​Heartburn
Homeopathy offers a selection of remedies for the treatment of heartburn and acute acid reflux symptoms.
 Heartburn is one of the most common complaints of pregnant women, perhaps because hormonal changes relax the esophagus, allowing acid to back up. Try cutting out spicy and greasy foods, and sleep with your head and shoulders elevated. Ginger tea can be helpful if you drink it before or during a meal, rather than when you actually have heartburn. One of these homeopathic remedies may also bring relief:

• Arsenicum album: The individual may complain of burning pains felt in the stomach with food backing up into the esophagus. This is accompanied by burning pains all the way up to the throat. There may be severe, watery, burning, yellow diarrhea. Many of the symptoms will feel better while drinking hot drinks like tea, or by applying hot applications, like a heating pad. They may be thirsty for small, frequent sips of cold water, their mental state may be anxious, restless and fearful of being left alone.
• Carbo vegetalis: Bitter, sour, rancid burping along with nausea and a very bloated abdomen are typical; burping gives you temporarily relief. You may feel worse after rich, high-fat food. You crave fresh air and want the windows open and fans turned on. You feel physically exhausted and mentally sluggish, but when you lie down the indigestion is worse. You tend to have cold hands and feet and varicose veins.
• Nux vomica: The individual may complain of stomach pains of all types including burning, bloating, aching, constipation, nausea, belching and the feeling of stomach digest and acid backing up into the throat. Characteristics, which help determine this remedy, are a brusque temperament; similar to the overworked, high powered business man/woman who is very intense. He or she may be bossy and easy to anger. This individual often eats and drinks alcohol in excess. He/She desires coffee, spicy food, fatty foods and other stimulants. The person needing Nux vomica is inclined to overdo everything, all of which contribute to his acid reflux symptoms.
• Phosphorus: The individual needing Phosphorus for heartburn will complain about burning pains felt in the abdomen, bloating and a feeling of fullness accompanied by great thirst for icy cold drinks, which are vomited back up shortly after becoming warm in the stomach. Belching and vomiting of undigested food are characteristic of the person needing phosphorus. The person is mild-mannered, and seeks company and affection.
• Pulsatilla: The heartburn comes on at different times of the day and after eating various kinds of foods (especially rich, greasy ones). Burps have a sour, bitter taste. Stomach and abdomen feel empty (or sensation of a hole), with gurgling and rumbling in the evening, and pressing pains. You feel better in the fresh air. The individual's personality is sweet, gentle, whiny and tearful. They are afraid of being alone and desire sympathy.

Dr Nahida M Mulla.
​
Pica is a disorder characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive, e.g. metal, clay, coal, soil, faeces, chalk, paper, soap, ash, gum etc. or an abnormal appetite for some things that may be considered foods such as flour, raw rice, starch, ice cubes, salt. In order for these actions to be considered Pica, they must persist for more than one month at an age where eating such objects is considered developmentally inappropriate (above 18 to 24 months of age).
Pica is seen in all the ages particularly in pregnant women, small children and those with developmental disabilities and mental retardation.
Pica occurs throughout the world predominantly in people who live in poverty and people living in the tropics and in tribe oriented societies.
Pica in children, while common, can be dangerous. Children eating painted plaster containing lead may suffer brain damage from lead poisoning.
Causes:

1. Mineral deficiency specially iron deficiency
2. Traumatic events/ stress:

• Maternal deprivation
• Parental separation/ neglect
• Child abuse
• Disorganized family structure
• Poor parent-child interaction

1. Low socio-economic status

Clinical Features:

1. Child with habit of eating substances like clay, dirt, stones, pebbles, hair, faeces, lead, plastic, pencil, erasers, fingernails, paper, paint chips, coal, chalk, wood, plaster, light bulbs, needles, string, cigarette, wire and burnt matches etc.
2. A case with history of PICA may present with symptoms of:
   • Constipation
   • Chronic or acute, diffuse or focused abdominal pain
   • Nausea/ vomiting
   • Loss of appetite
3. On examination findings like :

• Abdominal distension
• Pallor
• Iron deficiency anaemia which could be the cause of PICA

1. Clinical presentation of PICA is variable and is associated with the specific nature of the resulting medical conditions and the indigested substances.
2. Parasitic infestations are usually associated with PICA. Ascariasis is commonly seen in children with Pica. 

