Zincum iodatum

A binary salt of zinc and iodine, prepared for homœopathic use by trituration/tincture and potentisation. The picture blends two parent archetypes: the zincic strand (nervous over-drive → exhaustion; restless, fidgety feet; twitchings; “brain-fag”) with the iodic strand (glandular hyperplasia/induration; emaciation with hunger; catarrhal–thyroid axis). Classically it suits scrofulous/tubercular children with adenoids, enlarged cervical glands, post-nasal catarrh, Eustachian blockage/otorrhœa, and laryngeal weakness; and nervous, anaemic women with fibroids/menorrhagia, thyroid swellings, and irritable exhaustion out of proportion to strength [Hale], [Clarke], [Allen], [Boericke], [Boger].

Sparse [Proving] notes (Hale et al.) enlarged by [Clinical] literature and iodide/zinc toxicology. Recurrent themes: adenoids/tonsils/goitre, post-nasal catarrh, catarrhal deafness, laryngeal hoarseness→aphonia (warm room worse, cool air better), whooping-cough sequelae, restless/fidgety feet, brain-fag, uterine fibroids with menorrhagia, and emaciation with persistent appetite [Hale], [Clarke], [Allen], [Boericke], [Boger], [Phatak].

Zincum iodatum is the gland–catarrh–nerve bridge: adenoids/tonsils/cervical chains + laryngeal weakness yoked to a zincic motor unrest (the classic fidgety feet) and iodic metabolism (hungry yet wasting). It thrives in stuffy rooms and collapses there—the remedy wants air. In women it overlays fibroid menorrhagia and thyroid irritability upon the same nervous chassis. The key equation is: warmth/stagnation/suppression → heavier glands, thicker catarrh, weaker voice, twitchier nerves; cool ventilation/flow/regular light meals → relief.

• Lymphatic–glandular: Cervical chains, tonsils, adenoids, mesenteric nodes, thyroid. Indurated, non-suppurative enlargement with catarrh; “adenoid facies,” mouth-breathing, snoring; catarrhal deafness [Clarke], [Boericke].
• E.N.T.–Respiratory: Post-nasal drip, Eustachian blockage, otorrhœa, hoarseness/aphonia, laryngeal weakness, bronchial catarrh (stuffy warm rooms aggravate; cool air ameliorates) [Clarke], [Boger].
• Female pelvis–endocrine: Uterine fibroids (bleeding, pelvic weight), subinvolution, leucorrhœa; goitre/thyroid irritability around puberty or stress [Hale], [Clarke].
• Nervous system: Over-strained mind → collapse; fidgety feet, twitchings, choreiform restlessness; insomnia of mental over-use; “cannot keep still” yet soon exhausted [Hering], [Boger].
• Nutrition/metabolism: Emaciation with good appetite; pale, thin, chilly; failure to thrive in scrofulous children [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Skin–mucosa: Chronic catarrh with crusts; acne in goitrous/adenoid adolescents; eruptions suppressed → nerves worse (zincic law) [Boger].

Driven yet depleted. Keen to learn/work but tires quickly; brain-fag—forgets words while speaking/reading; aversion to mental effort; irritable in warm rooms; restless, especially feet, must move them constantly [Hering], [Boger], [Clarke]. Anxiety about health; timid, easily daunted by tasks; children fretful at dusk, whiny, then over-tired and fitful at night. Melancholy around menses in fibroid cases; mood clears when flooding abates [Hale], [Clarke].

Restless, talks/snorts; snoring; wakes unrefreshed; dreams of school/exams; legs constantly moving; children grind teeth, toss—worse after hot baths/over-heated bed [Hering], [Clarke].

Of unfinished tasks/examinations; of choking/being unable to breathe (adenoids); falls with start and foot-jerk (zincic) [Clarke], [Hering].

