MM Monday: Nat Carb

Have you ever marveled at the quiet strength of the gentle soul, or chuckled at the odd quirks that make us uniquely human? This week on Materia Medica Monday, we immerse ourselves in the world of Natrum Carbonicum, or Nat Carb, a homeopathic remedy synonymous with the soft-hearted, optimistic individuals among us. The kind who find a silver lining no matter the cloud, and yet sometimes inexplicably recoil from certain people. Bri and I share a hearty laugh over these peculiarities and I can't help but see a reflection of myself in the Nat Carb persona, especially when it comes to those unexplained aversions.

The conversation turns poignant as we thread the needle between life's practical demands—like ensuring our cars hum along smoothly—and sustaining the joy and faith that bolster us through thick and thin. It's a heartfelt testament to finding happiness and resolve in our beliefs, a reminder that faith can be an unwavering source of strength, even when thunderstorms, literal or metaphorical, loom on the horizon. So, pour yourself a soothing cup of tea and join us for a heartfelt exploration of how the everyday can be a source of joy and healing.

FIND ME!

Chapters

• 0:00 Nat Carb Remedy in Homeopathy
• 14:39 Finding Joy in Life Despite Challenges

Transcript

Bri Hurlburt 0:00  

Welcome back to Homeopathy at Home with Melissa. Hey, Melissa. 

Melissa Crenshaw 0:05

Hey, Bri.  I’m excited to do a Materia Medica Monday with you tonight.

Bri Hurlburt  0:08  

Yeah, it's been a little bit.  By the time this comes out it will have been several weeks since we've done a Materia Medica Monday. I have my Materia Medica.

Melissa Crenshaw  0:20  

Nice. Awesome.

Bri Hurlburt  0:24  

Tonight we're going to talk about Nat carb

Melissa Crenshaw  0:27  

Natrum carbonicum.  Nat carb is gentle, mild mannered.  I'm just going to jump right into the keynotes. Usually very kind people. Dignity.  Slightly held back, in a sense.  They can be self-contained, so if they're troubled, they don't normally tell anyone and they keep their troubles to themselves. They rarely get visibly upset or annoyed. They like to help other people. They're good natured people.  Cheerful. They can be upbeat, smiley people who can usually find a solution or find some good in a situation. Any situation, however bad, they'll look for the up side.  They can find it, focus on it, see if we can rescue something out of this bad situation. 

They're very optimistic, finding the silver lining in any cloud. They can present a cheerful face when they're actually quite down, not wanting to trouble anyone with their woes. This is not just a front.  They're usually quite cheerful people. In the rubrics it talks about “in a joyous, sociable mood.”  Extreme animation with great talkativeness. Ailments from excessive joy, whatever that is.

Bri Hurlburt  1:53  

I have never heard of that, but okay.

Melissa Crenshaw  1:56  

My cheeks hurt from excessive joy. Cheerful and happy. They can be very sympathetic and compassionate. It makes them feel valued when they're sympathetic, and compassionate. They can see when somebody needs help.  They can see when something needs to be done and they're the very first person for that job because they know they can do it, they know they can make you feel better, and then they know they can feel valued in that. 

They're often attracted to caring professions. They like to look after people and don't necessarily want anything in return. They never demand anything of anybody else. If they were feeling down, doing something nice for somebody else would cheer them up and would make them feel better.  Quite happy being in the background, as long as they feel needed, valued, and that they have a good purpose in life. 

They're very sensitive.  Sensitive when there's something wrong, when somebody's not feeling well, with any disharmony.  They don't like bad atmospheres.  They're sensitive to atmospheric pressure. An odd thing about Nat carb is occasionally they can take a blistering dislike to certain people for no apparent reason.

Bri Hurlburt  3:31  

This sounds like somebody.  Not me.

Melissa Crenshaw  3:34  

I'm laughing because … I'm just going to pause here. I'm laughing because I'm sitting here, I'm reading this and I'm like, “This is me. Oh my gosh. I've never taken Nat carb.  I can't believe I've never taken Nat carb.” And then Bri says, “This is you.”

