A 32 year old lady reported what she described as terrible headaches that started right after she got a divorce about 3 years before she saw us.  The headaches would start on the first day of her periods and continue to the last day.  Her periods were regular.  She would be totally incapacitated and felt slightly better when she slept in a darkened room.  Any motion could cause severe nausea and a dizzy attack.  She “generally slept through her periods,” had no appetite and did not stir out of her darkened room.  She sought help for her headaches.

A little inquiry into her personal history indicated that she “was a sensitive soul”, not very articulate about her feelings, had a tendency to be very clean to the point of being obsessive, had an unhappy childhood.  She was totally “devastated” with her 

Divorce and “if only the headaches would be cured, then she would get on with her life”.  Her family history revealed that there was cancer on both the paternal and the maternal side of her family.

A carefully selected homeopathic drug first based on her physical symptoms at the onset of her periods produced a lessening of the intensity and duration of her headaches in about 2 months.  The careful study of her personality and a few “quirks” that she mentioned in the subsequent visits, along with her family history gave us an indication about her constitution and we put her on a constitutional drug which she took for the next 3 months.  After the 5th month, when she reported that she was “symptom free” during her periods and now she was “much calmer; and actually made a few plans and was in the process of working on them.  We advised her to stop taking the homeopathic medication.  About an year later she called to say that she was doing better and once had a mild attack of headache, again at the beginning of her period.  She decided to “wait this one out” and the headache abated on it’s own without any medication.

We have had cases of “migraines” where the triggering factors have been dietetic (wheat products, diary, sweets, certain vegetables), climatic (exposure to sun, more during summers, winters, or rainy seasons, spring, at change of seasons), stress (before exams, at a particularly stress period in life like during/after divorce, death of a family member, having to look after a sick member of the family, at changes in jobs, having to work with people one cannot get along with, relocating to a new place etc.), change in “life” (in women-beginning of periods, before/during/after periods, during/after menopause).

The cause(s)/triggering factor(s) can be understood only after exhaustive and detailed case taking where there is a constant exchange of information between the patient and us.