Dr. Rita Savla - Homeopathic Treatment | Online Homeopathic Treatment Mumbai , India

Central Nervous system

Migraine Headaches

Migraine is a type of recurring headache that involves blood vessels, nerves, and brain chemicals, a severe headache that hampers activity and cripples the ability to lead a normal healthy life. A migraine may be experienced several times a week or once every couple of years.
While the precise cause of migraines is unknown, a genetic predisposition and environmental factors are the leading triggers. An internal or external trigger sets the process in motion.

The causes

Digestive causes - Skipping meals or fasting also can trigger migraines. Certain foods appear to trigger headaches in some people. Oily or fried food, groundnuts, certain pulses, protein overload, too much spicy food or meat, and coffee can all trigger headaches. Also alcohol, especially beer and red wine can be triggers.

Changes in sleep-wake pattern - Either lack of sleep or getting too much sleep may serve as a trigger for migraine attacks in some individuals

Hormonal changes - There is a tendency to develop migraines during hormonal changes- oestrogen related- before during or after menses, or during menopause. Migraine is three times more common in women than in men due to this. Hormonal medications also can worsen migraines.

Stress and emotional factors - Over work, emotional turmoil, anger out bursts, stress in any such form causes the arteries that supply blood to the head to swell and gives rise to an experience of severe pain. People who are prone to feelings like anxiety, anger, guilt and grief are more receptive to pain.

What triggers an attack of migraine?
Triggering factors are very individualistic and depends on the sensitivity of the person.
Common migraine triggers include:
Direct exposure to the heat of the sun, especially in the peak of summer. Head baths can also be a trigger. Enclosed stuffy spaces, high levels of humidity and weather changes
• Eyestrain- watching television, working with the computer and continuous reading
• Acidity, gastritis or Constipation can trigger headaches.
• Irregular meals and fasting, eating oily or spicy food, excessive Tea or coffee, and flatulent food. Alcohol- hang over, and especially wine can be a trigger.
• Lack of sleep or changing sleep patterns
• Traveling, long journeys, altitude and time zone changes
• Excess emotions- anger, depression or crying
• Pregnancy, during menopause, before or during menses.
• Heavy exercise, Perfumes and strong odors

Symptoms
The pain of a migraine headache is often described as an intense pulsing or throbbing pain usually affecting one side or both sides of the head, and is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and visual disturbances. The pain may be preceded by an "aura", of visual disturbances that appear as flashing lights, zigzag lines or a temporary loss of vision.
• Migraine attacks have several features but are very individualistic:
• Headaches that occur in bouts of between roughly 4 to 72 hours.
• Headaches usually affect one side of the head at a time, although both sides may be affected in separate attacks.
• Headaches are usually throbbing and worsened by normal physical activity
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Preceding symptoms, called the ‘aura’ that most often are visual, such as zigzag lines or flashing lights across or at the edges of the fields of vision
• Other symptoms can include sensitivity to light and sound, or non-visual aura such as a sensation of tingling in the body

Treatment
Homeopathy has excellent treatment for migraines. Along with the treatment there are few precautions which help prevent and during an attack of headache.
• Drink lots of water and fruit juices, buttermilk and tender coconut water
• Eat easily digestible food like curds, salads and fruits. Fresh and raw or mildly cooked food is better than cooked and oily food.
• Rest your eyes with a pad of cotton dipped in water
• If it is due to gastric disturbance, drinking jeera boiled with water relives the migraine. Ginger decoction is a natural drink that also helps relieve pain. It is an anti-inflammatory food that reduces pain.
• Avoid direct exposure to the sun. The suns hot, sharp, penetrating rays increase the dilation of the blood vessels in the brain, which results in the painful headaches. Use an umbrella or wear a hat or other protection from the sun.
• While traveling and in long flights, avoid having coffee, tea and alcohol and have a lot of water and fresh juice.
• Stay away from loud noise/ bright light and sun and listen to relaxing music.
Homeopathic Treatment
Acute medicines in Homeopathy reduce the intensity of the headache and act effectively to relieve the pain, without increasing the nausea or aggravating the gastric symptoms.
Long term management – The Homeopathic treatment is very effective for the treatment and cure of migraine headaches. Chronic medication is aimed at reducing the intensity and frequency of the headaches and to treat the root cause of the problem.
A constitutional medicine selected on the basis of the complete attributes of the patient, past medical history, family history is the key to complete cure of migraine headaches.
Contact your Homeopath for relief from the migraine now.

