DRUGPEDIA

Monday

KALIUM IODATUM Iodide of Potassium (KALI HYDRIODICUM)

The profuse, watery, acrid coryza that the drug produces serves as a sure guiding symptom, especially when associated with pain in frontal sinus. It acts prominently on fibrous and connective tissues, producing infiltration, �dema, etc. Glandular swellings. Purpura and h�morrhagic diathesis. Syphilis may be indicated in all stages: 1. In acute form with evening remitting fever, going off in nightly perspiration. 2. Second stage, mucous membranes and skin ulcerations. 3. Tertiary symptoms; nodes. Give material doses. Diffused sensitiveness --(glands, scalp, etc). Rheumatism in neck, back, feet, especially heels and soles; worse, cold and wet. Iodide of Potass in material doses acts in the different forms of Fungoid disease (thrush, ringworm, etc), offer simulating syphilis and bacterial diseases like tuberculosis. Symptoms like loss of weight, spitting of blood, etc. Tea-taster's cough due to inhaling the fungus; a also brings about often favorable reaction in many chronic ailments even when not clearly symptomatically indicated.

Mind.--Sad, anxious; harsh temper. Irritable; congestion to head, heat and throbbing.

Head.--Pain through sides of head. Violent headache. Cranium swells up in hard lump. Pain intense over eyes and root of nose. Brain feels enlarged. Hard nodes, with severe pain. Facial neuralgia. Lancinating pain in upper jaw.

Nose.--Red, swollen. Tip of nose red; profuse, acrid, hot, watery, thin discharge. Oz�na, with perforated septum. Sneezing. Nasal catarrh, involving frontal sinus. Stuffiness and dryness of nose, without discharge. Profuse, cool, greenish, unirritating discharges.

Eyes.--Conjunctiva red, injected; profuse lachrymation. Syphilitic iritis. Pustular keratitis and chemosis. Bony tumors of the orbit.

Ear.--Noises in ear. Boring pain in ears.

Stomach.--Saliva increased. Faintness at epigastrium. Cold food and drink, especially milk, aggravate. Much thirst. Throbbing, painful burning. Flatulence.

Female.--Menses late, profuse. During menses uterus feels as if squeezed. Corrosive leucorrh�a, with subacute inflammatory conditions of the womb in young married women. Fibroid tumors, metritis, sub-involution, hypertrophy, 1x or 1 gr crude, 3 times a day.

Respiratory.--Violent cough; worse in morning. Pulmonary �dema. Larynx feels raw. Laryngeal �dema. Awakes choking. Expectoration like soap-suds, greenish. Pneumonia, when hepatization commences. Pneumococcic meningitis. Stitching pains through lungs to back. Asthma. Dyspn�a on ascending, with pain in heart. Hydrothorax (Merc sulph). Pleuritic effusion. Cold travels downward to chest.

Extremities.--Severe bone-pains. Periosteum thickened, especially tibia; sensitive to touch (Kali b; Asaf). Rheumatism; pains at night and in damp weather. Contraction of joints. Rheumatism of knees with effusion. Pain in small of back and coccyx. Pain in hip, forcing limping. Sciatica; cannot stay in bed; worse at night and lying on affected side. Formication of lower extremities when sitting, better lying down.

Skin.--Purple spots; worse on legs. Acne, hydroa. Small boils. Glands enlarged, indurated. Hives. Rough nodules all over, worse any covering; heat of body intense. Fissured anus of infants. Tendency to �dematous swellings, eyelids, mouth, uvula, etc. Acne rosacea.

Modalities.--Worse, warm clothing, warm room, at night, damp weather. Better, motion, open air.

Relationship.--Antidote: Hepar.

Compare: Iod; Mercur; Sulph; Mezer. Chopheenee, a Hindoo remedy for syphilitic eruptions, ulcerations and bone-pains. Used in tincture.

Dose.--Crude drug, in material official dosage, but remember Dr. Meyhoffer's statements in his chronic diseases of organs of respiration: "From the moment the drug produces pathogenetic symptoms, it exaggerates the function of the tissue, exhausts the already diminished vitality, and thence, instead of stimulating the organic cell in the direction of life, impairs or abolishes its power of contraction. We use, as a rule, the first dilution from 6 to 20 drops a day; if after a week no decided progress is visible, one drop of the tincture of Iodine is added to each hundred of the first dilution. In this way, the mucous tubercles, gummy deposits and ulcerations resulting therefrom in the larynx undergo a favorable termination in laryngeal syphilis. " When strictly homeopathically indicated, as in acute respiratory affections to third potency.

