The homeopathic remedy radium brom. is chemically prepared from the radioactive chemical element radium.
Scientists Marie Skłodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie were the first to discover radium (derived from the Latin term 'radius' which denotes 'ray') way back in December 21, 1898 in pitchblende (a formless, black, pitchy variety of the crystalline uranium oxide mineral uraninite) found in North Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
As aforementioned, radium is a radioactive chemical constituent symbolized as Ra and having an atomic number 88. Radium has a chaste white color, but it oxidizes easily when exposed to air and turns black in color. It is an alkaline earth metal found in small amounts in uranium ores. Radium is known to be one of the most heavy earth metals and is extremely radioactive by nature. The chemical behavior of radium has a resemblance to barium.
In the initial days, radium was primarily used in self-luminous paints in watches, clocks, aircraft switches, nuclear panels as well as instrument dials. However, an interesting incident involving the use of radium occurred in the mid-1920s. In effect, 5 dying 'Radium Girl' dial painters who had painted luminous paints containing radium on the dials of clocks and watches filed a legal suit.
The exposure of the dial painter girls to radium resulted in grave health conditions, including anemia, bone cancer and sores. The harmful effects due to exposure to radium are attributed to radium being treated as calcium in the body. This 'calcium' is deposited in the bones and the radioactivity of radium leads to the degeneration of the marrow and even causes mutation of the bone cells.
While the legal suit was still in the court, it was decided that although the scientists and the management of the company had adopted significant safety measures to shield them from the adverse impacts of radiation, they had still not found to be enough to save their employees from harm.
What was still worse, is the fact that for many years the companies deliberately endeavored to keep the harmful effects of exposure to radium under wraps and even evade their responsibilities by arguing that the Radium Girls were 'actually' enduring the sexually transmitted disease syphilis. Such utter indifference towards the welfare of their employees had a noteworthy effect on the presentation of the occupational disease labor law.
Nevertheless, the harmful impact of exposure to radium was widely known owing to the legal cases pertaining to the Radium Girls. This resulted in providing the radium dial painters with adequate instructions regarding safety measures and they were also equipped with protective gears to avoid exposure to radium while working.
What was especially significant is the fact that henceforth no dial painter shaped paint brushes by lip. Although radium continued to be in use in painting dials till the 1960s, no harm to the dial painters were reported from anywhere thereafter.
In fact, this particular issue, made it obvious that the risks confronted by the Radium Girls and the health problems endured by them could be avoided completely had the companies been responsible in adopting adequate safety measures right from the beginning.
However, the use of radium paint gradually became fewer and was totally stopped after the 1960s. Initially, radium paint was substituted by promethium paint. Even promethium paint was gradually replaced by tritium bottles that are in use to this day. While ingestion of beta radiation from tritium may prove to be dangerous for the health, over the years tritium has substituted radium in all such applications.
Earlier, owing to its hypothetical remedial properties, radium was used as an additive in several products, including hair creams, toothpastes and also in some foodstuffs. However, products enclosing any form of radium gradually became less popular and eventually went out of fashion.
At the same time, authorities in several countries banned the use of such products when it was found that they have grave and harmful consequences on our health. Nevertheless, there are still a number of spas that claim that they offer the healthy facility of using water rich in radium content. One such spa is in Misasa, Tottori in Japan.
Between the late 1940s and early 1970s, children in the United States were administered nasal radium irradiation (exposure to radium rays) with a view to treat as well as prevent problems in the middle ear as well as swollen tonsils. However, the practice has been abandoned following reports of adverse effects on the health of some children who were given nasal radium irradiation.
It may be noted here that in 1909, radium was used as an alpha source by the legendary Rutherford experiment to find the atomic structure of gold. The trial undertaken by two scientists Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden in Ernest Rutherford's laboratory at the University of Manchester brought about the Rutherford model of atom revolutionizing the field of nuclear physics.
In addition, radium was also used in medicine, generally in the form of radium chloride, to make radon gas. In effect, radon gas is used to treat cancer. For instance, during the 1920s and 1930s, numerous such radon sources were used in Canada for treating cancer. Currently, scientists are examining the isotope 223 Ra for its potential use as a medicine for treating cancer, especially bone metastasis.
