Kalmia latifolia
Mountain laurel, calico bush, ivy bush, lambkill. · Plant · Ericaceae
People for whom Kalmia is most suitable feel fine when lying down, but become dizzy and disoriented on trying to move.
The remedy is usually given for severe, sharp neuralgic pains in the muscles and joints, and for general muscle pain. The pains are sharp and darting, and generally radiate downward. They are frequently accompanied by great weakness, stiffness, numbness, trembling, and a tingling sensation. Heart disease, especially if it develops after a history of neuralgic pain and stiffness, may also be treated with Kalmia.
Key symptoms
- Pains shift rapidly from one part to another
- Pains shoot downwards with accompanying numbness
- Prominent action on the heart; slow pulse with nausea
- Fulgurating pains of locomotor ataxia
- Rheumatic iritis; scleritis with pain on moving eye
- Vertigo worse stooping; confusion of brain
- Neuralgia worse on right side; facial stitches and tearing
- Pain in pit of stomach worse bending forward, better sitting erect
- Albuminuria; post-scarlatinal nephritis
- Paralytic sensations; pains and aching in limbs
Worse (aggravation)
Better (amelioration)
Mountain Laurel
A rheumatic remedy. Pains shift rapidly. Nausea and slow pulse frequently accompanying. Has also a prominent action on the heart. In small doses, it accelerates the heart's action; in larger it moderates it greatly. Neuralgia; pains shoot downwards, with numbness. Fulgurating pains of locomotor ataxia. Protracted and continuous fevers, with tympanites. Paralytic sensations; pains and aching in limbs accompany nearly every group of symptoms. Albuminuria.
Head
Vertigo; worse stooping. Confusion of brain. Pain in front and temporal region from head to nape and to teeth; from cardiac origin.
Eyes
Vision impaired. Stiff, drawing sensation when moving eyes. Rheumatic iritis. Scleritis, pain increased by moving the eye.
Face
Neuralgia; worse right side. Stitches in tongue. Stitches and tearing in bones of jaw and face.
Stomach
Warm, glowing sensation in epigastrium. Nausea; vomiting. Pain in pit of stomach; worse by bending forward; relieved by sitting erect. Bilious attacks, with nausea, vertigo, and headache. Sensation of something being pressed under the epigastrium.
Urinary
Frequent, with sharp pains in lumbar region. Post-scarlatinal nephritis.
Heart
Weak, slow pulse (Dig; Apoc can). Fluttering of heart, with anxiety. Palpitation; worse leaning forward. Gouty and rheumatic metastasis of heart. Tachycardia, with pain (Thyroid). Tobacco heart. Dyspnœa and pressure from epigastrium toward the heart. Sharp pains take away the breath. Shooting through chest above heart into shoulder-blades. Frequent pulse. Heart's action tumultuous, rapid and visible. Paroxysms of anguish around heart.
Female
Menses too early, or suppressed, with pain in limbs and back and inside of thighs. Leucorrhœa follows menses.
Back
Pain from neck down arm; in upper three dorsal vertebræ extending to shoulder-blade. Pain down back, as if it would break; in localized regions of spine; through shoulders. Lumbar pains, of nervous origin.
Extremities
Deltoid rheumatism especially right. Pains from hips to knees and feet. Pains affect a large part of a limb, or several joints, and pass through quickly. Weakness, numbness, pricking, and sense of coldness in limbs. Pains along ulnar nerve, index finger. Joints red, hot, swollen. Tingling and numbness of left arm.
Sleep
Sleepless, wakes very early in morning.
Modalities
Worse, leaning forward (opposite, Kali carb); looking down; motion, open air.
Relationship
Compare: Kalmia contains Arbutin g v. Derris pinuta (of great service in neuralgic headaches of rheumatic origin).
Compare: Spigelia; Pulsat.
Complementary: Benz acid.
Dose
Tincture, to sixth potency.
Generals
The symptoms that indicate this remedy show themselves especially in the muscles, in the tendons, in the joints, along the course of the nerves, in rheumatic complaints.
Pains
The pains change about, wandering pains, and they axe aggravated from motion. The sharp pains spread from the centres to the extremities, the wandering pains go downwards, down the arms, down the back and down the legs; from the shoulder to the fingers, and from the hips to the toes.
These pains sometimes shoot like lightning, again they tear along the nerves, along the sciatic and crural nerves, down through the calves. In rheumatic constitutions the pains are dull, tearing, crushing and pressing, and are aggravated by motion and go from the lower to the upper limbs. Motion will bring on the pain or aggravate it when it is present. The head pains are very severe. They often begin in the back of the neck or back of the head, and extend to the top of the head. There are also pains in the front of the head, pains over one or both eyes, tearing neuralgic pains aggravated by heat and motion.
Ledum floribus bullatis. Cistus chamærhododendros. Mountain Laurel. American Laurel. Calico Bush. (Rocky sterile hills, near water, in New England States. Flowers May and June.) N. O. Ericaceæ. Tincture of fresh leaves when the plant is in flower.
Clinical
Angina pectoris. Blindness. Bright's disease. Dropsy. Dysmenorrhœa. Gastralgia. Globus hystericus. Gout. Headache. Heart, disease of. Herpes zoster; neuralgia after. Keratitis. Leucorrhœa. Locomotor ataxia. Lumbago. Neuralgia. Paraplegia. Ptosis. Pregnancy, albuminuria of. Retinitis albuminurica. Rheumatism. Rumination. Scleroderma. Sclerotitis. Somnambulism. Sun-headaches. Syphilitic sore throat. Tinnitus. Tobacco, effects of. Vertigo. Vomiting.
Mountain Laurel. (Ericaceae.)
Adapted to acute neuralgia, rheumatism, gouty complaints, especially when heart is involved as a sequel of rheumatism or gout. In heart diseases that have developed from rheumatism, or alternate with it. Pains sticking, darting, pressing, shooting in a downward direction (Cac. - upward, Led.); attended or succeeded by numbness of affected part (Acon., Cham., Plat.). Severe stitching pain in right eye and orbit (left eye, Spig.); stiffness in muscles, pain < when turning the eyes (Spig.); begins at sunrise, < at noon and leaves at sunset (Nat. m.). Rheumatism: pains intense, change places suddenly going from joint to joint; joint hot, red, swollen; worse from least movement. Vertigo when stooping or looking down (Spig.). Pulse slow, scarcely perceptible (35 to 40 per minute); pale face and cold extremities.
Sight and Eyes
A stiff drawing sensation in the muscles of the eyes upon moving them.
Heart and Pulse
Affections of heart from rheumatism; anxiety and oppressed breathing; palpitation or slow, irregular, feeble pulse.
Extremities
Rheumatic pains in limbs from hips to feet.
Phatak's chapter on Kalmia latifolia is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
