cachexia

[Krishna]

Diseases, more particularly acute, that are long standing and not cured in spite of best treatment, and where patient is affected much and disturbing his daily routine: We may call these by the term `Cachexia.'
Acute diseases such cough, cold, diarrhoea, skin rash etc. normally do not last long. When you find a patient with these complaints standing long for years and bothering him much, you may use the term `Cachexia.'
Analogous to the above is another term. It is called `lack of reaction' about which we would study in the next bulletin.
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CACHEXIA, CACHECTIC
[For the convenience of the eye and easy reference the words "Cachexia" "Cachectic" are given in bold type]
weakly, cachectic individuals: 1, arn., calc., chin., natr. m., nux v., phos. ac., sulph., veratr.; 2, ars., carb. v., lach., merc., phos., sec., sep., etc.
Ammon-pic. (Febris intermittens) - fevers maltreated with quinine or having a quinine cachexia engrafted upon a malarial one. periodical headaches, nervous, bilious, gastric, recurring every four, seven, fourteen days or once a month, in women just before or after menses.
Ant-tart. (Pneumonia) - pneumonia biliosa with hepatic congestion; pleuro-pneumonia, when parts of lungs are hepatized and fine rales heard over hepatized part; great oppression of breathing towards morning, must sit up to breathe. broncho-pneumonia, pneumonia catarrhalis: second stage, resolution has set in, but fails, and oppression and prostration prevail, at first we found the sharp, stitching pains of bry., but now the pain ceased, mucous rales are heard distinctly over chest with extreme want of breath; rattling, hollow cough, with heat and moist hands, sweat on forehead; dyspnoea with desire to cough, and, though chest is full of mucus, inability to bring it up; vertigo with dimness of vision and pressing headache; eyes congested, staring, dull, unsteady, half open or one closed; face red, bloated, anxious, or cool, pale and sallow; nostrils dark, sooty, dilated; mouth open, parched; tongue dry and brown; great thirst; tendency to diarrhoea or diarrhoea. pneumonia of drunkards, with bilious complications; even jaundice, meteorism, nausea and vomiting; typhoid complications; oedema pulmonum; impending paralysis of lungs or of heart; suitable especially to infants and old or cachectic people.
Argentum-nit. - cachectic states, with loss of strength.
Arg-nit. (Hepatic derangements) - cirrhosis from malaria cachexia; stitches in liver, coming on as with a jerk; peculiar fulness in liver, painful, with occasional drawing and stinging, especially when walking, sometimes reaching into the chest; periodical dull stitches in the anterior surface of liver; hepatic affection, ending in fatal dropsy; pigmentary degeneration, the fever may be stopped but the degeneration remains.
Ars-alb. (Blepharitis) - burning in the oedematous swollen lids; lachrymation profuse, hot and acrid, excoriating the lids and cheek; cachexia, with great restlessness, aggravation after midnight; thirst, etc.
Ars-alb. (Haemorrhage from uterus) - tedious, long-continued flooding in feeble cachectic women afflicted with rheumatism, disorganization of uterus or ovaries, with great debility, restlessness and lancinating burning pains; uterus larger and softer than usual, with dilated capillaries; aphthae in mouth indicate the low state of system, the least effort exhausts her; chronic endometritis and passive hyperaemia, based on atony.
Ars-alb. (Heart diseases) - cardiac cachexia irritable heart, trembling, irregular action of heart, intermitting; palpitations with anguish, in damp weather, frequent dull stitches in both lungs; thin, scrawny, cachectic persons.
Aurum met. (Albuminuria) - interstitial nephritis; contracted kidney, marked cardiac hypertrophy; mercurial and syphilitic cachexia, swelling of liver, caries. renal troubles secondary to cardiac affections, causing a decided albuminous crasis, passing over into hydraemia; at first the urine is increased in quantity, later it becomes scanty and albuminous; bloated, shining face; vertigo as if he would fall to the left side; bruised pain in head and confusion in thinking, dyspnoea, palpitations.
Aurum met. (Orchitis, and other affections of testicles) - atrophy, testes mere pendent shreds, especially in pining boys; chronic induration of testes, especially of right one; sensation as if a knife were drawn through the swollen testicle; pressive pain when touched or rubbed, as f rom a bruise; itching of scrotum; mercurial cachexia.
Badiaga. - general cachectic appearance.
