Acidum lacticum
Made from lactic acid — the acid of the working muscle and the fermenting milk, a genuine molecule of modern physiology, and the classical remedy of the rheumatic milk-diathesis.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a body made rheumatic by milk: rheumatic pains and stiffness worse for milk, the hot flushes and the copious sweat of the proving, the sour, fermenting digestion, and the books' great milk-rheumatism of the acid diathesis. The milk-rheumatism remedy: that is Lactic acid.
The substance, in plain words
Lactic acid is the acid of the working muscle and the fermenting milk — a genuine molecule of modern physiology, produced in every hard-working cell and the sour of every fermenting dairy. The proving gave the acid the rheumatic-milk portrait of the books' acid diathesis.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Anxiety and despondency. The gloom of the chronic rheumatic state, worse at night.
- Irritability. Cross from the constant aching and the sour stomach.
- Dullness. Heavy mind with the rheumatic, acid frame.
The body
- Rheumatic pains worse milk. The keynote: rheumatic pains and stiffness aggravated by milk — the books' great milk-rheumatism.
- Hot flushes and copious sweat. The proving's flushes and sweating — the acid's own thermal signature.
- Sour, fermenting digestion. The sour stomach and the milk-fermenting digestion of the chapter.
- Muscular aching and weakness. The books add the generalised muscular aching of the acid state.
- Worse milk and cold damp. Milk and wet weather thicken the rheumatism.
- Better for rest and warmth. Rest and warmth ease the acid aches.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| milk; cold damp weather; night; exertion. | rest; warmth; the acid passing. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Joints and muscles (rheumatic), digestion (milk, sourness), metabolism, general vitality.
Where the classical picture comes from
The ferment-acid's proving gave the milk-rheumatism portrait; Lactic acid became the classical remedy of the rheumatic milk-diathesis — the acid of the working muscle serving the joints that milk made stiff.
The substance in real medicine Pharmacology
What this section is: the pharmacology and toxicology of the source substance. It is not clinical evidence that a homeopathic preparation of it treats any condition. What controlled trials do and do not show is set out on the Evidence page.
Lactic acid is genuinely one of physiology's fundamental molecules: produced in every working muscle, the sour of fermenting milk, the marker of exertion modern sports science measures in the blood. Its rheumatic portrait belongs to modern rheumatology; the acid itself is the chemistry of effort itself — the body's own burn, in remedy form.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Magnesia carbonica | Milk-aggravated complaints | Mag carb is the milk-colicky child; Lactic acid the milk-rheumatic adult. |
| Rhus toxicodendron | Rheumatic stiffness | Rhus' is damp-worse and better motion; Lactic acid's is milk-worse with the flushes. |
| Calcarea carbonica | Milk and the chalk family | Calc-carb is the milk-drinking, egg-craving child; Lactic acid the milk-rheumatism. |
| Robinia pseudacacia | Sour digestion | Robinia's sourness is the hyperacid vomiting; Lactic acid's the rheumatic ferment. |