Bri Hurlburt  3:53  

I'm listening too like, “When is Melissa going to be like, ‘I am Nat carb’?” Except then it got to that part where you don't like somebody for no reason. I mean, maybe?

Melissa Crenshaw  4:04  

I mean, I can do that sometimes. I'm like, “God,” and then I start praying like, “Lord, why? She's never done anything to me. Why do I not like her?” And I feel bad. I feel like what is wrong with me? Why don't I like her?

Bri Hurlburt  4:16  

Like why would you feel that? And the sensitivity to bad atmospheres. I mean, just the whole stuff in the beginning.

Melissa Crenshaw  4:23  

It's really uncommon … For those of you that love me a lot and think that I just love everybody, I do. It's really uncommon for me to dislike someone for no reason, but it has happened in the past and it bothers me when I do that.  But here's the other thing. Pretty much everybody that reads a remedy, for a lot of remedies, we can say, “Oh, that's me. That's me. That's me.” And then we think we need every remedy.  But this is like … I was like, “Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness.”

Bri Hurlburt  5:00  

This is a pretty big one.  At least these keynotes here.

Melissa Crenshaw  5:04  

Yeah. Anyway, they can really just dislike somebody for no apparent reason.  It might be a stranger and they just don't like the way they look, but normally they're very tolerant and forgiving. Every so often just a strong aversion arises in the person, and sometimes may develop an aversion to members of their own family. Sometimes women have an aversion to men.  They may be father figures or domineering figures or authority figures. It can sometimes feel separate or slightly estranged from people. They like to be connected, but the Natrums in general, so Nat mur, Nat sulph, Nat carb … The Natrums in general can sometimes feel a bit disconnected. They can feel detached and isolated. Like most of the Natrums, can easily feel rejected, and feeling needed or wanted can satisfy some of that underlying, slightly rejected feeling. 

Let me just go and take my Nat carb right now.

Bri Hurlburt  6:20  

If I ever knew of a constitutional remedy, I don't even know if this is one of those, this would be it.  This is it.  

Melissa Crenshaw  6:31  

So funny. 

All right, let me talk about the fears of Nat carb.  Maybe I'm getting ready to change my mind. Fear of man, I do not have.  A sense of dread with a fear of misfortune. The Natrums in general have a fear of robbers.  Fear of thunderstorms.  I have none of those fears, though.  Maybe I'm released from Nat carb.  No, I'm just kidding. Remember, you don't have to match a picture exactly. When it matches closely, we can use it. 

It's a very sensitive remedy. They may be sensitive to noise, atmosphere, thunder,  rubbing (which ameliorates.) Sensitive to strangers, music, and to the sun. They're generally chilly, but they don't like heat. It's a big remedy for heatstroke. Not so much sunstroke in terms of being burned, but overheated and unwell from being overheated. 

Bri Hurlburt  7:28  

I honestly can't believe this.

Melissa Crenshaw  7:29  

Worse for strong sunshine.  Worse from heat.  Can have weakness from over study. I don't study too much. 

Bri Hurlburt 7:41

Never.

Melissa Crenshaw 7:42

Digestion.  A big physical feature of Nat carb is the digestion.  They can have a lot of stomach digestive problems, bloating, flatulence, dyspeptic. Very sensitive to milk.  Stomach upset, disordered by milk.  Sour reflux.  May have headaches from heat stroke or from heat of the sun. 

There may be a history of never having been well since heatstroke.  They may have herpes.  May have eczema that's worse for milk. They like food.  I love food.  Often hungry but have a weak digestion.  May suffer from food allergies. 

