Creating Waves of Awareness
Alzheimer/Dementia
Alzheimer and Dementia were most difficult cases for me to tackle
successfully. Subjective symptoms were scarce, I had to depend upon
objective symptoms and the past history. Success rate was minimal.
Consequently, I thought to invite the experiences of my fellow
Homeopaths to share their experiences, for the benefit of sufferers of
this disease.
Tags: Alzheimer's, Dementia, Homeopathy, Loss, Memory, Video, World, alumina, confusion
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Debby Bruck on -
Dear Sushil ~ Please see Video Story
Perhaps you can be more specific regarding these difficult cases. What are subjective symptoms? Why are they scarce? There are many rubrics for loss of memory, appetite, insomnia, irritability, language, etc.
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Permalink Reply by DR. Sushil Bahl on -
Thanks a lot Debby.
Since in such cases, the patients can't narrate their symptoms, so subjective symptoms are always scarce.Similarly Rubrics Loss of memory, Insomnia etc are the common symptoms for this disease, hence are of no value.In order to individualize the cases, I had my own difficulties.Some of the cases, past history, Family history and causation could help me, yet I struggled in curing Alzheimer/Dementia.Close monitoring is a must in such cases,but the attendants, normally get fed up and get immune to the surroundings of such patients and become less observant over the passage of time,hence it becomes more difficult to access the progress of the cases and further course of action.Seen the video, as usual, it arouses our sympathies towards the sufferers.
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Permalink Reply by ingrid wawra on -
hello Sushil !
I have two resent cases of succesful treated dementia - maybe my account can be helpful?
both cases were refered to me by their daughters, who are my patients. that made it easy for me too choose a form of anamnesis, that provided the otherwise difficult to attain information: I made the anamnesis with the relatives. they could provide enough data of the earlier general symptoms and of the characteristic mental symptoms to find a polychrest.
the effect was a clear betterment.
the first case, a very elderly lady, with worsening senility, and who was not able to maintain a conversation on the phone any more, regained ability for that - a very important aspect for the children, who are bussy and would like to have more contact than personal visits. her depressed mood got much better too and she started a proces of reconciliation. 2 years later she died with good spirits.
the second case is a lady with progressing senility, who had a tendency of falling too, and got a lot of bruises and injuries as a consecvens of that. like the first case, she lost ability of maintaining a telefon-conversation and as her daughter lived far away this was crucial. she started to be suspicious of the healthservice personal that came to her house - typical for senility.
i was able to find a polychres that matched her former personality and her actuel problems and she got very much better. she did not fall any more - not a single time, she was not suspicious any more and phone-contacts were meaningful again.
she was already asign for an institution for elderlies when I had started treatment. when she finally got moved there, she was already in such betterment, that she now is the best functioning patient there and if the visitation procedure would have been made later, she would not have been admitted, as only the very sick get a place.
so she is in high spirit, rolling around with her rollator even outside the institution so the personal "chase" her in the surroundings to get home again - she says, that personal makes too much fuss and she of course finds her way back on her own.
I din nothing else than taking an anamnesis with the relatives as good as possible and find a remedy from the most persistent generalities in her life and from the actual symptoms, if there were some clear mentals, I took them too.
regards
ingrid
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Permalink Reply by DR. Sushil Bahl on
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Thanks a lot Ingrid, for the case information and all marks to you for the successful handling of such cases.
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Permalink Reply by Debby Bruck on
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Dear Sushil - all you said is true. These cases need to be closely monitored on a frequent basis. The patients who have regressed to the worst stage of disease will be difficult to find symptoms. As Ingrid says, she uses the information from family and friends about their past normal state and what has changed to the present state. Maybe there are others who have experience with these cases.
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Permalink Reply by Debby Bruck on
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Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer’s
By GINA KOLATA Published: August 12, 2010
In 2003, a group of scientists and executives from the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the drug and medical-imaging industries, universities and nonprofit groups joined in a project that experts say had no precedent: a collaborative effort to find the biological markers that show the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in the human brain.
