Saccharum officinale

the magic sugar

INTRODUCTION
When I prescribed Saccharum officinale for the first time to a seven year old
boy some years ago, I didn't realize that this prescription would be the
starting point for the discovery of an important remedy that has now taken a
first rank place in my practice. The picture of this first case was not clear at
all for me, but his great desire for and striking aggravation after eating
chocolate and sugar producing an enormous aggressiveness, decided me to
prescribe Saccharum officinale and it had a marvelous effect. (see case 1)
Gradually the essence of Saccharum officinale was disclosed to me and I was
impressed by the impact that this remedy proved to have in the treatment of
my patients.

The following case was really a beautiful one and helped me a lot to
understand the deeper mechanisms of the Saccharum patient.

Example 1: Ralf was a three years old boy, had had eczema for two months
on the lower abdomen, scrotum, penis, groins and inner side of the thighs. He
had gentle character, was cheerful and had much fantasy. The most striking
was his insatiable desire for sweets and chocolate. He had an aversion to
warm food and vegetables from his first 18 months on. He had much
salivation during the day. He got breast feeding during six weeks only
because of an inflammation of the mother's breast. He sucked a dummy
during the night, he didn't suck his fingers during the day. He was irritable
after waking in the morning, until having taken his breakfast. He had fear of
the dark and a large fontanelle closing slowly. He walked at 18 months. I gave
him Sacch.off XMK. After three days he woke up in the middle of the night,
weeping sadly and wished to sleep with his mother and asked her to hold him
tightly in her arms. Every time she released him he woke up asking her to
hold him again. The next night the same scenario took place. Then two weeks
later his excessive desire for sweets was completely gone. He had less

salivation, didn't need his dummy any more and his irritability before
breakfast was gone as also his fear of the dark. He started to eat vegetables
and his eczema disappeared slowly in three months time.
Studying Saccharum officinale as a new arrow on the homeopathic bow I was
impressed by the influence that sugar proves to have on our health.
Nowadays everybody is convinced of the nuisance of smoking, abuse of
alcohol and drugs, but sugar is hardly suspected as a toxic agent, except for
causing overweight. Nevertheless the great Dr. Constantine Hering warned us
already a century ago that a large proportion of chronic diseases of women
and children are developed by using too much sugar (W. Boericke). At that
time sugar was already known as a antiseptic, combating infection and
petrification. It has a solvent action on fibrin and stimulates secretion by the
intense osmotic changes induced, thus rinsing out the wound with serum
from within outward, favoring healing (W. Boericke). Also leg ulcers and
myocardial degeneration were known to be caused by the use of sugar. It was
given as a nutrient and tonic in wasting disorders, anaemia, neurasthenia,
etc., increasing weight and power (W. Boericke).
In my observation Saccharum officinale is an important remedy for all kinds
of infections: sinusitis, chronic rhinitis and otitis, with foul, purulent
discharges. Probably the excessive use of sugar in our modern society (about
60 kilograms a person a year in the USA and 45-50 in Europe) is responsible
for a lot of chronic infections and chronic diseases as Dr. Hering said. It
provokes also a degeneration of blood vessels resulting in bad circulation and
arterio-sclerosis. Many behavioral problems in children with extreme
aggressiveness and restlessness are refutable to the use of sugar. (see later)

THE ESSENCE
After a continued and still deeper experience with this remedy (2 years after
the publications of this article in the Homeopathic Links 3/95) I would define
the essence of this remedy as: lack of self love, leading to fear not to deserve
his mothers love and to fear to be abandoned by her. I noticed that in
children as well as in adults this fear to be abandoned initially is not always
expressed, but during the treatment with Saccharum this layer dissolves only
completely when this fear raises at the surface and finally disappears.
The conviction not to be worthy of the love of his parents, especially that of
the mother is a deep rooted conviction and has to be resolved step by step.
The basis of this fear is caused by a lack of self-love. Therefore the cure of
this layer means also increase in self-love. Self-love is in some way the basis
of love, as Jesus said: Love the others as you love yourself. If there is not
sufficient self-love man becomes easily jealous and love becomes in some

way a deal: If you love me I love you too, if you dont give me love any
more, I dont give you any more my love. Unconditional love is not
depending on this kind of conditions and to be a free lover we have to
become free of greed, jealous and the anxiety not to be loved and not to
deserve love. This is only possible if we learn to love ourselves again.
That this fear of being abandoned is mostly connected with the mother is
because the child experiences his mother as the one who is his source of
love, warmth, affection and assures his need for food and security. She caries
and rocks him during the first nine months of his terrestrial life and assures
love, affection and food during his first steps in the outer world.