KALIUM MURIATICUM Cloride of Potassium-KCl (KALI MURIATICUM)

Although not proven, this remedy has a wide clinical use, through its introduction by Schuessler. It certainly is of great value in catarrhal affections, in sub-acute inflammatory states, fibrinous exudations, and glandular swellings. White or gray coating of base of tongue, and expectoration of thick, white phlegm, seem to be special guiding symptoms. Bursitis pr�patellaris.

Head.--Imagines he must starve. Headache, with vomiting. Crusta lactea. Dandruff.

Eyes.--White mucus, purulent scabs. Superficial ulcer. Trachoma. Corneal opacities.

Ears.--Chronic, catarrhal conditions of the middle ear. Glands about the ear swollen. Snapping and noises in the ear. Threatened mastoid. Great effusion about the auricle.

Nose.--Catarrh; phlegm white, thick. Vault of pharynx covered with adherent crusts. Stuffy cold. Nosebleed (Arn; Bry).

Face.--Cheek swollen and painful.

Mouth.--Aphth�; thrush; white ulcers in mouth. Swollen glands about jaw and neck. Coating of tongue grayish-white, dryish, or slimy.

Throat.--Follicular tonsillitis. Tonsils inflamed; enlarged so much, can hardly breathe. Grayish patches or spots in the throat and tonsils. Adherent crusts in vault of pharynx. "Hospital" sore throat. Eustachian catarrh.

Stomach.--Fatty or rich food causes indigestion. Vomiting of white, opaque mucus; water gathers in the mouth. Pain in the stomach, with constipation. Bulimia; hunger disappears by drinking water.

Abdomen.--Abdominal tenderness and swelling. Flatulence. Thread-worms, causing itching at the anus.

Stool.--Constipation; light-colored stools. Diarrh�a, after fatty food; clay-colored, white, or slimy stools. Dysentery; purging, with slimy stools. H�morrhoids; bleeding; blood dark and thick; fibrinous, clotted.

Female.--Menstruation too late or suppressed, checked or too early; excessive discharge; dark-clotted, or tough, black blood, like tar (Plat). Leucorrh�a; discharge of milky-white mucus, thick, non-irritating, bland. Morning sickness, with vomiting of white phlegm. Bunches in breast feel quite soft and are tender.

Respiratory Organs.--Loss of voice; hoarseness. Asthma, with gastric derangements; mucus white and hard to cough up. Loud, noisy stomach cough; cough short, acute, and spasmodic, like whooping-cough; expectoration thick and white. Rattling sounds of air passing through thick, tenacious mucus in the bronchi; difficult to cough up.

Back and Extremities.--Rheumatic fever; exudation and swelling around the joints. Rheumatic pains felt only during motion, or increased by it. Nightly rheumatic pains; worse from warmth of bed; lightning-like from small of back to feet; must get out of bed and sit up. Hands get stiff while writing.

Skin.--Acne, erythema, and eczema, with vesicles containing thick, white contents. Dry, flour-like scales on the skin (Arsenic). Bursitis.

Modalities.--Worse, rich food, fats, motion.

Relationship.--Compare: Bellad which Kali mur follows well in catarrhal and hypertrophic conditions. Kino (otorrh�a, with stitches in right ear); Bry; Mercur; Puls; Sulph.

Dose.--Third to twelfth potency.

External use in skin affections with burning sensation.

KALIUM NITRICUM Nitrate of Potassium-Saltpeter (KALI NITRICUM - NITRUM)

Often indicated in asthma, also valuable in cardiac asthma; of great value in sudden dropsical swellings over the whole body. Gastro-intestinal inflammation, with much debility, and relapse in phthisis, call for this remedy. Suppurative nephritis.

Head.--Scalp very sensitive. Headache, with vertigo, as if falling to right side and backwards; worse, stooping. Ennui.