The top 10 for Nat carb are gentle, kind, compassionate, cheerful; aversion to certain people, strangers or family members; forsaken, estranged feeling; worse for heat, which is the biggest keynote probably, as I sit here with my fan. Can you see it? Okay, sorry.  Particularly worse for sunshine and maybe even a heat stroke. Digestion is one of the most important things in this remedy. Acid rumbling, bloating, belching–all the signs of disordered stomach. Weakness, weak from heat.  Weak from over study.  Weak ankles, constantly sprain or turn their ankles. Weakness of digestion. Milk is the biggest food aggravation and general aggravation and not great on dairy. Worse for thunderstorms.  Sensitive to atmospheres. Worse at its approach.  Worse for thunder.  Fear of thunder.  “Must hide in the cupboard” is the rubric in the Materia Medica. 

Bri, do you want to add anything from the Materia Medica?

Bri Hurlburt  9:48  

Yeah, so I'm going to flip through so this won't be in any certain order, except the order that it is in the Materia Medica. One of the things that you just mentioned now but hadn't before was the weak ankles. That is a big one for Nat carb. Headaches, heartburn, heatstroke. Worse for milk. Let's see.  Weak memory, which may be that fatigue, like the weakness. Weak memory. Very self conscious. 

Let's see.  What else?  Irritability during fever. That's an interesting little one, maybe when they're sick. Sensitive to the presence of certain persons.  Sensitivity to music.  Gas and bloating. Extreme sensitivity to electrical changes, like thunderstorms.  I think that's why they're sensitive to thunderstorms. 

What else did you not already say? I actually think you covered most of what was in here. It can be good for heart palpitations, especially when accompanied by indigestion.  Worse from heat. Worse from milk.  Worse sun exposure.  

Catarrh.  Post nasal catarrh.  Bad odor of nasal secretions.  I do get that.  I don't know if anybody else has that. I think that's it. Everything else, you pretty much covered it. That was a really good overview of Nat carb.  

It can be a good candida remedy. I know that's one that lots of people worry about. Maybe if you fit the picture really well, and there's candida, it could be a good place to start. Otherwise, I think that was great.

Melissa Crenshaw  11:53  

How funny.  How funny. I planned Nat carb, but I didn't read it ahead of time. I just knew I've got my notes here. I'm going to go by my notes. And then I'm just like … 

Bri Hurlburt  12:08  

You were probably six bullets in and I'm like, “This sounds a lot like Melissa.” I do know that we can tend to do that, but this is almost … Besides the fears.  I will give you that. You don't really live … You're not a fearful person of many things.  So, thank you guys.

Melissa Crenshaw  12:31  

Yeah, thanks for listening and paying attention. I'm just seriously going to get off of here and go see what potency of Nat carb I have. 

Bri Hurlburt  12:41  

And you know what is interesting? This was just the thought I had. Melissa, you're really sensitive to remedies, and Nat carb is a very sensitive person. 

Melissa Crenshaw  12:55  

Yep, yep.  I've been called too sensitive many times. But you can't see that on me because I'm all joyful and happy. 

Bri Hurlburt  13:03  

That’s when I was like, “That’s Melissa,”  Like even underneath. And it's truly not fake, which I think was something I thought about you too. It's not like you're manufacturing this to be like, “I'm fine,” when you want to cry. 

Melissa Crenshaw 13:14

Right.  Yes.

Bri Hurlburt 13:15

You truly have a very joyful demeanor.  Even if there are things going on, you're like, “Oh, I'm good. There's so much to be happy about.”

Melissa Crenshaw  13:22  

And you know, I always give glory to God for that. I'm like, “What would I do if I didn't know the Lord?” You can't be joyful through a lot of the hard things that I've been through and still be joyful without the Lord.  But that's what I was just going to say.  I'm not walking around offended and mad. I have a lot of stuff going on, but I really seriously am happy.

Bri Hurlburt  13:49  

Yeah, it's amazing. Well, you need to go check on Nat carb.  

Melissa Crenshaw 13:54

I am.

Bri Hurlburt 13:55

Take some.  Thank you guys for joining us again for Materia Medica Monday. This was a really great one.

Melissa Crenshaw  14:02  

Nice and easy and fast.  We'll see you next time.