THE TYPICAL SACCHARUM OFFICINALE, an example of a child and an adult

Clarke describes Saccharum children as fat children resembling Calcarea, but
in my experience most Saccharum children are thin and very pale.
Emaciation is as much an expression of a disturbed mechanism in the
assimilation of carbohydrates as obesity.

Example 2: Stephan is a three and a half year old boy with chronic ear
problems from his ten months on with diminished hearing: every year from
October to April he has chronic colds with frequent epistaxis and recurrent
otitis media and almost a chronic ear discharge. Every winter he gets tubes in
his ear drums. He is perspiring a lot, especially in his neck at night and he has
profuse salivation day and night. His mouth is always open. He has an
aggressive behavior, is quick-tempered, spitting at other children and
sometimes throwing objects, kicking or biting other children. He has a very
changeable mood. He is afraid of nothing, only as a baby he was afraid of
water and screamed loudly. He only cuddles with his mother. He walked at
one and a half year and started to speak early. He is warm, wearing shorts in
winter and walking readily on bare feet. He has an enormous need for sweets,
accepts only soft food and is very thirsty for cold drinks. He loves lemons and
eggs. He has an aversion to warm food and cooked vegetables, he loves raw
vegetables. I give him first Belladonna MK with some good results. The most
remarkable thing after Belladonna is his bad temper after waking. But with
this remedy there is not a real break through and he continues to have ear
problems from time to time. There is still a big hole is his left ear drum and
the otorhinolaryngologist is facing executing a transplantation. His character
has not really changed. He is very restless. He has to eat frequently; when he
is playing outside, he enters very often to ask for a candy. He has to eat
immediately when he wakes in the morning. He can be very aggressive after
his grandmother has given him too many candies. He is very sensitive to

pain. He never sucked his fingers and never put anything in his mouth. When
he has to leave home to go to the scouts, he is complaining of nausea and
pain in the abdomen. I give him Sacch.off XMK once a month from November
1993 on. This remedy provokes a dramatic change on every level. His ear
problems disappear completely and his left drum closes totally in two
months. He salivates much less and he closes up his mouth gradually. He is
perspiring normally again. His behavior changes greatly: he is less restless,
his temper stabilizes, and he is not aggressive any longer. He has still (five
months later) an abnormal need for sweets and cuddling, so I continue
Sacch.off XMK once every two months. Now (May 1995) he is still fine. He
never had any ear problem all that time and his behavior stayed normal, he is
much less aggressive and his anger is not out of control any more. At school
he has much better results, especially for language what was a problem
before. He still loves sweets, but there is no sickly desire as in the beginning.

Example 3: Mrs W.T. is a 55 years old married woman. She is always hungry
and has to eat frequently (every one or two hours) otherwise she trembles
and feels weak. She is nauseous if she takes sweets when hungry, even a
little bit of chocolate is too much. She has an aversion to sweets, from her
childhood on. She sucked her fingers until seven years, until she got her first
brace. She is irritable after waking in the morning until she has taken her
breakfast. As a child she had sudden fits of blind anger, she was very
aggressive with hitting and kicking. Even now she can suddenly be very
angry and can hardly control herself. She still has homesickness and has
great difficulties when taking leave of persons and objects. Last year she
cried when she changed her old car for a new one. She is very willing to help
others and pays too little attention to herself. The rest of the symptoms
indicate Carcinosin without any doubt and I hesitate whether to give first
Carcinosin and then Saccharum, but I start immediately with Saccharum off.
XMK. And then the feeling of hunger changes completely: she eats much less
and doesn't feel the need to eat between meals any more. She is feeling
much better. She can take sweets now without being nauseous.