Eyes.--Vision becomes clouded. Turbid corpus vitreum (Arn; Ham; Solan n; Phos). Variegated-colored rings before eyes. Burning and lachrymation.

Nose.--Sneezing. Swollen feeling; worse, right nostril. Point red and itching. Polypus (Sang nit).

Mouth.--Tongue red, with burning pimples; burns at tip. Throat constricted and sore.

Stool.--Thin, watery, bloody. Membranous shreds, with tenesmus. Diarrh�a from eating veal.

Female.--Menses too early, profuse, black; preceded and with violent backache. Leucorrh�a. Burning pains in the ovarian region only during menses (Zinc after).

Respiratory.--Hoarseness. Dry, morning cough, with pain in chest and bloody expectoration. Bronchitis, with sharp, short, dry, hacking cough. Asthma, with excessive dyspn�a, nausea, dull stitches, and burning in chest. Dyspn�a so great that breath cannot be held long enough to drink, though thirsty. Chest feels constricted. Oppression worse in morning. Sour-smelling expectoration. Expectoration of clotted blood, after hawking mucus. Acute exacerbations in phthisis; congestion of lungs. Spasmodic croup; paroxysm of crowing. Laryngeal diphtheria.

Heart.--Pulse weak, small, thready. Violent stitch in pr�cordia, and beating of heart.

Extremities.--Stitches between shoulder-blades. Tearing and sticking in shoulders and joints. Hands and fingers seem swollen.

Modalities.--Worse, eating veal; towards morning and in afternoon. Better, drinking sips of water.

Relationship.--Antidotes: Opium; Nitr sp dulc.

Antidote to Opium and Morphine poisoning, 8-10 grains to glass of water.

Compare: Gun-powder (Nitre with sulphur and charcoal-2x trit. "Blood poisoning. " Septic suppuration. Protractive against wound infection. Antidote to Ivy and Primula rash (Clarke) Herpes facialis; crops of boils. Carbuncles). Osteo-myelitis. Cannab sat (which contains a large amount of Kali nit). Lycop; Sanguin; Allium sat; Antimon iod.

Dose.--Third to thirtieth potency.

Friday

Allopathic Medicines

Allopathic medicine is term applied by homeopathists to the ordinary or traditional medical practice. Many medical dictionaries define the term allopathic medicine as the treatment of disease using conventional medical therapies, as opposed the use of alternative medical or non-conventional therapies. ^[1]^[2]

The term was coined during a contentious, 19th-century debate between practioners of homeopathic, and those they derisively referred to as "allopaths."^[3] More recently, "allopathic" has been applied to medical schools accredited by the American Medical Association (which bestow M.D. degrees), as opposed to "osteopathic" for those accredited by the American Osteopathic Association (which bestow D.O. degrees).

1 Current usage of term
2 History of term
3 Other terms used by critics of conventional medicine
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Current usage of term

There is controversy surrounding the applicability of the term "allopathy." Many people use the term neutrally, simply as a name for orthodox medicine when necessary to distinguish it from other medicinal paradigms. Others have used the term allopathy in a deprecatory manner.

Medical dictionaries and general usage dictionaries also give varying accounts of the meaning of allopathy. Some dictionaries define allopathic medicine as conventional medicine. Stedman's Illustrated Medical Dictionary defines it as "[r]egular medicine, the traditional form of medical practice."^[1] The Oxford English Dictionary presents a similar application: "the present prevailing system of medicine".^[4]

Some definitions use the same extension of the term, but retain some historical connotations. In addition to the definition already presented, the Oxford English Dictionary puts forth the definition of allopathy as a "term applied by homeopathists to the ordinary or traditional medical practice, and to a certain extent in common use to distinguish it from homeopathy"^[4]. The Compact Oxford English Dictionary likewise defines it as "the treatment of disease by conventional means, i.e. with drugs having effects opposite to the symptoms. Often contrasted with homeopathy."^[2]

Other sources define allopathic medicine more in accord with the meaning of its word parts, allos meaning opposite and path meaning disease. Steadman's Medical Dictionary calls it a "therapeutic system in which a disease is treated by producing a second condition that is incompatible with or antagonistic to the first."^[5] Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary also defines it as a "term applied to that system of therapeutics in which diseases are treated by producing a condition incompatible with or antagonistic to the condition to be cured or alleviated. Called also heteropathy." ^[6] Tabor's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary says it's a "system of treating disease by inducing a pathological reaction that is antagonistic to the disease being treated", and presents the application of allopathy to conventional medicine as incorrect, saying it is "erroneously used for the regular practice of medicine to differentiate it from homeopathy". ^[7] The American Heritage Medical Dictionary defines it as as: "A method of treating disease with remedies that produce effects antagonistic to those caused by the disease itself."

