Know Your Remedies: Spigelia Anthelmia (Spig.)

Common Names: Pink root; worm grass.

General Information

Spigelia Anthelmia (Spig.) is a remedy for nerve-related pain, often on the left side of the body, and especially in nerves related to the heart, face (trigeminal nerve), teeth, and eye. The pains ire stitching, sharp, piercing, or like hot needles, and may be radiating and intense. Symptoms are worsened by motion, touch, jarring, smoke, and during the daytime.

Mental-Emotional Symptoms

  • Fear of pointed objects.

Head

  • Severe pain in and around left eye.
  • Ciliary neuralgia (cluster headache).
  • Facial neuralgia (facial nerve pain).
  • Types of trigeminal neuralgia

Eye

  • Types of glaucoma.
  • Types of iritis.

Gastrointestinal

  • Worms with left colon infestations.
  • Itching and crawling sensations around the anus.

Chest

  • Angina pectoris (chest pain) worsened by the least motion, deep inspiration, and lying on the left side. Improved by hot drinks.
  • Stitching pain around the heart.
  • Palpitations that may be violent, audible, or visible.

Where do I find it?

Spigelia Anthelmia (Spig.) is available from our online store as a single remedy in either pills or liquid, and as part of the following Complexes (combination remedies): Headache (Migraine); Trigeminal Neuralgia.

Home Treatment Guidelines

Acute, Self-Limiting Conditions

Conditions like colds or minor injuries, which are short-term and typically improve on their own, can be managed at home with homeopathy. However, in emergencies or if symptoms worsen, contact your healthcare provider.

Chronic Conditions

These home treatment instructions do not apply for ongoing issues, whether mentioned above or not, like persistent allergies or chronic pain. You should consult a qualified homeopath for a personalized treatment plan to achieve the best results with homeopathy for chronic conditions.

How to Take the Remedy for Acute Conditions

  • Take one pill or five drops of the remedy. The frequency depends on symptom severity. As examples:
    • For life-threatening symptoms, take every 1 minute and seek emergency help immediately.
    • For mild symptoms, take every 4 hours.
  • Stop taking the remedy once you feel better. Resume if symptoms return.
  • If no improvement after four doses, choose a different remedy or consult a professional homeopath.
  • For more details on dosing, refer to: How Often to Dose with a 30C Homeopathic remedy.
  • For information on the different potencies, read: Guidelines on which potency to use

Additional Notes From Past Masters

Homeopathy is a 200-year-old system of medicine.

Early homeopaths recorded detailed notes on how remedies worked, including initial tests, remedy relationships, and their experiences. These writings were shared to improve homeopathic practice and now offer fascinating insights into past uses of homeopathy.

Here’s an example, edited and modernised for clarity, from Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics (1898) by E. B. NASH M.D.:

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics by E. B. NASH M.D.

Spigelia anthelmia (Spig.)

Violent beating of the heart, shakes the chest; sometimes audible several inches away.

Left-sided neuralgias of head, face and eyes; pains increase and decrease with the rising and setting sun; watering of the eye, on affected side.

Modalities: < from motion, noise, inspiration, moving eyes, cold, damp, rainy weather; rising sun; > quiet; dry air, setting sun.

* * * * *

In this we have another valuable, heart remedy.

The pains in the heart in this remedy are as severe as those under Cactus and the action is more violent than under either Cactus or Digitalis.

It is so violent as often to be visible to the eye through the clothes, shaking the whole chest, and the sounds are often audible several inches away.

It is not only a very valuable remedy in acute attacks of the heart but in chronic valvular affections following the acute attack, where we have the loud blowing sounds and attacks of violent palpitation.

I have seen the violent attacks of palpitation quickly relieved, and not only that, but the valvular troubles gradually and perfectly cured, under the action of this remedy.

In these troubles the patient can often only lie on the right side (Phos., Nat. mur.), or with the head very high; least motion < (Naja).

It is one of our best remedies for neuralgic affections of the head, face, and eyes.

The headaches are generally one-sided, beginning in the occiput and extending forward, and settling over the left eye (right, Sang. and Silicea). They are aggravated by the least noise or jar.

They increase with the rising of the sun and decrease with its going down (Natrum mur., Tabacum), and the eye on the affected side often runs clear water. (Chelidon. maj., right side with water gushing out).

Spigelia is very useful in ciliary neuralgia, the pain being of the same character as the headaches.

The pains are also stabbing, running through into the back of the head, or like Actea, they press outward, as if the eyeballs were too large for the sockets (Comocladia).

In any or all of the above-named affections, for which Spigelia is so efficacious, the patient is made worse from motion, noise, inspiration or moving the eyes, and especially in cold, damp, rainy weather.

It makes us think of Bryonia, Kalmia and Natrum mur., and Actća (motion), Belladonna (noise), and China (touch, especially light touch).

It is certainly a very valuable remedy, though not one, so far as known, of very wide range of action.