# Spongia Tosta (HMT)

## Remedy Classification
- **Type:** Remedy
- **Alternative Names:** Roasted Sponge
- **Miasm:** Tubercular Miasm
- **Temperament:** Neutral
- **Aggravation Time:** Neutral/Anytime

## Keynote Indications
This is a soft and porous sponge type of marine life.  It usually clings
to the rocks and stones in the sea.  Once detached or severed, it settles
to a new stony surface and starts gr owing rapidly.  Thus a new sponge
colony forms.  When dead, it floats on the surface of the sea.  Some
people pick it up from there and sell it to make their living. On
squeezing a sponge loses its water, which it reabsorbs on the release
of pressure.  This quality of sponge is permanent.  Even if left as such
for hundred years, it keeps its quality.  The Sponge is of great
domestic use, and besides this, it ha s been used in many remedies in a
roasted form.

The homoeopathic remedy prepared from roasted sponge is useful in
many diseases.  Its use is mostly related to asthmatic bronchitis and
heart problems.  Cardiac asthma / cough is a condition in which the
muscles of the heart become weak, swollen and flabby.  The resultant
failure of the heart muscles ca uses water logging in the lungs
(pulmonary congestion), leading to shortness of breath.  Spongia is the
best remedy for this condition.  In this type of cough, the breathing
sounds like the sound of a saw.  Spo ngia definitely benefits the cough
arising from failure of the heart.  No other remedy will be of avail in
this kind of cough.

Cardiac cough , associated with the fee ling of fear, rapid shallow
breathing and the feeling of a fai ling heart, resistant to common
remedies for asthma, will be benefited by Spongia significantly.

Spongia, by way of the associated fear, also resembles Aconite.  In
fact, fear is a very salient feature of cardiac asthma.

On waking up at night, the patient feels disorientated as to where he is
and where the door/window is.  This can happen in th e patient’s own
house, supporting further the diagnosis of Spongia.  This kind of
mental confusion  is very pronounced in Spongia, though it can
happen in other homoeopathic remedies too.  A sudden frightful
wake-up at night with anxiety is a very salient f eature of Grandiola
and Arsenic, but disorientation as to where the patient is, besides
Spongia, also present in Phosphor us, Lachesis, Carbo Veg, Glonoine,
Lycopodium and Aesculus.  Whenev er startled at night, a Spongia
patient, will be disorientated.

Spongia is also very useful in the treatment of ch ronic failure and
enlargement of the heart .  Usually, the heart once enlarged does not
return to its normal size.  S pongia is one out of many possible
homoeopathic remedies for this condition.  Rhus Tox should be
specially studied in this connec tion.  Besides Spongia, Crataegus Q
should also be used to strengthen the heart.

Spongia is by nature a hot remedy.  The patient feels very hot and
likes the open air.  The symptoms become worse in a heated room and
with touch and pressure.  It also  aggravates on movement, walking
and bending over.  A patient feels better in cold weather, except the
cough, which becomes more severe.

Spongia is also useful in the treatment of thyroid goitre .  The
thyroid gland becomes enlarged but it is not hard.  It is soft and
resilient like a sponge.  In Spongia, the glands inside the uterus  also
become swollen like a sponge.

Children whose glands are swollen and their body is flabby will
benefit from Spongia.  Some people have a double chin with soft skin
hanging down. Spongia is said to benefit them.

There is an interesting sign in Spongia i.e., the throat becomes sore
on eating sweets and candy .  Spongia 30 will he lp relieve this
condition.  Sweets must be aba ndoned during the course of the
treatment but may be tried again afte r a few days.  If the sore throat
returns, then Spongia 200 should be tried.  A Spongia patient is very
restless at night and unable to sl eep soundly.  He gets frequently
startled during sleep .  His symptoms aggravate at night.  Moreover,
he cannot sleep well during the day either.

Spongia is very useful in the treatment of pericarditis (inflammation
of the outer lining of the heart) as well as the infection of the heart
(endocarditis).

A Spongia patient becomes fatigued easily.  There is severe headache
due to increased blood flow to the head.  The discharge from the eyes
is very sticky.  The nose feels blocked, though dry.  Blisters form
inside the mouth.  The throat feels stuck with a needle, is dry and
very painful.  A hissing type of cough arises from the throat.

In Spongia, the patient feels extremely hungry a nd thirsty.  The taste
in the mouth is bitter.  Menstrua l bleeding decreases; preceded by
severe backache, increased appetite and palpitation of the heart .
The patient, during her periods, frequently wakes up at night.  The
cough can become relentless and turns into asthma.

The symptoms of Spongia aggravate on climbing the stairs and at
about midnight.  The patient feels better on coming down the stairs.

Potency: 30

## Symptoms by System