49 years old male, a nuclear scientist, reported chronic urticaria for four months. He would have an urticarial rash all over the body, every day, if he missed the dose of antihistamine. The rash would affect his skin and lips with intense itching, lasting for over an hour.
He had similar urticaria about six months back which was then relieved by antihistamines. However, the recent episode of urticaria was not settling with the same antihistamine anymore, which now helped only for a few hours, till its effect lasted.
Other factors noted in the patient:
The patient had had some stressful situations in his life, whereby he lost some of his close relatives with whom he was emotionally attached. He experienced a sense of loss and grief. He did not share his feelings and kept his sadness alive for a long time. His past history included various allergies and enteric fever.
His medical history in the family:
Father: Urticaria, Hypertension, and asthma
Mother: Leukemia
Homeopathic analysis:
This patient has inherited a tendency to allergy (urticaria) from his father. Also, his mother had cancerous pathology, adding to the genetic susceptibility for a chronic disease such as urticaria. The recent incidence of emotional stress and trauma triggered in him the underlying tendency to allergy, which re-surfaced. In the past he had urticaria which responded to the symptomatic effect of antihistamine, and it was then suppressed temporarily. The urticaria re-surfaced when stress possibly lowered the immunity.
What needs to be treated?
He started taking antihistamine which would suppress the effects of histamine release. The histamine release is the end stage of the immunological process, governed by genetic tendency and stress. There is little sense in treating just the end result, that it the histamine release.
What needs to be treated in such a patient is not the histamine release but the very susceptibility which is the eventual cause of urticaria. Any attempt to antidote the effects of histamine with the anti-histamine medicines will obviously be superficial and suppressive and short-lasting.
Homeopathic treatment:
The homeopathic approach entails treating the soil, the immunological platform, along with the genetically mediated susceptibility to urticaria to heal chronic urticaria at the root level.
The remedy:
A medicine called Natrum Muriaticum, a potentized sodium chloride preparation which is indicated for the state of allergic disposition triggered by silent grief due to loss of loved ones, was selected. Additionally, another remedy called Carcinosin was used, which is prepared from a microdose of the cancerous tissues, clinically useful in treating genetic tendency to allergy, supposedly governed by the history of malignancy in the immediate family.
The progress:
Natrum Muriaticum 200c and Carcinosin 200c were administered to the patient. There was an improvement in the eruption within about three months. The dose of antihistamine to which the patient was almost addicted, was reduced to once in five days instead of once every day. He still had rashes but much less severe and with one-fifth of the antihistamine medicines. The treatment was continued with Natrum Muriaticum 201c and Carcinosin 201c. In two months' time, he could stop his antihistamine medicines. Occasional rashes of urticaria would appear and settle without much difficulty.
The treatment was continued with 202c and 203c doses for a total of five months. He was absolutely free from urticaria after this. The treatment was terminated and reviewed every four months. There was no reappearance of urticaria for two years, till the time of this publication.
What is achieved?
The homeopathic cure achieved is more than just the freedom from urticaria. Since the urticaria is treated on the basis of the genetic tendency and the constitutional type of the patient, the cure is supposed to be at a deeper level, which is expected to strengthen the immune system making the patient stronger and healthier.