Mr. I. C., a 60 year old male patient was brought to us had complaints of breathlessness and cough, gradually increasing in intensity over the past 40 years, having daily episodes now.

The patient says his complaints began when he was 15 years old; then he had chilled beverages post tonsillectomy for an uncontrollable haemorrhage. He then developed colds and sneezes began which later progressed to breathlessness.

His complaints are:

• Sneezing everyday in the morning with fluent whitish sticky discharges.
• Cough with breathlessness; and his cough is accompanied by an easy, whitish and sticky expectoration, which soon turns yellow.
• His complaints are worse from emotional stress, from cold damp air/weather, cold drinks/food, oily food and sour food (except lemons). He is better in the open air, sitting up erect with head bent backwards and from expectoration.
• During the attack, he sweats profusely, all over the body, esp. on the arms, chest and back. Occasionally, he vomits with the cough and breathlessness.

For the past 7-8 years, he has pain in spots in both sides of the kidney region. He also has pains in the bones and joints of the lower limbs. What is peculiar is that the pain is worse after urination and after inhalers. It is relieved by hard pressure and lying on the side, so he avoids urination at times.

He has craving for milk and milk products, sweets, fish and meat. He sweats profusely on the back, arms and chest. Since 5-6 years he has been deprived of sleep due to business worries. Heat is intolerable for him, yet his respiratory complaints get worse in cold.

He had earned a name of being an honest businessman in timber industry; and all his life he has been selfless and sympathetic and workaholic. He was cheated by his business partner and is undergoing a lot of stress due to it. He is quite impatient and gets very angry when someone errs, but at the same time he is forgiving too. He has a large family of 10 children of which one son died suddenly when he was very young, and one daughter has cerebral palsy requiring special care. He is still grieving over his past. He is quiet sensitive and weeps easily- in front of others.

He has a history of tonsillectomy, urinary calculi, benign enlargement of prostate.

His Family illnesses are diverse and grave, Mother- Diabetes mellitus, Ischemic heart disease; Brother- Chronic Renal Failure; Brother- Ischemic heart disease; Sister- Brain tumor; Sister- Osteosarcoma (had amputation)

On chest auscultation there was wheeze bilateral basal crepitations.

Due consideration was given to family history, and he was prescribed 2 doses of Syphilinum with almost immediate relief in his respiratory complaints. Even the peculiar symptom of pain in the back after urination disappeared. Homoeopathy did wonder for this old man's asthma wherein his familial illness was thus instrumental.