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[Rochelle]

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REMEDY NAME:Cochlearia Officinalis
Taking Care of Difficult Patients
Jan Scholten, The Netherlands
Cochlearia Officinalis is of the Cruciferae family. It is sometimes
confused with Cochlearia armoracia, the horseradish, another member of the
Cruciferae. I myself had initially also confused these two, but later on it
enabled me to find out the difference and to get a clearer picture of
Cochlearia Officinalis.

The most important keynote of Cochlearia is "stomach pains radiating to
sides and back". This keynote is not mentioned in the repertory but it is
in Boericke. Boericke describes Cochlearia armoracia and doesn't mention
Officinalis. But I took it as a keynote for Officinalis by mistake and it
proved to be correct. It probably is a keynote for the whole Cochlearia
family.
Botanical description: The plant grows 20 cm. high. It has a juicy stalk
with few leaves. The round, heart - or kidney shaped leaves are to be found
at the bottom of the stalk. The flowers are white, sometimes pink. It
prefers a site in or near brackish water.

Mind picture: The picture that emerges is of a woman who has to take care
of her sick, difficult, nagging husband.
The first characteristic is a sense of duty, just like the Kaliums have.
They have the feeling that it is their duty to take on this task of caring.
They have pledged to stand by their partner in sickness and in health. So
they can't evade this responsibility.

The second characteristic is the fact that they actually don't want to do
it, they don't feel like taking care of a nagging old man. In this respect
they are different from the kaliums, who feel it is their duty, so they
simply do it. It looks a bit like Cimicifuga in the sense of feeling bound
and restricted in their relationships. Cochlearia often has dreams of being
bound too, of being stuck and not being able to get out. But in Cimicifuga
the sensation of being restricted is caused by social relations, they feel
encaged by their family, neighbours etc. In Cochlearia it is their own
sense of duty that is restricting them.
They often feel angry and dissatisfied about their task. But they don't
really express their anger, they suffer in silence. Here we find a likeness
with the magnesiums, there is anger, but they are not allowed to express
it. The liver complaints and the aggravation at 7 a.m. is also similar to
the Magnesiums. The difference is that the Magnesiums don't express their
anger out of fear of loosing someone, while Cochlearia feels that their
duty forbids them to make a fuss or get angry.
And so they develop a kind of bitterness, they feel disappointed in life.
In this respect they look like the ammoniums, particularly ammonium
sulphuricum, because the disappointment and bitterness are linked to the
partner. The difference seems to be that Cochlearia has the feeling that he
has to care for, while this is not a main factor in the ammoniums. The sour
expression can clearly be seen on their face, there is little joy left.

The DD with Cocculus needs to be made too, because of the element of caring
for others. But Cocculus does this more lovingly and based on a feeling of
love, while Cochlearia does it reluctantly and with bitterness. This is
partly because the partner is rather grumpy when ill. The patient is often
awkward, demanding, aggressive, demented, helpless or oversexed. This makes
their task of looking after their patient even less attractive, the patient
is extremely ungrateful.

Cochlearia is sensitive to criticism, particularly with respect to their
task of looking after husband and children. They'll try and prevent the
outside world from getting to know that it isn't all as rosy inside the
family as it looks. This reminds us of the Calciums, especially Calcium
sulphuricum. But in Calc-s the sensitivity to criticism is the main theme,
while in Cochlearia it is only part of the picture.

Case nr.1
This is a case of a patient for whom Cochlearia was merely prescribed to
deal with a particular layer. Sometimes a remedy shows itself more clearly
in a particular layer than in a chronic/constitutional situation. That is
why I want to present this case first; it shows the picture of Cochlearia
without getting bogged down in all sorts of details. The other remedies
which had worked well for this patient were Phosphorus and Calcium
sulphuricum.
This 65 year old woman came with the complaint of "gallstone colic attacks".
She had pains in the epigastrium, radiating to both sides and back. She
would be lying in bed, writhing with pain. The pain was worse from eggs
(2), fish (2) and chocolate, although she was very fond of all these. The
pain would come at any moment, particularly if she got worked up about
something, for instance when she had to go to a party and she was afraid of
not being ready on time.
She is always busy, she takes a lot upon herself. She works in the bar at a
tennis club because she likes doing that sort of thing. She likes other
people's company. Lately she has been worried about her husband. He has
retired from his job and he just sits at home. She is afraid that he will
go downhill and will suffer from dementia or Parkinson and that she will
have to look after him. She would hate that and she does everything she can
to get him active again, suggesting odd jobs he can do, or taking him along
to the tennis club etc.
Other complaints: scraping her throat which produces clear mucous, throat
feels swollen, pain in the ball of the thumb and pain in her middle finger,
which seems to lock sometimes.

