Cantharis Vesicatoria is a frequently used homeopathic remedy. Cantharis 30, Cantharis 200 & Cantharis Ointment are the most commonly used homeopathic medicines.
As it is more popularly referred to, Cantharis is an insect remedy and is the first one to pop up in the mind when one faces urinary troubles and skin issues, both with stinging, burning, and itching.
This article will cover Cantharis Vesicatoria uses, benefits, dosage & side effects in detail.
So let’s get started –
What is Cantharis Vesicatoria
Cantharis Vesicatoria is a medicine obtained from the insect Lytta Vesicatoria. This insect is commonly known as the Spanish Fly or the Blister Beetle.
The Spanish fly is a tiny insect abundantly found on honeysuckle and olive trees in West Asia and southern Europe.
This insect produces a toxic chemical known as Cantharidin. The toxin acts mainly on the urinary tract and skin, causing intense stinging and burning pain along with lots of blisters.
This Cantharidin, along with the entire insect, is used in the preparation of the medicine Cantharis.
Homeopathy follows the Law of Similars. Hence the diluted and potentized medicines are used to treat the exact conditions that they cause.
Cantharis Vesicatoria Mental Symptoms
Since Cantharis is an insect-based remedy, it belongs to the Animal Kingdom. As such, the remedy will show features of the animal kingdom.
Extremeness and Rawness is the feature running through and through in this remedy.
The person requiring Cantharis will show extreme anger, to the extent of it being defined as rage. He will be very violent and scary.
He may even cry, scream and bite in anger. Bright objects, touching the larynx, or drinking water are some things that tend to worsen his condition. Maniacal is an apt term to describe him.
A person displays sexual frenzy. There is an intense and uncontrollable urge for sex.
He gets desperate and restless. He screams and shouts and throws things in a violent rage.
He plays about with his genitals. You may also find him singing lewd songs and making obscene gestures. The anger does not subside even after he has been satiated with his needs, which most of the time is sex.
A sudden change in mood is also seen, wherein he becomes sad and bold suddenly and weeps uncontrollably.
He sets out to do many things; indeed, he does do a lot of work, but he will have accomplished nothing in the end.
Cantharis Vesicatoria Uses
I will take you through all the body parts from toe to head.
You can match the symptoms and when you feel these symptoms are matched then you can take Cantharis Vesicatoria –
1-Head Complaints
The headache is very severe and comes with acute mania. He is restless and is screaming with the pain in his head.
His head feels very heavy. He says that his brain is boiling, that boiling water has been poured over his brain.
Bathing or washing his hair increases the headache. Hairfall is seen to the extreme.
If he goes out into the fresh air to relieve his headache, he suffers from vertigo.
2-Eyes Complaints
The eyes are fiery, with a startled look. They are sparkling with rage and mania.
It is a scary look that his eyes project. Looking at bright objects aggravates his temper. Vision is hazy and yellowish.
3-Ears Complaints
The person will tell you that the bones around his ears are very painful.
He will also say that he can feel the wind, or rather hot air coming out of his ears.
4-Face Complaints
The face has a deathly pallor. It is extremely pale and looks wretched.
He has a facial expression of extreme suffering, terror, or despair. There are several vesicular eruptions on his face.
They itch uncontrollably, and they are red and hot to touch. These cysts are more prominent when there are associated urinary complaints too.
His jaws are tightly closed during the phase of acute mania.
5-Mouth Complaints
During the mania stage, he keeps his jaws tightly closed. This condition is called Lock Jaw, and there exists the potential threat of a tongue bite.
The person constantly grinds his teeth. There is intense burning in the mouth and pharynx.
Swallowing liquids is a strenuous activity. Drinking water to relieve the heat only adds to aggravates the mania and rage.
The tongue is swollen and raw around the edges.
There is a slight tremble noticed in the tongue. The saliva is disgustingly sweet.
Cantharis is a perfect remedy for aphthous ulcers.
6-Throat Complaints
The burning in the throat is so intense it is as if it is on fire. The person says that he has a scalded feeling in the insides of the throat.
Eating or drinking anything hot brings on this scalded pain. The throat is severely constricted. Lots of blisters are present along the throat.
Swallowing liquids is extremely painful, next to impossible. Drinking anything or even touching his throat brings on the mania and rage in an aggravated form.
Violent spasms are brought on if the throat is touched. There is a lot of sticky, stingy mucus lining the inside of his throat that he finds difficult to expectorate.
7-Chest and Respiratory Complaints
Cantharis is a good remedy for lung affections like pleurisy.
It acts well in the stage of pleural effusion. The air passages are filled with tenacious mucus that is difficult to hawk out.
