Natrium bichromicum: rheumatoid arthritis, chronic pancreatitis, perianal abscess and uterine fibroid with pre‑climacteric complaints.
A remedy picture with four case reports.
by Ulrich Welte
Most recently three cases of Cobalt were described; now follows another element of the iron group, Chromium. It is in stage 6 of the iron series and in the periodic table stands before Manganese and Iron. Chromium must shine, put its iron strength and discipline on display. The word “weakness” should be removed from the dictionary. Chromium is presented here in the form of one of its salts, sodium dichromate.
nat‑bi
Natrium bichromicum, sodium dichromate.
Nat‑bi (not to be confused with Nat‑bic, sodium bicarbonate) is an unfamiliar remedy, which is surprising because its twin Kali‑bi is prescribed so frequently and is well proven. Nat‑bi can, however, be prescribed with success just as readily as Kali‑bi. A simple differentiation is possible by colour preference: Kali‑bi likes blue, Nat‑bi prefers turquoise. Chromium was long known in homeopathy through potassium bichromate, but it was only described in detail in Scholten’s first book ‘Homeopathy and Minerals’.[1] This picture of Chromium corresponds well with the later derived themes of Chromium (iron series in stage 6).[2] The sodium component has been well known in isolation since Scholten. It is therefore surprising that not a single Nat‑bi case appears in the literature. Even in reference works it is only mentioned as existing, but it does not appear in repertorisation.
Sodium: establishing or losing an impulsive relationship; wants the other completely for himself and forever; rejection; separation; emotional injury; no partner any more, completely alone; becomes reserved, shuts down, closed, withdraws, cannot open up any more, isolates, broods in loneliness over a painful broken relationship; cannot get over it, remains alone, wants to see no one.
Slender, gaunt. UV sun. < 10–11 am. Aversion to doughy pastas, noodles, spaghetti. Aversion to salt and sea air, which may ameliorate or aggravate.
Chromium:
tenacious, stringy secretions. Punctate, circumscribed pains whose location can be pointed to exactly with a fingertip. Migratory pains. Sinusitis. Pancreatic diseases. Diabetes.
Tenacious workers who admit no mistake and flatter superiors. Will never admit an error, has always produced gleaming work to please the boss, but expects something in return. Polished shine conceals the danger of corrosion. Flatterers, toadies, sycophants; tenacious, sticky.
Craving for beer.
Nat‑bi: closed, ingratiating people who cannot get over a rejection. Claims sole rights to the partner whom they flatter; after rejection follows isolation and loneliness. The doctor is courted with flattery so that he will devote himself entirely to the patient (similar to Kali‑bi). He has never done anything wrong and has always brought gifts; now he also expects sick‑notes and expensive tests, costly medicines.
Case 1: A superstitious tradesman with an esoteric touch was early‑retired because of long‑standing rheumatoid arthritis. His always cleanly shaven, ruddy face slightly recalls Erich Honecker. He constantly selects everything by pendulum, obsessively, from the drink to the choice of shoes with raised heels. Always full of flattery, well dressed, neat, shines as if polished. He is a thin, dry sodium type, moreover a miserly pedant (arsenical), but at all costs wants to make a good impression and be liked and behaves solicitously polite (chromium). Despite lengthy, circumstantial explanations (chromium) he is basically closed (nat), avoids concrete personal information. He shrinks from any deeper disclosure about himself (Stage 6), preferring compulsively to explain things with far‑fetched reasons, covering up with apparently amusing behaviour and trivialising everything, always everything tidy and neat (chromium). His skin is ruddy, fine and soft, appears feminine. His behaviour seems somehow sticky (Chromium), clingy almost like a burr; he wants by pedantic noting of unimportant little things to reproduce everything particularly faithfully. His colour choice is 18E.
Because he so likes to use the pendulum, three remedies are presented to him, Carc, Nat‑a and Nat‑bi. He pendulates himself to Nat‑bi 200. On the first night the pains in the metacarpophalangeal joints of the fingers are particularly bad, but already the next morning the fingers are less stiff and the pains markedly better. Subsequently the knees also improve. Encouraged by the surprising success, in the following months he repeatedly pendulates himself to new remedies, takes all sorts of things, among them the likewise well‑chosen remedies Rhus‑t and Ars; he nevertheless keeps returning to Nat‑bi and within five months discontinues all other remedies, including diclofenac and naproxen. Inflammatory markers have clearly improved. Over the course of two years he takes increasing LM potencies of Nat‑bi and is now at LM30, which he remains on. Salt baths from the Dead Sea are also said to be good, according to the pendulum. The next two years are good, he is pain‑free and the lab values have long since normalised. After a total of eight years things continue well; occasionally he still takes Nat‑bi D12 (selected by pendulum). To the suggestion that the correct potency be determined double‑blind by pendulum, he reacts evasively....
