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Alex Bekker, MD
Abstract: A Covid positive case (by PCR testing) in a middle-aged man, with hypothyroidism secondary to Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, with a depressed vital force, intense back pain, and debilitating insomnia resolves with a seldom used remedy – namely Calcarea arsenicosa.
Keywords: Covid, hypothyroid, vital force, Calcarea arsenicosa, homeopathy, characteristic symptoms, materia medica
A 57-year-old man with a seventeen-year history of hypothyroidism due to Hashimoto’s thyroiditis presents with a two-day history of extreme chilliness and fever with restlessness at night and very intense achy pain across the lumbar area going down the back of both legs, worse on lying down and sitting such that he must get out of bed and cannot sleep. Heat in the face and frontal sinus with remittent fever. Perspiration on face and forehead on waking in the early morning. Exposure to rapid weather change to cold temperature the night before developing symptoms. Water tastes metallic. Desires soups and hot drinks. Distended feeling in the abdomen. Full easily with little food and mid-epigastric pain and a heavy sensation after eating. Constriction and heaviness felt on the left side of the chest. Mind is dull and low mood with some anxiety and thoughts of dying. Otherwise, no other changes in symptomatology present.
Temperature stays steady at 101.6 F during the day and rises up to 102.1 F at night. Pulse oximetry reading at 94 per cent. Pulse is 110.
Patient started on his own before the consultation Arsenicum album 200C dry dose every three hours for five doses. Initial improvement of symptoms of chilliness and low back pain diminished with each successive dose such that the fifth dose did not result in any improvement, and he was unable to sleep that night due to low back pain and not being able to lie down and a kind of restless chilliness. In the morning a fatigue set in with an inability to lie down secondary to the back pain. Even sitting is uncomfortable.
Case Analysis
Characteristic symptoms include back pain going down the limbs worse lying down and sitting, desiring soup during fever, perspiration on face on waking, remittent fever, distended abdomen with fever, metallic taste, constriction of heart, exposure to being chilled, and fear of death. [Repertorization graph below.]
Prescription and progress
After the first dose Calcarea arsenicosa 1M dry dose, almost immediately, an unbelievable amount of gassiness was felt, both belching and passing flatus, which went away in about half an hour.
Slow, continuous but sure improvement of symptoms set in within 3 hours of starting. Pulse oximetry reading went up to 96 per cent. Chilliness and low back pain diminished until six hours later about 70 per cent was gone. The night was passed in relative comfort. Fever diminished but remained at 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit for about a day.
Calcarea arsenicosa 1M was repeated at eight-hour intervals for a total of 7 doses with an uneventful recovery.
Complete Repertory 2016
Discussion and Materia Medica
It is clear that this remedy has some similarity to both Calcarea carbonica and Arsenicum album with, however, its own distinct differences as summarized in the Characteristics section of J.H. Clarke’s A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica : “Dropsy … Epilepsy … Headache. Heart, disease of … Kidneys, disease of … Pancreas, cancer of … [Vertigo] … Suited to lymphatic, scrofulous, and tuberculous persons; fat women, approaching the climaxis; fat persons; complaints of drunkards after leaving off alcohol. It is a chilly medicine, the symptoms being < in cold weather; when out of doors.” (1) (Though our patient is not fat, but the tendency for hypothyroidism to produce obesity is there.)
In Constantine Hering’s The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica, Calcarea arsenicosa was “Prepared and proved by C. Hg., in 1848, in the 4th centesimal trituration, and by five other well experienced provers, who did not know of each other until 1851 ….”
“Mind much depressed with great anxiety, about still greater evils in future ….”
“Winter: chill after getting cold out-doors ….” (The Complete Repertory should be updated in the Rubric, Weather, change, from warm to cold, to include this remedy.)
“Throbbing in head and back drives him out of bed for two nights … Backache extends into lower limbs … Sensation as if abdomen was expanded, with fever … No appetite, can enjoy only soup … Flat unpleasant taste, sometimes metallic, sometimes alkaline … Night sweat after 3 a.m.” (2)
One remedy is no substitute for another in a given case. It goes without saying that the homeopathic practitioner has to constantly hone his skills as a medical detective in finding correspondences between the patient’s illness and our materia medica. Sometimes a specific successful result in homeopathic treatment leading to recovery of health underlies the possibility of failure which may lead to grave illness and sequelae (as in Long Haul Covid). (3)
(This case has been written up by the author, taken from Dr. Gayandas Wadhwani, MD, by permission, who originally took the case by phone.)
About the author: Alex Bekker, MD, was introduced to homeopathy by Alain Naudé over thirty-five years ago and has been a student ever since. He has a private General Practice specializing in homeopathy and is an Adjunct Professor at UNTHSC Fort Worth, Texas. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine.
References
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