Vanadium [Vanad]:
-Jan Scholten
Anorexia, bulimia.
In my experience, and this may sound like a bold statement, vanadium is the first and foremost remedy in cases of anorexia or bulimia.
Vanadium is a little-known remedy; all we know is some physical symptoms, like degeneration of the liver. However, Boericke (1927, page 666) also mentions anorexia. In mineral therapies vanadium and zincum are sometimes advised in the treatment of anorexia nervosa. Homeopathically speaking this symptom is not very obvious in zincum, but it seems to be a valuable recommendation for vanadium.
Success
They have a great need to succeed in their undertakings. This usually has to do with social acceptance: they have to prove themselves in society. This is a pattern which shows up in the whole Ferrum group.
Failure
A typical feeling of Vanadium people is that they keep thinking that they won't succeed. They try and achieve something, but they fail yet again. When they succeed, their mood goes up, when they fail, the mood sinks. The opposite may also happen: when they are in a good mood they are able to succeed in their tasks, when their mood is low everything goes wrong. This looks like manic depression in a certain sense. A typical state of Vanadium is anorexia alternating with bulimia.
The alternating states can also apply to their general functioning in society. There may be certain work patterns or addictions which stand in the way of playing a normal and balanced part in society.
Case
A 30 year old woman is suffering from bulimia. When she has one of her eating moods, she eats anything she can lay her hands on. Afterwards she will cry and feel very guilty. Sometimes she feels sick and has stomach aches afterwards. When she eats very little for a long time she starts to feel very nice and clean, but restless at the same time. She has to walk a lot and she wakes up very early. When she has had a binge she becomes quiet, but sad. She will cry at anything. Sometimes she is afraid that her internal organs will burst because of all this excessive food, or that her heart will give up.
Her body retains too much fluid and her face feels bloated after she has taken sugar.
Lumbar back pains, (>) making the back hollow, warmth, (<) sitting, at the end of the day, walking. The pain in her back is a nagging pain, radiating to the back and the sides of her thighs, and down to the big and the second toe. Her right hip is lower than her left one and it creaks. She has a swelling above the trochanter. Her big toe is turned inwards. It feels as if the muscles in the back of her thigh are too short.
She also has a pain,as from an ulcer, in her right shoulder, radiating to her right arm.
The joints of her hands often feel lame.
Losing a lot of hair. Pressure in her right ear. Burning of the right cheek.
Pressure in the right eye. Sometimes the pupil is either dilated or contracted. The right eyelid droops a little.
Pain in the throat on the right side, often during flu or colds.
She coughs up green or yellow bits of mucus.
Pain in the right lower abdomen. Pain in the right ovary.
Abdominal cramps during menses.
Family history: her father has a hardening of the aorta, her grandmother died of cancer of the liver.
General characteristics:
Temperature: cold, fingers numb and painful,(<) cold.
Desires: sweet, chocolate, liquorice (3), bread, cheese.
Aversion: hot food.
Menses: little or none at all. She retains a lot of fluid.
Sleep: wakes up at 7 am Mind: Her father was very authoritarian. He was strict and spoke loudly and sternly. She is still afraid of him and doesn't dare to resist him or argue with him. Her father always has to have the last word. If she happens to have a different opinion, she doesn't dare to stick to it. Her father used to be afraid that she would be smarter than him. He denied all her successes, for instance, he didn't say a word when she had passed her driving test. A few years ago she bought her own flat; her parents urged her to do this, although she didn't want to. She feels the flat to be a symbol of not daring to take risks. She feels small and stupid. Her brother also had some power over her. Not long ago she had a dream in which her brother tortured her: he called her names and stabbed her with her knife. She often has dreams of tortuous situations whereby, for instance, she just doesn't catch the bus, or just doesn't get to the telephone on time. She considers the sudden eating sessions to be a compensation for her need of warmth and support. She wants to cuddle up close to someone and dislikes being alone. She often feels depressed and tired, particularly around the time of ovulation. She hates it if she doesn't succeed in doing something. She finds it difficult to make decisions, and once she has taken them she keeps doubting them. She resists being a woman, she would rather remain a child. It is as if her left and her right side are fighting against each other. Her face also feels distorted and has nervous twitching.
