Which doctor would you choose?
Last summer, Julie Mathias collapsed
suddenly, paralysed down the right side of her body. She was suffering a
severe form of a condition called a hemiplegic migraine. It is not
fully understood, but the paralysis is caused by a communication failure
between the nerves.
In most
sufferers – it affects between 8,000 and 10,000 Britons – these
terrifying episodes often last for hours or days. But Julie, 47, did not
recover. She was left
barely able to walk without a stick, her speech was slurred and she had
to give up working at her hair salon. Her neurologist prescribed an
anticonvulsant drug called Topiramate, yet the symptoms remained.
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In a scene when Julie returns to see
the doctors, she walks without a stick, and is moving and speaking
normally. She beams with relief as she announces that she is back at
work.
‘The physiotherapist
has been working on my neck and it seems to be releasing muscles that
were causing tension,’ she says. ‘I had the start of a migraine in my
eye and just by doing a few simple neck stretches I controlled it. I’ve
got my life back.’
So why did conventional interventions fail where complementary ones succeeded?
‘Doctors
are essentially trained to prescribe medicine,’ says Chris. ‘Patients
often fall outside diagnostic criteria so treating something we’re not
sure about with a toxic drug isn’t very sensible. Julie’s was not a very
real diagnosis – she probably had some nasty drug reactions [from the
Topiramate].
Source - Daily Mail
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