HYPOGLYCEMIA
In my practice I found several indications for hypoglycemia or problems
related to a disturbed sugar metabolism as: ravenous appetite soon after
eating; constant appetite, never satisfied; sleeplessness ameliorated by
eating; tendency to eat frequently between meals; irresistible desire to take
sweets; strong impulse to eat on waking often because of a fainting feeling or
weakness; trembling when hungry; irritability when hungry especially on

waking, etc.
The great material cause of hypoglycemia is without any doubt the
exaggerated use of 'rapid' carbohydrates, namely of refined sugar, in our
modern nourishment. The other material causes are coffee, alcohol and
cigarettes. The caffeine in coffee, cola, tea, chocolate and cocoa stimulates
the adrenal glands to liberate adrenaline that stimulates in its turn the
release of sugar from the liver into the blood. About 70% of alcohol abusers
suffer from hypoglycemia. The sugar in the blood of smokers is also increased
after a cigarette. But there are also strong emotional causes underneath such
as lack of affection and inability to handle affection.
Hypoglycemia strongly influences our social behavior and emotional well
being. Dr. Michael Lesser stated that 67% of his psychiatric patients suffered
from hypoglycemia and several researches show that our mental and social
behavior becomes erratic, violent and antisocial under influence of
hypoglycemia. And that is what I saw in many of my patients with an
unstable sugar household, especially in children: violent fits of anger with
striking, kicking, vandalism, aggressiveness and discontentedness.
Researchers discovered that the behavior of juvenile delinquents is
ameliorated if they are put on a sugar free diet. In a study they found that
82% of a group of 106 suffered from hypoglycemia. When changing their
nutrition the majority ameliorated dramatically their social behavior.(Spiritual
nutrition and the rainbow diet; Dr. Gabriel Cousens)

THE DIFFERENT MECHANISMS OF COMPENSATION FOR LACK OF ATTENTION,

AFFECTION AND LOVE
To prescribe Saccharum officinale with success it is important to be aware of
the different mechanisms of compensation that the human being uses
frequently. First of all we have to discern the two main reactions if someone is
frustrated in his need of love and affection. Either he tries to compensate his
lack by any means or he refuses any form of affection. That is the reason why
Saccharum has so many opposite symptoms, for example insatiable appetite
with the extreme situation of boulimia or no appetite at all and sometimes a
refusal to eat resulting in anorexia. Thirst for large quantities or no thirst at
all. Great need to cuddle or refusing every contact. Exaggerated sucking of
fingers or no sucking of fingers at all, putting everything in the mouth or
never putting anything in the mouth. Sensitive to pain or almost insensitive
to pain. No appetite in the morning or ravenous appetite on waking so that he
has to eat first. Even in the same person we see sometimes these kinds of
contradictory symptoms as: gentleness alternating with a very aggressive
behavior. Cold feet, but sometimes so hot at night sticking them out of bed.

