Neck and Shoulder Pain ? : homo pathy

“Two roads diverged in the woods and I took the less trodden by and that has made all the difference....”

- Robert Frost.

Scenario 1.. The person Mr. A feels pain in the head and being too busy to think why, goes to the nearest chemist and asks for the freely prescribed over the counter painkiller drug. For the next three months Mr. A feels fine, no headache. His quick relief stays with him. But one fine morning he again finds the old tormentor calling upon him and wakes up with a splitting head. He repeats the old prescription and uses the old pain killer lying at home. Again feels fine after a while and goes out for work. A Couple of years pass by like this and Mr. A's headaches gradually become more frequent and severe and at that stage the old painkiller stops working. He returns back to the chemist friend in the neighbourhood who helps him with a stronger painkiller with a higher concentration. The new drug works fine for the next few months and even though the episodes become more frequent Mr. A finds relief in his perpetual companion, the new painkiller. Then comes a stage when the good old chemist and the pain killers fail to help.

Mr. A… He then decides to shell out some more frm his pocket and goes to the nearby doctor and tells him the story of how the faithful friends the painkillers have betrayed him after helping for so many years. The doctor chides him for using old 'wonder drugs' without a proper prescription and for so long and educates him how the obsolete painkillers have been found too harmful in the Developed world and banned long time back. Of course Indians find it hard to give up old conventions. The doctor prescribes him the newly launched drug introduced only last week by the M R. fro a Multi National company, to be sold only with a proper prescription by a registered medical practitioner. The drug being new, the side effects on humans are not yet fully known and hence presumed to be lesser since the monkeys on which the drugs were tested have survived and not shown any major illness so far.

Mr. A finds the Doctor's words reassuring and leaves the clinic with a lighter heart. On trying the new wonder drug he finds it not very much different frm his older 'obsolete' painkillers in effects, although much more elegantly and aesthetically packed and with a thicker coating of sweeteners, flavours and edible colours permitted for human consumption. Soon the little extra effectiveness of the doctor's prescriptions starts waning away. Mr. A starts waking up or living with the dull aching head and increasingly frequent and severe migraine attacks leave him shaken and perplexed. In addition he finds his eyes surrounded with darkness. And eyelids becoming puffy with retained water.

Some close friends suggest Mr. A to try Homoeopathy at this stage, but Mr. A never knew what moeopathy was so he searches the internet to find out the 'truths' about the enigmatic science. He goes to U Tube the popular and 'educating' site with 'educative and illustrative videos'. What he finds on the site opens his eyes and he drops the idea of consulting a homoeopath and rather goes to a senior super specialist neuro - surgeon in the best and most expensive hospital. The doctor tells him to go for a MRI scan and the test reveal what was feared, a growth in the brain and the doctor refers the patient to the Oncology department.

Scenario 2... Mr. B Was a little health conscious and he had read and heard a lot about the side effects of the Chemical medicines and so wanted to avoid the same as far as possible. He had also heard about Homoeopathy being a Holistic and safe science of healing but was not really aware about its efficacy in pain relief. Especially its ability to give Quick Relief. He went to a drug store that sold homoeopathic medicines and asked for something that could relieve his headache fast. The chemist gave him some patented formulation by a known homoeopathic medicines manufacturer. He did feel somewhat better by the drug but did not find it either really fast or truly effective.

He still was not sure whether it was the right medicine for him but decided to try it as long as it gave him some relief. One day he got up with a really bad headache and tried the same homoeopathic patented formulation but the drug failed to give any relief. Still being adamant to stick to the alternative / holistic medicines he decided to go to the neighbourhood homoeopath who was a young doctor with a newly started clinic. The doctor studied his symptoms and tried some medicines on him. After a few changes he succeeded in relieving his pain and sent him back with the same medicine. The next two episodes of his headaches were bit milder than the previous ones and the medicine given by the young homoeopath succeeded in relieving him. He was happy for a while. He had found a friend in the young homoeopath who would give him a rather too patient listening and would help get rid of his headaches most of the time in a short while. Yet there came a time when the young homoeopath failed to relieve him of his pain and suggested to visit his senior, a well known homoeopath of the city.