Now, the effort is bearing fruit with a wealth of recent scientific papers on the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s using methods like PET scans and tests of spinal fluid. More than 100 studies are under way to test drugs that might slow or stop the disease.
And the collaboration is already serving as a model for similar efforts against Parkinson’s disease. A $40 million project to look for biomarkers for Parkinson’s, sponsored by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, plans to enroll 600 study subjects in the United States and Europe.
Data would be shared in order to find BIO-MARKERS - potential evidence that a person would get Alzheimer's years before the disease would show symptoms; but drug companies would profit. It's all a game of roulette and what happens if they are wrong? What are the costs to individuals of all the testing? What are the side effects from all these scans? Probably to cause the disease they want to cure.
They admit there are no drugs to help Alzheimer's.
HERE IS THE KEY PHRASE OF HOW PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES WORK TODAY
“We wanted to get out of what I called 19th-century drug development — give a drug and hope it does something,” Dr. Potter recalled in an interview on Thursday. “What was needed was to find some way of seeing what was happening in the brain as Alzheimer’s progressed and asking if experimental drugs could alter that progression.”
You would think they've just come across this ingenious idea, but it is just like Crowd Sourcing.
DO YOU TRUST THIS ARRANGEMENT?
The idea, Dr. Buckholtz said, was that the government’s National Institutes of Health “could serve as an honest broker between the pharmaceutical industry and academia.”
WHAT COULD HOMEOPATHS ACCOMPLISH WITH THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY?
The National Institute on Aging agreed to pay $41 million, other institutes contributed $2.4 million, and 20 companies and two nonprofit groups contributed an additional $27 million to get the project going and sustain it for the first six years. Late last year, the institute contributed an additional $24 million and the foundation was working on a renewal of the project for another five years that would involve federal and private contributions of the same magnitude as the initial ones.
Once they find these biomarkers, that has not meant they have a way to prevent the disease. It may even play upon the minds of those who get told they are the one with the marker.
BIOMARKERS TO SEE THE DISEASE BEFORE IT OCCURS
Interview with CHARLIE ROSE
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Permalink Reply by ingrid wawra on
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hej Debby !
thanks for sharing this information!
what we need now is cases with documented improovement of Alzheimer and Parkinson.
here a little quote from Dr. Rajesh Shah, found randomly, browsing the web:
"Treatment:
Although Alzheimer's disease has always puzzled physicians of all walks, interestingly homoeopathy system offers reasonably positive treatment if not cure.
When we discuss the role of medicine for certain diseases, we probably do not talk of the 'cure' in real sense, but more of 'control' and 'relief'. AD is one such condition, where homoeopathy has following role to play:
§ To control the disease process whereby further deterioration of the brain damage is helped to certain extent
§ To improve to an extent some of the symptoms: communication, failing memory, anxiety, restlessness, etc.
Many of the problems associated with dementia such as restlessness, depression, and agitation can be treated effectively and gently with homoeopathy. It may also be possible, especially in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, to improve someone's memory with homoeopathic medication. Timely administered homoeopathy medicines can prevent further progress of disease. "
regards
ingrid
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Permalink Reply by ingrid wawra on
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and here another quote from the web:
Dr Samir Chaukkar M.D.
"The first and absolutely crucial step in the fight against AD is to ensure that the diagnosis is correct. Insist that your doctor take all the necessary steps to rule out other causes of dementia. To spend the rest of your life in a nursing home as a vegetable because a vitamin B-12 deficiency was misdiagnosed would indeed be a cruel twist of fate.
It also makes sense to follow the suggestions given for preventing AD with an increased intake of antioxidants and vitamins as prescribed by your health care provider. Removal of amalgam fillings at this point can also bring about dramatic improvements(1,36). Amalgam fillings should always be removed by a dentist specially trained to do so - otherwise the condition may worsen.
British scientists believe that sage oil may be effective in the treatment of AD. They found that sage oil inhibits the action of acetylcholinesterase, the enzyme responsible for breaking down acetylcholine. An abnormally low acetylcholine level in the brain is a key feature of AD. It is interesting that the 17th-century herbalist, John Gerard, said about sage: "Sage helpeth a weake braine or memory and restoreth them being decayed in a short time"(37).