The most frequent way to compensate a lack of affection seems to be by far

the use of sweets of any kind. There is a definite link between love and
sweets and that's why we say "sweet boy or girl" "honey", "sweetheart",
"sugar", etc. In our 20th century sweets play an enormous role in
compensating our deep and even superficial frustrations. That's why we find
in the Saccharum-patient many symptoms related to food desires and
aversions, appetite and eating. The most frequent is naturally the
exaggerated desire for any kind of sweets, especially chocolate, licorice,
pastries and biscuits. The increased desire for sweets or increased appetite
before menses and the desire for sweets after dinner is also strong in
Saccharum. The appetite increasing during the day is typical, no appetite at
all in the morning after rising and increased appetite in the afternoon and
especially in the evening, with tendency to take candies, while there is not
such a need during the day. Another group is more or less subject to
hypoglycemia with a strong need to eat first on waking and a tendency to eat
frequently between the meals, not feeling well if the meal is postponed a
little. They feel weak, trembling, empty in the stomach and dizzy or get a
headache if they cannot eat at regular hours. They feel weak and irritable in
the morning, have difficulty to activate themselves and feel generally better
after breakfast. Though the insatiable appetite is more frequently met in
Saccharum patients the lack of appetite is also seen; then there is no feeling
of hunger at all at any time and there can be also a total absence of thirst,
but more frequently the Saccharum patient is very thirsty.
In children we see more clearly the compensation mechanisms. The most
important are: a great need for cuddling, the exaggerated sucking of fingers
and the biting of nails, (in adult life transformed in a uncontrollable need to
smoke), putting everything in the mouth and touching everything. I often
could verify the relation between the sucking of fingers and the inveterate
habit of smoking, many patients admitting that they changed the first for the
latter. I was amazed to find so many adults who were still sucking their
fingers. Many people smoke to reduce or to control their weight, because
they have experienced already that stopping smoking means eating more,
especially sweets.
Another mechanism frequently met is loquacity, most patients being not
aware of their secret demand for attention.
Children still have a lot of possibilities for asking attention: doing pranks,
asking again and again for something or doing things that are forbidden,
asking constantly for attention when the parents talk to someone else and
being jealous of their brother or sister. All means can be used by the child
that needs attention: being restless, shouting, fighting, crying, having pain,
being ill, etc.

In adults these mechanisms can persist or change to more adult-like forms as

the exaggerated need to possess objects or to have new things with an
everlasting feeling of dissatisfaction. Also the incapacity to have a deep and
lasting relation with someone, seeking again and again for a new love affair,
but never finding what he is really seeking for. He is like a perforated bucket,
you can put all the water you want in it, but the bucket will empty itself
constantly. There is a fundamental and profound frustration from early life
that cannot be satisfied at the level of actual life. Only a deep transformation
and cure can help such a person and homeopathy can be a very effective tool
for it.

THE RESTLESS AND BEHAVIORAL CHILD (ADHD)

The main rubric for this kind of problem children in the repertory of Kent is
'restless children' and during my practice I became more and more convinced
that some important remedies were failing in this rubric and that a number of
this children couldn't be cured because for some reason our homeopathic
experience for this kind of problems was still insufficient. Sure, there were
already a lot of additions, as Tuberculinum, Bufo, Mercurius, Rhus-tox,
Veratrum album and some others, and from my own experience I added
Belladonna, much resembling Tuberculinum and also Stramonium with the
typical anxiety at night, Carcinosin in oppressed children at school and acting
out at home and Cuprum metallicum (see publication in the Homeopathic
Links 2/92), but there was still a group of very restless and behavioral
children that didn't fit in any of these remedies. With Saccharum officinale
this rubric has gained an important remedy. In my practice Saccharum
became even the most important remedy for those children and with this
remedy I got the feeling we have practically all the tools we need to cure this
group of children. (see example 2, case 1, 3, 7 and 9 and the children rubric
of the synthesis.) I will describe one more short example of such a child.

Example 4: Karl is a nine year old boy and extremely restless; he is constantly
asking for attention, talks continuously; he is jealous about his twin brother;
he has fear of new situations, of unknown things; he is very attached to
objects and as a little child he touched everything; he fears to miss
something; his mother had diabetes during the pregnancy; he is very
obstinate. He got Saccharum officinale XMK once every four weeks. After
each medication he touches everything and is extremely restless during a
couple of days and then his behavior changes completely. He no longer has
the need to compete with others and stops comparing himself with others; he
is asking less attention when someone else is in the limelight; he is much

more quiet; he is even satisfied to encourage his twin brother in his bicycle
racing without any jealousy; music calms him a lot. When he doesn't take his
Saccharum for some months the first signs of relapse are his restless hands
and the sucking of his fingers. Now he takes an XMK every six weeks and is
fine.
A prolonged experience with this remedy in this kind of children permits me
to say actually that most of the ADHD-children (Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorders) are Saccharum-children. This means that this kind of
disorders mostly are a problem with the carbohydrate metabolism, at least at
the physical level, and that the use of sugar and carbohydrates in general
attributes largely to the aggravation of this phenomenon. Therefore we see
also digestive problems in these children, often constipation and flatulence
and pain in the abdomen.

