Neurological Conditions

Roshan (Orko) Roy overcame his motor control challenges to become an acclaimed artist with his own unique style. His art enables him to earn a modest living despite a hampered formal education. He also conducts painting workshops for other children. #AutismAwarenessWeek Roshan (Orko) Roy’s achievement has been to overcome his biggest hurdle and make it his strength. He picked up art at a point in time when he could barely hold a pencil. Due to his autistic problems, his motor control was so…

Varda, 34 who lives with the challenges of Myasthenia Gravis took to running to regain muscle strength. As she says: "I chose to run not because it is easy, but because it is hard!" She shares her fight against this neuro-muscular condition.  Please tell us a bit about your condition  I suffer from Myasthenia Gravis. Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease — a disease that occurs when the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues. In MG, that attack interrupts the…

Raju PK,60 from Ernakulam, Kerala deals with Parkinson’s Disease in his own way, sticking to proper medication and exercises. He shares his hacks and tips to facilitate movement in the house. Please tell us a bit about your condition. I am suffering from Parkinson’s disease. I was diagnosed in the year 2009. What were the early symptoms? Sometimes while walking, my left hand remained static, and sometimes while operating the laptop, my fingers would shiver. Is there a history of Parkinson’s…

Brain exercises are among the most effective non-medical approaches to delay the onset of dementia and can be enjoyable for the patient and more likely to be complied, emphasises Sabah Thaver, senior physical therapist (neurorehabilitation) at Nanavati Hospital. Mark Twain once famously said, “Out of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most.” This line at first sounds humorous, but it turns out to be the bitter truth of the lives of those living with conditions like Dementia. People…

Migraines can disrupt your life severely, but the best way to keep them in check is to identify and eliminate the triggers, suggests Abha, 40, who has been having chronic migraines for the last 20 years and maintains a trigger diary to reduce attacks. Please tell us a bit about your condition. I suffer from Chronic Migraines! I was diagnosed almost 20 years ago. I was about 20 years old at the time. Is there a history of migraines in your family? My aunt suffered from migraines too, but her…

ElectroCore, LLC (electroCore), a commercial-stage bioelectronic medicine company received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an expanded label for gammaCore® (nVNS) as an acute treatment of pain associated with migraine in adult patients. gammaCore therapy is a proprietary, non-invasive neuromodulation treatment delivered by a hand-held unit that stimulates the vagus nerve through the skin. This follows the initial FDA clearnance receieved by gammaCore for…

Ignatius Misquitta, 56, who has been battling epilepsy attacks for over four decades, looks at how epilepsy shaped his life and humorously recounts how his seizures landed him in a soup many times. And why he wears a bracelet. My first seizure at 12 months was so severe that the doctor declared me dead. Yet, my father gave me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and pumped my heart, over and over. I have since survived to tell this tale. At first seizures were limited to just 2-3 a year (blank spells…

And questions on seizures, ketogenic diet, depression answered by Dr Joy Desai, a Consultant Neurologist in Mumbai and on the Committee of the Bombay Chapter of The Indian Epilepsy Association. #AskTheDoctor series 1.  How effective is surgery for epilepsy cure? Surgery is effective in well selected patients. Patients are evaluated for surgery on 3 conditions: Is their epilepsy arising from one spot in the brain? Has testing confirmed this site and will it be possible to intervene and…

Swarnalatha, who lives with the chronic disease Multiple Sclerosis, needs hospitalization for 6-8 weeks twice every year. She wonders if the pain is worth it and through metaphors and the books she reads finds an answer. Read her reflections from the hospital bed. I am sure you have heard that when life throws lemons at you, make lemonade. Since there were too many lemons that we couldn’t consume, I started making delicious pickles. These lemons made several scratches on my glass house (…

When a series of catastrophic medical incidents left Payal Kapoor blind, deaf and a veritable vegetable (as she felt then)  at 21, she was devastated. Yet, she pulled herself together, mastered reading and writing in Braille and felt alive once again. Read her compelling story. Dramatic it sounds, I know, but today as I held the first edition of Insight, a magazine in Braille edited and compiled by me, released on the birth anniversary of Helen Keller, a strange feeling of pride and…