Mirza Tahir Ahmad James Tyler Kent
Zinc is a very important neurotropic remedy (i.e. the one that works on the nervous system). It seems to be the best remedy for patients who have become mentally exhausted due to chronic illnesses, and whose body has been rendered incapable of reacting to bring diseases out to the surface.
During an epidemic of infectious diseases like measles and smallpox, the appearance of skin signs, such as rashes, helps the diagnosis. In a patient of Zinc, these signs fail to appear on the skin, although the disease process has already afflicted the body internally. The homoeopathic form of Zinc helps to project these diagnostic skin signs.
During paralytic conditions of chronic and resistant nature, when the patient is treated with Zinc, it will set up a state of neurological provocation and reaction showing that the body is being prepared for a defensive stance. Zinc helps to express the suppressed symptoms and signs of diseases, infectious as well as neurological. This reaction is absolutely necessary to save the patient’s life but may be extremely disturbing to him. In case Zinc needs to be administered to provoke the mind and body reactions, the patient must be warned beforehand. Dr. Kent has devised a humorous story about Zinc. He has suggested that a homoeopathic doctor should visit a Zinc patient who has paralysis, very fast on horseback and then also return equally as fast after giving him the treatment. The reason for this is that since Zinc provokes an immediate brisk tingling response so swiftly that the relatives of the patient might think that the doctor has poisoned the patient and rush to attack the doctor. After this abrupt tingling, the nerves begin to recover and the paralysis disappears. Then the relatives will run to thank the doctor. I have also Zinc on such patients. The patients did evidently show a brisk response though not of the severity described by Dr. Kent. As a matter of principle, I warn my patients that the severe nervous response is the first sign of the cure to follow.
Another characteristic sign of Zinc is the fidgeting of feet. Women usually keep their feet exposed out of the bedding and keep rubbing them against each other. Some patients may continually shake their legs. Any person exhibiting this sign and then falling sick must be treated with Zinc. Once the constitution of the patient is recognised to be that of Zinc, all his illnesses will respond to Zinc.
Nux Vomica, being completely opposite to Zinc, should never be given with it even though both have similar effects regarding the treatment of nervous tension In homoeopathy, two remedies of a similar nature may sometimes annul each other, or being incompatible may result in a severe bodily reaction. In case a patient needs to be treated with Zinc but has already been given Nux Vomica, then Camphor or Sulphur must be administered to neutralize the effects of Nux Vomica before he is given Zinc.
The late onset of menses and scanty menses are suggestive of Zinc. Unless they are treated with Zinc, some young girls may be predisposed to certain uterine and nervous conditions for life.
Zinc poisoning slows down the digestive system. Food gets digested extremely slowly. The appetite vanishes. Food rots in the stomach. Vomiting sets in due to acidity. The patient becomes constipated. Even the bladder function becomes slowed down. Bowel and urinary symptoms coexist. In contrast, Mercury produces its symptoms by way of irritation and intensity. There is a burning sensation during urination and after. Similarly, in dysentery, the patient keeps on feeling the gripes and tenesmus, even after having passed the stools. The Zinc patient has to sit down while passing urine; he cannot pass urine while standing. On the contrary, a Causticum patient can pass urine only while standing, whereas by sitting, the urination either stops or becomes obstructed. Some of the patients have to be pulled backwards so that they may begin to pass urine.
The face of a typical Zinc patient is pale and wrinkled. He always feels cold. Prior to the affliction of his mind and loss of memory, the patient first repeats the question and before answering. A slight sudden noise makes his body tremble. When a Zinc patient develops paralysis, he starts to look prematurely old. However a Zinc patient does not exhibit these signs in his youth whereas in Sarsaparilla and Agaricus, a patient appears to be old at a very young age. In Sarsaparilla, even children look old.
Some of the Zinc patients, like those in Apis, may scream during sleep due to the excitability of nerve fibres in the brain. Symptoms of Apis are easily identifiable. In their absence, Zinc should be started without any hesitation. Once again, the relatives of the patient must be clearly warned that the tendency to scream may become aggravated before it gets better, slowly but surely.