All this doesnt mean that the whole problem can be solved by a sugar free
diet, because with this the frustration of the underlying lack of love, attention
and self-love becomes even worse, but in the beginning dramatic
ameliorations can often be observed. Therefore it is the work of skillful
homeopaths to treat this kind of disorders on a much deeper level and to
bring peace again in the whole family. A sugar free diet is then most of time
not necessary and the tremendous desire for sweets is spontaneously
becoming less and less.

OBESITY AND LOSING WEIGHT

Most obese people are spending their life time in trying desperately to lose
weight. The problem however is a profound affective frustration underneath
the exaggerated need to eat or to take sweets. The body consciousness
having a deep fear of lack of affection in the future, retains and transforms
every gram in fat, because that is the way the body assures his reserves.
When people with overweight are following a starvation diet they get so
frustrated after some weeks of heroic fasting, that after having lost five or ten
kilograms they start to compensate the frustrating diet and regain their initial
weight in some months or even quicker. Only the person with a very strong
will can succeed such an enterprise by assuming her frustrations and by
continuously taking care of her weight. With Saccharum we can help this
patient more efficiently and profoundly in treating the underlying problem,
but in about half the number of patients treated with Saccharum the
exaggerated desire for food (if present) is not cured and the source of this
problem has to be found on a still deeper level. The remedy for this deeper
level is Lac maternum (mothers milk),(see publication Lac maternum and

mother earth)(see example 3, case 4, 5, 8, 10 and 11)

JEALOUSY AND FORSAKEN FEELING

One of the reasons to be jealous seems to be the impossibility to share love
or attention. E.g. this can be the case in an eldest child who was the only
child for some years and then had to share his mother and father with a
sibling who seems to attract all the attention of the parents, which causes a
profound doubt about his parents' love for him. This feeling can be fixed and
cause much trouble later in relationships when all the attention the partner
gives to other people causes the feeling that it is taken away from him or her
and that there is not enough. This feeling is based on the fear to be
abandoned that is the essence of Saccharum. The child has a tremendous
fear to be separated from the mother and follows her constantly, even
desires to stay in physical contact with her and wants to be carried, hold her
hand or sit on her lap and suck his fingers, remembering and compensating
the intimate contact of the mothers breast. If he wakes up in the night,
anxious, screaming for his parents, he often can be consoled only when he
can lie in the bed of his parents making close physical contact with the
mother, as several mothers told me it was 'as if he or she wants to creep in
me'. Of course this behavior closely resembles Stramonium. School is a real
tragedy for these children, some of them only are at ease if they have asked
again and again to their mother if she will surely come back to pick him or
her up. Often they refuse to play on the street with other children or to go for
purchases because they really feel insecure when the mother is not in sight.
Saccharum can liberate these children.

DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS
Saccharum officinale is made from the fresh juice of the sugar-cane,
containing minerals and trace elements as Calcium, Copper, Phosphor,
Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Iron, Sulphur, Zinc and Chromium.
The resemblance that struck me the most was with Belladonna, Calcarea
carbonica, Carcinosin, Chamomilla, Cuprum metallicum, Lachesis,
Lycopodium, Opium, Stramonium and Tuberculinum. Further we have to
differentiate the group of restless children with behavioral problems coping
with Belladonna, Carcinosin, Chamomilla, Cuprum metallicum, Stramonium
and Tuberculinum.
Belladonna has in common with Saccharum officinale: the congestion of the
head and flushes, the restlessness, the aversion for warm food, vegetables

