A Differential Diagnosis of Colds

A guide to Homeopathic remedies for the common cold

Carrie Windsor

ACHS

NAT204

ACONITE

Use it at the very first sensation of burning, tingling, or sneezing. It may abort the condition completely if taken every 20 minutes for four to five hours. It is not effective once the discharge is profuse.

• Sudden onset from exposure to cold

• Frequent sneezing, fever, thirst, and restlessness

• Fear of the impending illness. The fear may lead to palpitations or panic attacks.

ALLIUM CEPA

• Free-running, watery head cold without complications

• Eyes and nose stream

• Cold may extend into throat and chest

• Discharge from the nose burns the upper lip

• May start as stuffiness on the left side

•Tickling, hacking cough in cold air

•Better in open air, worse in damp, cold evening

Arsenicum

• Thin discharge from the nose that burns the nostrils

• Weakness and run-down state

• Nose feels stopped up, yet runs

• Thirst for small amounts of water

• Irritable and restless

• Very chilly, seeks heat (such as an open fire, many blankets)

• Worse after midnight

•Dull, throbbing headache with light sensitivity.

•Fear of serious illness or death

BELLADONNA

Quick onset

• Nose swollen, sore, and hot

• Violent headache

• Sore throat

• Fever strikes quickly, with extreme sensitivity to light

• Skin feels hot to the touch

• Cannot bear loud noises and movement

•Earache

•May have bright red tongue

•Symptoms improve in warmth, worsen in cold

BRYONIA

• Slow onset

• Much sneezing, eyes red and watery, nasal discharge is watery

• Great thirst for large quantities of cold water

• Lips and mouth dry

• Chest pains and headache, worse from any kind of movement (better keeping perfectly still)

• Client feels faint when rising

• Is irritable and wants to be left alone

CHAMOMILLA

• Especially in children, with one cheek red and hot, the other cold and pale

• Chills and thirst

• Very irritable temper

• Better when being picked up and carried

EUPHRASIA

•Thin discharge from nose

• Scalding discharge from eyes

•Light sensitivity

• Discharge worse at night and while lying down

• Cough is worse by day and better when lying down

•Hacking cough

•Pressure under sternum

GELSEMIUM

• A heavy, sluggish feeling in the limbs and lids

• Chills up and down the spine

• Slow onset

• Often associated with headache

• Much sneezing, with a feeling of dryness in the nose despite an abrasive discharge

• Yellowish, coated tongue

• Seldom any thirst

•Great for treating flu-like symptoms such as aches and weakness

KALI BICHROMICUM

• Pressure at the root of the nose

• Thick, tenacious, purulent discharge with tendency to invade sinuses

• Discharge is stringy and difficult to expel

• Worse from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m.

MERCURIUS

• Violent sneezing

• Nose drips

• Pale, flabby, indented tongue

• Foul taste in mouth, bad breath

• Corrosive, greenish-yellow discharge from nose

• Profuse sweat that does not make the client feel better

• Worse at night

• Much thirst

• Starts with a creeping chilliness

NATRUM MURIATICUM

• Begins with much sneezing

• Nose becomes stopped up, with loss of smell and taste

• Cough may develop stitches in the chest

• Often a bursting headache

• Fever blisters on lips/cold sores

• Annoyed by sympathy

Bottles of homeopathic drugs - Natrum muriaticum, Sulphur, substances and ingredients for preparation of homeopathic remedies. Homeopathy medicine.

NUX VOMICA

• Much sneezing

• Nose alternately blocked and running

• Stuffed up at night, but nose runs in a warm room and in daytime

• Better outdoors

• Extremely chilly, cannot get warm

• Shudders after drinking fluids or after the least movement

• Fits of sneezing after meals

• Mouth is dry, but without thirst

• Excessively irritable

•Aching all over

•Dull headache

PULSATILLA

• A “ripe” cold

• Stuffed up at night

• Better outdoors

• Creamy, thick, bland discharges

• Pains in face and nose

• Chapped, peeling lips, and hot cheeks

• Without thirst

• Constantly wants attention

• Weepy

REFERENCES:

ACHS- Ebook

Homeopathic Remedies (book)

Martin, J. (2015). HOMEOPATHY FOR COLDS. Better Nutrition, 77(11), 62. https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/homeopathy-colds/docview/1767090096/se-2

"Homeopathy sees symptoms of disease as a positive outward sign that the body is trying to heal itself. ...]it holds that the symptoms should not be suppressed," says C. Norman Shealy, MD, PhD, founder of the American Holistic Medicine Association and author of The Healing Remedies Sourcebook.

Homeopathic Cold Relief. (2014). Better Nutrition, 76(10), 19. https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/homeopathic-cold-relief/docview/1634989538/se-2

Hepar Sulph may be helpful for croupy cough with rattling in the chest but little mucus, as well as earache, tonsillitis, and sinusitis, Pulsatilla Pulsatilla may be used for any mucusy condition with yellow-green, thick discharge; hay fever; styes on the eyelids; mumps with swollen glands; measles; or sinusitis with yellow discharge.

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