A glandular–catarrhal–nervous–endocrine salt. Think adenoids/tonsils/cervical chain + post-nasal catarrh + catarrhal deafness in a restless-leg, thin, hungry child who wilts in warm rooms and revives in cool air; or a nervy, slightly goitrous woman with fibroid flooding, hoarse in heated halls, with an over-worked mind that cannot stop fidgeting until collapse. Worse warmth, confinement, mental strain, night, suppression; better cool ventilation, small meals, free discharges, gentle occupation [Clarke], [Boericke], [Hale], [Boger].

Low evening heat in catarrh; night sweats with laryngeal weakness; alternation of chill outdoors ↔ heat in rooms; sweating relieves head load slightly, not the fidgets [Clarke], [Boericke].

Chill: entering draught after warm room; Heat: stifling, can’t think/speak; Sweat: head/neck at night in children; axillary sweat pungent in adolescents with thyroid/fibroids [Clarke], [Boericke].

Dull frontal pressure with post-nasal drip; worse schoolroom heat, better open air. Catarrhal headaches with blocked nose and dull hearing. Occipito-cervical ache after long reading (neck glands enlarged, collar tight) [Clarke]. Head hot, feet cold; scalp tender if eruptions suppressed [Boger].

Asthenopia; burning, smarting, dry margins; recurrent styes/blepharitis in scrofulous children; lids puffy on waking; vision blurs after study, clears outdoors [Allen], [Clarke].

Eustachian catarrh, tinnitus with “stuffy head,” otitis media with muco-purulent otorrhœa (yellow-green), catarrhal deafness (“glue ear”); hears better in cool air, worse warm room; cervical nodes swollen along tragus/angle of jaw [Clarke], [Boericke].

Adenoids; persistent nasal obstruction, snoring, open-mouth breathing; alternating thick, yellow-green discharge with dry crusts and raw septum. Post-nasal strings; smell dulled; every cold “goes to the glands” [Clarke], [Allen], [Boger].

Pale, thin, adenoid facies (long face, dull eyes, parted lips); lower jaw tired from mouth-breathing. Glandular chain beaded; cheeks flush easily on exertion/warmth [Clarke].

Tonsillar crypts large; follicular pharyngitis; “iodic” empty hunger with saliva increase; tongue clean, tremulous on protrusion; speech tires early in warm rooms [Clarke], [Boericke].

Hypertrophied tonsils; recurrent follicular sore throats; thyroid fullness/goitre in nervous adolescents; pressure of clothing annoys. Dryness in heated halls; tickle larynx leads to cough; voice fatiguable [Clarke], [Allen].

Laryngeal irritation; hoarseness → aphonia after speaking in warm halls; tickling, teasing cough with mucus râles, worse night/warmth, better cool, fresh air; tendency to incipient laryngeal phthisis (thin, hungry, enlarged nodes, voice weak) [Clarke], [Boger], [Boericke]. Breath fetor from post-nasal drip.

Functional palpitation in warm, crowded rooms or on ascending; pulse quick, soft; chest anxiety improved by cool air and rest of voice [Clarke], [Hughes].

Short breath when room is heated/stuffy; sighing; nasal blockage enforces mouth-breathing; “cannot get enough air” indoors—revives on balcony/outside [Clarke].

Ravenous appetite with quick emptiness (Iodum); eats, then soon hungry again; despite appetite loses flesh. Desires cool, simple foods; pastry/fat aggravate acidity; warm rooms nauseate [Hughes], [Clarke].

Mesenteric nodes palpable; abdominal distension evenings from indoor sitting; flatulence and colic better stool/flatus. Constipation in desk-bound children; pale stools during catarrhal flares [Clarke], [Boericke].

Constipation (dry, knotty) alternating with morning looseness in catarrh. Enuresis/soiling tendencies in heavy sleepers with adenoids (behavioural link) [Clinical].

Pale, copious urine in nervous exhaustion; nocturnal enuresis in adenoid children; irritable bladder during fibroid flooding [Clarke], [Hale].

Hungry soon after meals; desires plain, cool foods; milk may increase mucus; warm, spiced halls/banquets = voice worse [Hughes], [Clarke].

