Oh Migraine again Homeopathy can CURE it!

Ask the severity of symptoms to a migraine patient and he or she will make such a face that you know everything without them telling you. When a patient with migraine arrives in the clinic, we immediately know the diagnosis if he or she arrives with the symptoms. Well, the terrible throbbing pain migraine gives has been experienced by numerous people and scientists have estimated that the number will be on rise due to our hopeless lifestyle adjustments.

Though we know that exact cause for migraine cannot be found out, we know that there are many trigger factors and stress works as one of the strongest trigger factors. Eating patterns also seem to be working against the disease these days. Instant foods and food with lot of preservatives also seem to enhance the frequency of migraine attacks. Yes, it is called a migraine attack because of the severity with which it starts and progresses. Also high blood pressure (hypertension) seems to be one of the trigger factors.

Sometimes the headache may be associated with nausea, vomiting, giddiness etc. These symptoms may precede the migraine attack. The migraine is also seen more among women than men. The gender difference may be related to complex emotional disposition in women.

Treatment of migraine:

Conventional migraine treatment (Vasograine or similar drugs) treat the migraine attack successfully. But, these medicines most of the times act temporarily and they cannot lead to permanent cure. Moreover the tendency to frequent migraine attacks cannot be subdued with these medicines. Some people say that continuing these medicines for longer periods may be necessary, but still definitive proof of cure due to it is not seen.

This is the reason we recommend homeopathic treatment for migraine and we have found that homeopathic medicines help not only control overt symptoms of migraine during attacks but they can also alleviate the recurrence problem.

After we start with homeopathic medicines, the symptoms start diminishing in their severity. Initially the patients usually say that the attack that used to come every other day is now coming once a week or so. Slowly but surely, this frequency reduces further. With the aptly chosen homeopathic intercurrent medicine, patient gets totally cured. In my clinical practice, I have seen number of cases getting cured within 1-2 months without any recurrence (or very mild recurrence rate) further.

No doubt the role of constitutional medicine is great as far as the complete cure of migraine is concerned. This is the medicine that is decided by considering the physical, mental, and emotional picture of the patient. No doubt, apt and detailed history of the patient is crucial for finding the right constitutional remedy for him. Remedies like Natrum mur, Lycopodium, Tuberculinum, Natrum carb, Acid Fluoricum, etc top the list when it comes to migraine. But only a homeopathic expert can finalize the decision about medicine!

Starting to Move Again Part 2 A Progress Report

by Nina

Daffodil by Melina Meza

As some of you may remember, during this last winter, Baxter and I became concerned about people we were hearing about who were afraid of leaving the house because they were worried about falling on the winter ice. Even worse, we heard about a couple of people who had fallen and who had then lost all their confidence in their physical abilities. The real problem here is that loss of confidence can lead to inactivity, and that inactivity in turn leads to stiffness, weakness, loss of balance and/or loss of agility. But we knew that yoga could help these people so we got started blogging!

First, Baxter wrote a general post about how you can use yoga to cultivate balance specifically for dealing with icy conditions (see Winter Ice, Fear of Falling and Yoga).

But I decided that I wanted to help a specific individual, a women who had left a comment on my post Regaining Stability for Free. Here is the original comment:

“Omgosh. I ....this took my breath away. This is exactly what happened to me! I was this vibrant, moving being....then a stupid, nasty fall (via a piece of gravel on the sidewalk) ended all that. And my subsequent life mirrors your friend's. Thank you SO much for giving us hope!”

So I followed up with this reader to find out more about her particular issues, and with Baxter’s help I came up with three short yoga sequences for her to practice as a way to regain both her physical abilities and her confidence (see Starting to Move Again ). The three sequences were:

1. Baxter’s classic Low Back Care Practice. Because our reader was having back problems in addition to fear of falling, I hoped this sequence would help relieve back pain and restore a feeling of physical wellbeing.

2. Baxter’s classic Mini Restorative Practice . Because our reader was feeling anxious, I hoped this sequence would help relieve stress. And because she was stiff from lack of exercise, this sequence would allow her to gently and passively regain flexibility.

