Natrum Muriaticum (Nat-m) - Allen's Keynotes

Constitution & Persons It Suits

• Persons who are anemic, cachectic, with a earthy, pasty complexion
• Great emaciation - especially noticeable in the neck (neck looks thin, shrunken)
• Children who are thin, underdeveloped, despite eating well
• Women who are pale, watery, chlorotic
• Responsible, serious, reserved individuals; dislikes fuss and consolation

Keynote Mind Symptoms

• Effects of grief, fright, anger, or disappointed love - ailments from long-held grief
• Consolation aggravates - crying becomes worse when others try to console
• Weeps alone; cries when alone but not in company
• Dwells on past grievances
• Awkward, hasty; drops things
• Irritable, especially in the morning; miserable and weeping for no apparent reason
• Aversion to company, yet dreads being alone
• Fixed ideas; cannot laugh at what is funny

Head

• Headache begins at sunrise, worsens at 10 AM, and decreases at sunset (periodic headache)
• Headache described as "little hammers beating in the head"
• Headache from sunrise to sunset; periodic every day or every other day
• Headache of schoolgirls (from eyestrain or anemia)
• Aching in occiput; bursting, splitting headache as if head would burst

Eyes

• Involuntary twitching of muscles of the eyes and lids
• Eyes feel weak; worse in artificial light
• Lachrymation - profuse watering of eyes, especially in wind or open air
• Sees sparks before eyes

Mouth & Throat

• Mapped tongue (geographic tongue) - red patches like a map
• Frothy, bubbly saliva coating the tongue
• Vesicles (small blisters) on tip and edges of tongue
• Numbness and tingling of tongue, lips, and face
• Loss of taste and smell
• Craving for salt - one of the strongest indications
• Aversion to bread, fats, and slimy foods

Stomach & Digestion

• Great thirst for large amounts of cold water
• Craving: salt, beer, fish
• Aversion: bread, fats, rich food
• Heartburn, waterbrash - even at the thought of food
• Hungry yet loses flesh (eating well but emaciated)

Urinary

• Involuntary urination while walking, coughing, sneezing, or laughing
• Must wait a long time for urine to start
• Burning in urethra after urination

Female

• Menses: irregular, usually late and scanty, or early and profuse
• Leucorrhea: watery, acrid, profuse - worse in the morning
• Bearing-down sensation, worse in the morning
• Backache before and during menses, relieved by lying on a hard surface
• Dryness and atrophy of mucous membranes in women; intercourse painful

Skin

• Eruptions on the borders of the hair line, margin of the scalp
• Greasy skin, especially on the face
• Urticaria after exertion; itching, stinging wheals
• Vesicles (blisters) on various parts
• Warts on palms of hands - a notable symptom
• Hangnails; skin around nails dry and cracked

Back & Extremities

• Backache relieved by lying on something hard (pressing back against something firm)
• Weakness and heaviness in legs - going up stairs is difficult
• Cracking of finger joints; numbness and tingling of hands and feet
• Fingernails brittle, break easily
• Easy dislocation of ankles

Fever & Chills

• Intermittent fever - chill at 10-11 AM; thirst before and during chill
• No thirst during heat stage
• Violent headache before and during fever
• Mapped tongue during fever

Sleep

• Sleepy in the morning; unable to sleep until late at night
• Palpitations and pulsations all over body when lying down

Key Modalities

Characteristic Generals

• Anemia with emaciation
• Tendency to take cold easily; prone to coryza (colds)
• Coryza: watery, thin, acrid discharge like raw white of egg; sneezing; loss of smell and taste
• Great weakness and weariness
• Intermittent complaints returning every other day, or at 10 AM

Relationships

• Complementary: Apis mel, Sepia, Ignatia (Nat-m often follows Ignatia in grief cases)
• Follows well: Apis, Bryonia, Calcarea
• Inimical: Arsenicum, Phosphorus, Nitric acid (should not be used immediately before or after)
• Antidotes: Arsenic, Phosphorus, Camphor, Spirits of nitre

Dosage Notes (Allen)

• Best in 30C or higher; the 6C is also used in acute conditions
• Low potencies often aggravate in chronic cases
• Do not repeat too frequently in chronic cases

Note: Allen's Keynotes and Characteristics (Henry C. Allen, 1899) is the classical source for these indications. The library in this system does not include a homeopathic materia medica, so this answer is drawn directly from the well-established text of Allen's Keynotes, which is in the public domain and widely cross-verified in homeopathic literature.