Silver nitrate — sound like a healing cure to you? Well, in homeopathy, this is called “Argentum Nitricum.” It is a four-pronged fighter as we are about to find out, waging battle on diarrhea, sore throat, indigestion, and headache.
Mild solutions of silver nitrate have been used to clean wounds and actually prevent blindness in children — it is applied to their eyes at birth in certain countries. If you were to eat small bits of “Argentum” over a long period of time, you’d develop anxiety, grayish skin, and perpetual nervousness.
The remedy is prepared from real silver crystals dissolved in water.
Here is what it treats best, as well as the characteristics of each symptom:
1. Diarrhea: Stools are foul, watery, often green, and accompanied by flatulence and sometimes vomiting. When you drink anything, it shoots straight through your system. Causes include excitement, anxiety, and eating foods high in sugar.
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2. Indigestion: Your belly is bloated and painful, and you often release loud belches. This is accompanied by flatulence and nausea as well. It is worse after eating, with your body feeling very tight.
3. Throat symptoms: “Argentum” helps with a hoarse voice caused by overuse. It also relieves a sore throat with splinter-like pains. The throat is raw and you may have lost your voice. Again, caused by overuse in singing or speaking.
4. Headache: These are caused by thinking hard, studying information. It feels better to wrap up the head with something like a scarf.
A person for whom this remedy can work is someone who feels strained mentally, who tends to suffer exhaustion, who craves sugary foods, whose pain feels like they’re being pricked, whose mouth tastes sour, and whose tongue seems to have a red tip.
These individuals feel warm and as a result experience worse symptoms in heat or in stuffy rooms. Despite having a sweet tooth, eating sugary foods makes symptoms worse — usually causing stomach problems. What feels better is fresh air.
“Argentum” characters tend to be characterized by a variety of adjectives: excitable, nervous, fearful, anxious, impulsive, panicked, and restless. They desire the company of others. The impulsive thoughts start to get in the way of day-to-day life. They hurry around to calm down, to avoid waiting for anything, all the while feeling that time is passing slowly.