When the person hawks it out with extreme difficulty, the mucus is streaked with blood.
There is intense dyspnea, along with palpitation and a short dry cough.
There is a tendency to syncope. The entire respiratory tract feels raw and scalded.
The voice is hoarse and feeble. There is stitching pain felt in the sternum, which is relieved by eructation.
8-Heart Complaints
Cantharis acts well in cases of pericarditis with pleural effusion.
There is a tendency to syncope. Pulse is feeble and irregular.
9-Stomach Complaints
There is intense burning in the stomach and esophagus.
He has an unquenchable thirst, and he desires to drink water, but that does not go down well with his other symptoms.
Coffee is a violent aggravator. Drinking even the slightest amount of coffee causes severe pain in his bladder.
He vomits the entire thing out immediately. The vomitus is full of blood-streaked mucus.
Even after vomiting, there is violent retching. He is opposed to all foods and drinks.
Touching the stomach is also risky. It brings on spasms and convulsions.
10-Abdominal Complaints
The entire abdomen is extremely sensitive to touch. There is intense burning all along the intestinal tract. Burning stinging pain is felt acutely in the lower abdomen.
This pain is temporarily better after he passes flatus. Once he passes stools, the pain is completely relieved.
There is dysentery which is always accompanied by dysuria. The stools are bloody, filled with shreds, and are immensely burning.
Violent tenesmus of the rectum is seen after stool. The pain after passing stools is so bad that the person shudders.
Constipation, when seen, is seen along with retention of urine. When the person urinates, there is an intense desire to pass stools too.
11-Urinary Complaints
Cantharis is one of the first remedies that come to mind when one says urinary complaints.
This remedy well covers all urinary system conditions like cystitis, nephrolithiasis, urinary tract infection, and bladder issues.
The urine is passed in drops. The burning is so intense that the person feels afraid to pass it freely.
The cutting and gripping pain in the bladder while urinating pain is intolerable.
The urine is murky and is filled with shreds that look like bran in water.
Renal colic is associated with bloody urine. The pain while passing a renal stone is characteristically relieved by applying pressure on the glans penis.
There is violent tenesmus after passing urine.
All the pain and burning and tenesmus associated with urinating make the person hold back the urine. Long-term retention of urine causes bladder muscle weakness and atony.
This leads to complaints of urinary incontinence and involuntary urination.
12-Male Organs Complaints
The sexual desire in men who need Cantharis is always at the peak. There is a sexual frenzy—a maniacal state associated with sexual needs.
The person keeps fondling his genitals and sings lewd songs, and makes obscene gestures.
The sexual urge is insatiable and not better even after coition. The genitals are always swollen and itchy.
Having multiple sexual partners is very common in these men. The semen is bloody.
There is burning pain in the urethra after coition. Clinically this remedy is indicated in gonorrhea.
13-Female Organs Complaints
Cantharis is a good remedy for Nymphomania in females. Genitals are always itchy.
The discharge from the private part is acrid and causes intense itching. Sexual excitement is at its peak as the menses is nearing.
The breasts, too, become enlarged and sensitive to touch before menses arrives. Menses often come early, and the blood is dark and profuse.
Cantharis is an extraordinary remedy that helps to expel moles and placenta, and dead fetus from the uterus.
The women very frequently indulge in masturbation. Leucorrhea, too causes an increase in sexual excitement, causing her to masturbate.
It is clinically indicated in Pruritis Vulva and vulval candidiasis.
14-Hands & Legs Complaints
The person suffers from weak knees. He cannot climb up a flight of stairs.
His knees totter and wobble while he is ascending. It sends tearing pains into his limbs.
The soles of his feet have ulcers in them. He cannot usually step while walking.
The loins and lower back pain frequently, and he gets a desire to urinate along with the loin pains.
15-Skin Complaints
Cantharis has a broad scope of reaction to skin issues.
It a leading remedy for vesicular eruptions that bleed and turn black on healing.
These cysts are extremely painful, and there are lots of burning in the affected area.
Excessive perspiration on the genitals leading to secondary eczema is a keynote of Cantharis.
Cantharis well treats sunburns, scalds, burns due to other factors.
These burns and scalds come with excessive inflammation and are extremely sore and raw. They are better by cold applications. Cantharis well treats skin affections tending to turn gangrenous.
There is intense burning in the soles at night.
16-Fever
The keynote of Cantharis during the fever is ‘Ice cold hands and feet and burning red fingernails.’
The entire body is cold, and the person shivers as if ice-cold water is poured over him.
He says his soles are burning while on touching they appear ice-cold.
Cantharis Vesicatoria Modalities
Modalities are the factors which, increase or decrease the complaints in a patient.
