Kalium carbonicum
Potassium carbonate · Potassium carbonate, potash, salt of tartar, pearl ash. · Mineral
People for whom Kali. carb. is suitable tend to be irritable, touchy, and possessive, feeling at odds with everyone, hating to be touched, yet wanting company. Conservative and “proper,” they have a strong sense of duty and responsibility. Emotional upsets are felt as a strong sense of fear or anxiety, hitting them like a blow to the stomach. These people fear many things: the future, loss of self-control, death, and even the supernatural.
Among the typical physical symptoms associated with the remedy are great sensitivity to drafts and the cold. It is prescribed for recurrent fever, coughs, colds, and other respiratory problems, including asthma. There may be sharp, shooting pains in parts of the body, and swelling above the eyes. Underlying anemia may cause fatigue and weakness.
Symptoms typically tend to be worse in the early hours of the morning, and insomnia is another feature of the Kali. carb. profile. Those for whom the remedy is appropriate tend to be middle-aged or older, stout or obese, and have a desire for sweet foods.
Key symptoms
- sensitivity to the cold
- sharp, shooting pains
- anxiety that is felt in the stomach
- strong sense of duty
- person feels worse between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m
Worse (aggravation)
- Early morning; characteristic aggravation around 2-4 a.m.
- Cold weather; intolerance of cold is marked
- Cold wind; headache from riding in cold wind
- After coitus; great weakness after sexual exertion
- Touch; hypersensitive to pain, noise, and touch
- Lying on the affected side worsens complaints
Better (amelioration)
- Motion; nearly all Kali carb pains better by motion
- Warmth; warm room and warm applications relieve
- Sitting bent forward relieves back and chest pains
- During the day; symptoms less severe in daytime
Carbonate of Potassium (KALI CARBONICUM)
The weakness characteristic of all Potassium Salts is seen especially in this, with soft pulse, coldness, general depression, and very characteristic stitches, which may be felt in any part of the body, or in connection with any affection. All Kali pains are sharp and cutting; nearly all better by motion. Never use any Salts of Potash where there is fever (T. F. Allen). Sensitive to every atmospheric change, and intolerance of cold weather. One of the best remedies following labor. Miscarriage, for consequent debilitated states. Early morning aggravation is very characteristic. Fleshy aged people, with dropsical and paretic tendencies. Sweat, backache, and weakness. Throbbing pains. Tendency to dropsy. Tubercular diathesis. Pains from within out, and of stinging character. "Giving-out" sensation. Fatty degenerations. Stinging pains in muscles and internal parts. Twitching of muscles. Pain in small spot on left side Hypothyroidism. Coxitis.
Mind
Despondent. Alternating moods. Very irritable. Full of fear and imaginations. Anxiety felt in stomach. Sensation as if bed were sinking. Never wants to be left alone. Never quiet or contented. Obstinate and hypersensitive to pain, noise, touch.
Head
Vertigo on turning. Headache from riding in cold wind. Headache comes on with yawning. Stitches in temples; aching in occiput, one-sided, with nausea, on riding in carriage. Loose feeling in head. Great dryness of hair; falls out (Fluor ac).
Eyes
Stitches in eyes. Spots, gauze, and black points before eyes. Lids stick together in morning. Swelling over upper lid, like little bags. Swelling of glabella between brows. Asthenopia. Weak sight from excessive sexual indulgence. On shutting eyes, painful sensation of light penetrating the brain.
Ears
Stitches in ears. Itching, cracking, ringing and roaring.
Nose
Nose stuffs up in warm room. Thick, fluent, yellow discharge. Post-nasal dropping (Spigel). Sore, scurfy nostrils; bloody nasal mucus. Crusty nasal openings. Nosebleed on washing face in morning. Ulcerated nostrils.
Mouth
Gums separate from teeth; pus oozes out. Pyorrhea. Aphthæ. Tongue white. Much saliva constantly in mouth. Bad, slimy taste.
Throat
Dry, parched, rough. Sticking pain, as from a fish-bone. Swallowing difficult; food goes down œsophagus slowly. Mucous accumulation in the morning.
Stomach
Flatulence. Desire for sweets. Feeling of lump in pit of stomach. Gagging. Dyspepsia of old people; burning acidity, bloating. Gastric disorders from ice-water. Sour eructations. Nausea; better lying down. Constant feeling as if stomach were full of water. Sour vomiting; throbbing and cutting in stomach. Disgust for food. Anxiety felt in stomach. Epigastrium sensitive externally. Easy choking when eating. Epigastric pain to back.