Badiaga (Morbus basedowii) - eyeballs tender, felt even when closing lids firmly; tremulous, vibrating palpitation upon slightest mental emotion; lying on right side heart is heard and felt to pulsate from chest up to neck; indurated and enlarged glands; general cachectic appearance; dulness and dizziness of head; restless at night, must often change position, body feels so sore.
Badiaga (Syphilis and sycosis) - syphilis of infants, whole convolutes of hard, glandular swellings; bubo, left groin, hard, unequal, like scirrhus, violent burning stitches during night; chancres suppressed by cautery or mercurial ointment, leaving elevated, discolored cicatrices; general cachectic appearance and rhagades here and there; indurated, maltreated buboes
Baryta -carb. - (bar. a) old cachectic people of scrofulous habit, especially when they suffer with gouty complaints.
Borax (Cough) - dry, cachectic cough, especially mornings when rising and in the evening when lying down; with stitching pain in upper part of right chest and right flank, > by pressure; washing the chest with cold water affords most relief; pains in open air; nostrils raw and bleeding; profuse, foetid, yellow-green discharge.
Kali-carb. (Diarrhoea) - chronic cases in cachectic, dyspeptic persons, with the characteristic puffiness under the eyebrows. stools light-gray or brownish, corrosive, sometimes painless, after a good sleep.
Kreos. (Leucorrhoea) - leucorrhoea, like menses, inclined to be intermittent, discharge nearly ceases, when, without cause, it reappears as bad as ever; discharge bland or acrid; before and after menses, especially when standing, hardly any when sitting or lying down; discharge of blood and mucus in the morning when getting up; acrid, yellowish-white leucorrhoea, with great itching at vulva; milky leucorrhoea, acrid leucorrhoea, leaving yellow spots on linen and stiffening it like starch, flesh-colored discharge, having a foul smell; yellow, offensive and acrid discharge with itching, biting, smarting and burning in pudendum, between labia and thighs; stitches in vagina from above downward, causing her to start; frequent urging to urinate, preceded by a white discharge from vagina, which colors her clothes yellow; ineffectual urging to urinate, and when accomplished is accompanied by chilliness and milky leucorrhoea; great debility, every little exertion throws her into a profuse sweat; white, painless leucorrhoea, smelling like fresh green corn, flowing like the menses, with pain in back and flushes of heat in face; especially adapted to a cachectic state during and after climaxis or to blonde, overgrown girls of a sad, irritable disposition.
Lachesis. - elderly woman, thin and cachectic; phthisis pulmonalis. - Lady, aged 43, slim, large, cachectic, scrofulous; intestinal croup.
Lycopodium (Bronchitis chronica) - distressing, fatiguing, tickling cough, towards evening; sad and tearful disposition.
Natrum-carb. (Febris intermittens) - malarial cachexia, exposure to emanations from salt or fresh water patient dreads the chill, complains of languor, headache, thirst. chill at 8 or 9 a. m. (apis, 3 p. m.), severe with great thirst which continues through all stages, beginning in knees, elbows and small of back; violent headache with sensation as if head would fly to pieces; great dyspnoea, icy coldness about heart, followed by dry heat and thirst and ending in profuse sweat with relief of all symptoms; blindness and unconsciousness during chill, with great prostration after it; internal chilliness from want of natural heat, with icy coldness of hands and feet. heat with thirst, drinks large quantities and often, which refresh him; vomiting of bile between chill and fever or during heat; intolerable hammering headache with stupefaction, unconsciousness, blindness and fainting, forcing him to lie down; fever-blisters around lips. sweat with thirst, profuse, gradually relieving all pains, except headache (eup. perf.); pulse intermittent, as digestion advances; stitches and tension in liver, skin yellow, earthy; obstinate constipation; short breathing, palpitations; stitches in spleen, in cold weather.
Secale (Haemorrhage from uterus) - painless flooding in feeble, cachectic, dyscratic women, or who have long resided in tropical climates; general coldness, while the patient feels too warm and does not wish to be covered; feverish pulse; haemorrhage passive, dark-colored and continuous, seldom clotted, sometimes offensive, and the slightest motion aggravates the flow, particularly where the weakness is not caused by loss of blood. haemorrhage, with strong and spasmodic contraction of uterus, every flow preceded by strong, bearing-down pains; haemorrhage from atony of uterus, especially after protracted labor or miscarriage, aggravated by the slightest motion; menses usually too profuse and too long-lasting, with spasms and mental depression or melancholy.