Relationship: she doesn't have a boyfriend. Her first boyfriend said she had to choose between him or her parents, and she couldn't do this. When he broke off the relationship after 18 months she was very upset. She often silently cycled past his house during the next 6 months.
Work: she is a physiotherapist, but is not really enjoying this.
Analysis
There are several remedies that come to mind: Bar-c, puls, mang, but none of these really fit. In such a case, when it is difficult to find a clear picture, it sometimes helps to approach it as follows: 'an unusual disease calls for an unusual remedy'.
From the mineral therapy vanadium was known for the treatment of anorexia. Added to this, we have the compulsory aspect of the Ferrum group, hence the choice of Vanadium for this woman.
Reaction
After taking Vanadium 1 M she felt as if she was involved in a tremendous struggle. But now she has started to stand up for herself. Her guilty feeling towards her father has disappeared and she feels more free to show who she really is. She wants to start travelling.
She had a dream in which she had to choose between an older and a younger man. She chose the young one, although she previously would have gone for the older man, in her need for protection and wanting to be the little girl.
The eating spells diminished after two weeks. One month later she got a vaginal itch. She used to have this when she was 15 and she had her first boyfriend. Her elbows started to feel rough and covered with hard skin. She also got severe pains during ovulation, similar to 5 years ago. Her menses are heavy for the first time in her life. She also had some pains in her knees and her index finger.
Four months later she had a slight relapse. She started eating again and felt anxious and insecure. This relapse happened after a psychotherapy session with the whole family. But in spite of the old feeling of 'how am I going to manage this?', she also very clearly felt an inner conviction of: 'I will be able to overcome all this, I am nearly there'.
A repeat of Vanadium brought a lasting improvement.
Case
This is another case of a woman with anorexia. It started when she was 15 years old. Things were going wrong at school because she had difficulties dividing her time between the various subjects. She also didn't want to grow up. During that period she changed from being a willing, hard-working little girl to someone who didn't study and only did things to attract attention. She became rebellious, turned against her parents and her former friends and started to behave and dress in a totally different way. She started to use drugs, marijuana and heroin, partly because she had a boyfriend who persuaded her to, and partly because it helped her 'not to feel things'. The use of drugs made her passive, but she also started to write poems and see auras. She felt very clean, and it helped her to stop overeating. This period of using drugs lasted only a short time, but she did take a lot during that spell. Then she suddenly stopped when she was 18, because she realised that she was ruining her life.
However, her feeling of depression stayed and she used to wander around aimlessly and feeling desperate. The eating attacks came back too. She has received psychiatric treatment for 9 months.
The glands in her neck are swollen.
Occasional constipation with hard stools, (<) before menses.
Itching on the hands and on the sternum.
Stomach ache after coffee.
Past history: jaundice at birth. Meniscus operation when she was 14, because her knee used to lock.
General characteristics:
Temperature: cold, fingers numb, painful, (<) cold.
She likes fresh air and mountains.
Perspiration: copious at night.
Time: (<) 7 pm.
Desires: sweet, cheese, chicken, vegetables (2), fruit (2).
Aversion: fat, particularly fat on meat.
Menses: headache, stomach cramps and restless, itching legs during menses.
A lot of vaginal discharge.
Sleep: on her stomach, with her arms tucked underneath.
Mind: She is very unsure of herself: 'who am I really?'. She compares herself with others and thinks: 'Am I nice, am I a good person?' She thinks that she hasn't got her own opinions. She feels that she is doing things wrong. For instance, when she is doing a drawing she feels as if she has to fight with it. On the other hand she is always making many plans for her life, planning far ahead into the future. She is inclined to postpone things. Her parents say to her: 'You never finish anything, you are never on time.' She would rather not be here because she is afraid of who she is. She is very friendly and easily persuaded by other people's ideas.
