Lacticum Acidum
Clarke - Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · John Henry Clarke · 7,578 chars · source ↗
General
Lacticum Acidum.
Lactic Acid. Milk Acid. HC3 H5 O3. Dilution.
Clinical
Bones, swelling of. Diabetes. Foot-sweat. Indigestion. Pregnancy, sickness of. Rheumatism. Sciatica. Throat, constricted, sore. Vomiting.
Characteristics
Lactic acid "was discovered by Scheele in sour milk, the result of the spontaneous fermentation of sugar of milk, under the influence of casein. It is also met with in many vegetable products which have turned sour" (Hering). Reisig introduced it into homoeopathy. It has been proved in both the lower and higher attenuations, but many valuable observations have been made on patients taking substantial doses for diabetes (C.
D. P.). In these cases the symptoms of rheumatic fever were directly traced to the acid. Pain, swelling, and stiffness and tenderness of joints < by motion (as with Bry., which antidotes Lact. ac.), and flying pains about limbs.
One prover had pain along the right sciatic nerve. The well-known effects of milk that has soured on the stomach and remained undigested were produced—nausea, vomiting, burning and sense of weight; and these have all proved useful indications in the homoeopathic use of the drug. Diabetes is the affection for which it has been most given in old-school practice; but it has also proved of great power in this affection in the homoeopathic attenuations. Nash regards the concomitance of rheumatic pains as the chief guiding symptom here.
(In Med. Adv., xxi. 508 he records a case of diabetes, with rheumatic fever supervening, cured with Lact. ac. 200.) But nausea is no less a guide: Constant nausea; nausea on awaking before rising; > by eating. This may occur in diabetes; or it may occur in pregnancy.
It is also an indication when occurring in rheumatism. There is > by eructations; and < by smoking. Smoking < eructations. Copious foot-sweat is a feature of Lact. ac., but it is not offensive.
It is suited to anaemic, pale women. Large doses disagreed with melancholic, choleric constitution, dark hair and eyes.
Relations
Antidoted by: Bry. (relieved sharp pains upper third right side, but soreness remained). Compatible: Meat diet in diabetes. Incompatible: Coffee < symptoms.
Compare: Lac can., Lac coag., Lac defl., Sac. lac. In nausea of pregnancy, Nux, Puls., Ph. ac., Colch., Lyc., Lac d., Ip. Excessive hawking with (or without) nausea, Caust. (phlegm in throat, cannot be hawked up, causing nausea).
Diabetes, Pho. ac., Acet. ac., Lac d., Ur. nit Flying rheumatism, Puls., Rhus. Great discouragement, Pso. Compare also: Vegetable acids, which all cause weakness and thinness of the blood.
Mind
Great discouragement
Lazy
Sarcastic
Memory lost.
Head
Vertigo: when turning head suddenly; with heat, on rising; on stooping; at night
Congestion of head; painless, with strong pulsation of vessels of neck
Headache, with sensation of fulness in vertex
Dull pain in forehead, just over eyes, and extending into eyes
Pain in head and back all night
Pain in occiput, and alternating between there and forehead.
Eyes
Sensation of fulness in eyes, with headache
Eyes feel as if they would burst
Photophobia
Jerking of l. upper lid
Marked protrusion of eyes; pupils dilated; eyes feels tired
Hyperaesthesia of retina, steady aching in and behind eyeball.
Ears
Disturbed and troubled by noise
Roaring in l. ear on rising in afternoon; singing, snapping in l. ear
Pain from parotids into ear; stiff feeling in parotids.
Nose
Great sensitiveness of smell
Nose-bleed every morning
Severe coryza, stopped nose, sneezing, thick mucus from head to throat, yellow; dead sweet taste.
Face
Face flushed or congested from headache.
Mouth
Tongue coated thick white
Yellow coating on tongue, with bad taste in morning
Tongue sore on l. side, raw and red; dry, parched, sticky
Mouth and fauces very dry and hot
Very sore mouth; canker sores
Much saliva in mouth, tasting salty
Copious salivation (pregnancy)
Bad taste in mouth: acrid, with nausea; sour; coppery.
Throat
Sensation of a plug in the throat
Fulness in throat which keeps him swallowing frothy mucus; lump or fulness feels like a small puffball; not > by swallowing
Intense burning in throat, fauces, and oesophagus < by eructation
Sense of constriction low down in throat; rough and dry
Fauces hot, dry and swollen
Difficulty of swallowing solids; less in swallowing liquids
Excessive hawking with or without nausea.
Stomach
Appetite impaired
Voracious appetite and great thirst
Eructations of hot, acrid fluid, which burns from stomach to throat
Food sours
Eructations of burning, hot gas from stomach, causing a profuse secretion of tenacious mucus, which must be constantly hawked up;
< by smoking tobacco
Burning and weight in stomach
Constant nausea; persisting for days
Nausea on rising in morning
Nausea after breakfast; not severe, but very persistent
Nausea with waterbrash or vomiting
Sensation as if all food were lodged under upper end of sternum, which oppresses and distresses her for hours.
Stool And Anus
Aching pain in anus
Soft, mushy stool; diarrhoea
Greenish yellow stools with tenesmus
Very costive, stool once a week, hard, black.
Urinary Organs
Frequent pain in kidneys
Frequent desire to urinate large quantities
Urinates frequently day and night; the attempt to retain it causes pain.
Male Sexual Organs
Annoying erections in morning, but loins ache too much to attempt coition.—Seminal emissions three successive nights.
Female Sexual Organs
Aching pain in region of r. ovary, < by rapid walking or exercise
Menses: scanty; seventeen days late; two days early; more profuse than usual; pain in small of back and lower abdomen; itching of vulva during flow
Leucorrhoea; staining linen yellow; when checked nasal catarrh ensues
Heaviness and dragging down as if womb down
Pain as if menstruating; sitting with feet high > uterine soreness
During pregnancy: morning sickness; salivation; nausea and vomiting; waterbrash > by breakfast.
Respiratory Organs
Dryness and rawness, extending to larynx
Hoarseness
Aphonia
After rising, voice was entirely without control, whispering and squeaking when expecting to speak aloud
Spasmodic, ringing cough, caused by irritation in throat
Hoarse, hard, dry cough, with dryness of glottis
L. side of chest sore and painful
Cutting or sticking pain in upper third of r. side.
Neck And Back
Pain in small of back, extending into shoulders
Sore aching in lower part of back;
< when walking.
Limbs
Severe, sharp pains in joints
Acute pains in joints; flying pains about limbs
Joints swollen, not tender, stiff
All pains < by movement.
Upper Limbs
Rheumatic pain in shoulders.—Rheumatic swelling with redness and pain in wrists and elbows, wrists, and small joints of hands.
Lower Limbs
Soreness to touch along r. sciatic nerve, on getting out of bed, lasting all day and pulsating constantly but slightly
Sharp pain in r. knee with stiffness
Knees and other joints stiff and painful
Rheumatic pain in knee-joints.
Generalities
Weakness as if from exercise, with rheumatic pains in the bones.—Debility, weariness of the limbs.—Aversion to exercise.
Skin
Skin harsh and dry, no sweat
Red spots or blotches on various parts of the body, particularly thighs and lower extremities
Itching and burning, < by cold.
Sleep
Restless all night.—Does not sleep well.
Fever
Cold and chilly at times
Flashes of heat
Chilly, mostly on limbs
Copious perspiration
Unusual perspiration of feet.