Sanguinaria Canadensis

For this month’s theme, BLOOD, we got the homeopathic remedy Sanguinaria – “Sang” in French means Blood, hence the choice for this part of our series. As you can see, this flower doesn’t seem to fit the bloody type but don’t be fooled my friends! Those who need this remedy are warm-blooded and as you’ll see, there’s a lot of burning going on!

Here’s what E.B. Nash, one of the greats, used to write about Sanguinaria Canadensis:

Pain beginning in occiput; spreads over the head and settles over the right eye, with nausea and vomiting. Sensitive to noise and light.
Loose cough with badly smelling sputa; the breath and sputa smell badly to the patient himself.
Pain in right arm and shoulder; worse at night in bed; cannot raise the arm. Also pain in places where the bones are the least covered.
Heat and tension behind sternum. Cough day and night with great emaciation.
Burning and pressing in breast, followed by heat through abdomen and diarrhœa. Acts intensely on right lung and chest.

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Comparisons

Spigelia has the same kind of headaches, where the pain commences in the back, rises and spreads OVER the head, but in Spigelia’s case it settles down over the left eye.

For Sanguinaria patients, they want to be in a dark room and perfectly quiet (to deal with those bad headaches).

The Sanguinaria kind of cough usually comes on after a severe bronchitis or pneumonia (what we homeopaths would call the etiology, or the cause, VERY important).

According to E.B. Nash, the higher potencies are more efficient in these cases (200C). Sometimes indicated after Sulphur and Lachesis have failed, especially if the circumscribed redness of the cheeks appears.

From Dr. H.C. Allen’s Keynotes: Rheumatic pain in the right arm and shoulder VS Rheumatic pain in the left arm and shoulder for — Ferrum met

Who else has headaches on the right side?

Actaea racemosa Argentum nitricum

Applications

One study shows that this remedy is used successfully to treat menopause symptoms, such as hot flushes.

Another known application for Sanguinaria is

Burning sensation in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet

We should also see the following signs in a case of menopause for this remedy:

agitation, irritability
hot flushes, burning ears
migraines on the right side

But we don’t need to have all the symptoms at once.

We can also use Sanguinaria in bad coughs with the following signs:

Burning and stitching in chest, lies on back, sputa tough, rust-colored and difficult, pulse quick and small, circumscribed red and burning spots on cheeks, worse in the afternoon, extreme dyspnoea (that means waking up from bad breathing).

Also associated with this remedy: burning sensations!

rhinitis in the nose (Ledum Palustre also has that).
heat in the ears
burning feet (like Chamomilla, Natrum Sulphuricum, Lilium Tigrinum)
like we said, burning in the palm of the hands (also has that: Lilium Tigrinum)

Other interesting symptoms:

Neuralgia improved by pressing the head against a hard surface (floor for example). So if your client tells you “I feel much better pressing my head against the floor” don’t send him away yet for craziness – it could be Sanguinaria.

we also have a lot of right-sided symptoms like:

pain on the right side of the chest
pain in the right shoulder
pain in the right deltoid. Deltoid that’s a part of your shoulder. See picture:
pain in the right breast

General Description

This is taken from Horvilleur’s book in French with nice flower pictures for every remedy:

Where does Sanguinaria candensis comes from? Yes you guessed right! Canada!

matriochkas The plant actually produces red juice (from the roots up) hence its name. In conventional medicine, Sanguinaria has a lot of side effects, it is toxic and dangerous. But for homeopaths, we use it safely for inflammation of the respiratory mucous membranes, as mentioned hot flashes, and headaches. The main characteristic of this remedy is the cheek congestion, which are red like the russian dolls here featured: