Natrum carbonicum
Made from sodium carbonate — the soda of the old alkalies, and the classical remedy of the sun-sick head and the intolerant digestion.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a head that cannot bear the sun and a stomach that cannot bear food: headaches that explode with the least heat or light, a digestion that revolts at the least indiscretion, irritable weakness, and the strange keynote — an inability to think or read in the sun's glare, with everything worse in summer. The sun-intolerant, food-intolerant constitution: that is Natrum carbonicum.
The substance, in plain words
Sodium carbonate is soda — the alkali of soap and glass, the family's industrial elder. Medicinally it treated the 'acid dyspepsias' of the alkaline era; the proving gave the remedy its portrait of sun-sickness and digestive intolerance, in a person worn thin by the effort of digesting life.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Irritable weakness. Cross, worn, worse from mental effort; the books paint the thin, touchy, over-strained temperament.
- Anxiety and gloom. Anxious foreboding, worse in the quiet hours; the depression of the digestive invalid.
- Difficulty of thinking. Cannot think in the sun's glare — the quoted mental keynote.
The body
- Headaches from the sun and heat. The keynote: headaches that explode with heat, light and the sun — the great summer-headache remedy of the books.
- Digestive intolerance. The stomach revolts at the least error — the books' chronic, finicky dyspepsia with intolerance of milk.
- Worse summer and sun. The whole constitution worsens in the hot months, better in winter's cold.
- Old-looking from suffering The sufferer wears thin and old before the time.
- Better for open air Shade, coolness and rest of the stomach ease the head.
- Worse mental exertion. Thinking and reading tire the head into ache.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| the sun and heat; summer; mental exertion; milk and errors of diet. | shade and coolness; rest; winter cold. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Head (sun-headaches), digestion and stomach, mind, general vitality.
Where the classical picture comes from
The soda era's dyspepsia remedy proved the portrait of the sun-sick, food-fussy, worn-thin invalid; Natrum carbonicum became the classical companion of the summer headache and the intolerant stomach.
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.
Sodium carbonate's medical career belongs to the alkaline era of medicine — retired as physiology replaced it. The headaches it portrayed are today neurology's: photosensitive and heat-triggered headaches recognised, prevented and treated; the intolerant digestion is modern gastroenterology and dietetics. The soda did its humble work and left.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Natrum muriaticum | Salt, grief, sun | Nat-mur is silent grief with salt-cravings; Nat-carb is sun-sickness with digestive intolerance. |
| Glonoinum | Heat headaches | Glonoinum surges in waves after the sun with the jarring; Nat-carb explodes in summer with the intolerance. |
| Nux vomica | Irritable dyspepsia | Nux is fiery and stimulant-born; Nat-carb thin, worn and sun-sick. |
| Sepia officinalis | Worn-out, irritable | Sepia is the indifferent mother better for dance; Nat-carb the sun-avoiding dyspeptic. |