Sexual erethism with rapid prostration—zincic pattern; seminal losses in over-studied youths with spinal weakness and restless legs [Hering], [Boger].

Core sphere.

• Fibroids with menorrhagia—early, profuse, clots, pelvic weight, sacral ache; subinvolution postpartum; leucorrhœa stringy; nervous irritability out of keeping with anaemia; warm rooms aggravate flooding; cool air steadies head/heart [Hale], [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Thyroid–cycle tie: goitrous adolescents with irregular menses; hoarse voice; palpitations climbing stairs [Clarke].
• Post-whooping-cough girls: lingering catarrh, enlarged glands, voice fatigue—Zinc-i. restores tone [Boericke].

Weakness between shoulders; lumbar–sacral ache worse standing during menorrhagia; desk posture aggravates; must shift, feet fidget; spine sensitive after study [Boericke], [Clarke].

Fidgety, restless feet—cannot keep them still; ankles/soles hot at night; twitchings; choreic shivers in tubercular children. Growing pains in shins; hands tremble on effort [Hering], [Boger]. Cold extremities with hot head.

Pale, fine, scrofulous; acne with adenoids/goitre; suppressed eruptions precede neural aggravations (zincic rule). Easy glandular congestion along neck/angle of jaw [Boger], [Clarke].

Adenoids / “Glue-ear” / Nasal obstruction (child)

• Agraphis nutans — Narrow ENT focus (adenoids, nasal obstruction); less nervous and iodic (hunger/emaciation) colour than Zinc-iod.
• Baryta-carb. — Big tonsils, developmental delay, timidity; Zinc-i. child is brighter but over-strained with fidgets.
• Calc-carb. — Flabby, sweaty head, late dentition; chilly, fat; lacks iodic emaciation with appetite and zincic restlessness.
• Tuberculinum — Recurrent colds/otitis, enlarged glands; more changeable fevers/allergy; Zinc-i. steadier ENT + nervous picture.

Laryngeal irritation / early laryngeal phthisis

• Spongia — Dry, “sawing” cough/voice; thyroid link; less post-nasal chain and cool-air amel. keynote.
• Phosphorus — Burning larynx, chest soreness, thirst for cold; hæmorrhagic tendency; glands less central.
• Drosera — Spasmodic, whoop-like cough after midnight; not the warm-room worse/cool-air better voice-fatigue profile.
• Hepar-s. — Harsh, raw, cold-air intolerant, soon suppurative; Zinc-i. is drier, glandular, nervous.

Uterine fibroids / menorrhagia

• Thlaspi-bp. — Flooding with clots, uterine soreness; haemostatic specific; lacks iodic–nervous framework.
• Fraxinus amer. — Fibroid uterus with bearing-down; pelvic organ-specific; Zinc-i. adds goitre–larynx–nerves.
• Sabina — Bright gushing with sacrum→pubes pains; strong haemorrhagic colour.
• Calc-fluor. — Fibroid/induration constitution; cool, slow, fewer catarrhal–nervous signs.
• Thyroidinum — Metabolic swings, flushes, hair/skin barometer; less adenoid/ENT chain.

Nervous exhaustion / “Fidgety feet”

• Zincum met. — Prototypic restless feet, spinal irritability, aggravation from suppressed eruptions; far less glandular/iodic.
• Zincum pic. — Brain over-strain, sexual prostration; little ENT/gland focus.
• Kali-phos. — Neurasthenic fatigue, exam funk, but not glandular–catarrhal.
• Phos-acid. — Apathy after grief/sex drain; quiet exhaustion vs Zinc-i. irritable restlessness.

Goitre / thyroid adolescence

• Iodum — Intense heat intolerance, ravenous with wasting; fewer zincic fidgets; less ENT chain.
• Spongia — Thyroid + dry croupy larynx.
• Lapis albus / Fucus — Structural goitre emphasis; less nervous/ENT colour.

