Rhus Toxicodendron plants are well-known for producing an itching, irritating, or painful rash on contact. In homeopathic potencies, the Rhus-t remedy treats symptoms related to skin complaints such as blisters, hives with rheumatism, and types of cold sores. Rhus-t is also known as the “creaky gate remedy” as sore and stiff muscles and joints are worse for rest or on the first movement, improve with ongoing movement, and then worsen again with over-exertion. Pains are aggravated by cold and wet weather. People needing Rhus are mentally as well as physically restless and their tongue may have a triangular, red tip.
Materia Medica of Rhus Toxicodendron
- Mind – Irritable; holds everything in contempt. Full of desires, for what they know not.
- Head – Bones of skull feel crushed or bruised. Pain extends to teeth and root of the tongue.
- Eyes – Inflamed, red. Pain through eyeballs. Profuse lachrymation. Cornea dim. Eyes tire from near vision. State of vision constantly changing. Spasm of accommodation from the irritable weakness of the ciliary muscle. Nausea from looking on moving objects.
- Face – Blue rings around eyes. Periodical orbital neuralgia, with lachrymation, photophobia, and smarting eyelids.
- Nose – Coryza, with stoppage of nose and nausea. Epistaxis.
- Stomach – Tongue usually clean. Mouth, moist; much saliva. Constant nausea and vomiting, with pale, twitching of face. Vomits food, bile, blood, mucus. Stomach feels relaxed as if hanging down. Hiccough.
- Abdomen – Amebic dysentery with tenesmus; while straining pain so great that it nauseates; little thirst. Cutting, clutching; worse, around the navel. Body rigid; stretched out stiff.
- Stools – Pitch-like green as grass, like frothy molasses, with griping at the navel. Dysenteric, slimy.
- Female – Uterine hæmorrhage, profuse, bright, gushing, with nausea. Vomiting during pregnancy. Pain from navel to the uterus. Menses too early and too profuse.
- Respiratory – Dyspnœa; constant constriction in chest. Asthma. Yearly attacks of difficult shortness of breathing. Continued sneezing; coryza; a wheezing cough. A cough incessant and violent, with every breath. Chest seems full of phlegm but does not yield to coughing. Bubbling rales. A suffocative cough; the child becomes stiff, and blue in the face. Whooping-cough, with a nosebleed, and from the mouth. Bleeding from lungs, with nausea; feeling of constriction; rattling cough. Croup. Hæmoptysis from slightest exertion (Millef). Hoarseness, especially at end of a cold. Complete aphonia.
- Fever – Intermittent fever, irregular cases, after Quinine. Slightest chill with much heat, nausea, vomiting, and dyspnœa. Relapses from improper diet.
- Sleep – With eyes half open. Shocks in all limbs on going to sleep (Ign).
- Extremities – Body stretched stiff, followed by spasmodic jerking of arms towards each other.
- Skin – Pale, lax. Blue around eyes. Military rash.
Indications of Rhus Toxicodendron
Hives
- Urticaria (hives) with rheumatic pains.
- Itching, painful blisters.
- Itching and irritation that improves when hot water applied.
Cold Sores
- Herpetic eruptions (fever blisters) around the lips that have a yellow discharge before crusting over.
- Cracks at the corner of the mouth.
- Intense burning relieved by applying hot water.
Flu
- Restlessness with aching muscles.
- Pain in bones and joints.
- Fever with alternating heat and chills.
- Better for hot drinks.
Laryngitis
- Voice strengthens with use but is lost again on over-use.
Joint Problems
- Stiffness which is better for gentle movement.
- Better for heat and hot applications.
- Worse for damp, cold weather.
- Restlessness with the pain and discomfort – frequent stretching.
Sprains and strains
- Joints or back feel stiff and sore but improve with movement or flexing.
- Pains and stiffness better for gentle movement and heat.
- Pains and stiffness worsened by over-exertion.
- Pains and stiffness better for massage and hard pressure.
Others
- Abortion
- Acne rosacea
- Amenorrhoea
- Anus, fissure
- Appendicitis
- Appetite lost
- Beriberi
- Bones, pains in Caecum, inflammation
- Cyanosis
- Dengue fever
- Diarrhea, chronic
- Diphtheria
- Dysentery
- Dysmenorrhoea
- Dyspepsia
- Enteric fever
- Eyes, inflammation of, choroiditis, sight, weak.
- Gastro-enteritis.
- Glands, inflammation
- Gout
- Hemorrhages
- Hemorrhoids
- Housemaid’s knee
- Hydrocele
- Influenza
- Lumbago
- Menorrhagia
- Metrorrhagia
- Neuralgia
- Periosteum, pains
- Pneumonia, typhoid
- Rheumatism
- Sciatica
- Sleep, restless
- Sprain
- Tongue, affections
- Urticaria
- Warts.
Dosage of Rhus Toxicodendron
- For acute and self-limiting complaints, take one pill or five drops of the remedy every 2 – 4 hours (2 hours for strong symptoms, 4 hours for milder ones).
- Adult and children 2 years of age and older: Dissolve 5 pellets under the tongue 3 times a day until relieved or as directed by a doctor.
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