Epilepsy

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Epilepsy is a serious neurological disorder affecting children as well as adults. The patient experiences episodes of convulsive body movements medically termed as seizures. The seizures are typically described and observed as spasmodic, irregular body movements, affecting various muscle groups of body. It may present with varying intensity and duration, and different groups of muscles in different individuals, at different times.

Typically, epilepsy or seizures occur due to abnormal electrical activity in the brain which is reflected on different groups of muscles.
Epilepsy is a chronic disease having a tendency to relapse periodically and for many years to life time, if not adequately treated.

Signs and symptoms of epilepsy:
The most common symptom or a sign of epilepsy is recurrent seizures or convulsions.
Seizures are involuntary movements, like jerking or thrashing, or experiencing unusual feelings or sensations, which can be associated with loss of consciousness or being unaware of things happening around.

One may experience and describe seizures in various ways, as it is often a subjective experience:
* Before appearance of seizure may be hours or days ago, person can notice various changes in his behavior or mood.
* The relevant history can be obtained from friend or patient himself.
* The patient can also experience aura before the seizure attack, something like “déjà vu” phenomenon in which the patient feels that he has seen this before or lived this before or can smell strange things or see flashes of lights.
* After a partial seizure there may be temporary weakness of the affected limb.
* After generalized seizure the patient may feel awful with headache, myalgia, confusion, and a sore tongue.
It all happens because he transmission of the electrical activity between the brain cells pauses for a while manifesting as seizures.

Seizures could be of various forms; but for a given patient they tend to be stereotyped.
Generally seizures can also be caused due to decrease in sodium salts from the body, or due to high fever or even due to hypoxia.
The diagnosis could be stigmatizing and has implications for employment, insurance and driving.
Not everything that twitches is epilepsy; but tongue biting is very suggestive of epilepsy
Causes of epilepsy:
There are several possible causes for epilepsy: They may be grouped as:
Physical causes:
* Trauma
* Space occupying lesion
* Stroke
* Very raised blood pressure
* Tuberous sclerosis

Metabolic causes:
* Hypoglycemia (low sugar level)
* Hyperglycemia (high sugar level)
* Hypoxia (low oxygen level)
* Uremia
* Hyponatraemia (low sodium level)
* Hypernatraemia (high sodium level)
* Hypocalcaemia
* Liver diseases
* Alcohol withdrawal
* Drugs-phenothiazines,cocaine,benzodiazepines

Infections:
* Encephalitis
* Syphilis
* Cysticercosis
* HIV

Classification of epilepsy:
The seizures that the patient experiences are of various forms, they are classified as below:
Partial epilepsy: In this, the patient may loose consciousness, there may be twitching or jerking of one single part like twitching of finger or fingers, or twitching of facial muscles. It happens because of the pausing of the electrical activity in the brain, which could be in one part, or can move to another part or may stay in one area until the seizure is over.
Generalized seizure: Electrical disturbances occurring all over brain at same time are generalized seizures. They are further classified as follows:

a) Petit mal: the conversation is associated with brief pauses e.g.: suddenly stops talking in middle of the sentence, and then carries on where he left off. Usually seen in childhood.
b) Grand mal: has sudden onset, with loss of consciousness, limbs stiffened, and then they jerk and can feel drowsy post seizure.
c) Myoclonic jerk: sudden fall on the ground or giving up of the limb.
d) Atonic: becoming flaccid
e) Akinetic: usually associated with less motility of limbs like in infantile spasms

Diagnosis of epilepsy:
* Obtaining authentic history from the patient and the witness
* Establishment of the cause
* Past medical history or family history
* Blood glucose both fasting and post-food
* CBC
* Calcium and phosphorus levels
* Imaging: CT scan, and MRI (also MRI angiography) is indicated to evaluate the structural changes in brain
* Electroencephalogram (EEG) is suggested for non conclusive status.