Case 2: Ageing car salesman with trigeminal neuralgia and chronic pancreatitis. Before retirement he had worked in a prestigious car dealership in the Swabian provinces (well‑to‑do small town) and sold neat, chrome‑glossy English luxury cars, including fast V8 sports cars. He always comes very well dressed, is solicitously polite, smooth, formal, seemingly very attentive but fawning, overfull of praise. For his flattery he wants to see something in return, often stubbornly insists on his point of view; there is some catch beneath the smiling, smooth, shiny face, which, although it impresses with a defiantly advanced male chin, nevertheless also has feminine traits. His skin is soft and smooth. At the initial consultation he presents with a very bad trigeminal neuralgia. In the pain description a strange gesture is notable: he holds his fists half raised, torso slightly leaning back, exactly like a boxer in guard, waiting for the opponent’s next blow (facial pain). He can be resentful. Months after a blood draw he still reproachfully notes that the receptionist caused him a haematoma. On holiday he expects acquaintances who travelled with him to be up punctually in the morning because he has planned an outing. When they are a little late he holds it against them for a long time and cannot get over the small unpunctuality. The next year they no longer want to go with him; he is such a pedant. Moreover he is not as sociable as he pretends, but fundamentally very closed. Initially, for the neuralgia, Spigelia helps him excellently (symptom picture flickering like a filament). Later, because of recurrent abdominal pains, chronic pancreatitis is discovered on CT. He now wants “again a miracle remedy, like back then when you helped me like a miracle with the neuralgia” (he believes this “miracle‑worker” role is praise that will spur the doctor to new heights!). His colour was constant 15C.
Nat‑bi was given despite the discordant colour choice because his handwriting matched well with that of the previous patient and his overly polished manner also recalled Chromium. Above all Chromium has a clear pancreatic relation. Kali‑bi would have been closer because of his blue colour choice, but Kali‑bi writes very differently and is not as brittle and closed as the sodium salts. One hour after Nat‑bi 200 the abdominal pains across the upper abdomen in the acutely flared pancreatitis were 50% better and the enzyme values normalised within a week. Later the remedy was helpful again with milder recurrences, producing a reproducible effect in acute attacks; it did not cure him completely, but it worked reliably in flares — also an indication that a remedy from the blue area might have been deeper acting.
Case 3 (case from Johannes Klement): Nurse in a psychiatric clinic, comes for a perianal abscess and psychological instability. Narrow‑minded (chromium), closed, broods a lot (nat). For three years increasingly verbally aggressive. Theme of death haunts her. Perfectionist (metal). Was never really a child, too quiet and reserved (nat), in the observer role. Wanted to become a veterinarian. Cannot tolerate dairy products (kali‑bi). Nat‑p M was multiple times helpful, not so frosty any more, energy much better. Skin not so dry. New: aversion to coffee (kali‑bi). Dreams of being abandoned by her partner (nat). The colour choice 19B and her handwriting led to the prescription of Nat‑bi.
Nat‑bi M was given not least because of a certain “stickiness” (difficulties letting go of me at the end of the consultation, she only reveals important topics towards the end of the consultation). Afterwards she cancelled the follow‑up appointment: She feels very well, the last medicine helped her best.
Case 4: 45‑year‑old housewife with climacteric complaints and a uterine fibroid. Her face is smooth, ruddy and soft, with a friendly smile, but expresses a certain stubbornness and impatience. Her mucous membranes are said to be dry, especially vaginally. She lies awake late at night and broods about her husband’s moods; her wellbeing depends strongly on his temper. She is solicitously polite and wants to be liked through outwardly winning manners. Striking is her peculiar speech, which sounds like a monotonous chant, continuously flowing and viscous, apparently friendly but nonetheless impatient. An unceasing flow of partly prolonged, partly tightly successive words, especially at the ends of sentences, so that one cannot ask an intervening question. There is practically no room for one’s own remarks; one literally bounces off an impenetrable, tenacious web of apparently friendly words which she constructs like a protective shield around herself: one has to wait until she comes to an end, which seldom happens. She has often dreamed the same dream, which points to Chromium: a tenacious, sticky mass is in her mouth; she cannot speak and must pull the mass out with her hands and fingers. Her colour choice is 18/19B.
The colour choice points to the sodium salt of Chromium, and the tenacious mass of beautiful words confirms the chromium compound. Sleepless until 1 am with evening brooding and fixation on the husband is also sodium. The handwriting is quite similar to the other three cases.
So follows a prescription of Nat‑bi C200. After 4 weeks: “I’m feeling better.” Climacteric sweating and hot flushes are better, she has resumed her normal menses, the dry mucous membranes are moist again, sleep is better. The improvement increases over the next two months: “I feel really well, yes I feel younger, I’m better mentally and physically.” A new dose of Nat‑bi 200. After a further three months everything is in order, the cycle is normal again. After a year the remedy is repeated because she said it does her so much good. Afterwards she was seen by the gynaecologist: the fibroid has also disappeared.
Signature of Chromium: - Chromium in the elemental state is tenacious and makes alloyed steel tough‑elastic, increasing its tensile strength.
- Chromium is used for optical adornment on cars, especially in the tuning scene. It makes an impression, makes the chromed parts appear nobler; it imparts the decorative shine of silver without, however, being as precious.
- Chromium binds to insulin and has an organotropic pancreatic relation. At least in true chromium deficiency Chromium would likely be useful in diabetes therapy. Zinc and Chromium assist insulin docking at cell membranes to transport the energy source sugar from the blood into the cells, thus lowering blood sugar levels.
[1] http://www.narayana-verlag.de/Homoeopathie-und-Minerale/Jan-Scholten/b238
[2] http://www.narayana-verlag.de/Homoeopathie-und-die-Elemente/Jan-Scholten/b239