The term is used on websites of certain U.S. medical professional organizations. For example, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) describes the type of medicine they teach as allopathic, and the American Medical Association refers to M.D. students as allopathic medical students. Similarly, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) describes U.S. M.D. residencies as allopathic.

Other terms that have been proposed to describe the conventional Western medical system of practice include: conventional medicine, Western medicine, evidence-based medicine, clinical medicine, scientific medicine, regular medicine, mainstream medicine, standard medicine, orthodox medicine, and authoritarian medicine.

History of term

The term was coined by Samuel Hahnemann to differentiate homeopathic practices from conventional medicine, based on the types of treatments used.

As used by homeopaths, the term "allopathy" has always referred to a principle of curing disease by administering substances that produce the opposite effect of the disease when given to a healthy human. Hahnemann used this term to distinguish medicine as practiced in his time from his use of infinitesimally small doses of substances to treat the spiritual causes of illness.

In the essay by William Jarvis cited below, he notes that "although many modern therapies can be construed to conform to an allopathic rationale (eg, using a laxative to relieve constipation), standard medicine has never paid allegiance to an allopathic principle" and that the label "allopath" was considered highly derisive by mainstream medicine.

Whorton also discusses this historical pejorative usage:

One form of verbal warfare used in retaliation by irregulars was the word "allopathy." ....... "Allopathy" and "allopathic" were liberally employed as pejoratives by all irregular physicians of the nineteenth century, and the terms were considered highly offensive by those at whom they were directed. The generally uncomplaining acceptance of "allopathic medicine" by today's MDs is an indication of both a lack of awareness of the term's historical use and the recent thawing of relations between irregulars and allopaths.

– James C. Whorton^[8]

The Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine states that "Hahnemann gave an all-embracing name to regular practice, calling it 'allopathy'. This term, however imprecise, was employed by his followers or other unorthodox movements to identify the prevailing methods as constituting nothing more than a competing 'school' of medicine, however dominant in terms of number of practitioner proponents and patients." In the nineteenth century, some pharmacies labelled their products with the terms allopathic or homeopathic.

Hahnemann used the term to refer to what he saw as a system of medicine that combats disease by using remedies that produce effects in a healthy subject that are different (hence Greek root allo- "different") from those of the disease to be treated. He claimed that his theory of homeopathy, which attempts to mimic the symptoms (hence homeo-, "the same"), was a more effective and humane alternative.

Contrary to the present usage, Hahnemann reserved the term of "allopathic" medicine to the practice of treating diseases by means of drugs inducing symptoms unrelated (i.e. neither similar nor opposite) to those of the disease. He called instead "enantiopathic" or "antipathic" the practice of treating diseases by means of drugs producing symptoms opposite to those of the patient (e.g. see Organon, VI edition, paragraphs 54-56). After Hahnemann's death the term "enantiopathy" fell in disuse and the two concepts of allopathy and enantiopathy have been more or less unified. Both, however, indicate what Hahnemann thought about contemporary conventional medicine, rather than the current ideas of his colleagues. Conventional physicians had never assumed that the therapeutic effects of drugs were necessarily related to the symptoms they caused in the healthy: e.g. James Lind in 1747 systematically tested several common substances and foods for their effect on scurvy and discovered that lemon juice was specifically active; he clearly did not select lemon juice because it caused symptoms in the healthy man, either similar or opposite to those of scurvy.

Practitioners of alternative medicine have used the term "allopathic medicine" to refer to the practice of conventional medicine in both Europe and the United States since the 19th century. In the U.S., this was also referred to as regular medicine — that is, medicine that was practiced by the regulars. The practice of "conventional" medicine in both Europe and America during the 19th century is sometimes referred to as the age of 'heroic medicine' (because of the 'heroic' measures such as bleeding and purging).