Senega. - subacute or chronic exudations of pleura, catarrhal pleuropneumonia (after bry.) in cachectic pleuritis, in hydrothorax, ?dema pulmonum, in diseases of heart, primary and secondary anasarca; in dropsies after albuminuria; hydrophthalmia with intraocular compression; in ascites accompanying hepatic diseases, peritonitis and abdominal tumors; in lymphatic constitutions with tendency to mucous and serous exudations.
Shortness of breath and oppression on bending the arms backward; sharp stitches through the chest, extending into left scapula, worse lying on back and during least motion; pain in chest from overlifting; pain as if chest would fly to pieces when coughing or drawing a deep breath; plastic exudation after pleuritis; lips bright-red; follows well after Bry. or Rhus. (Pleuritis, pleurisy) - in neglected cases, or where the disease developed itself in cachectic constitutions, study: ars., ars. iod., calc., camph., canth., carb. v., chin., fer., hep., iod., lach., lyc., seneg., sep., sil., and others; for pleuritic exudations: apis, ars., dig., when serous; alum., bry., hep., sulph., when plastic.
Silicea (Asthma) - asthma on a cachectic base, after its removal gummatous nodes on skull, clavicles and ribs; shortness of breath and panting from walking fast and from manual labor; dyspnoea when at rest or when lying on back; oppression of chest, cannot take a long breath, cannot bear the slightest draught on the back of his neck, spasmodic cough, with spasm of larynx; catarrh of aged people
—— Miss 12, cachectic and anemic; (fistula of thigh.)
Silicea (Prosopalgia) - dental nerves especially affected, pains more in jawbones than teeth; jaw swollen; toothache, by heat of stove. heat with thirst, flushes of heat in face, burning heat of palms and soles, > by putting them out of bed, ending in moisture and faintness; alternate heat with chilliness. sweat profuse at night all over and restless sleep; sweat on slightest motion or manual labor; morning sweat, setting in after waking; sour sweat. apyrexia: great prostration after every paroxysm, with thirst for beer, burning heat on vertex, early morning diarrhoea.
—— Girl, aged 12, delicate, cachectic; vaginitis. Girl, aged 8, cachectic-looking; coxalgia of spine.
Suppression of menses. (Amenorrhoea) of plethoric individuals use: acon., bell., bry., gels., nux v., op., plat., sabin., sulph.; for debilitated or cachectic individuals: alet., ars., chin., cyprip., con., graph., helon., iod., natr. m., puls., polyg., sep., sulph.
The ill effects of mercury and sulphur together require: Bell., Puls., or even Merc. (Mercury, ill effects of) - antidotes to mercurial cachexia: asa., aur., chin., chionanth., hep., iod., kali iod., mez.
For ulcers: we should use more particularly: for atonic ulcers, as we find them among old, feeble, and cachectic persons, especially on the legs, ulcera atonica pedum: 1, ars., lach., sil., sulph.; 2, calc., carb. v., graph., ipec., lyc., mur. ac., natr., phos. ac., puls., ruta; 3, amm., amm. m., fluor. ac., nux j.; 4, aral., bapt., lycopus, polyg.
Leucorrhoea with cachectic appearance, and organic diseases of uterus and neighboring organs: ars., ars. iod., carb. v., graph., kreos., merc., sulph.;
For active haemorrhage in plethoric persons give: 1, Acon., Bell., Bry., Calc., Cham., Fer., Nux v., Plat., Sab., Sulph.; 2, Arn., Croc., Hyosc., Ign., Ipec., Phos., Sil., Veratr.; 3, Trill. (Haemorrhage from the uterus, menorrhagia, metrorrhagia) - for passive haemorrhage in debilitated cachectic subjects: 1, chin., croc., puls., sec., sep., sulph.; 2, capsella bursa pastoris, carb. v., nux v., ipec., phos., ruta, veratr.; 3, alet., cauloph., cimicif., trill., ust.
Pleuritis, pleurisy - in neglected cases, or where the disease developed itself in cachectic constitutions, study: ars., ars. iod., calc., camph., canth., carb. v., chin., fer., hep., iod., lach., lyc., seneg., sep., sil., and others; for pleuritic exudations: apis, ars., dig., when serous; alum., bry., hep., sulph., when plastic.
Pemphigus - cachexia, with bullae on shin: ars., bell., calc., canth., caust., chin., dulcamara., gamb., hep., hydrocot., jugl., lach., merc., nitr. ac., phos., ran., rhus, sep., sulph., sulph. ac., thuj.; ars. and lach. in chronic cases, the latter especially in old people; ars. and hydrocot. sometimes in weekly alternation.
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