Cimicifuga racemosa
Great remedy for neuralgic and rheumatic conditions with mental depression proportional to the physical suffering. Muscular pains, stiff neck, sensitivity of spine. Ailments of women — menstrual and menopausal.
Source
Prepared from the fresh root and rhizome of Actaea racemosa (Ranunculaceae).
Available Potencies
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Keynote Symptoms
Mental depression proportional to the physical suffering — dark cloud settles over her. Muscular rheumatic pains, especially neck and back. Menstrual irregularities with neuralgic pains. Sensation as if a cloud enveloped her. Uterine symptoms alternate with mental symptoms. Ovarian neuralgia.
Mind & Emotional Symptoms
Depressed, gloomy, as if a black cloud settled over her. Suspicious, talkative, jumping from subject to subject. Fear of insanity. Sighing. Delirium during menses. Vision of rats, mice. Ailments from disappointed love.
General Symptoms
Muscular pains, rheumatic, neuralgic. Left-sided predominantly. Worse during menses, from cold damp, sitting, morning. Better from warmth, eating, open air, continued motion, pressure.
Physical Symptoms
Head
Pressing pain on top of head as if top would fly off. Brain feels too large. Waving sensation. Headache with menstrual irregularity.
Eyes
Deep-seated aching pain in eyeballs. Intense aching in and behind eyes. Worse from motion.
Face
Neuralgia affecting malar bones, worse left side. Facial muscles feel stiff.
Back
Stiff neck, contracted muscles. Spine very sensitive, especially upper cervical and between shoulders. Pain from back of head down spine. Crick in neck.
Female Genitalia
Menses profuse, dark, clotted, irregular. Pain from hip to hip. Ovarian neuralgia. Nausea of pregnancy. Labour pains irregular, sharp, across abdomen. Afterpains.
Extremities
Rheumatic pains in muscles, aching, soreness. Stiffness. Chorea. Heaviness of limbs.
Chest
Sharp pains across chest, under left breast. Heart feels too large.
Modalities
Better From
Warmth, eating, open air, continued gentle motion, pressure
Worse From
During menses, cold damp weather, sitting, morning, emotions, labour
Constitutional Type
Nervous, sensitive women with rheumatic-neuralgic tendency. Dark-haired, depressive temperament. Women during climacteric.
Clinical Indications
Menstrual irregularities, menopausal symptoms, depression, rheumatic pains, stiff neck, neuralgia, chorea, labour pains
Comparative Materia Medica
Sepia also has depression in women but with more indifference and bearing-down. Pulsatilla has changeable moods and menses but is weepy rather than dark. Ignatia has depression from grief but more contradictory symptoms.
Safety Information
Aconitum, Baptisia.
Black cohosh in large crude doses can cause nausea, headache, dizziness, and possible liver toxicity. Potentised forms are safe.
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