Ginkgo biloba is the most prescribed medicine in Germany and is effective in correcting conditions of cerebral insufficiency (including memory loss) and intermittent claudication(1,39,40).
Homeopathic treatment of AD is an important option. The remedy alumina was discovered by the founder of homeopathy, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, in 1829. Dr. Hahnemann found it highly effective in treating "Great weakness or loss of memory" and in cases where "Consciousness of personal identity is confused"
Anacardium: IMPAIRED MEMORY, depression, and irritability; diminution of senses (smell, sight, hearing). Weakening of all senses, sight, hearing, etc. Aversion to work; lacks self-confidence
Fixed ideas. Hallucinations; THINKS HE IS POSSESSED OF TWO PERSONS OR WILLS.. Anxiety when walking, as if pursued. Profound melancholy and hypochondriasis, with TENDENCY TO USE VIOLENT LANGUAGE. BRAIN-FAG. ABSENT MINDEDNESS. VERY EASILY OFFENDED. Lack of confidence in himself or others. Suspicious [Hyos.]. Clairaudient, hears voices far away or of the dead. Senile dementia. Absence of all moral restraint.
Alumina: TENDENCY TO PARETIC MUSCULAR STATES. Old people, with lack of vital heat, or prematurely old, with debility. Sluggish functions, heaviness, numbness, and staggering, and the characteristic constipation find an excellent remedy in Alumina. Disposition to colds in the head, and eructations in spare, dry, thin subjects.
Low-spirited; fears loss of reason. Confused as to personal identity. HASTY, HURRIED. Time passes slowly. VARIABLE MOOD. Better as day advances. Suicidal tendency when seeing knife or blood.
Baryta Aceticum: Produces paralysis beginning at the extremities and spreading upward. Pruritus of aged. Forgetful; wavering long between opposite resolutions. Lack of self confidence.
Baryta Carbonica: Diseases of old men when degenerative changes begin;cardiac vascular and cerebral; who have hypertrophied prostate or indurated testes, very sensitive to cold, offensive foot-sweats, very weak and weary, must sit or lie down or lean on something. Very averse to meeting strangers. Affects glandular structures, and useful in general degenerative changes, especially in coats of arteries, ANEURISM, and senility. Baryta is a cardio-vascular poison acting on the muscular coats of heart and vessels. Arterial fibrosis. Blood-vessels soften and degenerate, become distended, and aneurisms, ruptures, and apoplexies result.
Loss of memory, mental weakness. Irresolute. Lost confidence in himself. Senile dementia. Confusion. BASHFUL. Aversion to strangers. Childish; grief over trifles.
Conium: The ASCENDING PARALYSIS it produces, ending in death by failure of respiration, show the ultimate tendency of many symptoms produced in the provings, for which Conium is an excellent remedy, such as difficult gait, trembling, sudden loss of strength while walking, painful stiffness of legs, etc. Such a condition is often found in old age, a time of weakness, languor, local congestions, and sluggishness. It corresponds to the debility, hypochondriasis, urinary troubles, weakened memory, sexual debility found here. Troubles at the change of life, old maids and bachelors. Growth of tumors invite it also. General feeling as if bruised by blows. Great debility in the morning in bed. WEAKNESS OF BODY AND MIND TREMBLING, and palpitation. Cancerous diathesis. Arterio-sclerosis. Acts on the glandular system, engorging and indurating it, altering its structure like scrofulous and cancerous conditions.
Excitement causes mental depression. Depressed, timid, averse to society, and afraid of being alone. No inclination for business or study; takes no interest in anything. Memory weak; unable to sustain any mental effort.
Secale cor: A useful remedy for old people with shriveled skin- thin, scrawny old women. All the Secale conditions are BETTER FROM COLD; the whole body is pervaded by a sense of great heat. Haemorrhages; continued oozing; THIN, fetid, watery black blood. DEBILITY, ANXIETY, EMACIATION, THOUGH APPETITE AND THIRST MAY BE EXCESSIVE. Facial and abdominal muscles twitch.