She used to think that people had a task to fulfil here on earth.
She suffers from anxiety before exams, and she doesn't consider herself to be a successful person.
She suffers from guilt, particularly when she fails to do something that was expected of her. She also feels guilty about her former drug habits.
She is emotional and easily touched, especially before the menses, when she feels very lonely. She is afraid of being left on her own.
Her father is a very successful, self-made man. She always had to do all sorts of things to please others.
Relationship: when she was 12, a boyfriend of hers died in an accident and this upset her deeply. She cried and shouted with grief. Later on her relationships were difficult, as if her boyfriends never really chose her for her personality.
Work: she is studying horticulture.
Analysis After the previous case it was not so difficult to find vanadium as the right remedy for this patient. Other remedies, such as med, puls, ign, Bar-c, and Graph have also helped her a lot. In cases such as these there are usually so many problems that it is very rarely solved with only one remedy. Each one of these remedies has resolved a particular problem. For instance, Ignatia greatly helped her to resolve her old love disappointment.
However, the anorexia and the eating attacks remained: sometimes there was some amelioration, but it didn't really go away. Neither did the feelings of doubt and the inability to make choices.
When we compare this case with the previous one we can see many similarities, hence the choice for Vanadium once again.
Reaction Almost immediately after taking Vanadium 1M her energy surged. She felt more powerful, she could keep her eating habits under control and she felt that she was allowed to be who she was, allowed to be successful.
Picture of Vanadium
Essence: the idea that they have to be successful, but they are not allowed or they are incapable. They feel obliged to live up to many tasks, but they are confused as to what tasks and why.
Mind: they don't really know what they want. They make plans, but they think 'I won't succeed anyway'. They feel that they have to achieve a lot in their profession, but they are not sure what.
They are always doubting themselves and can't make a choice. They are not strong enough to make any decisions, and if they do make one they doubt their choice afterwards. They doubt their decisions and they doubt themselves: 'Am I choosing the right profession', 'am I a good person', 'am I nice looking, intelligent', 'who am I?'. The doubt is a result of their fear of failure: 'I can't succeed anyway'.
This theme comes up in their dreams, too. They dream of missing the train, of not getting to the telephone on time etc.
They don't dare to take responsibility for their choices, because they are convinced that they will fail. And when they do fail they feel incredibly guilty. Their continuous doubting attitude is the reason that they don't complete things and are always late.
The cause of this situation can usually be found in their upbringing. There is often a successful and dominant father. They are brought up very strictly, with the task of pleasing everybody, particularly their own parents. They have to be good, caring, decent and hardworking children.
Such a child won't dare to resist this regime and eventually won't know anymore what it wants for itself. It feels obliged to do its duties but doesn't know the reason or the purpose anymore. Furthermore, the message they receive 'to be good' may have a double meaning, in the sense of 'be successful, but don't become more successful than your father'.
These people have a strong tendency to suffer from anorexia or bulimia. Here we find the same themes again: they feel good when they succeed, and they feel awful and guilty when they fail. The eating attacks are in compensation for the lack of warmth and support. Other addictions may also fit this picture.
These people are very kind and gentle. They feel the need for warmth and company and they always try to please others. They are easy going, not only out of kindness, but also because they have no opinions of their own. They cry easily.
They would like to remain a little child.
They are often a bit anxious, with restless and itching legs.
Fears: failure, coming late, missing the boat, arteriosclerosis.
General characteristics:
Location: right sided.
Physique: blonde.
Temperature: cold, cold hands and feet. Raynaud's syndrome.
Time: (<) 7 am.
Desires: sweet, liquorice.
Menses: little, or absent. Premenstrual complaints. (<) ovulation.
Complaints:
Eye problems.
Pain in throat, coughing up little lumps of yellow and green, bitter mucus.
Stomach and bowel problems. Degeneration of the liver, cancer.
Constipation.
Pain in the ovaries.
Sciatica.
DD: Anac, Bar-c, Carc, Cob, Hyp-ant, Ign, Lyc, Mang, Puls, Thuj.