Other terms used by critics of conventional medicine

Heroic medicine

KALIUM PHOSPHORICUM Phosphate of Potassium (KALI PHOSPHORICUM)

One of the greatest nerve remedies. Prostration. Weak and tired. Especially adapted to the young. Marked disturbance of the sympathetic nervous system. Conditions arising from want of nerve power, neurasthenia, mental and physical depression, are wonderfully improved this remedy. The causes are usually excitement, overwork and worry. Besides, it corresponds to states of adynamia and decay, gangrenous conditions. In these two directions it has won many clinical laurels. Remember it in the treatment of suspected malignant tumors. After removal of cancer when in healing process skin is drawn tight over the wound. Delayed labor.

Mind.--Anxiety, nervous dread, lethargy. Indisposition to meet people. Extreme lassitude and depression. Very nervous, starts easily, irritable. Brain-fag; hysteria; night terrors. Somnambulance. Loss of memory. Slightest labor seems a heavy task. Great despondency about business. Shyness; disinclined to converse.

Head.--Occipital headache; better, after rising. Vertigo, from lying, on standing up, from sitting, and when looking upward (Granat). Cerebral anæmia. Headache of students, and those worn out by fatigue. Headaches are relieved by gentle motion. Headache, with weary, empty, gone feeling at stomach (Ign; Sep).

Eyes.--Weakness of sight; loss of perceptive power; after diphtheria; from exhaustion. Drooping of eyelids (Caust).

Ears.--Humming and buzzing in the ears.

Nose.--Nasal disease, with offensive odor; fetid discharge.

Face.--Livid and sunken, with hollow eyes. Right-sided neuralgia relieved by cold applications.

Mouth.--Breath offensive, fetid. Tongue coated brownish, like mustard. Excessively dry, in the morning. Toothache, with easily-bleeding gums; they have a bright-red seam on them. Gums spongy and receding (Caps; Hamam; Lach).

Throat.--Gangrenous sore throat. Paralysis of the vocal cords.

Stomach.--A nervous "gone" sensation at the pit of the stomach (Ign; Sep; Sulph). Feels seasick without nausea.

Abdomen.--Diarrhœa; foul, putrid odor; occasioned by fright, with depression and exhaustion. Diarrhœa while eating. Dysentery; stools consist of pure blood; patient becomes delirious; abdomen swells. Cholera; stools have the appearance of rice water (Verat; Ars; Jatrop). Prolapsus recti (Ign; Pod).

Female.--Menstruation too late or too scanty in pale, irritable, sensitive, lachrymose females. Too profuse discharge, deep-red or blackish-red, thin and not coagulating; sometimes with offensive odor. Feeble and ineffectual labor pains.

Male.--Nocturnal emissions; sexual power diminished utter prostration after coitus (Kali carb).

Urinary Organs.--Enuresis. Incontinence of urine. Bleeding from the urethra. Very yellow urine.

Respiratory.--Asthma; least food aggravates. Short breath on going upstairs. Cough; yellow expectoration.

Extremities.--Paralytic lameness in back and extremities. Exertion aggravates. Pains, with depression, and subsequent exhaustion.

Fever.--Subnormal temperature.

Modalities.--Worse, excitement, worry, mental and physical exertion; eating, cold, early morning. Better, warmth, rest, nourishment.

Relationship.--Compare: Kali hypophosph (Debility with wasting of muscular tissue. Phosphaturia with general anæmia or leucocythemia. Effects of excessive tea drinking. Chronic bronchitis where the expectoration is thick and fetid, sometimes scanty and tough. Dose.--5 grains of crude to 3x). Genista.--Dyer's Weed--(contains scopolamin; frontal headache and vertigo, worse motion, better open air and eating. Dry throat, awakes with waterbrash. Itching eruption on elbows, knees and ankles. Promotes diuresis in dropsical conditions). Macrozamia Spiralis (Extreme debility after severe illness; collapse. Weariness from no assignable cause, no pains. Boring pain at vertex; vomiting and retching all night; impossible to open eyes, giddiness and cold). Zinc; Gels; Cimicif; Laches; Mur ac.

Dose.--Third to twelfth trituration. The highest potencies seem to be indicated in certain cases.