The symptoms of Zinc include profuse sweating, severe nausea and vomiting. The heart sinks. All these symptoms do not manifest at the same time. Sometimes, it is the gastric symptoms, which appear first, while at other times the limbs or the heart become affected first. If the progressive slowing of the intestinal activity is suspected on the basis of a change of bowel habits, Zinc must be started without hesitation. If the diagnosis has been correct, then the condition may be completely cured. Sometimes such a patient starts vomiting as a reaction to Zinc. This is a good sign indicating that Zinc has reverted the slowly progressive intestinal paralysis (ileus). Initial severe reaction to Zinc therapy is temporary, but must occur, before the restoration of health. However, severe reactions may also be noted during the treatment from the improper homoeopathic remedy or potency, with serious consequences. In homoeopathy, every untoward serious reaction should not be considered a prelude to a successful outcome because the condition may sometimes keep becoming serious with no sign of improvement.
Zinc is also useful in the treatment of spinal meningitis. If remedies like Bryonia, Belladonna and Gelsemium etc., stop working, then Zinc will prove to be very beneficial. Zinc has also proved successful in the treatment of tubercular meningitis. During an epidemic of meningitis, Zinc 200 taken once or twice a week, proves to be a very good preventive measure.
Zinc is also very useful in the treatment of many eye diseases such as progressive swelling and heaviness of the eyelids, chronic redness of the eyes associated with the dimness of the vision and the affliction of the optic nerve (optic neuritis). Zincum Sulph is an excellent treatment for cataract. I once treated one ninety-year-old man with fairly advanced cataract. The surgeon had refused to perform surgery on him due to his age. I gave him one dose of Zincum Sulph CM. Surprisingly, within a few months, his cataract had disappeared completely. He lived many more years afterwards without recurrence of the cataract. Zinc is the best homoeopathic remedy in the prevention of cataract due to degenerative materials being deposited in the eye lens. However, once the cataract process is well-advanced, it should be treated by surgery. If Zinc is administered while the cataract is half-way towards maturity, it will neither disappear nor mature for surgery. Patients at this stage should be left alone, so that their cataract may mature and be treated with surgery.
The combination of Calcarea Fluor 6X with Zinc proves much more beneficial. Eye drops of Cineraria Maritima Sussex are also very useful. A drop in each eye, three times a day, helps resolve the cataract quite fast. In general, Zinc Sulph 200 is used once or twice a week. If given in CM potency, it should not be repeated before one month and stopped after one repeat.
Zinc 200 is very useful in abating the formation of the whitish membrane appearing inside the eye. In the eyelids, sometimes eyelashes start growing inwards (Trichiasis) and prove quite troublesome. Usually this is treated surgically. But after an operation, another hair can still grow inwards and this may continue to happen. Its permanent cure is Zincum Sulph. I have found it very useful in Potency 200. Zinc also cures Pterygium obviating any need for surgery.
When dizzy, a Zinc patient always thinks that he will fall on the left side. Tossing the head around and sinking it into the pillow is also a symptom of Zinc. Zinc is also considered to be useful in the treatment of involuntary movements and tremors of the head and hands (senile tremors).
Like Kali Bichrome, a Zinc patient feels pressure and pain at the root of the nose. The gums start receding from the teeth in zincum. Pressure on the gums relieves the discomfort. Children with weak nerves cut their teeth with difficulty. They keep on shaking their feet or rub them against each other due to restlessness. During swallowing, the muscles of the throat hurt. The stomach burns on eating sweet things. Besides this, the patient has a tendency of nausea, vomiting and hiccups. A Zinc patient has the habit of eating in a rush, indicating impatience. The stomach feels distended with gas.
The patient has pain in the lower part of the back, intolerant to local pressure. Reproductive organs also become affected in men as well as in women. The testicles feel drawn upwards. Women become sexually overexcited and the breasts feel swollen and congested. Menstrual flow increases at night. All these symptoms aggravate during their periods.
Zincum Met is also useful in Varicose veins and Chilblains i.e. redness and swelling of toes due to extreme cold which may result in frostbite and loss of toes. This can happen to mountaineers who walk continuously on snow in severe cold weather.
by Mirza Tahir Ahmad
James Tyler Kent
ZINCUM METALLICUM
Zinc. has a full and substantial proving, including symptoms of every part of the body. It is an antipsoric, suitable in broken down constitutions, feeble constitutions; enfeeblement characterizes the whole proving.