They are categorized as aggravating factors and amelioration factors.
Aggravating factors make the condition of the illness worst, while the amelioration factor makes the condition of the disease better.
It can be time, any part of the day, season, position, or any applications, etc.
Aggravated By–
All the complaints are aggravated by touch, approaching the person, drinking cold water, coffee.
Amelioration By–
Rubbing the affected part gives him some relief. Being out in the fresh air gives relief to his headache.
Passing stool, passing flatus, eructations all seem to relieve him of his gastric troubles temporarily.
Itching over the various parts of his body is better by applying cold things over it.
Cantharis Vesicatoria Relationship with Other Medicines
Complementary Remedies– Apis Mellifica
Related Remedies–Arsenicum Album, Merc Cor
Incompatible with– Coffea Cruda
Antidoted by–Aconite, Camphor, Pulsatilla
Cantharis Vesicatoria Dosage, Potency and Repetition
Homeopathic medicines are prescribed based on symptoms similarity. The symptoms presented by the patient are matched with the symptoms of the remedy.
Depending on the extent of symptom similarity, the potency and repetition are decided.
The more significant number of symptoms that match, the higher is the potency used. Similarly, if fewer symptoms are matching with the remedy, then a lower potency is used.
Cantharis 30C
This is a potency reserved for cases where Cantharis is given as a purely therapeutic dose. The symptoms presented by the patient help the doctor to make a diagnosis of the disease, but they show less matching with the symptoms of Cantharis as such.
This dose needs to be repeated frequently, like 3 to 4 times a day.
Cantharis 200C
This potency should be used when the symptoms of the remedy match well with the person’s symptoms. This potency calls for a lot of symptoms peculiar to Cantharis to be present.
200C is repeated infrequently.
Cantharis 1M
This is a very high potency and should be used cautiously. It has to be used only when the entire picture of Cantharis fits perfectly to the T with the symptoms that the patient describes.
Ideally, 1M is prescribed as a single dose, and then it is advised that one waits and watches the developments that occur.
Cantharis Ointment
Cantharis, as an ointment, finds a significant place to occupy in a homeopathic first aid kit. A topical application of the cantharis ointment is made as an emergency treatment in burns, scalds, shingles, and insect bites.
One can also make the topical application by mixing a few globules of cantharis 30C in a few drops of clean and hygienic water.
Cantharis Tincture
The tincture of Cantharis is used in severe cases of urinary infection or extremely painful cases of burns and shingles.
A few drops of the tincture have to be mixed with water and consumed.
The tincture is highly potent and capable of creating toxic reactions; hence, it is advisable to use this form of medicine judiciously.
Cantharis Vesicatoria Side Effects
Cantharis is made using the toxin Cantharidin that is obtained from the Spanish fly.
This toxin is diluted to such an extent that all its toxicity is removed, and the curative properties are enhanced. This is done by the process called Potentization.
This process of potentization is the hallmark of homeopathy. Due to this process, the remedies are said to be gentle, safe, and effective, and with no side effects.
However, there may be cases that qualify to be called ‘side-effects of cantharis.’
These cases happen when-
1. The medicine has been given incorrectly.
2. The medicine has been given in a dose higher than what was required.
3. The medicine has been repeated more often than was required.
4. The person is compassionate physically.
So how does one come to know of the side-effects?
For this, one has to keep a watch on the symptoms. If they worsen after having been lessened for a while, it means that the remedy has been repeated unnecessarily.
Ideally, wait for the person to ride out the symptoms if they are not too severe. If the person cannot bear the complaints, then it is advisable to antidote Cantharis with a suitable remedy.
If new symptoms like a burning pain, itchy blisters, an increase in the frequency and desire to urinate, extreme rage, violent behavior are seen, it means that Cantharis wasn’t the proper remedy to be prescribed.
The newly developed symptoms are because Cantharis has acted wrongly and produced its toxic effects by being misused. Here again, immediate antidoting is the proper course of action.
Cantharis Vesicatoria Clinical Indication
1. Herpes zoster
2. Urinary tract infections
3. Cystitis
4. Renal colic
5. Nephrolithiasis
6. Pleural effusion
7. Diabetes mellitus
8. Diabetic neuropathy
9. Gonorrhea
10. Genital eczema
11. Diarrhea
12. Dysentery
13. Skin infections
14. Burns and scalds
15. Stings by insects
16. Gastric troubles associated with flatulence
17. Acute mania
18. Nymphomania
19. Side effects of excessive masturbation
20. Leucorrhea
21. Genital candidiasis
1 thought on “Cantharis 30, 200, Ointment: Uses, Benefits & Side Effects”
In my left ear sound came like blowing air in ear this medicine helpful for this