain. Throbbing in the head at every motion. Hair falls out.

John Henry Clarke
John Henry Clarke MD (1853 – November 24, 1931 was a prominent English classical homeopath. Dr. Clarke was a busy practitioner. As a physician he not only had his own clinic in Piccadilly, London, but he also was a consultant at the London Homeopathic Hospital and researched into new remedies — nosodes. For many years, he was the editor of The Homeopathic World. He wrote many books, his best known were Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica and Repertory of Materia Medica