Examples:

1. Amylophagia – consumption of starch
2. Coprophagy – consumption of faeces
3. Geophagy – consumption of soil, clay or chalk
4. Hyalophagia – consumption of glass
5. Pagophagia – pathological consumption of ice
6. Trichophagia – consumption of hair or wool
7. Urophagia – consumption of urine
8. Xylophagia – consumption of wood.

Homoeopathic Management:

1. Antimonium crudum:
   • Craving for raw food and vegetables
   • Loss of appetite
   • Bloating of abdomen after eating
   • Inability to bear heat of sun, verse from over exertion in the sun and from over-heating
   • Aversion to cold bathing and aggravation therefrom
   • Tendency to grow fat
   • Thick milky white-coated tongue
   • Thirstlessness
   • Craving and intolerance for acids, pickles and bread
   • Peevish, irritable, cannot bear to be touched or looked at

1. Alumina:
   • Craving for starch, chalk, charcoal, cloves, coffee or tea grounds, raw rice, acids
   • Alumina is one of the chief antidotes for lead poisoning (complication of pica)
   • Thin delicate children
   • Dryness of mucus membranes and skin
   • Constipation, no desire for stools for number of days and soft stool requires great straining
   • Exhausted physically and mentally
   • Aversion to potatoes
   • Mild, cheerful disposition

1. Calcarea carbonica:
   • Craving for chalk, charcoal, coal and pencils
   • Chilly patient, takes cold easily
   • Fat, fair, flabby
   • Pale, weak, easily tired
   • Head sweats profusely while sleeping
   • Tendency for lymphatic glandular enlargement
   • Desire for eggs, aversion to meat and milk
   • Sour smelling discharges
   • Fearful, shy, timid, slow and sluggish
   • Longing for fresh air

1. Culcaria phosphorica:
   • Desires lime, slate, pencils, earth, chalk, clay etc
   • Colicky pain in abdomen while eating
   • Distended abdomen
   • Feeble digestion
   • Chilly patient, thin, emaciated, unable to stand, rickety
   • Easy perspiration
   • Slow in learning to walk
   • Aggravation from damp, cold weather, change of weather, mental exertion
   • Desires raw salt and smoked things
   • Restless, dissatisfied, desire to wander

1. Cicuta virosa:
   • Abnormal appetite for chalk, charcoal, coal, cabbage, which are relished
   • Grinding of teeth
   • Chilly patient
   • Convulsive with tendency to bend backward
   • History of suppressed skin eruptions
   • Stupid, singing, dancing, crazy, makes strange gestures

1. Natrum muriaticuam:
   • Craving for salt
   • Takes long time for food to digest
   • Worse from eating
   • Hot patient
   • Poorly nourished
   • Great emaciation (marked on neck), losing flesh while eating well
   • Oily, greasy face
   • Aversion to bread and fatty things

1. Nitricum acidum:
   • Craving for lime, slate, pencil, papers and charcoal
   • Cracks in muco-cutaneous junction especially fissures in rectum and corners of mouth
   • Chilly patient, takes cold easily
   • Thin built, sickly
   • Desires fat and salt
   • Disposed to diarrhoea
   • Strong smelling urine
   • Head-strong, irritable, fearful, vindictive, sensitive to noise and light

1. Nux vomica:
   • Craving for charcoal, pepper, chalk
   • Chilly patient, thin
   • Craves fats, spicy food
   • Tongue coated yellowish in the posterior part
   • Over sensitive to noise, odors, light or music
   • Nervous disposition
   • Quick, active, zealous and irritable
   • Impatient, spiteful with violent action

1. Silicea:
   • Craving for lime, sand, raw foods
   • Extremely chilly patient, all symptoms worse by cold except stomach complaints which are better by cold
   • Profuse, offensive discharges
   • Sweats profusely especially on feet
   • Easy suppuration, glandular affinity
   • Large head and distended abdomen
   • Weak ankles, slow in learning to walk
   • Obstinate, head strong, cries when spoken kindly to
   • Nervous, apprehensive, over sensitive, irritable, fearful

Dr Nahida M Mulla.
Principal,Professor of Repertory & PG Guide,
HOD Repertory.HOD Paediatric OPD,A M.Shaikh Homoeopathic Medical College,Hospital & PG Research Centre,
Nehru Nagar, BELGAUM (Karnataka)
E-Mail : drnahida_mulla@yahoo.com