The Zinc. patient is nervous and extremely sensitive, excitable, trembling, quivering, twitching of muscles, tearing pains along the course of the nerves, tingling, excited on the least provocation; oversensitiveness in one part and lack of feeling in another.
This extreme oversensitiveness is like Nux; which is inimical. The overworked and excitable persons belong to Nux and Zinc. Nux is sensitive to the higher potencies. Further, there is paralytic weakness, emaciation, prostration; full of brain and spinal symptoms.
Slowness: All the functions are slow; eruptions appear slowly.
The whole economy seems to be tired and feeble, so that when a girl approaches puberty and it is time for the menses to be established, but the flow does not appear, she goes into a decline; she begins to manifest choreic symptoms, jerking and twitching, soreness in the back of the neck, burning of the whole spine, creeping and crawling of the extremities, hysterical manifestations of all sorts.
Sensitive to every little noise, to people talking in the room, to crumpling of paper.
"Talking or listening is distressing; much talking of other people, even of those of who he is fond, affects his nerves and makes him morose."
Mind: Feeble children, feeble girls, mind feeble, memory poor.
Tendency to be docile, but when aroused irascible. If the child comes down with scarlatina or measles, it goes into a stupor. The eruption does not come out. There is a tendency to convulsions, drawing in the extremities, suppression of urine, rolling of the head from one side to the other, and from stupor it goes into complete unconsciousness; inability to throw eruptions to the surface.
Slowness: The stomach is slow in digesting; sour vomiting.
The intestines are sluggish. The rectum becomes impacted. Difficult expulsion of urine; paralysis of the bladder and tedious constipation associated with spinal symptoms; urine slow in starting; can pass it only when sitting and in some cases only when sitting leaning back against the seat with hard pressure.
Back and limbs: Aching in the dorsal, lumbar, and sacral regions; better when walking and worse from rising from a seat. (In Rhus, the aching is in the sacral region, and better when walking and coming on while sitting. Calc., Rhus, Phos., Sulph. and Sepia have this in the highest degree. Zinc. occupies a lower grade in the aggravation when rising from a seat, as do Petr. and Ledum.)
Numbness of the soles of the feet, with cutting pain and soreness in the heel when stepping; fulgurating pains, stitching, stabbing, and tearing; tabes dorsalis.
Limbs paralyzed; paresis and finally paralysis of one or both sides jerking, trembling and prostration. Shocks and jerking during Sleep.
Trophic centers in a state of anaemia; emaciation throughout the body; the skin looks withered; the face pallid, wrinkled, unhealthy, sickly. Always chilly; sensitive to the cold. Full of neuralgic pains; tearing pains in all parts of the body when exposed to a draft; tension and drawing in various places.
Strange drawing about the eyes as if strabismus would come on; drawing in the muscles; neck drawn back; tension and drawing everywhere. When he comes to rest, the limbs want to draw up, hence, hysterical contractures; drawing the fingers all out of shape.
The mind is slow and the patient is weak and tired; weak memory; forgetful.
"Repeats all questions before answering them."
When an individual does this it is to make the mind comprehend. He must first realize what it means and then answers. Such a symptom is found in typhoid, when the patient does not convalesce; in a child after brain affections.
Nervous prostration; waits a moment, looking blank, then, the face lights up and he answers. if you look at the Zincum patient and do not address him, you would not realize that he was so weak, but put a question to him and he stares at you in perfect amazement, then says, "Oh," and answers.
Zinc. is not suitable in those who are naturally feeble-minded, when the child is in a state bordering upon idiocy. Baryta carb. feeds such a mind. He rouses out of a semi-slumber and stares a moment without answering.
Stupor; aroused by every little noise, startles, twitches all over; but soon he goes beyond this, becoming less and less excitable, and finally passes into unconsciousness and cannot be aroused. You will find some deep-seated brain troubles that will try your patience.
Some cases go slowly and gradually into unconsciousness; rolling of the head for day s; eyes lusterless; body emaciated, involuntary discharges of faeces and urine in the bed; tongue dry and parched, so shriveled that it looks like leather, lips also; lice withered and each day looks older; paralysis of one hand or one foot, or it seems that the whole muscular system is paralyzed.
