A Case of Migraine

This is the case of Mrs. H.S. (Patient Ref. No. 6928) a 41 year old housewife who reported to us with complaints of recurrent headaches since the past 20-25 years occurring once a week. The pain was left sided in the periorbital region radiating to the neck and lasting for the whole day. Her pains had increased gradually in the past 3 years and were aggravated in the sun and from lack of sleep. The pain used to be intense whenever she was mentally stressed. Her headaches were accompanied with extreme irritability. She was on conventional medicines for the same along with some additional painkillers whenever the pain was unbearable.

Along with this she also complained of irregular menses with menorrhagia (profuse menses) with offensiveness and dark colored clots. Her menses were always accompanied with backache, abdominal pain and breast pain along with extreme irritability. She was a known case of Thalassemia Minor. She also complained of halitosis (bad breath) whenever she used to have acidity. Generally she had a lethargic feeling with weakness and easy fatigue.

She had a diminished appetite with craving for curds and sour food. She drank 2-3 glasses of water per day and was equally sensitive to both heat and cold.
She loved socializing with people and made friends very easily. She was an extrovert by nature and had no major stress or strain in life.

Based on the above history a constitutional homoeopathic remedy Ferrum Metallicum 200 (to be taken twice a day for 6 weeks) was selected which would cover her entire complaints. When she reported to us after 6 weeks, the intensity and duration of her headaches had reduced considerably, however the frequency remained the same. Her acidity was better up to 40% and she was feeling much energetic than ever before. Her halitosis remained the same. She had reduced the dosage of her conventional medications to about 50%. Inspite of the reduction in dose the intensity of her headache had not increased which was a positive sign.

In the second follow up which was after another month, the headache was better up to 65%. Her acidity was no longer present and this time she reported much improvement in her menstrual complaints which were not delayed as before. Her acidity and weakness were almost 90% better. This time her halitosis was better up to 40%. In the subsequent follow ups she showed further improvement in all her complaints with homoeopathic medications. She was asked to continue medication for some more time for complete relief from her symptoms.

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Mrs. P.N. Shah, (Patient Ref. No. L-7000), a 45 year old female reported to the clinic with complaints of severe headaches since over past 25 years. These headaches were diagnosed as migraine headaches by the Neurophysician whom she had visited earlier for treatment. She complained of pain all over her head or occasionally only in the occipital region. This pain was very severe as if hammering inside the skull. She had to bear with this pain for almost 5-6 hours in a day and they used to be as frequent as twice in a week.

Her headache was worse by draft of air or exposure to sun when she went outside. She was remarkably relieved temporarily by pressure of a cloth tied around the head and when she slept the pain used to disappear on its own.

As the severity of the pain was unbearable she was compelled to take pain killers every time she had the headache. She had tried all means to get rid of these pain killers to no avail and she was very desperate to stop them as they caused acidity and burning sensation in the stomach when ever she took them.

She had suffered with terrible episodes of pain in the past due to cervical spondylosis but at present there was no pain at all since she was on some medication to control the episodes and also she did various exercises regularly. She also had continuous episodes of vertigo in August 2003 for which she had been investigated and both the CT scan as well as the MRI came out to be normal.

She had chronic constipation since the past 8 years. She passed extremely hard stools and she had to strain a lot to pass the stools so much so that occasionally she even had bleeding from the anal region. Her bowels were not regular and she had motions every 2 days.

Added to all these complaints she had irregular menstrual cycles. She used to get her cycles only after 2 months. She used to have profuse flow since the past 2 months and the bleeding lasted for almost 10 days. Where as previously her periods lasted only for 2 days and the flow was extremely scanty like that of spotting.

Associated with these complaints she has a tremendous amount of hair fall since the past 6-8 months. She used to loose more than 100 strands in a day. The fall was all the more when she combed her day or she had a hair bath.

She had dryness of the skin all over her body but esp. on her hands and face which got aggravated in the winters. Also she reported that she suffered with recurrent upper respiratory tact infections since the past 10 years. She used to have episodes of cold and cough at least once in a month with watery discharge from the nose and occasional spells of cough. These complaints were also worse in the winters and rainy season.

Her personal history:

Her appetite was diminished since the past many years and she couldn’t eat well. There were no specific food cravings or aversions. Even her thirst for water was diminished and she hardly used to drink 2-3 glasses of water a day but she preferred to drink warm water. While enquiring of her micturition she reported that she had a history of stress incontinence (involuntary passage of urine while sneezing).

Her sleep was disturbed and hence used to wake up late in the mornings and she said that she used to dream a lot about daily discussions.

Her family:

Her family comprised of her husband and 2 sons. Her husband was a license holder for import and export of goods. Both the sons were studying. The elder son who was 22 was in his third year of commerce graduation while the younger son was in the 11th class.

Her personality:

She was a very fearful kind of a female. There was marked fear of ghosts. She lived close to a graveyard and used to always fear that some ghost would enter her house. Because of this fear she could not even go for her bedroom to the bathroom in the dark. She always had to wake her husband when she had to visit the toilet at night.

She also had marked claustrophobia. She experienced uneasiness while passing through narrow places. She also had fear going alone in the elevators and there was always a feeling in her mind that what if the elevator suddenly stops in between and she is stuck up all alone there.

She was very pessimistic also, if children go out then she feels that as to whether they will be safe or not or there is a constant fear that whether they have met with an accident on their way etc.

Her spouse was very dominating in nature and he used frequently loose his temper and used to shout on her. This caused a lot of anxiety in her mind and so would always complete her work before his arrival from the office so that his temper is not aroused. All these made her to get stressed at even trivial matters.

Her past medical history:

She had no major illness in the past except for an episode of increased palpitations for which she had to be hospitalized in July 2004.

Her family history:

Her mother was a known case of Hypothyroidism and she even suffered with ischaemic heart disease. Also her paternal aunt suffered with breast cancer and she passed away. Her other paternal aunt suffered with frequent episodes of migraine.

After her thorough physical examination it was determined that her weight was 65 Kgs and her blood pressure was 140/ 80 mm of hg. After a detailed analysis of her case she was prescribed a dose of a homoeopathic remedy called as Natrum muriaticum in the 200 th potency and she was called after 1 month for her follow up.

On September 19, 2004 when she reported to the clinic for her regular follow up she was much relieved of her migraine headaches. The frequency of the appearance of the pain had gone down dramatically in this 1 month’s time with the medication and it occurred only once after she started with the treatment. Previously she used to have these headaches twice in a week.

Moreover even the intensity of the headaches was comparatively very less and the pain was bearable and she didn’t had to take pain killers as she required earlier. The pain this time lasted only for half an hour where as previously it used to be almost for 6 hours that she had to bear the pain and only subsided after taking some pain killers. The constipation was much better. However her hair fall and the dryness of the skin was the same for which she was patient and hoped to see positive in the coming follow ups.

She was continued on the similar line of medication and was called again after a month. She reported further improvement in her complaints and this time even her hair fall was 50% better and the fear that she used to have at night had almost vanished and she could manage to go from one room to other even in the dark which gave her immense mental relief and she was much more comfortable even when living in the same house.

She is advised to continue treatment uninterruptedly for further betterment and to get completely cured of her ailments.

Remarks: This case reveals that the deep acting homoeopathic medicines bring about positive changes in the individual itself there by all the complaints which this female suffered with were brought back to normalcy. Therefore we strongly believe that we treat the individual as a whole and his individual parts.

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