Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)

LaurieLovesLearning
LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin
edited October 2020 in General Health

I have a friend who suffers with this. She is on meds, essential oils & some supplements.

Does anyone have any suggestions for her as she is a busy mom that would like to stay as natural as possible when dealing with this.

@torey Are you familiar with this at all?

Comments

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    No. I had not heard of this disorder until now. I had a quick look at the main page for the National Organization for Rare Disorders and at the Mayo Clinic page where they are now calling this Conversion Disorder. I'm glad your friend was able to get a diagnosis as this seems to be a difficult disorder to pin down because of the variety of symptoms that a person can experience. The site doesn't say which meds are recommended for this. I would assume that it would be dependent on which symptoms the individual is experiencing.

    Because of the varying symptomology, I would suggest that your friend see a homeopath. If she is interested I could try and find someone close to her or perhaps one that would do a Skype or other type of electronic appointment with her. Because homeopathy treats the totality of symptoms to get to the root cause of the issue, it can be very effective when treating disorders such as this that are very difficult to treat with conventional medicine or therapies.

    Do you know which herbs or oils she has found useful?

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @torey No, I didn't ask. She is also not in Canada.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    That's unfortunate. I am not as familiar with homeopaths outside of Canada and it is difficult for practitioners to do cross border treatments.

    Just in general I would recommend nourishing herbal infusions that are supportive for the nervous system and adaptogens to help deal with stress. Oatstraw, linden flower, stinging nettle, alfalfa, etc. Following is a link to a downloadable e-book on nourishing herbal infusions by Rosalee de la Foret.

    https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58b680a1c534a5de91312c77/t/5a8bc5d3e4966ba44f71b457/1519109717997/Nourishing-Herbal-Infusions-eBookv2.pdf

    Gingko biloba is very neuroprotective particularly for the myelin sheath that protects the nerve axons. Got kola enhances nerve function. Ashwaghanda, schisandra and/or astragalus as adaptogens.

    She may also need some herbs that support the endocrine system, particularly the adrenals.

  • Annie Kate
    Annie Kate Posts: 680 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi @LaurieLovesLearning and @torey I was just discussing the close relationship between the body and mind/emotion in another thread. Much of the mind-body interaction seems to be mediated by the vagus nerve and a lot of it seems to affect the mitochondria. I highly recommend your friend works on that approach as well as on the physical approach.

    For more info, I'm copy-pasting and reorganizing my contributions from the other thread here:

    I recently heard a series of talks by Niki Gratrix about the importance of strengthening other parts of our system, and how that can make the difference. (The talks are no longer available, but if you can find anything by her go for it.) She talks about how we are actually three selves combined into one, the biochemical self, the psychological-neurological self, and the energetic self. I don't quite understand it all, but she points out that all the biochemical (ie herbs, supplements, food) work in the world will not succeed if there's a serious issue in one of the other aspects. Something to consider especially in a complex disease like your friend has.

    There is currently a series of free talks (with an upsell at the end) by Alex Howard, a guy who has done a ton of work on these sorts of things: https://reset.alexhoward.com/videos They will only be available for a few days. Alex discusses how our minds and bodies interact via a maladaptive stress response, how this leads to disease, and how one can calm this response so that our bodies will be able to focus on healing. I watched the earlier version of these talks, bought the course he promoted at the end, and am benefiting hugely. (He is Niki Gratrix's colleague.)

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @Annie Kate In homeopathy the mental state is often the one that is most closely looked at for the root cause of the resulting symptoms of "dis-ease". So all of the mental, emotional and physical symptoms are taken into account when deciding on a remedy choice for constitutional cases such as this. It sounds like the talks you are recommending are taking this totality of treatment into account. It is an approach conventional medical professionals should consider in their practices

    It is really easy to find a quick solution for a herb or other treatment to help with a strained muscle or cuts & bruises or an upset stomach. But when there are several systems involved in cases like this, especially with varying symptoms, treatments become more difficult. The herbs I have suggested are meant to support the person rather than offer a "cure" or remission of symptoms. Most of the conventional treatments for FND seem to take that approach as well (physio, CBT, speech therapy, etc.), rather than getting to the root cause. Not that these therapies should be considered ineffective, just that they need to be included in the bigger picture.