The homeopathic remedy lycopus is made from the herb bugleweed. This is a perennial plant having a creeping root, while the stem is quadrangular and smooth and grows straight up to a height of anything between 6 inches and 24 inches. The bugleweed plant bears leaves opposite to each other on the short stems.
The leaves on the upper portion of the stem are jagged and have a lance-like shape, while the ones on the lower portion are wedge-shaped having margins all around. The leaves have very less or practically no hair and are dotted with glands on the underneath.
The flowers of this plant appear in clusters in the axils of the leaves. While the calyx comprises four wide, rounded teeth, the corolla is four-lobed having two fertile stamens. The flowers have a purplish hue.
The bugleweed herb is somewhat aromatic having an odor similar to mint. The entire herb is used to prepare the homeopathic remedy lycopus. The plant is collected fresh just when in blossom to prepare a tincture as well as a fluid extract. The dried out herb is also used to prepare an infusion. Till recently, this herb was officially listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia.
The bugleweed herb encloses two strange bitter principles, one is soluble in ether, while another is insoluble. Together, they form over 10 per cent of the whole solid extract. This herb also contains some tannins and a volatile oil.
The extract or tincture prepared from the bugleweed herb possesses sedative, astringent and slightly narcotic properties. This tincture is prescribed to cure coughs as well as bleeding from the lungs. The infusion prepared by adding 1 ounce of the dehydrated herb to one pint of boiling water is usually taken in the measure of wineglassful doses.
Alternately, the fluid extract from the whole herb is also taken in does of 10 drops to 30 drops, while the dry extract, known as Lycopin, is taken in doses of one to four grains.
Many herbal medicine practitioners have often used this plant as a substitute for the herb called Digitalis purpurea (foxglove) for treating heart ailment and it is considered to be among the most placid and best natural narcotics that exists today. In earlier times, this plant was used to persuade the spitting up of blood, for instance, in conditions like tuberculosis or heart failure owing to ailments of the valves of the heart.
In addition to its other uses, the homeopathic remedy lycopus is particularly effective in treating cardiac tetchiness and debility, whether they are caused by excessive stress on the heart owing to constitutional weakness, rheumatic ailments, or owing to use of drugs or stimulants that affect the heart, for instance, tobacco and the like.
Administration of lycopus slows down the rapid and unusual hear beat and makes it fuller and normal. Palpitation or rapid and erratic heart beats caused by nervous irritation or organic cardiac ailments are also effectively cured by this homeopathic medicine. As aforementioned, lycopus is a very good substitute for foxglove to treat such conditions and it also helps to pacify cough and irritation of the lungs.
In addition, the homeopathic remedy lycopus is also useful in healing fevers and plethora (a gloomy condition owing to surplus of red corpuscles in the blood or augmentation in the amount of blood). Homeopathic medicine practitioners also prescribe lycopus to treat haemoptysis (spitting or coughing up of blood) as in phthisis (tuberculosis) accompanied by palpitations, tenderness of the chest as well as cardiac debility.
Lycopus is also considered to be a very effective remedy for exophthalmia (protrusion of the eyeball from the orbit) owing to cardiac ailments and this homeopathic medicine also helps in providing relief from the chaotic actions of the heart. The other uses of the homeopathic remedy lycopus include curing diarrhea, dysentery, rheumatism, pleurodynia (chest pain or tenderness in the sides) as well as neuralgia (sharp and raging pain along the nerves) or neuraloid pains.
The homeopathic remedy lycopus ought to be used for people enduring goiter and have limited sensation that has an effect on the chest and is accompanied by a destabilized or weakened pulse. This homeopathic medicine is particularly beneficial for individuals who have a pulse that abruptly becomes fast for a brief period and subsequently returns to it weakened condition.
People who usually suffer from an abdominal pain similar to a pressure are likely to greatly benefit from the homeopathic remedy lycopus. Before you start using lycopus to treat any of the health conditions you may be enduring, it is advisable to consult a professional homeopathic medicine practitioner since the potency of the medicine required, for example, in treating a goiter patient varies from one individual to another.
In fact, normally a very high potency of this homeopathic medicine is needed to effectively treat goiter (a swelling of the thyroid gland in the front and sides of the neck).
In homeopathy, lycopus is an effective remedy to lower blood pressure levels as well as regulate nervous anxiety and tetchiness or irritability. Homeopaths have extensively used lycopus to treat several cardiovascular ailments and its use may help in lowering the high blood pressure in a number of people.
People who endure symptoms related to hyperthyroidism (over activity of the thyroid gland) that is accompanied by symptoms of mental weariness and tetchiness or irritability may try using the herbal remedy lycopus.
Virginian horehound or bugleweed which forms the basis of the homeopathic remedy lycopus is found growing in plentiful all over the north-eastern regions of the United States. Since time immemorial, this plant has been used in traditional medicine as an herbal remedy for several diseases, which included health conditions related to the thyroid gland.
Individuals who experience hyperthyroidism may find the homeopathic medicine lycopus as an appropriate remedy for their health condition. It is especially useful for people with hyperthyroidism who complain of respiratory problems, such as coughing.
Such patients usually experience an enhanced mental awareness or attentiveness during the evenings and their appetite increases when they are exposed to colder environs. Characteristically, the symptoms of such patients get better when they are in warm surroundings or when they take rest, for instance, while lying down.
The homeopathic medicine lycopus is primarily a remedy for heart and cardiovascular ailments. It is also effective in treating painful hemorrhoidal, commonly known as piles (swollen and twisted veins in the region of the anus and lower rectum), bleeding.
This homeopathic medicine is also indicated for ailments accompanied by chaotic or turbulent actions of the heart and nearly all pains related to the chest and other parts of the body. Homeopaths also prescribe lycopus to cure hemoptysis (spitting up of blood or bloody mucus) caused by valvular heart ailment. In addition, this homeopathic remedy is effective in treating toxic goiter.
Fresh plant in flower.
The homeopathic remedy lycopus is prescribed for treating a variety of conditions and associated symptoms. In homeopathy, lycopus is primarily a remedy for the heart and is frequently used to cure heart failure, aneurysms (enlargement or swelling of the arteries, usually in the aorta as well as the arteries transporting blood to the brain), pericarditis (inflammation of the membrane that encircles the heart) and unusual paces of heartbeat.
This homeopathic remedy is especially effective when the heart is itself weak, but there are aggressive or fierce sensations like heavy heartbeats also called palpitations. It is also beneficial for people having very weak or too strong pulse. The homeopathic remedy lycopus is administered to treat protrusion (bulging) of the eyeballs caused by goiter (a swelling of the thyroid gland on the front and sides of the neck).
Bugleweed, which forms the basis of the homeopathic remedy lycopus, is found growing in the United States.