Abdomen
Stitches in region of liver. Old chronic liver troubles, with soreness. Jaundice and dropsy. Distention and coldness of abdomen. Pain from left hypochondrium through abdomen; must turn on right side before he can rise.
Rectum
Large, difficult stools, with stitching pain an hour before. Hæmorrhoids, large, swollen, painful. Itching, ulcerated pimples around anus. Large discharge of blood with natural stool. Pain in hæmorrhoids when coughing. Burning in rectum and anus. Easy prolapsus (Graph; Pod). Itching (Ignat).
Urine
Obliged to rise several times at night to urinate. Pressure on bladder long before urine comes. Involuntary urination when coughing, sneezing, etc.
Male
Complaints from coition. Deficient sexual instinct. Excessive emissions, followed by weakness.
Female
Menses early, profuse (Calc c) or too late, pale and scanty, with soreness about genitals; pains from back pass down through gluteal muscles, with cutting in abdomen. Pain through left labium, extending through abdomen to chest. Delayed menses in young girls, with chest symptoms or ascites. Difficult, first menses. Complaints after parturition. Uterine hæmorrhage; constant oozing after copious flow, with violent backache, relieved by sitting and pressure.
Respiratory
Cutting pain in chest; worse lying on right side. Hoarseness and loss of voice. Dry, hard cough about 3 am, with stitching pains and dryness of pharynx. Bronchitis, whole chest is very sensitive. Expectoration scanty and tenacious, but increasing in morning and after eating; aggravated right lower chest and lying on painful side. Hydrothorax. Leaning forward relieves chest symptoms. Expectoration must be swallowed; cheesy taste; copious, offensive, lump. Coldness of chest. Wheezing. Cough with relaxed uvula. Tendency to tuberculosis; constant cold taking; better in warm climate.
Heart
Sensation as if heart were suspended. Palpitation and burning in heart region. Weak, rapid pulse; intermits, due to digestive disturbance. Threatened heart failure.
Back
Great exhaustion. Stitches in region of kidneys and right scapula. Small of back feels weak. Stiffness and paralytic feeling in back. Burning in spine (Guaco). Severe backache during pregnancy, and after miscarriage. Hip-disease. Pain in nates and thighs and hip-joint. Lumbago with sudden sharp pains extending up and down back and to thighs.
Extremities
Backs and legs give out. Uneasiness heaviness, and tearing in limbs and jerking. Tearing pain in limbs with swelling. Limbs sensitive to pressure. White swelling of knee. Tearing in arms from shoulder to wrist. Lacerating in wrist-joint. Paralysis of old people, and dropsical affections. Limbs go to sleep easily. Tips of toes and fingers painful. Soles very sensitive. Itching of great toe, with pain. Pain from hip to knee. Pain in knees.
Skin
Burning as from a mustard plaster.
Sleep
Drowsy after eating. Wakes about two o'clock and cannot sleep again.
Modalities
Worse, after coition; in cold weather; from soup and coffee; in morning about three o'clock; lying on left and painful side. Better, in warm weather, though moist; during day, while moving about.
Relationship
Complementary: Carbo; (Lowness of vitality may suggest a preliminary course of Carbo to nurse up recuperation to the point that Kali carb would come in helpfully). Follows Nux often in stomach and bladder troubles.
Compare: Kali salicylicum (vomiting, especially of pregnancy; arteriosclerosis, with chronic rheumatism); kali silicum (gouty nodosities); Kali aceticum (diabetes, diarrhœa, dropsy, alkaline urine, very much increased in quantity); Kali citricum (Bright's disease-1 gr to wine-glass of water); Kali ferrocyanatum-Prussian blue--(physical and mental prostration following infection. Inability to sustained routine work. Neuralgic affections depending on impoverished blood and exhausted nerve centers, especially spinal. Fatty and functional heart troubles. Pulse weak, small, irregular. Uterine symptoms, like Sepia, bearing-down sensation and gastric sinking; profuse, pus-like leucorrhœa and passive hæmorrhage; use 6x); Kali oxalicum (lumbago, convulsions); Kali picro-nitricum and kali pricricum (jaundice, violent eructations); kali tartaricum (paraplegia); Kali telluricum (garlicky odor of breath, salivation, swollen tongue). Also compare: Calc; Ammon phos; Phos; Lycop; Bry; Natrum; Stann; Sepia.