Picric acid: Causes degeneration of the spinal cord, with paralysis. Brain- fag and sexual excitement. Acts upon the generative organs probably through the lumbar centers of the spinal cord; prostration, weakness and pain of back, pins and needle sensation in extremities. NEURASTHENIA. Muscular debility. Heavy tired feeling. Sallow complexion.
Lack of will-power; disinclined to work. Cerebral softening. Dementia with prostration, sits still and listens.
References:
http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/what_latest_drug_treatments_a...
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_symptoms_of_alzheimers.asp
http://www.yourhealthbase.com/Alzheimer's.htm
Pocket manual of MATERIA Medica by Dr.William Boericke
Dr Samir Chaukkar M.D. is a Classical homoeopath practicing Homoeopathy since last 15 years in Mumbai. He is at present working extensively on homoeopathic advanced treatment in geriatric disorders especially Alzheimer's disease, Parkinsonism, Addictions in Seniors etc. at his clinic in Vashi and at Y.M.T.Hom Medical College where he is a Professor in Materia Medica since last 15 years. Email : drsamirac69@gmail.com
regards
ingrid
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Permalink Reply by DR. Sushil Bahl on
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Thanks a lot Debby and Ingrid for providing lot of valuable information on AD.
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Permalink Reply by ingrid wawra on
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thanks for inspiring the opportunity to gather information,
now we all are a little bit more clever
;-)
regards
ingrid
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Permalink Reply by Dr. Jagat Manik, MD on -
Thanks to all postings here. Useful information for my study on De-generative diseases and their management
Regards
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Permalink Reply by Debby Bruck on
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Did you hear the latest news? “Currently,” the panel wrote, “no evidence of even moderate scientific quality exists to support the association of any modifiable factor (such as nutritional supplements, herbal preparations, dietary factors, prescription or nonprescription drugs, social or economic factors, medical conditions, toxins or environmental exposures) with reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease.”
These are the types of ethical quandaries that doctors find themselves in because they must have absolute EVIDENCE for every little thing that they say, do and advise their patients. Now, who on this earth does not know that a healthy lifestyle will improve your health? Who does not believe and recognize that eating natural foods, fruits, vegetables etc and cutting out junk food, taking some exercise and getting a bit of sun, sleep, and reducing stress will improve your life and even extend your life? There may be no "absolute proof" that it will improve dementia or alzheimer's disease, but how can you question giving out good advice like "live a better life style" and "treat your body good!"?
This is what they have to say:In the meantime, doctors are in a bind. Should they tell people to do things like walk briskly or eat vegetables — activities that might someday be shown to protect against Alzheimer’s and that certainly cannot hurt? Or should they wait for absolute proof, confirmation that a diet or a drug or an exercise regimen prevents Alzheimer’s?
The Alzheimer’s Association tells people to exercise, challenge themselves mentally, remain socially engaged and keep their hearts healthy. Such measures can only help, says Dr. Maria C. Carrillo, a senior director of the organization.
Their problem is tying good practices with reducing the symptoms of this disease. They wouldn't want to have a law suit on their hands, would they?
Of course, Dr. Hodes said, there are many reasons to follow practices to improve general health. But, he said, researchers have to be careful about implying that any measures will protect against this degenerative brain disease.
Even Ginko biloba did not improve outcome for Alzheimers.
Two Risk Factors: A gene, ApoE4, which, moderate evidence showed, increased risk about threefold, and menopause therapy with a combination of estrogens and progestins, which doubled risk.
Wow! Now there is some news. Start taking hormones and you could lose your mind.
Drugs used to treat Alzheimer's had no effect. [Cholinesterase inhibitors] Nope! But, it doesn't hurt to spend a little money and give it a try.
Does anyone want to look at homeopathy and removing the toxins in our environment, instead of looking at the gene pool and dumping toxic chemical drugs into the body?
© 2013 Created by Debby Bruck.
