Cantharis
The great remedy for burning, cutting pains in the urinary tract. Constant, intolerable urging to urinate with scalding, burning pain. Burns and scalds with blistering. Everything is intense — inflammation, pain, fury.
Source
Prepared from the dried beetle Lytta vesicatoria (Cantharis vesicatoria), the blister beetle.
Available Potencies
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Keynote Symptoms
Burning, cutting pains before, during, and after urination. Violent tenesmus of bladder with drop-by-drop urine passage. Burns and blisters with rawness and smarting. Intolerable, constant urging. Urine scalds, passed drop by drop. Sexual excitement accompanies urinary symptoms.
Mind & Emotional Symptoms
Furious, frantic, restless. Paroxysms of rage. Amorous frenzy. Acute mania with sexual excitement. Screaming, barking. Suddenly becomes unconscious.
General Symptoms
Burning inflammation of mucous membranes, especially urinary and GI tract. Rapid destructive inflammation. Worse from touch, urinating, drinking cold water or coffee, bright objects. Better from rubbing, warmth, rest.
Physical Symptoms
Head
Burning headache. Vertigo. Hair falls out.
Eyes
Burning, biting. Yellow vision. Fiery, sparkling look.
Face
Pale, wretched, death-like expression during urinary attacks. Hot, red.
Mouth
Burning in mouth, pharynx, and throat. Great thirst with aversion to all fluids. Burning from mouth to stomach.
Throat
Intense inflammation, burning. Great difficulty swallowing liquids. Constriction, burning.
Stomach
Burning, gnawing. Disgust for everything — food, drink, tobacco. Violent burning. Thirst with aversion to drinking.
Abdomen
Burning, cutting pains. Peritonitis. Ascites. Burning pain in intestines.
Rectum
Dysentery with bloody mucous stools. Shuddering after stool. Burning.
Urinary
Constant, intolerable urging to urinate. Urine scalds, passed in drops with cutting, burning pain. Tenesmus of bladder. Urine bloody, contains casts. Nephritis with bloody urine. Retention of urine with restlessness.
Male Genitalia
Strong sexual desire, priapism. Pain in glans. Burning.
Female Genitalia
Nymphomania. Menses too early, too profuse, black. Ovarian neuralgia with urinary symptoms.
Skin
Burns, scalds, blisters with rawness. Erysipelas with vesicles. Vesicular eruptions that burn. Sunburn.
Back
Pain in loins with incessant desire to urinate.
Modalities
Better From
Rubbing, warmth, rest, cold applications to burns
Worse From
Urinating, drinking (even water), coffee, touch, bright objects, sound of water
Constitutional Type
Acute remedy primarily. Indicated in vigorous, excitable individuals with intense inflammatory conditions.
Clinical Indications
Cystitis, urinary tract infections, nephritis, burns and scalds, blisters, sexual overstimulation, erysipelas, dysentery
Comparative Materia Medica
Mercurius corrosivus has similar urinary tenesmus but more prostration and bloody stool. Arsenicum album has burning relieved by warmth, but more restlessness and prostration. Apis has urinary symptoms but stinging rather than cutting, and is thirstless.
Safety Information
Aconitum, Camphora, Kali nitricum, Laurocerasus, Pulsatilla.
Cantharidin (from the beetle) is extremely toxic. Causes severe inflammation of the urinary and GI tract, kidney failure, and death. Never use material doses. Only potentised forms.
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