• Complementary: Agraphis (adenoids/nasal obstruction), Baryta-carb. (tonsillar hypertrophy), Thlaspi/Fraxinus (fibroid haemorrhage), Iodum (iodic metabolism) [Clarke], [Hale], [Boericke].
• Follows well: Iodum when emaciation/hunger persist but glands/ENT/nerves remain; Baryta-carb. after quinsy leaves large tonsils with catarrh [Clarke].
• Precedes well: Tuberculinum to open blocked scrofulous cases; Calc-fluor. where induration dominates after catarrh eases [Kent], [Boger].
• Antidotes (functional): Nux-v. for indoor-heat/mental-overwork aggravations; Camph. for iodide over-reaction [Hering], [Hughes].

• Child triad: Adenoids + catarrhal deafness + restless/fidgety feet (snoring, open mouth, dull in class, better outdoors) → Zinc-iod.
• Schoolroom headache: Frontal, dull, with post-nasal drip in warm, stale air; clears outside.
• Voice cases: Hoarse/aphonic after speaking indoors; voice holds in cool, moving air.
• Fibroids: Pelvic weight + early, profuse menses with clots in a nervy, slightly goitrous woman; larynx and glands sensitive to heat.
• Dosing (classical guides):
  • Adenoids/ENT chain: 6C–30C once–twice daily for short runs, then space.
  • Laryngeal irritation / warm-room hoarseness: 6C–30C every 3–6 h during flares → space.
  • Fibroids/menorrhagia: 6C–30C 1–2×/day between periods; 30C–200C at wider intervals if whole picture is clear.
  • Watch for zincic aggravation (twitch/fidget spike) or iodic overshoot (too hot, too hungry): reduce frequency, don’t abandon.

Mind

• Brain-fag; study aggravates; irritable in warm room; restlessness of feet. — [Hering], [Clarke], [Boger].

E.N.T. / Glands

• Adenoids; mouth-breathing; snoring; catarrhal deafness; enlarged cervical glands. — [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Tonsils, chronic hypertrophy; follicular pharyngitis. — [Allen], [Clarke].
• Thyroid enlarged (adolescents); collars annoy. — [Clarke].

Larynx / Chest

• Hoarseness → aphonia in warm rooms; better cool air; tickling cough with mucus râles (night). — [Clarke], [Boericke], [Boger].
• Whooping-cough—prolonged convalescence; glands enlarged. — [Boericke].

Female

• Fibroids with menorrhagia and clots; pelvic weight; subinvolution. — [Hale], [Clarke].
• Menses too early and too profuse; nervous irritability. — [Boericke].

Generalities

• Worse warmth of room, mental exertion, night; better open, cool air, after eating; worse suppression of discharges. — [Boger], [Clarke].
• Emaciation with good appetite in scrofulous children. — [Clarke].

Hale, E. M. — New Remedies: Clinical and Pharmacological: Zinc iodide in fibroids, glandular enlargements, laryngeal weakness.
Hering — The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica: zincic restlessness; nervous aggravations; suppression links.
Allen, T. F. — Encyclopædia of Pure Materia Medica: provings/clinical extracts—ENT catarrh, glands, larynx.
Clarke, J. H. — A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica: adenoids, catarrh, goitre, laryngeal irritation, fibroids; cool-air modalities.
Boericke, W. — Pocket Manual of Homœopathic Materia Medica: keynotes—glands, adenoids, laryngeal catarrh, fibroids, restless feet.
Boger, C. M. — Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica: modalities—warm room worse, open air better; nervous–glandular cross-lines.
Hughes, R. — A Manual of Pharmacodynamics: iodides pharmacology; zincic nervous tendencies.
Kent, J. T. — Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica & Repertory: miasmatic framing; zincum family links.
Tyler, M. L. — Homœopathic Drug Pictures: catarrhal–glandular children with nervous overlay.
Phatak, S. R. — Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines: concise rubrics—adenoids, catarrh, goitre, fibroids, zincum restlessness.