Screaming out in pain although not so shrilly as in Apis. A dose of Zinc. will sometimes bring this patient back to life. In a few days after the remedy there will be a jerking and quivering in the parts that were motionless, or its action will be shown in a copious sweat, much vomiting; sudden arousing that is alarming, for it looks like a threatened sinking, but this is the beginning of reaction.
Now, for days and nights while this little one is coming back to consciousness, the restoration of sensation in the parts is accompanied with the most tormenting formication, tingling, prickling, creeping, and crawling. The mother and the father and the neighbors will want something done for it, but if you antidote, the case will return to where it was before. This suffering is but the awakening to life.
It will go on in this way for a week or two and then will begin to show signs of falling back; it needs another dose of Zinc., which will again be followed by a sweat, vomiting, etc. You will see this in spinal meningitis. The early stage will be that of congestion, and Bell. may palliate, but with the onset of the symptoms enumerated above, Zinc. is the only remedy that will cure. The Bell. case will have flushed face, hot head, rolling of the head, flashing eyes, throbbing carotids. The Bry. case will be docile, stupid, purple, sleepy; ameliorated by quiet.
The Helleborus case will exhibit but little fever; cold extremities, tossing of the head, dilated pupils, unconsciousness, can hardly be aroused; rolling head from. side to side, but when the reflexes are abolished, Zinc. comes in.
After the relief from Gels., Bell., or Bry. give Zinc. Rugged little fellows who hang on for weeks in this state, emaciating and unconscious.
You must take the mother aside and inform her what will happen if the child returns to consciousness. If you do not, you may be turned out of the house. A person advanced in years cannot stand such an ordeal, but it is astonishing how the little ones can endure the prolonged congestion and inflammation.
After scarlet fever and badly treated meningitis; tubercular meningitis. I have carried these severe forms of brain disease through on Phosphorus, which has a picture somewhat like that of Zincum. There is no record of any recovery from tubercular meningitis, but a homoeopath can cure some of these cases, though it may take two or three months to go down and come up out of it, with two or three relapses.
Eyes: Among the eye symptoms we have a peculiar thickening and opacity of the conjunctiva, which is infiltrated, leathery, has yellow spots on it and the corners are thickened like pterygium. Dunham made a remarkable cure of pterygium. The report of the case in the Guiding Symptoms is as follows:
"Pterygium in right eye just encroaching on cornea; in left eye extending to the pupil from the inner canthus."
"Itching and stinging plain in inner angles of eyes with cloudiness of sight.
Much burning of the eyes and lids in the morning and in the evening with feeling of dryness and pressure in them."
Zinc. has cured distressing thickening of the lids, ectropion and entropion; granular thickening of the lids. In a severe case of entropion where the lashes were playing up and down the ball with lachrymation, great inflammation and redness, Zinc. removed the whole trouble. Violent photophobia; it seems as if the light would blind him. Zinc. and Euphr. are closely related in eye troubles.
Strabismus after brain troubles. Ever since scarlet fever, he had strabismus. She has much trouble with the menses; dysmenorrhoea.
Menses: But here is a striking symptom; no matter what the violent symptoms are pains in the ovaries, in the uterus, hysterical excitement; as soon as the menstrual flow appears there is relief.
Violent pains in the ovaries relieved by the flow. This is a great contrast to Cimicifuga, which has nervous excitement and hysteria during the flow, and the, more copious it is, the more violent are the pains.
The Lach. and Zinc. symptoms are worse before, and better with the flow, but in the former the pains all return when the flow slacks up again. Cimicifuga has at times an intermittent flow, then pain ceasing with each intermission, returning when the flow again appears.
The great nervousness of Zinc. is manifested in the feet. You will notice a child or a woman keeping one foot going all the time, cannot keep it still. Many medicines have nervous feet and many have relief of symptoms by motion of the feet. But this is marked in Zinc. A girl about twelve years of age had no congruity of symptoms and I could not find the remedy.
The mother said the child mortified her by keeping one foot constantly going in church. On asking why she did this, she replied that if she stopped she would lose her urine. Zinc. cured the whole patient. In the text we find double-lined the two words,
"Fidgety feet."
Zinc. has some striking heart symptoms. Constriction of the whole chest in weakly subjects.
by James Tyler Kent