Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Niccolum metallicum is a homeopathic single remedy made from the metal nickel. Its Latin name is Niccolum, chemical symbol Ni, and it is also sold simply as Nickel. Homeopaths have used it mainly for headaches that keep coming back, low mood with tiredness, and stomach upset.
It is made by grinding the metal with milk sugar and then diluting it again and again, with hard shaking at each step. At the common 30C strength, essentially none of the starting nickel is left. What you actually take is the sugar pill or the liquid carrier.
The evidence verdict is simple. Controlled trials do not show that homeopathic remedies of this kind work better than placebo (a dummy treatment), and none has tested this remedy on its own. Traditional use is not proof that something works — that point is made here once and not repeated below.
There is no proven way for this remedy to work in the body, because at normal strengths it contains no nickel.
Homeopathy rests on two ideas. The first is that a substance which causes symptoms in a healthy person can treat those same symptoms in a sick person. The second is that diluting it further makes it act more strongly.
Neither idea fits what chemistry and biology have shown. At 30C the dilution is so extreme that not even one molecule of nickel is likely to remain. Supporters say the water or sugar holds some trace or pattern of the metal, but there is no accepted evidence for this.
So any benefit people report is best explained by other things: placebo (a dummy treatment), the illness settling on its own, or the time and attention given during a long consultation.
It comes as small sugar pellets, larger tablets, and liquid drops. The liquids are usually kept in alcohol and water.
Common strengths are 6C, 12C and 30C. Lower strengths such as 3X and 6X are less common but do exist, and only these may still contain traces of nickel.
It is sold as a single remedy, meaning one substance on its own rather than a blend of several.
Nickel entered homeopathic use in the 1800s, as Samuel Hahnemann's system spread across Europe and North America. Homeopaths gave it to healthy volunteers and wrote down what they felt, a practice they call a proving. Those notes became its listed uses.
It has never been a major remedy. It appears as a small entry in the older materia medica (the reference books that list homeopathic remedies). No tradition outside homeopathy uses it.
See a doctor if the symptom you are treating does not clearly improve within two weeks, or if it gets worse at any point.
Get help the same day for a headache that starts suddenly and severely, a headache with fever, a stiff neck or a rash, coughing up blood, chest pain, unexplained weight loss, trouble swallowing, or any new change in your vision.
Also speak to a doctor if you get a rash, itching or swelling after taking any form of this remedy, or if low mood lasts more than two weeks or brings thoughts of harming yourself. If you have those thoughts, seek help straight away.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
Reviewed by the HealisticMD editorial team How we grade evidence →
The published evidence for Niccolum metallicum is weak or absent. That usually means no controlled trial has tested it, not that a trial found it ineffective — the two are different, and we grade only what has been published.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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