Radium bromide.
The homeopathic remedy radium brom. is primarily used to treat skin disorders, including acne, dermatitis, eczema, skin cancer, ulcers, moles as well as acne rosacea (an unceasing inciting disease generally occurring in middle age and resulting in the facial skin to become unusually flushed and, at times, pustular).
This homeopathic medicine is also effective in treating symptoms, such as itchy skin and burning sensation in the skin that may be accompanied by ulceration and related to the patient's deep desire for cool air. In such cases, the patients endure pain on alternate sides of the body.
Homeopathic medicine practitioners also prescribe radium brom. to treat bone cancer, lumbago, arthritis (chronic soreness in the lower or lumbar region of the back or loins) as well as arthritis accompanied by a monotonous throbbing pain in the bones and joints.
In addition, this homeopathic medicine has also been found to be useful in treating rheumatism (a health condition characterized by soreness or pain in muscles, joints or fibrous tissue), gout and common skin affections, including naevi (any inherited abnormality of the skin).
It may be noted that in homeopathy, radium brom. is also the main cure for a variety of rheumatic problems, such as osteoarthritis, chronic rheumatoid arthritis, gout as well as spondylosis (a condition marked by immobility and fusion of vertebral joints). People affected by rheumatism experience intense pain in all the joints of the body, especially in the knee and the ankles.
They also have a tender and exhausted feeling in the arms, legs and neck. These parts of the body may appear to be hard and fragile as if they would break when the patient undertakes any movement. In addition, people affected by rheumatism have a sensation as though they have a physical disability at the back and in the region between the neck and arms as well as in the lumbo-sacral (related to the lumbar vertebrae and the sacrum) region.
They also endure severe pain in cervical vertebrae and the symptom deteriorates when the patients bends his/ her head in the onward direction. On the other hand, the symptoms improve when the patients are either sitting in an erect position or standing.
In some cases, nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys) is related to symptoms of rheumatism and the patient experiences debility, fatigue and weariness in such case. All the conditions and related symptoms discussed here can be cured using radium brom.
As aforementioned, the homeopathic remedy radium brom. is also effective in treating a range of skin disorders. It is useful for people who experience severe itching accompanied by a burning sensation of the skin, as though it is ablaze. They also experience itching outbreaks on the face accompanied by oozing.
Men suffering from this condition generally find the symptoms deteriorating when they shave. In most cases, the patients also have small pimples on the chest and forehead. All these symptoms can be cured using radium brom. In addition, this homeopathic remedy also facilitates in treating pigmented moles, keloids (firm, but an even pinkish raised growth of scar tissue at the place of an injury), acne rosacea, corns as well as ulcers having an inclination for delaying cure.
Radium brom. is also effective in treating persistent eczematous dermatitis (a type of skin inflammation) of the hands as a result of their exposure to radium and also due to burns caused by x-ray. This homeopathic remedy is also effective in treating pruritus vulvae (irritation of the outside female genitalia), a condition wherein the patient feels better after taking a bath with warm water.
In addition, radium brom. is also useful in treating skin conditions like itching fissures, cracks and burning sensations on the skin.
Radium brom. is a significant adjunct to the Materia Medica, particularly because the evidences of Diffenbach have helped to precisionize or determine the precise use of this homeopathic remedy for treating different health conditions.
According to the evidences of Diffenbach, administering radium brom. of 1,800,000 radio-activity was found to be useful in treating rheumatism and gout, acne rosacea, common skin affections, ulcers, naevi, moles and even skin cancers.
The same measure of this homeopathic remedy is effective in treating low blood pressure, acute throbbing pain throughout the body accompanied by restiveness - a condition that improves when the patient moves around. It is also useful in healing chronic rheumatic arthritis wherein the appearance of the symptoms is quite delayed.
In addition, it is also useful in treating extreme debility and a distinct augmentation in the polymorphonuclear neurophile (a condition distinguished by lobed nucleus, especially of neutrophilic white blood cells, or having a lobulate nucleus).
The homeopathic remedy radium brom. is prepared chemically from the radioactive mineral radium.
