Two years before during the initial stages of my clinical practise in hospital as an RMO I came to encounter the ALS, the amyotropic disease, but I did not know the disease was such rare and could become so severe, that the awareness created for it that is the ice bucket challenge spread like a wild fire, from the clebrities to the common man.
The patient, a short statured female of 46, had presenting complaints of, progressive weakness for both upper limb since 15 yrs, which worsened since the past 2 yrs or so, difficulty to lift both the hands and hold objects such as a glass tumbler, pain for the entire spine, non essential tremor for legs while carrying weight or while standing for long time, pain for shoulder joint, wrist joint and knee, morning stiffness especially for neck and shoulders, difficulty in getting up from bed, numbness in thighs and generalised weakness. The onset was insidious.
Patients appetite was less and the sleep was disturbed. Blood pressure , pulse and other vitals were normal.
Gait was difficult due to LL weakness especially the instability of hip being the predominant symptom.Upper limb reflexes were diminished or absent while the lower limb reflexes were normal.The power of shoulder were 2/5, elbow were 3/5 and the wrist were 4/5, while that of hips were 3/5, knees and ankles were 4/5. The Creatinine phosphate and Creatinine phosphate cardiac marker values were 134 and 5 IU/ML resply which were within normal ranges.
The main challenge as far as the treatment were concerned was in returning the lost confidence of the patient who was anxious, depressed ( and why not ?) usually replying in trembled tones about her complaints and worried about her fate ! But to our aid, she was an ardent believer of Sathya sai baba, and when ever we entered her room , we could here songs of sai from her tape which she used to carry with her every where ! The treatments and medicines given were nothing different from what other ayurvedic hospitals give like abhyangam, choorna swedam, anuvasana vasti, njavara kizhi etc...vata samana and brmhana therapy with dhanada nayanadi kashayam and vidaryadi kashayam respectively, Dhanwantaram 101 avarti, Ksheerabala thailam for head etc...which is a common treatment schedule for an ayurvedic doctor ! But the patient needed her doubts to be cleared off ! Wether she could walk ? Is it possible to get better with this treatment ? But we ensured her 60% relief ! Two years after the treatment she is going good, and that is a good news for all patients with neuro-degenerative diseases including Multiple sclerosis, Demyelinating neuropathies, Poly neuropathies, GBS, Peripheral neuropathies etc !
Believe in god ! Be an theist if you have MND ! I have seen some theories as to "GOD LIVES IN NEURONS"...and so on.....but as far as MND is concerned, God exists and it sure lives in the neurons !
By Dr.Prasanth BAMS, Kerala Ayurveda Hospital, Trichy.
29/08/2014
The patient, a short statured female of 46, had presenting complaints of, progressive weakness for both upper limb since 15 yrs, which worsened since the past 2 yrs or so, difficulty to lift both the hands and hold objects such as a glass tumbler, pain for the entire spine, non essential tremor for legs while carrying weight or while standing for long time, pain for shoulder joint, wrist joint and knee, morning stiffness especially for neck and shoulders, difficulty in getting up from bed, numbness in thighs and generalised weakness. The onset was insidious.
Patients appetite was less and the sleep was disturbed. Blood pressure , pulse and other vitals were normal.
Gait was difficult due to LL weakness especially the instability of hip being the predominant symptom.Upper limb reflexes were diminished or absent while the lower limb reflexes were normal.The power of shoulder were 2/5, elbow were 3/5 and the wrist were 4/5, while that of hips were 3/5, knees and ankles were 4/5. The Creatinine phosphate and Creatinine phosphate cardiac marker values were 134 and 5 IU/ML resply which were within normal ranges.
The main challenge as far as the treatment were concerned was in returning the lost confidence of the patient who was anxious, depressed ( and why not ?) usually replying in trembled tones about her complaints and worried about her fate ! But to our aid, she was an ardent believer of Sathya sai baba, and when ever we entered her room , we could here songs of sai from her tape which she used to carry with her every where ! The treatments and medicines given were nothing different from what other ayurvedic hospitals give like abhyangam, choorna swedam, anuvasana vasti, njavara kizhi etc...vata samana and brmhana therapy with dhanada nayanadi kashayam and vidaryadi kashayam respectively, Dhanwantaram 101 avarti, Ksheerabala thailam for head etc...which is a common treatment schedule for an ayurvedic doctor ! But the patient needed her doubts to be cleared off ! Wether she could walk ? Is it possible to get better with this treatment ? But we ensured her 60% relief ! Two years after the treatment she is going good, and that is a good news for all patients with neuro-degenerative diseases including Multiple sclerosis, Demyelinating neuropathies, Poly neuropathies, GBS, Peripheral neuropathies etc !
Believe in god ! Be an theist if you have MND ! I have seen some theories as to "GOD LIVES IN NEURONS"...and so on.....but as far as MND is concerned, God exists and it sure lives in the neurons !
By Dr.Prasanth BAMS, Kerala Ayurveda Hospital, Trichy.
29/08/2014
