My 89 yr old Mum had a heart angioplast last year and was prescribed lots of allopathic stuff afterwards. I put her on Crateagus tincture , 10 drops rising to 30 drops 3x a day - after meals (may cause nausea if you take at other times) and when she saw the heart consultant he said that he heart readings had improved!!! Her horrible medication has been taken right down from what it was.

I put a patient on Crateagus today as he came with breathlessness and has had a bypass 5 years ago. He is also getting a constitutional remedy. Interestingly the top 3 remedies in my rep turned out to be Sulph then Calc then Lyco. I have given Sulphur on the indications but it will be interesting to see if the case progresses to the rest of the triad!!

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RSHom - Registered Homeopath

Cretaegus
(Hawthorn Berries)

Produces giddiness, lowered pulse, and air hunger and reduction in blood pressure. Acts on muscle of heart and is a heart tonic. No influence on the endocardium.

Myocarditis. Failing compensation. Irregularity of heart. Insomnia of aortic sufferers; anaemia; oedema; cutaneous chilliness. High arterial tension. Is a sedative in cross, irritable patients with cardiac symptoms.

Chronic heart disease, with extreme weakness. Very feeble and irregular heart action. General anasarca. Very nervous, with pain in back of head and neck. Collapse of typhoid. Haemorrhage from bowels. Cold extremeites, pallor; irregular pulse and breathing. Painful sensation of pressure in left side of chest below the clavicle. Dyspnea and nervous prostration, with heart failure. In the beginning of heart mischief after rheumatism. Arteriosclerosis. Said to have a solvent power upon crustaceous and calcareous deposits in arteries.

Head: Apprehensive, despondent. Very nervous and irritable, with pain in the back of the head and neck. Mental dullness. Conjuctival irritation, nasal discharges.

Urinary: Diabetes, especially in children.

Heart: Cardiac dropsy. Fatty degeneration. Aortic disease. Extreme dyspnea least exertion, without much increase of pulse. Pain in region of heart and under left clavicle. Heart muscles seem flabby, worn out. Cough. Heart dilated; first sound weak. Pulse accelerated, irregular, feeble intermittent. Valvular murmurs, angina pectoris. Cutaneous chilliness, blueness of fingers and toes; all aggravated by exertion or excitement. Sustains heart in infectious diseases.

Skin: Excessive perspiration. Skin eruptions.

Sleep: Insomnia of aortic patients.

Modalities: Worse, in warm room. Better fresh air, quiet, and rest.

Relationships: Strophantus, Digitalis, Iberis, Naja, Cactus.

Check this description from Boericke's materia medica (you can also find full scale entries and proving information in Clarke's and Allen's encyclopedias--there have been full provings on the remedy, and it is commonly prescribed in cardiac cases. It is one of the first remedies learned when studying cardiac pathology) to see if any of the new presenting symptoms match. I recall in a previous post you said your father had a bit of a "crisis", which seemed to have many of the symptoms listed in the remedy. That "crisis" would indicate the need for another remedy, as the aurum has done some work to help but has also "pushed the patient further into his state"...meaning it has allowed for more leading symptoms for a more appropriate remedy to be indicated.
I've placed this Materia medica entry here so that you can more clearly compare the symptoms and decide what to do next. If the remedy fits better than the aurum, give it in potency.

This does not equal "using more than one remedy at a time". It means another remedy, one more suited to the presenting symptoms, is indicated. This is a basic concept in classical homeopathy. If you continue to use aurum when symptoms which are not indicated by the remedy continue to surface, then you will make the patient prove the aurum. This is an opportunity for you to find the appropriate remedy through the acute state produced by the aurum. Don't ignore it.

Divina

[ 13 June 2001: Message edited by: Divina ]

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...and deliverance has many faces<br />but grace<br />is an aquaintance of mine

Dear Helmut,

what is the diagnosis in this case?any particular name like fibrillation or svt?

here your selected remedy seems to work well.
What you need is an acute remedy during crisis along with the case management.
We have some effective acute remedies during the crisis and this we pick up by the symptoms of crisis.

here you didn't give clear picture of your father.

jayakumar

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<a href="http://www.pannakkal.com" target="_blank">www.pannakkal.com</a>

Helmut,

How did you know to choose aurum?

Snoopy

Divina: thank you for that detailed answer. It has plunged me back into doubt: Now that I was sure that the dyspnoea crisis was due to the pacemaker, as attacks began with the readjustment and ended after frequency had been set back to 60.
I have read the pacemaker programming booklet for the fiftieth time and yes, it can cause angina symptoms.
The crataegus symptoms don't match: he has no pain in the heart region, no swellings, no more bluish extremities, sleeps well.

Snoopy: I came to aurum through following symptoms:
Hemianopsia (disappeared meanwhile)
vertigo walking in the open
brown spot wing nose
discontented with himself, with what he does
vertigo walking in open air
dyspnoea eating, eructation amel.
dyspnoea movement amel.
pain knees
Starting with LM 12 was a fault, 6 would have been better.

The disease in clinical terms:
essential hypertension WHO definition 110, which not even his pills can control reliably
arteriosclerosis
2 apoplexes, aphasia
2 inf/post myocardial infarctions (ocurred unnoticed)
dilatative cardiomyopathia, EF 30 %, both ventricles dilated
total arrhythmia
right-sided heart failure grade 1
septum, posterior discreetly hypertrophied
mitral insufficiency grade 1
no heart murmurs, carotis free
liver slight stasis
uric acid too high
bradycardia (artificial?)
By the way, something must have gone wrong during treatment following the apoplexia, which even the doctors admit, but don't say what. He has never had heart problems before.

(Before Aurum he had in addition bilious stones, hypertension lungs, praetibial swellings, left heart failure, right heart even worse, severe dyspnoea even at night)

Nice little colection, isn't it?

no oedema, lungs free

[ 15 June 2001: Message edited by: Helmut Bier ]

A couple years ago I saw a man with severe congestive heart failure, and used Kali-c constitutionally (LM's) and Crataegus tincture (~10 drops in water daily). He hadn't been able to wear shoes for over a year secondary to ankle/foot swelling, and at follow-up there was only a trace of ankle swelling, improved breathing, energy, etc. Anyhow, I don't know whether the constitutional remedy could have worked alone, but he tolerated the regimen well. I hadn't tried this type of thing in the past, but a respected classical homeopath suggested it considering the dire circumstances. In the German Commission E Monographs (Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines) Hawthorne (crataegus) is listed as indicated for CHF and has no known contraindications or side effects.

I'll give it a try - will use the tincture in addition to aurum.
I think there is less risk of interfering because it acts on the same level as his pills.