Anorexia, bulimia.
In my experience, and this may sound like a bold statement, vanadium is the first and foremost remedy in cases of anorexia or bulimia.
Vanadium is a little-known remedy; all we know is some physical symptoms, like degeneration of the liver. However, Boericke (1927, page 666) also mentions anorexia. In mineral therapies vanadium and zincum are sometimes advised in the treatment of anorexia nervosa. Homeopathically speaking this symptom is not very obvious in zincum, but it seems to be a valuable recommendation for vanadium.
Success
They have a great need to succeed in their undertakings. This usually has to do with social acceptance: they have to prove themselves in society. This is a pattern which shows up in the whole Ferrum group.
Failure
A typical feeling of Vanadium people is that they keep thinking that they won't succeed. They try and achieve something, but they fail yet again. When they succeed, their mood goes up, when they fail, the mood sinks. The opposite may also happen: when they are in a good mood they are able to succeed in their tasks, when their mood is low everything goes wrong. This looks like manic depression in a certain sense. A typical state of Vanadium is anorexia alternating with bulimia.
The alternating states can also apply to their general functioning in society. There may be certain work patterns or addictions which stand in the way of playing a normal and balanced part in society.
Case
A 30 year old woman is suffering from bulimia. When she has one of her eating moods, she eats anything she can lay her hands on. Afterwards she will cry and feel very guilty. Sometimes she feels sick and has stomach aches afterwards. When she eats very little for a long time she starts to feel very nice and clean, but restless at the same time. She has to walk a lot and she wakes up very early. When she has had a binge she becomes quiet, but sad. She will cry at anything. Sometimes she is afraid that her internal organs will burst because of all this excessive food, or that her heart will give up.
Her body retains too much fluid and her face feels bloated after she has taken sugar.
Lumbar back pains, (>) making the back hollow, warmth, (<) sitting, at the end of the day, walking. The pain in her back is a nagging pain, radiating to the back and the sides of her thighs, and down to the big and the second toe. Her right hip is lower than her left one and it creaks. She has a swelling above the trochanter. Her big toe is turned inwards. It feels as if the muscles in the back of her thigh are too short.
She also has a pain,as from an ulcer, in her right shoulder, radiating to her right arm.
The joints of her hands often feel lame.
Losing a lot of hair. Pressure in her right ear. Burning of the right cheek.
Pressure in the right eye. Sometimes the pupil is either dilated or contracted. The right eyelid droops a little.
Pain in the throat on the right side, often during flu or colds.
She coughs up green or yellow bits of mucus.
Pain in the right lower abdomen. Pain in the right ovary.
Abdominal cramps during menses.
Family history: her father has a hardening of the aorta, her grandmother died of cancer of the liver.
General characteristics:
Temperature: cold, fingers numb and painful,(<) cold.
Desires: sweet, chocolate, liquorice (3), bread, cheese.
Aversion: hot food.
Menses: little or none at all. She retains a lot of fluid.
Sleep: wakes up at 7 am Mind: Her father was very authoritarian. He was strict and spoke loudly and sternly. She is still afraid of him and doesn't dare to resist him or argue with him. Her father always has to have the last word. If she happens to have a different opinion, she doesn't dare to stick to it. Her father used to be afraid that she would be smarter than him. He denied all her successes, for instance, he didn't say a word when she had passed her driving test. A few years ago she bought her own flat; her parents urged her to do this, although she didn't want to. She feels the flat to be a symbol of not daring to take risks. She feels small and stupid. Her brother also had some power over her. Not long ago she had a dream in which her brother tortured her: he called her names and stabbed her with her knife. She often has dreams of tortuous situations whereby, for instance, she just doesn't catch the bus, or just doesn't get to the telephone on time. She considers the sudden eating sessions to be a compensation for her need of warmth and support. She wants to cuddle up close to someone and dislikes being alone. She often feels depressed and tired, particularly around the time of ovulation. She hates it if she doesn't succeed in doing something. She finds it difficult to make decisions, and once she has taken them she keeps doubting them. She resists being a woman, she would rather remain a child. It is as if her left and her right side are fighting against each other. Her face also feels distorted and has nervous twitching.