Comment: The keynote of stomach pains radiating to sides and back is the
main symptom in this case. But the theme of Cochlearia also comes up quite
clearly. In this case the fear that she might have to look after her
husband in the future was enough to produce symptoms. Prescription
Cochlearia Officinalis MK.

Reaction: After Cochlearia the complaints soon disappeared. Her husband
came along to work at the bar too, and he did not become demented.

Case nr. 2
This is the clearest case of Cochlearia I have seen, in the sense that
Cochlearia is the only remedy that has helped her in the long term.
This 70 year old woman has come complaining of headaches. The pain is
situated mainly in the occiput and behind the ears. She feels dizzy with it
and hazy, as if she is outside her own body. Her eyes are tired and
sometimes she sees "zig-zagging flashes" before the headaches. The
modalities are: dark, >
lying on the back, > with a soft pillow behind the neck, > pressure on the
forehead, > alone. The pain is also worse when she is busy or after
exertion, for instance when her grandchildren come to visit.

Another problem is much mucous in her throat, which she can't clear.
Sometimes she has yellow spots in her throat with pain. Occasionally she
coughs up yellow lumps with an awful putrid odour. It makes her voice heavy
and low too.
She also suffers from cramp in her calves, fresh air (2), sea air, mountain air.
-Physical: > movement.

Comment: The problem with her husband is all important in this case. She
has all the characteristics that belong to Cochlearia. The dreams about
being stuck, not able to get away are very typical. She even had them when
she was child. The dreams remind us of Cimicifuga, but this remedy brought
only temporary improvement.

Cuprum also seems to be indicated, because of the cramps in her calves and
her rather restricted, cramped attitude in life. However Cuprum sulphuricum
only gave temporary relief for the cramps. Then she came with the complaint
of stomach pains radiating to both sides and back, and I gave Cochlearia.
Prescription Cochlearia Officinalis MK.

Reaction: She starts to feel much better, the pains are less and she
manages to distance herself a little from her husband's problems. She
starts to go out from time to time, whether he likes it or not. While in
the past she used to feel too restricted , she had to stay at home and look
after her husband.
During two years the remedy was a repeated a few times and she remained
well on Cochlearia. Later she reacted well on Menispermum canadense for
different complaints.

Case nr.3
This 65 year old woman suffered from hyperventilation: face feels strange,
tingling in the hands, "cotton-wool feeling" in the legs.
A second complaint is diverticulosis with constipation, painful urging fresh air, wind.

Mind: She is a very caring person. Sometimes it all gets too much, she
feels that she can't cope with everything. The contact with her children is
a bit difficult. Her daughter in law doesn't like seeing her too often,
prefers to visit her own parents. Her own daughter lives far away so she
doesn't see her very often. Apart from all that her husband has a problem
with the children. He is constantly afraid that he will kill them
(>>>thea), so this has hindered the contact with children and grandchildren.
She wants to be a good wife to her husband and a good mother to her children.

Comment: Here we don't see the theme of bitterness all that strongly, but
we do see the theme of care taking. Also the typical Cochlearia feeling of
it all being too much, not being able to cope. The keynote of pain in the
stomach has moved to pain in the chest in this case, but it is radiating to
sides and back. Prescription Cochlearia Officinalis MK.

Reaction: Cochlearia made the hyperventilation disappear, it increased her
energy and she was able to cope much better. Other remedies which have
helped her were: Uva ursi and Calcarea sulphurica before and Naja after
Cochlearia, but all for different problems than the ones solved with
Cochlearia.

Case nr. 4
A 65 year old woman has a sore throat with yellow and red spots, starting
on the left, moving to the right side.
She suffers from nagging pains in her stomach, radiating to sides and back.
The modalities are: sitting, > morning, > fresh air, wind, outdoors.
-Physical: movement.

Literature
Vermeulen F: De complete Materia Medica van Boericke en Phatak.
Clarke JH: Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica.
Jan Scholten M.D.
Servaasbolwerk 13
3512 NK Utrecht
The Netherlands
Translated from: Simillima, Vol. 2(4),March 1994

[Pauline Ashford]

Thanks Rochelle regards Pauline