Symphytum officinale a homeopathic first aid remedy is also known as Humphrey, knitbone, and bone-set in herbal medicine. The latter names precisely describe its sphere of genius, the mending of broken bones, and the treatment of bone diseases, ranging from inflammation of the bones, or osteitis to cancers of the bones or sarcomas. Whenever I see someone sporting a cast, I run over to them to let them know about the healing power of Symphytum. People have told me how impressed they were with the speed at which they recovered from their broken bones with this medicine.

Once a bone breaks, it often must be set in proper alignment and held there in order to heal properly. This process of setting a bone is called a reduction. Setting a bone without surgery is closed reduction and most fractures, especially in children, are treated in this fashion. Serious or complex fractures may require open reduction repositioning using surgery. And then once a fracture is set, the broken part is often immobilized for a period of time to allow the bone to heal through a process called a callous formation and then remodeling (a process the body uses to return a broken bone to its original shape). The whole process typically takes 6-12 weeks.

Materia Medica of Symphytum

• 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 Symphytum

• Injuries to bones, cartilage, tendons, and periosteum – Symphytum helps with the non-union of fractures, with mending bones that are slow to heal, and where the wound has penetrated into the bones. It helps with pain remaining in the periosteum or lining of the bones after the wound has healed.
• Injuries to the eyes – Symphytum helps with mechanical injuries to the eyes, such as blows from blunt objects. Examine Arnica and Ruta for this kind of injury as well. Think of Symphytum for injuries to the orbits of the eye.
• Symphytum helps with blows, falls, and bruises, and even helps with the tendency to have such mishaps – The remedy can help with bruises to the tendons and bones.
• Symphytum – helps with sprains, and injuries from over lifting or straining of muscles, bones, and tendons
• Symphytum – should be thought of for fractures due to osteoporosis
• Symphytum – can help with diseases of the bones, such as inflammation of the bones, inflammation of the inferior maxillary bone and cancer of the bones or sarcomas. It can also help with necrosis of the bone.
• Corns
• Gunshot wounds
• Head injuries, concussions, fractures of the skull, splintered bones.
• Perineum wounds
• Phantom limb pain after amputation of limbs and fingers.
• Psoas abscess and abscesses of the lower limbs.
• Tennis elbow
• Twisted or sprained ankles.
• A symptom that seems out of place is a weakness, and prostration from sexual excess
• Abscess
• A backache, from sexual excess
• Bone, cancer of, injuries
• Breasts, sore
• A hernia
• Sprains
• Wounds.

Dosage of Symphytum

• 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.

References

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