Mr. B decided to go by his friend's advice and fixed an appointment with the senior homoeopath who again listened to him very patiently and studied the whole case history and also his past in great detail. The doctor told his aim would be not only to give quick relief but also to remove his predisposition or the tendency to get the trouble back. He devised a kit of all the possible acute and constitutional medicines for him to be kept at home and assured him to be available on telephone whenever he needed him.

Mr. B began to understand the real importance of the kit of numerous medicines given by the homoeopath the next time he felt the headache coming. He decided to
call the doctor immediately before the headache got intense and unbearable. Being acquainted with his case the doctor did not take long in selecting the
right medicine and told him to report after a few minutes how he felt after the prescribed doses.

Mr. B was surprised to see how different homoeopathy could be frm one level to another. He was amazed to see the almost instant results produced by the
medicines suggested by his new doctor and was glad he had heard his young homoeopath's advice. He also understood the importance of experience in
Homoeopathic practice. A few months later Mr. B found his migraine reduced to only a faded memory. Later as his interest grew in the wonderful world of homoeopathy he tried to understand the nature of the medicines that had relieved him so effectively. What came as a really pleasant surprise was that the medicines that relieved his tendency to frequent headaches were so potent and broad in their sphere and clinical use that even tumours could be dissolved by the same medicines and diseases as deadly as cancer could also be cured in the initial stages. And palliated even in the most advanced stages. He felt as if he had been saved frm a disastrous end by the benign science and felt thankful to God. Last, but not the least, instead of getting the dark and puffy eyelids like Mr. A Mr. B found his face had become brighter than before and his energy levels raised and spirits elevated by the Homoeopathic treatment.

Facts to ponder upon: An American website says about the side effects of conventional painkillers: - "Think about it: each year, almost as many Americans die frm OTC painkillers and NSAIDs as died in the Vietnam War. Paracetamol has few side effects and is regarded as safe; excessive doses lead to hepatotoxicity (liver damage). NSAIDs predispose to peptic ulcers, renal failure, allergic reactions, and occasionally hearing loss, and they can increase the risk of haemorrhage by affecting platelet function. The use of certain NSAIDs in children under 16 suffering frm viral illness may contribute to different syndromes at many people. A reported 40,000 people die each year frm the use of over-the-counter painkillers like aspirin. This statistic goes largely unreported, of course, since it's not something the pharmaceutical industry wants people to know about. If an herb killed even 1% the FDA would ban it in an instant, and newspapers around the country would blare headlines about the dangers of the herb. But when it's aspirin, there's just silence. Sadly, most people have been brainwashed into thinking aspirin is actually good for you.”

We keep on popping so much of potentially harmful 'medicines' just to avoid pain which, more often than not, is our friend rather than enemy. It is in fact, the first distress signal or sos frm an ailing organ in need of attention and help frm our brain. Pain is felt when electrical stimuli travel along a nerve pathway, frm peripheral nerve fibres to the brain via the spinal cord. An aesthetic agent acts either by preventing stimuli frm being sent (local), or by removing awareness of them (general). Analgesic drugs act on both. Temporary or permanent analgesia may be achieved by injection of an anaesthetic agent into, or the severing of, a nerve. Implanted devices enable patients to deliver controlled electrical stimulation to block pain impulses. Just as out of site means out of mind. The painkillers by blocking the communication between our ailing organs and our brains makes the brains oblivious to the actual condition and the brain fails to take suitable measures to check the onslaught of the pain producing diseases and the organs get further damaged unable to send any sos to the brain. Thus despite having the ability to defend and the cure the system our defence mechanism fails to get activated and our diseases get grim.