Treatment of epilepsy:
a. Conventional treatment:
Diagnosing epilepsy in error can be hazardous as conventional therapy has significant side-effects.
Carbamazepine: Usually used as a first line of treatment in partial seizures.
Toxic effects: rash, nausea, diplopia, dizziness, fluid retention,
Hyponatraemia, blood dyscrasias
Sodium valproate: Usually used as a first line of treatment in generalized seizure.
Toxic effects: sedation, tremors, increased weight, hair thinning, ankle swelling, hyperammonaemia, liver failure.
Phenytoin: No longer used as a first choice of drug in partial a swell as generalized epilepsy
Due to its toxicity: nystagmus, diplopia, tremors, dysarthria, ataxia.
Toxic effects: decrease intellect, depression, impaired drive, polyneuropathy, acne,
Gum hypertrophy, blood dyscrasias.

c. Surgical treatment in epilepsy:
About one third of the patients suffering from epilepsy opt for surgical intervention due to failure in antiepileptic medication. Few of these patients experience seizure control after removal of the affected part of the brain causing seizure. This is called as seizure surgery.
Usually the surgery is done to get rid of seizures but the purpose of surgery is not to get off antiepileptic drugs because even after successful epileptic surgery the patient has to take antiepileptic drugs to remain seizure free.

d. Homeopathic treatment:
Homeopathy is strongly recommended as supportive line of treatment along with conventional treatment, in most cases.
It may be stated that homeopathy alone may not help all the cases of epilepsy. At the same time, it is worth making a note that many cases of epilepsy which were resistant to the conventional medication, do respond significantly to homeopathy.
In the cases where brain tumor is the cause of epilepsy, homeopathy is not suggested as the line of treatment.

Vertigo

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Vertigo, or dizziness is not a disease, rather it’s a symptom of an underlying disease. The term vertigo refers to the sensation of spinning or whirling that occurs as a result of a disturbance in equilibrium (balance) of the body. Some other commonly used terms for vertigo are dizziness, lightheadedness, faintness and unsteadiness.

Vertigo can be subjective (the patient feels that he is moving/spinning) or objective (the patient feels objects around him are moving or spinning). Some of the things that can worsen the vertigo are moving the head, changing position, turning while lying down, etc. There may be certain other symptoms (nausea, vomiting, abnormal eye movements, etc) associated with the vertigo depending on the underlying disease.

Causes:
Vertigo can be caused due to disorders of the vestibular system (structures in the inner ear), vestibular nerve, brainstem or cerebellum. In some cases, the cause of vertigo may remain unknown. Certain medications and environmental chemicals may also damage the structures of the inner ear or the nerves and thereby result in vertigo. Alcohol can induce vertigo in some people even when taken in small quantities. Systemic causes of vertigo include orthostatic hypotension, head injury, migraine, cardiovascular disorders, stroke, multiple sclerosis, etc. BPPV (Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) is the most common form of vertigo.

Remarks:
Treatment of vertigo has to be directed towards the underlying cause of the condition. Cases with BPPV (the most common form of vertigo) and labyrinthitis respond very well to Homeopathic treatment. Also vertigo due to migraine or trauma (to head or neck) responds well to the treatment. It must be noted that often patients get very panicky due to symptoms of vertigo and this may only worsen the condition of the patient. Hence stress can be a trigger in increasing the already existing symptoms. Homeopathy can also help to alleviate the anxiety associated with the vertigo. Certain rehabilitation exercises also help in controlling the symptoms and returning back to normalcy. In case of drug-induced vertigo, the medicine in question has to be stopped after proper evaluation.

Homeopathic treatment:
Homeopathy is strongly recommended for Vertigo. As discussed above, the medication will help the patients to get back to normalcy without having to bear any of the side-effects of conventional medication. It helps not only in controlling the intensity and frequency of the attacks of vertigo, but also in alleviating the anxiety that is frequently associated with this condition. It improves the general immunity and vitality of the patient apart from targeting the cause of the vertigo.