Relationship: she doesn't have a boyfriend. Her first boyfriend said she had to choose between him or her parents, and she couldn't do this. When he broke off the relationship after 18 months she was very upset. She often silently cycled past his house during the next 6 months.
Work: she is a physiotherapist, but is not really enjoying this.
Analysis
There are several remedies that come to mind: Bar-c, puls, mang, but none of these really fit. In such a case, when it is difficult to find a clear picture, it sometimes helps to approach it as follows: 'an unusual disease calls for an unusual remedy'.
From the mineral therapy vanadium was known for the treatment of anorexia. Added to this, we have the compulsory aspect of the Ferrum group, hence the choice of Vanadium for this woman.
Reaction
After taking Vanadium 1 M she felt as if she was involved in a tremendous struggle. But now she has started to stand up for herself. Her guilty feeling towards her father has disappeared and she feels more free to show who she really is. She wants to start travelling.
She had a dream in which she had to choose between an older and a younger man. She chose the young one, although she previously would have gone for the older man, in her need for protection and wanting to be the little girl.
The eating spells diminished after two weeks. One month later she got a vaginal itch. She used to have this when she was 15 and she had her first boyfriend. Her elbows started to feel rough and covered with hard skin. She also got severe pains during ovulation, similar to 5 years ago. Her menses are heavy for the first time in her life. She also had some pains in her knees and her index finger.
Four months later she had a slight relapse. She started eating again and felt anxious and insecure. This relapse happened after a psychotherapy session with the whole family. But in spite of the old feeling of 'how am I going to manage this?', she also very clearly felt an inner conviction of: 'I will be able to overcome all this, I am nearly there'.
A repeat of Vanadium brought a lasting improvement.
Case
This is another case of a woman with anorexia. It started when she was 15 years old. Things were going wrong at school because she had difficulties dividing her time between the various subjects. She also didn't want to grow up. During that period she changed from being a willing, hard-working little girl to someone who didn't study and only did things to attract attention. She became rebellious, turned against her parents and her former friends and started to behave and dress in a totally different way. She started to use drugs, marijuana and heroin, partly because she had a boyfriend who persuaded her to, and partly because it helped her 'not to feel things'. The use of drugs made her passive, but she also started to write poems and see auras. She felt very clean, and it helped her to stop overeating. This period of using drugs lasted only a short time, but she did take a lot during that spell. Then she suddenly stopped when she was 18, because she realised that she was ruining her life.
However, her feeling of depression stayed and she used to wander around aimlessly and feeling desperate. The eating attacks came back too. She has received psychiatric treatment for 9 months.
The glands in her neck are swollen.
Occasional constipation with hard stools, (<) before menses.
Itching on the hands and on the sternum.
Stomach ache after coffee.
Past history: jaundice at birth. Meniscus operation when she was 14, because her knee used to lock.
General characteristics:
Temperature: cold, fingers numb, painful, (<) cold.
She likes fresh air and mountains.
Perspiration: copious at night.
Time: (<) 7 pm.
Desires: sweet, cheese, chicken, vegetables (2), fruit (2).
Aversion: fat, particularly fat on meat.
Menses: headache, stomach cramps and restless, itching legs during menses.
A lot of vaginal discharge.
Sleep: on her stomach, with her arms tucked underneath.
Mind: She is very unsure of herself: 'who am I really?'. She compares herself with others and thinks: 'Am I nice, am I a good person?' She thinks that she hasn't got her own opinions. She feels that she is doing things wrong. For instance, when she is doing a drawing she feels as if she has to fight with it. On the other hand she is always making many plans for her life, planning far ahead into the future. She is inclined to postpone things. Her parents say to her: 'You never finish anything, you are never on time.' She would rather not be here because she is afraid of who she is. She is very friendly and easily persuaded by other people's ideas.
She used to think that people had a task to fulfil here on earth.
