REMEDY PROFILE
People who respond best to Pulsatilla are sweet-natured, gentle, and compliant. They will avoid confrontation, but their moods change frequently and rapidly, and they can be stubborn in their demands for attention and sympathy. Their physical symptoms can be equally changeable. Easily moved to laughter or tears, they are highly prone to weepiness when ill, but are soon consoled by hugs. Other common traits are a dislike of stuffy rooms or fatty foods, a lack of thirst, and a preference for fresh air.
Pulsatilla is given for labor, menstruation, menopause, and pregnancy problems. It is used for respiratory illness marked by yellowy-green catarrh, eye complaints, and indigestion with variable symptoms.
KEY SYMPTOMS
weepiness • conditions that improve for sympathy • desire
for open air • thick, yellowy-green catarrh • changeable mood
Colds & Coughs
SYMPTOMS An alternately runny or blocked nose, with smelly, thick, yellowy-green catarrh, and a reduced sense of taste and smell. There may be wet, spasmodic coughing, with yellowy-green mucus and shortness of breath, which is worse for lying on the left side. Violent coughing fits tend to occur in the evening and at night; they may be triggered by lying down, and frequently cause sleep to be disturbed. Pulsatilla may be prescribed for influenza when there is fever with alternate hot and cold flashes, a lack of thirst, and possibly an earache.
Symptoms better For: fresh air; for gentle exercise; for crying; for sympathy.
Symptoms worse For: stuffy environments;
for lying down.
for lying down.
Sinusitis
SYMPTOMS Yellowy catarrh, weepiness, and headaches. The sinuses are tender to the touch. Sharp pains may begin on the right side of the face, but tend to move around.
Symptoms better For: fresh air; for gentle exercise.
Symptoms worse For: stuffy environments;
for cold; in the evening.
Eye infections
SYMPTOMS: Profuse, yellowy-green, foul-smelling discharge from the eye, with sensitivity to light and possible indigestion (see below). Pulsatilla may help conjunctivitis and itchy styes.
Symptoms better For: fresh air; for bathing
the eyes in cold water.
Symptoms worse For: warm rooms; in
the evening.
Women’s health
SYMPTOMS: Short, variable, late, or absent menstrual flow with severe pain. There may be delayed onset of menstruation in puberty. Severe premenstrual syndrome may respond to the remedy, particularly if it is accompanied by indigestion, weepiness, and mood swings. In pregnancy, if the general symptom picture fits, Pulsatilla is given for stress incontinence, fatigue, indigestion, and morning sickness (especially if this is brought on by fatty foods). It may also act on the uterine muscles to help turn a malpresented or breech baby in the uterus during labor.
Symptoms better For: fresh air; for gentle exercise; for crying; for sympathy.
Symptoms worse For: heat; for lying on the left side; in the evening; for rich, fatty foods.
Digestive disorders
SYMPTOMS: Variable, including indigestion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and painful, itchy hemorrhoids. No two stools are alike. The mouth is dry but there is no thirst and a craving for, or aversion to, rich foods that exacerbate the symptoms.
Symptoms better For: fresh air; for
gentle exercise.
Symptoms worse: For heat; for lying on the left side; in the evening; for rich, fatty foods.