Antidotes: Camph; Coffea.
Dose
Thirtieth and higher. Sixth trit. Do not repeat too often. Use cautiously in old gouty cases, advanced Bright's and tuberculosis.
The Kali carb. patient is a hard patient to study, and the remedy itself is a hard one to study.
It is not used as often as it should be, and the reason is that it is a very complex and confusing remedy. It has a great many opposite symptoms, changing symptoms, and thus it is related to patients that withhold their symptoms and have many vague symptoms.
Mind
The patient is whimsical, irascible, irritable to the very highest degree, quarrels with his family and with his bread and butter. He never wants to be alone, is full of fearand imaginations when alone, "fear of the future, fear of death, fear of ghosts."
If compelled to remain alone in the house he is wakeful, sleepless, or his sleep is full of horrible dreams. He is never at peace, is full of imaginations and fear.
Potassium Carbonate. Potassic Carbonate. Salt of Tartar. Salt of Wormwood. Carbonate of Potassium. K2 CO3 Solution. Trituration.
Clinical
Amenorrhœa. Anæmia. Asthma. Axilla, perspiration of. Back, aching. Biliousness. Bronchitis. Catarrh. Change of life. Chilblains. Clavus. Cold. Consumption. Cough. Debility. Dropsy. Dysmenorrhœa. Dyspepsia. Ear, inflammation of. Eyes, inflammation of; œdema around. Face, blotches on. Fear. Freckles. Gastralgia. Hæmorrhage. Hæmorrhoids. Hair, affections of. Headache. Heart, affections of. Hip-joint disease. Hydrothorax. Hysteria. Kidneys, affections of. Knee, affections of; white swelling of. Larynx, catarrh of. Leucorrhœa. Liver, affections of. Lumbago. Menorrhagia. Metrorrhagia. Pleurisy. Pleurodynia. Pregnancy, disorders of. Proctalgia. Sciatica. Sleeplessness. Spinal irritation. Stomach, affections of. Throat, sore. Toothache. Typhoid. Urine, frequent passage of. Urticaria. Uterus, cancer of. Vertigo. Wens. Whooping-cough.
Potassium Carbonate (K2OCO2)
For diseases of old people, dropsy and paralysis; with dark hair, lax fibre, inclined to obesity (Am. c., Graph.). After loss of fluids or vitality, particularly in anaemic (Cinch., Phos. ac., Phos., Psor.). Pains, stitching, darting, worse during rest and lying on affected side (stitching, darting, better during rest and lying on painful side, Bry.). Cannot bear to be touched; starts when touched ever so lightly, especially on the feet. Great aversion to being alone (Ars., Bis., Lyc. - desires to be alone, Ign., Nux). Bag-like swellings between the upper eyelids and eyebrows. Weak eyes; after coition, pollution, abortion, measles. Stomach: distended, sensitive; feels as if it would burst; excessive flatulency, everything she eats or drinks appears to be converted to gas (Iod.)[Lyc.]. Nosebleed when washing the face in the morning (Am. c., Arn.). Toothache only when eating; throbbing; < when touched by anything warm or cold. Backache, sweating, weakness; after …
Head
Great dryness of the hair.
Sight and Eyes
Sac-like swelling between the eyebrows and lid.
Stomach
Constant feeling as if stomach were full of water.
Stomach
Stomach feels as if it would burst, everything eaten seems to be converted into gases.
Abdomen
Fullness, heat and great distension of abdomen immediately after eating a little.
Anus and Stool
Haemorrhoids after parturition, sticking pains.
Female Sexual Organs
In labor the pains begin in the back, and instead of coming around in front like a regular labor pain pass off down the buttocks or gluteal muscles.
Respiratory Organs
Cough < from 3 to 4 a. m.
Respiratory Organs
Pain through lower third of right chest to back.
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Swelling like a sack between the eyebrows and lids
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Stitches in region of liver, with tension across the abdomen.
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Stitches in the chest on inspiration, cutting pains in the evening, after lying down; cough worse from 3 to 4 a.m.
Phatak's chapter on Kalium carbonicum is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
