Migraine is a neurological complex disorder with symptoms of moderate to severe one-sided headaches. It affects more than 12% of the world-wide population, where women are affected almost thrice as much as men. These headaches often come with nausea, vomiting and over sensitivity to loud noises. Migraines can last anywhere between a few hours to a few days, and can be with or without an aura (a set of symptoms that serve as premonition).
Causes and Trigger Factors
Though the exact cause of development of migraine is not yet discovered, it has been theorised that migraine is inflammatory in nature, affecting the activity of neurons (the brain cells). Migraine is said to be strongly genetic too.
Patients with migraine have different triggers including stress, hormonal changes, unhealthy lifestyle, strong odours, improper sleep, smoking and alcoholism.
Treatment and Management
Conventionally, migraines are treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and anti-emetics (that provide relief from vomiting). In severe cases, magnetic stimulation, nerve stimulation, non-painful remote electric neuro stimulation and nerve blocking may be used.
As medications only work on providing momentary relief, it is advised that the patient make lifestyle changes such as improve stress management, get regular exercise, practice breathing exercises, identify and reduce triggers, and improve sleep quality.
Why Homeopathy For Migraine?
Migraine is considered one of the most common causes of disability and loss of work. While there are various strategies used by conventional medicine to prevent and reduce the symptoms, triggering factors usually cause a relapse of the migrainoid headaches.
In classical homeopathic treatment, the patient’s psychological and physical complaints are addressed. Through this, the aim is not temporary relief alone but a deeper uprooting from the cause, a general state of well-being and improvement in quality of life.
A Case Of Chronic Migraine Treated With Homeopathy
Here is an example of how the medication is tailored to each patient’s physical and psychological state in classical homeopathy, and the outcome.
A 35-year-old woman consulted in March 2019, for complaints of repeated one-sided headaches, extending to the eyes, accompanied with nausea, gradually increasing over the past 5 years. The episodes were severe, and lasted 1-2 days, where she required NSAIDs to keep the pain in check. Her sleep was affected. She also suffered from constipation with abdominal bloating.
The patient had no family history of migraine. She had a personal medical history of idiopathic thrombocytopenia with episodes of severe depression in the past, for which, she resorted to conventional medication at the time.
On further investigation, the patient narrated that she had an emotionally taxing situation in her relationship. Her particular peeve was that she felt guilty for the situation but also severely affected in her sense of self-worth from the partner’s behaviour. This seemed to be the origin of her headaches and had been going on for many years now. Homeopathy studies the sensitive areas in a person’s psychological make up and the stress response, when these weak points are taxed, to decide the remedy. Based on this patient’s specific emotional turmoil and characteristics of the headache, one dose of the remedy Lachesis 30C was prescribed to the patient.
After the remedy, the patient experienced a slight intensification of her headaches for a few days. This is known as “homeopathic aggravation” and may occur when the patient is healing on the deeper psychological levels. This was followed by improvement of symptoms of migraine with a sense of general well-being. Her constipation also improved gradually. She felt emotionally less vulnerable to situations around her and in a few months, she was able to take constructive steps towards making her life-condition better.
The episodes of headache grew lesser in intensity and frequency, without the need for painkillers, and eventually stopped occurring at all.
The remedies mentioned above were prescribed only after careful consideration of the individual’s symptoms. The individualised approach in homeopathy is tailored to the need of the patient, and hence, brings about a significant improvement in the quality of life of the individual, and not just a reduction in symptoms.
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Author Bio
Dr Seema Mahesh BHMS, MD (hom), Dip IACH, MSc Medical sciences
Dr. Seema Mahesh is a student of Professor George Vithoulkas and a renowned classical homeopath from Bangalore, India, with a successful clinical experience of 18 years. After completing Homeopathic medical education as a topper of Rajiv Gandhi University in 2003, she went on to complete her PG diploma at the International Academy of Classical Homeopathy (IACH), Greece. She is also known for her extensively inspirational and influential teaching. She has taught as lecturer (pathology and anatomy) in homeopathic medical colleges in Bangalore, India. She has been teaching the IACH E learning students since 2008. Her research accomplishments started in the form of a dissertation as a part of the MD program. She has since been continuously involved in research data compilation and research writing at the Centre For Classical Homeopathy, Bangalore. She has been serving as the Head of Scientific Committee of International Academy of Classical Homeopathy, Alonissos, Greece since 2017, assisting Professor George Vithoulkas in his scientific endeavors. She collaborates with the diplomats of the IACH spread over 65 countries to collate data and conduct clinical studies. She is a research scholar at Taylor’s University School of Medicine, Malaysia where she trained in research methodologies and currently conducting research on the concepts of fever treatment in elderly under the supervision of Prof Lai, the Cochrane trainer for systematic reviews in Malaysia. She has many peer reviewed articles published so far in both complementary and conventional medicine journals.