How to understand Doctors prescription?

An article on Tongue and Homoeopathy.

 

When we look at any form of food or drink, it is the eyes that sees it but it is the tongue and taste buds that get affected first.

Tongue is the special organ. It belong to special senses in the mammal group.

Defination

Tongue is a fleshy muscular organ found in the mouth of mammals. It is used for tasting, licking, swallowing  and in human being for the articulation of speech.

 Structure of Tongue.

The tongue is covered with moist pink coloured tissue which is called as ‘mucosa’. The small groupped rough structure on the tongue is called as ‘papillae’. There are numerous nerve like endings on the papillae which are nothing but the ‘taste- buds’. The taste bud carries the sensation of taste from tongue to brain.

                  The tongue is attached anteriorly by frenum to base of mouth and posteriorly to the hyoid bone.

The tongue plays important role in the following functions.

Chewing,

Swallowing,

Licking,

Speech.

There are numerous form of taste but usually classical forms of taste are,

Sweet,

Salty,

Bitter,

Sour.

It is believed that there are certain areas on the tongue which identifies particular taste, they are called as 'tongue map', but this is hypothetical concept. Practically one cannot distinguish such areas.

Tongue and Different conditions.

Following are the different conditions which we encounter in day to day practice, they are.

1]. Apthae (ulcers)– this is the commonest form of tongue condition where small ulcers are seen on the tongue, this is usually supposed to be a vitamin B complex deficiency state.

2].Burning  tongue- this is second most common condition where due  various external factors such as hot food,hot drinks, tea, spices, cold drinks, etc produces a strange taste on the tongue like burning. This condition usually resolves within few days.

3] Fungal infection- this is 3^rd common tongue condition. This is also called as Thrush, this is common in paediatric patient and immunocompromised patients.

4]Leucoplakia- this is condition of the tongue where there is whitening of tongue mucosa in patches followed by rigidity and loss of elasticity. This is supposed to be precursor of cancer. The reason behind this condition is chewing tobacco , smoking ,ill fitted denture, etc.

5]. Cancer- this condition is rising in past few dacades. Conditions giving rise to tongue cancer are unhealed ulcers, leukoplakia, ill-fitted denture, tobacco chewing, smoking.

6]. Viral infection- this form of infection is usually seen in immune-compromised patient, this is also called as ‘herpes stomatitis’.

7] Inflammation- when there is inflammation of tongue usually due to bite, injury, infection it is called as glossitis.

The glossitis may be atropic glossitis where is there is loss of structure due inflammation. Usually due to vitamin deficiency.

8] Lichenification- This condition is as same as the lichen planus that affects the skin.

9]Hairy tongue- This is the condition where,  pappilae on the tongue gets enlarged and there is feeling like hair on the tongue.

10]. Macroglosia – This is the condition where the the gets big/enlarged due to various factor like injury, infection, etc.

11]. Geographical tongue- The tongue changes its structure according to geographical areas is called as geographical tongue, its benign condition.

Usually biopsy of the tongue is the commonest test used to dignose different conditions of the tongue.

Tongue and Homoeopathy

As in the day to day practice when the patient consults a doctor, usually doctor ask the patient to show his tongue. The doctor notes down , following things by observing the tongue, they are

Colour of tongue- like pale, black, pink, strawberry etc.

Coating- clean, white, yellow, dirty etc.

Condition with thirst- Dryness or wet.

Size- small, enlarged,

Conditions- like ulcers, cracks, ridges etc.

Homoeopathic selection of medicine is based on the finding out uncommon, rare, strange, peculier symptom of the patient. The tongue plays vital role in the selection of homoeopathic medicine. There are many entries in different material medicas and different repertories regarding different condition of tongue.  

Example from Boericke repertory:

1]The Tongue section of Boericke  repertory starts with rubric Coating , Colour and ends with rubric Trembling.

How to use Tongue section in practice?

1].For example 
a patient consult  for Xyz problem, but with no. of symptoms but we could not find out uncommon symptom in that patient but when we examined his tongue we found out some peculiar things and that is for example the  tongue is clean when we open boericke repertory we will find a chapter tongue with main rubric coating , colour under subrubric clean, there are 12 medicine so now we have to look into these 12 remedies to find out your similimum. In this way our prescription becomes more stronger and sure as our totality have a combination of rare, uncommon symptom with common symptom.

In this way we can reach to similar medicine.

2]Another example.

In clinical practice fungal infection of tongue is common condition, this is also called as 'thrush' When we look into the Boriecke repertory under chapter Tongue main rubric Eruption, growth under sub rubric ringworm we see only two medicine nat-m and sanicula, we can use these medicine for this condition.

3]Another example.

Wart on the tongue is rare condition but is untreatable by modern science. When we look into the Boericke repertory under chapter Tongue main rubric eruption, growth with subrubric warts, we find two medicine

aur-m and mang, we can use this medicine for treating such condition.

So there are many examples in which we can use different repertories with tongue section to reach the similar medicine.

Examples from materia medicas-

The famous tongues from materia medica  are,
  1] Strawberry tongue of belladonna.

2] Triangular red tipped tongue of rhustox.

3] Milky white coated tongue of antim crud.

4] Clean tongue of ipecac.

Etc .

The list endless…

This are the characteristic symptoms,  this symptoms helps to individualise the case. If other symptoms are not helping to reach the similar medicine, use this characteristic symptoms for individualization and ultimately for similimum.

                 What is clear from these thing is that the tongue is special senses in mammels, it is unique in nature, some people can’t bear sweet while some other will crave it.  Some will like salty, while others will averse it. This is nothing but the individualization. This individualization is the basic of homoeopathy.

                 What is important , when we examine any patient not to forget to ask patient to 'show his tongue' or 'ask him to say aahh', so that we can find out the hidden homoeopathic medicine in the patient. 

Bibiloghraphy.
1] Textbook of medicine by Golwala.
2] Boericke repertory.
3] Hompath software.
4]Google search data/ images.

          Dr.Dinesh B.Solunke

                  B.H.M.S.,M.D.[A.M.],CCAH

About Dr.Dinesh B.Solunke

Dr.Dinesh B. Solunke is a general practitioner and homoeopath. He had completed his B.H.M.S. from FDHMC Aurangabad ,India with 1^st class in 2008,He also complited M.D. [A.M.] from IBAM Kolcatta,India in 2010, and than CCAH from the other song international Academy of Homoeopathy Mumbai, India.

He is Practising in Mumbai.

            Dr.Dinesh Solunke along with Sumedge technology and Dr.Tushar kolhe have guided to develop very popular android  application like” MIND RUBRICS DICTIONARY” And “HOMOEOPATHIC POCKET REPERTORY”.