3. My Gentle All-Around Practice. Because the standing poses in this sequence build strength in the lower body and improve balance and stability, I felt this sequence would be helpful for our reader as well as for anyone who is afraid of falling.

My hope was that practicing these sequences on a regular basis would, over time, restore our reader’s flexibility, balance, and feelings of self confidence, and allow her to be a “vibrant, moving being” once again.

Now that it’s spring, I decided to check back in with her to see how the program had worked for her. The news was so good, I decided I had to share it with you. Here’s what she said:

“The moment I started practicing, I knew that I had the tools to positively effect a change, and that translated, almost immediately, into regaining my confidence. And once I got my flexibility back, it was as if there was a mind-body reconnection as well. Although I sometimes backslide, when I do attend to the poses and sync my mind with my body, I feel pretty much invincible!”

I’m partly sharing this with you simply because it makes me so happy! But there is also an important takeaway: having a home practice, however basic, is empowering.

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Iluvien Update 4 FDA Turns Down Alimera’s NDA for Approval of Iluvien Again

Alimera again received bad news from the FDA on its application for approval of Iluvien. In a letter (a CRL or complete response letter), the FDA said that questions remained based on the data previously submitted, about the adverse reactions shown by Iluvien in the FAME Study (risk of cataracts and raised IOPs) and that these were not offset by the benefits demonstrated.

The FDA indicated that Alimera would need to conduct two additional clinical trials to demonstrate that the product is safe and effective for the proposed indication.

Here is Alimera’s complete new release:


Alimera Sciences Receives Complete Response Letter From FDA for ILUVIEN(R)
Conference Call Scheduled for Monday, November 14 at 8 a.m. Eastern Time

ATLANTA, Nov 11, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- Alimera Sciences, Inc., ("Alimera"), a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in the research, development and commercialization of prescription ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, today announced that it has received a complete response letter (CRL) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to the New Drug Application (NDA) for ILUVIEN(R) for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME) associated with diabetic retinopathy.

A CRL is issued by the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research when their review of an application is completed and questions remain that precludes the approval of the NDA in its current form.

The FDA stated that it was unable to approve the ILUVIEN NDA because the NDA did not provide sufficient data to support that ILUVIEN is safe and effective in the treatment of patients with DME. The FDA stated that the risks of adverse reactions shown for ILUVIEN in the FAME(R) Study were significant and were not offset by the benefits demonstrated by ILUVIEN in these clinical trials. The FDA has indicated that Alimera will need to conduct two additional clinical trials to demonstrate that the product is safe and effective for the proposed indication.

The Company will be requesting a meeting with the FDA to clarify next steps.

ILUVIEN is Alimera's investigational, sustained drug delivery system that releases sub-microgram levels of fluocinolone acetonide (FAc) for the treatment of DME. In December 2010, the FDA issued a CRL to Alimera related to its June 2010 NDA for ILUVIEN, which included data through month 24 of the FAME(TM) Study. In that first CRL, the FDA asked for, among other things, analyses of the safety and efficacy data through month 36 of the FAME Study. Alimera submitted a response to the FDA on May 12, 2011, addressing the issues raised in the first CRL and including 36-month trial data. The FDA classified Alimera's response as a Class 2 resubmission, resulting in a six-month review period and a Prescription Drug User Fee Act, or PDUFA, date of November 12, 2011.

"We are surprised and disappointed with the FDA's decision on our application to market ILUVIEN in the U.S. to patients with this devastating disease. Based on extensive research with U.S. retinal physicians, we have learned that ILUVIEN's long-term sustained delivery treatment benefit is desired and that ILUVIEN has a manageable risk to benefit ratio. We continue to believe in ILUVIEN as a long-term effective treatment option for DME. We are committed to, and have the funds for, pursuing approval in Europe and for evaluating our options in the U.S.," said Dan Myers, president and chief executive officer of Alimera.

For Europe, Alimera expects to submit its formal response to the Preliminary Assessment Report to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) later this month. Based on this submission, the MHRA is expected to make a recommendation on the approvability of ILUVIEN to Alimera and the Concerned Member States (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain) by the end of this year, with a decision regarding the approval of ILUVIEN expected in the first half of 2012. The market opportunity in Europe is similar in size to the U.S. market opportunity.