Marcasite

Marcasite immersion
“Bread, scones, potato and beer”
by Peter Tumminello

A man age 66, who works as a consultant for an IT company. He is alone and father of three.

Heart defect: He is suffering from a ‘pronounced heartbeat’ which progressively gets slower and slower. This comes on whenever he eats high carb foods – especially bread, scones, potatoes and beer or wine. He can hear it and feel it and is ‘very, very conscious’ of his heart – ‘I feel the force massively’. His resting pulse is 47-52 as he was a high level athlete in his younger years. When these events occur his heart rate slows to 40, has been as low as 33 and is accompanied by high blood pressure (up to 180/95). These events cause great discomfort and stop him from sleeping. He has intermittent pulse of which he is also very aware. Some months ago he had an angiogram where he ‘I died for 20 seconds, the heart reacted to the process, I felt sick and then I was gone’. He has been recommended a gym course but is struggling to lose weight. He has been using Mycardis for blood pressure for years. His doctors are considering a pacemaker.

Concomitants: He gets sore feet at the heel if he walks more than 2 km. His feet are hot at night in bed and he has to hang them out. There is ‘massive’ perspiration of head and chest on slight exertion.

Food: He has ‘trouble’ with bread as he says he shouldn’t be having it but loves it. He loves bread with butter, tomato and eggs. Desires tomatoes ++ and pork++.

Mental: He finds his contract work with an IT company stressful and this affects his heart. However, his first love has always been art and he is trying to find a way to generate income from photography or art. He feels he lacks the confidence to step out and believe in himself. He has many ideas, which he doesn’t pursue. He is a procrastinator and struggles to complete things having to force himself.

Analysis and treatment: I noted Ferrum remedies. In the repertory under desires bread and while there is nothing for it under aggravation from bread it does appear under farinaceous food aggravates. It is an important remedy for desires tomatoes and bread with butter. It has aggravation from eggs. It is there in minor type for pain in the feet on walking. It doesn’t appear under consciousness of heart but is under Bradycardia in minor type. Also a prominent mental theme of Ferrum elucidated by Scholten, is “forcing”. He is overweight with a reddish complexion, typical of Ferrum. I prescribed a Ferrum remedy 200C daily for 7 days and repeat if necessary

Follow-up consultation.
I met him after a month and he told me he took the remedy for 2 weeks and had black stool for 2 weeks. He is eating more vegetables and less tomato and the sweating had reduced somewhat. He felt a little more positive. There was no change in the cardio-vascular symptoms.
He talked to me about ‘art and sensibility’ and related a story about receiving a carving from his uncle at age 14 which he had stored away and during this time he had the inspiration to find it again. He now identified it as a copy of a famous work by Brancusi. He remarked with poignant air: ‘All these things are coming into focus and having sensibility’.

I decided that the Ferrum remedy, while helpful was only similar and not the simillimum. I proceeded to look for a salt. Understanding structure is excellent for this. I easily perceived that he was Orthorhombic. Their motto is “I feel” which meets his artistic ‘sensibility’ and poignant sense of art and life most plainly. Orthorhombic persons primarily operate out of ‘felt sense’ or ‘gut feeling’. They also tend to be fleshy with large round head, which suited his stature. I scanned my structural research for Ferrum compounds and found the following:
Cubic: Ferrum-ars; Ferr-met; Ferr-oxy-nig and Pyrite (iron sulphide)
Tetragonal: Ferrum-fluor
Hexagonal: Ferrum-iod
Trigonal: Ferr-br; Ferr-carb and Haematite (iron oxide)
Monoclinic: Ferr-mur; Ferrum-phos and Ferrum-sulph
Orthorhombic: Ferr-acet and Marcasite (iron sulphide)

It looked like the presence of Sulphur could be important as he had hot feet at night in bed, however the Ferrum-sulph of standard homeopathic pharmacy is Monoclinic and Pyrite is Cubic. Even though Marcasite has exactly the same chemical formula as Pyrite, it has an Orthorhombic structure. The advantage of an astute structural analysis is that you can dispense of those remedies that fall outside the structure. Regarding Ferr-acet, aceticum compounds have the themes asceticism, hardship and deprivation, which didn’t relate to him at all. Many years ago I had seen Marcasite and had an intuition that one day it would be needed so I had it ready in my dispensary. It is Orthorhombic and has the Sulphur component. I prescribed Marcasite immersion 200C.

Results
He reported after 6 weeks. The response to Marcasite was outstanding. The bradycardia and intermittent pulse were gone in 5-6 days as was his consciousness of a forceful pulse. His blood pressure is very stable. His painful heels, hot feet and perspiration also cleared completely. His desire for carbohydrates, tomatoes and pork is less. His sleep is fine, his desire for red meat is less and his sense of well-being is exceptional.
‘My energy levels are the highest they have been for years. I don’t need as much sleep – only 6-7 hours. I can go to sleep if I need to at any time. I am waking at 6 am on the dot. I jump up, get a coffee and get going - I haven’t done that since I was a young man. I am enjoying cooking – it was all too hard before. I am going to art classes weekly and painting daily. My attention span is fantastic. I have stopped thinking I will have to retire. How come I have all this energy and feel so good about everything? I feel stronger and stronger in that regard.’

Needless to say we were both stoked! It was a deeply pleasing result for me from the use of structural analysis. I asked him to repeat it at will and eventually he received Marcasite M. He took occasional doses if he felt any of his symptoms returning. He went well for a year when some of his symptoms returned. At that stage he fitted Aconite well and he remarked he never felt completely right since the adverse effect he had from the angiogram over a year beforehand. He responded beautifully to the Aconite and resumed taking the occasional dose of Marcasite. He continues to do very well in all respects. It is now 1 year and 8 months since the first doses of Marcasite. He is free of the need for further medication and the burden of a pacemaker.

Golden Lustre
It is interesting to note that Marcasite has a golden lustre like our celebrated Aurum. Rose Quartz and Anhalonium also have a desire for the golden colour. All three have a known action on the heart. Marcasite now joins this illustrious band of healers of the heart.