She suffers from anxiety before exams, and she doesn't consider herself to be a successful person.
She suffers from guilt, particularly when she fails to do something that was expected of her. She also feels guilty about her former drug habits.
She is emotional and easily touched, especially before the menses, when she feels very lonely. She is afraid of being left on her own.
Her father is a very successful, self-made man. She always had to do all sorts of things to please others.
Relationship: when she was 12, a boyfriend of hers died in an accident and this upset her deeply. She cried and shouted with grief. Later on her relationships were difficult, as if her boyfriends never really chose her for her personality.
Work: she is studying horticulture.
Analysis After the previous case it was not so difficult to find vanadium as the right remedy for this patient. Other remedies, such as med, puls, ign, Bar-c, and Graph have also helped her a lot. In cases such as these there are usually so many problems that it is very rarely solved with only one remedy. Each one of these remedies has resolved a particular problem. For instance, Ignatia greatly helped her to resolve her old love disappointment.
However, the anorexia and the eating attacks remained: sometimes there was some amelioration, but it didn't really go away. Neither did the feelings of doubt and the inability to make choices.
When we compare this case with the previous one we can see many similarities, hence the choice for Vanadium once again.
Reaction Almost immediately after taking Vanadium 1M her energy surged. She felt more powerful, she could keep her eating habits under control and she felt that she was allowed to be who she was, allowed to be successful.
Picture of Vanadium
Essence: the idea that they have to be successful, but they are not allowed or they are incapable. They feel obliged to live up to many tasks, but they are confused as to what tasks and why.
Mind: they don't really know what they want. They make plans, but they think 'I won't succeed anyway'. They feel that they have to achieve a lot in their profession, but they are not sure what.
They are always doubting themselves and can't make a choice. They are not strong enough to make any decisions, and if they do make one they doubt their choice afterwards. They doubt their decisions and they doubt themselves: 'Am I choosing the right profession', 'am I a good person', 'am I nice looking, intelligent', 'who am I?'. The doubt is a result of their fear of failure: 'I can't succeed anyway'.
This theme comes up in their dreams, too. They dream of missing the train, of not getting to the telephone on time etc.
They don't dare to take responsibility for their choices, because they are convinced that they will fail. And when they do fail they feel incredibly guilty. Their continuous doubting attitude is the reason that they don't complete things and are always late.
The cause of this situation can usually be found in their upbringing. There is often a successful and dominant father. They are brought up very strictly, with the task of pleasing everybody, particularly their own parents. They have to be good, caring, decent and hardworking children.
Such a child won't dare to resist this regime and eventually won't know anymore what it wants for itself. It feels obliged to do its duties but doesn't know the reason or the purpose anymore. Furthermore, the message they receive 'to be good' may have a double meaning, in the sense of 'be successful, but don't become more successful than your father'.
These people have a strong tendency to suffer from anorexia or bulimia. Here we find the same themes again: they feel good when they succeed, and they feel awful and guilty when they fail. The eating attacks are in compensation for the lack of warmth and support. Other addictions may also fit this picture.
These people are very kind and gentle. They feel the need for warmth and company and they always try to please others. They are easy going, not only out of kindness, but also because they have no opinions of their own. They cry easily.
They would like to remain a little child.
They are often a bit anxious, with restless and itching legs.
Fears: failure, coming late, missing the boat, arteriosclerosis.
General characteristics:
Location: right sided.
Physique: blonde.
Temperature: cold, cold hands and feet. Raynaud's syndrome.
Time: (<) 7 am.
Desires: sweet, liquorice.
Menses: little, or absent. Premenstrual complaints. (<) ovulation.
Complaints:
Eye problems.
Pain in throat, coughing up little lumps of yellow and green, bitter mucus.
Stomach and bowel problems. Degeneration of the liver, cancer.
Constipation.
Pain in the ovaries.
Sciatica.
DD: Anac, Bar-c, Carc, Cob, Hyp-ant, Ign, Lyc, Mang, Puls, Thuj.
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