and milk, the aggressiveness with striking and kicking; the waking from
fright, the bed wetting, the maliciousness; the irritability on waking, the
impulse to touch everything, the changeable mood and defiance. Both are
important remedies for flushes during the menopause. (see example 2 and
case 9)
The resemblance with Calcarea carbonica is logical, because sugar is
interacting with the calcium metabolism. The common symptoms are:
obesity; tiredness; obstinacy; aversion to warm food; desire for sweets, icecream and milk; complaints before menses: sadness, irritability, pain in
mammae, swelling of mammae; congestion of head; cold feet becoming too
warm in bed; perspiration of head, especially at night; constipation.
Chamomilla can be difficult to differentiate because of: the violence, the
violent anger; the kicking and striking; the irritability; the sensitiveness to
pain; the extreme thirst; the desire to be carried; the restlessness; the
profuse sweating at night.
The differential diagnosis with Stramonium can be very difficult because
Saccharum officinale has almost the same forsaken feeling with enormous
anxiety and fear of being alone at night obliging the parents to stay with the
child until it sleeps (again). Other common symptoms are: clinging to the
mother; ceaseless talking; extreme thirst; violence and violent rage;
painlessness of usually painful complaints; jealousy; restlessness; running
about. (see case 13)
Another differential diagnosis to make is with Lachesis. The common
symptoms with Saccharum are: loquacity; jealousy; homesickness;
depression in the morning and excitement in the evening; aversion to be
touched; flushes of heat during the menopause; sensitive to pain. Enough to
make a choice difficult.
The Saccharum patient can be sometimes very tense with cramps and
difficult to differentiate with Cuprum metallicum. The common symptoms are:
aversion of being touched; lassitude; sensitiveness to pain; restlessness;
coldness of the feet; timidity; dictatorial behavior; amelioration by being
carried about; irritability; destructiveness; night terrors; loquacity. (see article
on Cuprum metallicum published in the Homeopathic Links 2/92)
The Lycopodium patient is another to be considered. When you are sure that
you have a Lycopodium patient and the remedy doesn't work, there is a great
chance that the remedy is Saccharum. I had several of such cases that
proved to be Saccharum. The resemblance is striking: dictatorial behavior,
want of self confidence, need of approbation, fear of undertaking new things,
oversensitiveness to pain, irritability and sadness in the morning on waking,
desire for sweets, insatiable appetite, defiance, disobedience, insolence,

unrefreshed sleep, restlessness while sitting. (see case 7)

Tuberculinum bovinum has the following common symptoms: alternating
mood; malicious, aggressive and destructive; irritable morning on waking;
dissatisfied; profuse perspiration during sleep; chronic colds; desire for
sweets, salt and milk; thirst for large quantities; ravenous appetite; restless,
impulse to run; capricious; malicious; irritable; striking; obstinate; anxiety at
night; bed wetting.
It was rather surprising to me to find Opium as a remedy close to Saccharum.
The most striking common symptoms are: insensitive to pain; irresolution;
open mouth; obstipation with hard balls. (see case 8)
Purposely I kept Carcinosin for the end, because it has its own history. When
the picture of Saccharum became more and more clear to me I was struck by
its likeness to Carcinosin. I had several cases with an almost complete picture
of Carcinosin and Saccharum together. I decided at that moment not to take
up the specific symptoms of Carcinosin in the picture of Saccharum, fearing
to confuse both pictures. And that was a lucky choice. Much later I
understood that these remedies follow one after another. During quite a long
time I was doubting about the sequence, should Carcinosin always be given
first or could Saccharum be given before Carcinosin if the Saccharum picture
was more prominent. I had a lot of Carcinosin patients with whom there was
no longer a progression in their cure and that developed a picture that I now
recognize as the Saccharum picture. But giving in some cases Saccharum
first almost invariably after the solution of that layer the essence of
Carcinosin appeared, namely a want of self confidence came up, even in
persons where the Carcinosin picture initially proved to be almost completely
absent.

PHYSICAL COMPLAINTS
The most striking physical symptoms in the Saccharum picture are painful
ovulation; brown discharge before the menses during some days; swelling
and painful breasts before the menses; nausea, flatus, distension of
abdomen; tingling in the extremities, especially in arms and fingers and
sometimes also in the lower extremities; panaritium; warts; sinusitis;
flatulence; constipation; hot feet; dryness of skin, dry and somewhat white
spots in the face or on arms or elsewhere, dryness of hair, nails, hands, feet,
inner side of nose, eyes, mouth, throat, vagina and stool. To indicate their
importance and frequency I used the same system as in the repertory.