Disease Index

Living with Haemophilia

congenital haemophilia
Written by Aparna Joshi

Haemophilia is an X linked recessive disorder in which an inherited deficiency of blood coagulation factors results in prolonged and variable episodes of bleeding after any trauma. The bleeding may occur into body cavities, soft tissues, muscles, joints, subcutaneously, intraocularly, intracranial or into the oropharyngeal cavity.

Haemophilia is an X linked recessive disorder in which an inherited deficiency of blood coagulation factors results in prolonged and variable episodes of bleeding after any trauma. The bleeding may occur into body cavities, soft tissues, muscles, joints, subcutaneously, intraocularly, intracranial, into the oropharyngeal cavity or after tooth extraction. It may persist for days or weeks depending upon the severity of the deficiency.

Normally, the haemostatic mechanism in the body curtails blood loss by initiating a cascade of precisely integrated biochemical events involving the coagulation factors, collagen, platelets and derivatives of the blood vessel wall. An inherited defect leads to deficiency of one or more factors especially factor eight and nine referred to as haemophilia A and B respectively. Due to the deficiency, the precise mechanism of clot manufacture and retraction is disrupted and the usual sequence of platelet adhesion, activation, secretion, aggregation and fibrin incorporation is inadequately propagated. What results is inability to stop the haemorrhage and prolonged bleeding.

A visit to a haemophilia centre at Nashik, India unravelled the sorry state of affairs of the sufferers. Previously thought to be a disease of the royals, haemophilia has been observed to be prevalent amongst the economically deprived sections of society. Detected early in life, the hapless victims are usually young males, although rarely females too may be affected. The general trend is of females being carriers than victims as it is exclusively an X linked genetic disorder.

The physical effects of haemophilia are manifold. A typical case is of prolonged bleeding from the umbilical cord in a neonate or of extensive coagulated intracranial bleeding or haemorrhage after circumcision. There was a lady who lost her elder son to haemophilia because she did not have the money to infuse cryoprecipitate/factor to her son who had an intracerebral haematoma. And now she has her second son also diagnosed with haemophilia. Thankfully, subsequent to Homoeopathic treatment, his requirement of the factor has minimised to a major extent and he remains in good health despite his disability!

We met a young girl, 16 years old, a rare example of a female with haemophilia. Her father, a pharmacist, literally broke down in front of us, saying that this dreaded disease has stolen their peace and he hopes that even his enemies should not have the misfortune of suffering from it! To watch a robust, middle aged man break down so was a heart wrenching sight. He said that when his daughter was diagnosed with haemophilia, it felt as if their world had crashed. Finances were not much of a problem for him but being a pharmacist, he knew of the side-effects of frequent transfusions and what it means to be a haemophiliac. He said the social repercussions were unimaginable. Their primary concern however was that she was on the brink of womanhood and there was a high risk of extreme blood loss every month during her menstrual cycle. With homoeopathy, she has shown marvellous improvement, both in terms of having a stable menstrual cycle and in terms of her overall health and resistance to disease.

A boy arrived carried by his father and on closer inspection we realised the boy’s right knee was grossly swollen. Spontaneous haemorrhage into joints after minor trauma is commonly seen in such patients and this results eventually in erosion of the articular cartilage, fibrosis and joint ankylosis. Aspiration may seem an easy option to prevent complications, however repeated episodes of bleeding are very common as testified by a middle-aged man who had pronounced joint deformities secondary to ankylosis. He volunteered that since the age of two years he was diagnosed with haemophilia but couldn’t do much about it as frequent factor transfusion was impossible due to his poor financial status. By the time he started Homoeopathy, the damage was done, but now he doesn’t have such frequent episodes of bleeding or requirement of factor.

The risk of contracting hepatitis C virus or HIV due to repeated transfusion of factors is a serious health risk for such patients. Extensive research by the team of dedicated Homoeopaths indicated that it took at least twelve minutes after factor infusion to stop the bleeding. Many times, a single infusion was not enough and repeated administration was required to control the bleeding. At times it took hours and even days! And for the patient, till then there was no respite. Also there was nothing to prevent further occurrence of such episodes. What conventional medicine could do was give symptomatic treatment, often at huge costs to the patient. This prompted the team to see what Homoeopathy had to offer in such genetic disorders. After years of research it was concluded that it had a major role to play in prophylactic and therapeutic management of haemophilia. Prophylaxis in terms of preventing frequent bleeding episodes was evident as recounted by all the patients treated. Where they used to bleed at least once a month, the patients recalled that they had not bled for many months. A few of them even said that in the last 7 years , they had bleeding episodes only twice and then too it was totally controlled with homoeopathic medicines. Records indicated that homoeopathic medicines were able to stop bleeding within 4 – 5 minutes!

Apart from the physical effects of this disease, was the associated mental anguish and social stigma. A lawyer related his ordeal where his family still looks down upon him fearing he has a dreaded disease. His wife, children and parents even wish that he were dead and don’t flinch from telling him so. They treat him as an outcaste and he says that if it were not for the good homoeopathic doctor, half of the patients here today would have committed suicide.

The social and emotional aspects of haemophilia are little considered. One can imagine the agony of the patient who knows he has an incurable disease which he can pass on from one generation to the next if he gets married and begets children! People shun them and families blame them and it is difficult for them to search for a purpose in life, aware as they are, of their disability, helplessness and dependency!

This article is an effort to create awareness about haemophilia and the pivotal role played by Homoeopathy in treating it successfully as demonstrated by ample evidence from patients in the past few years. Not only has there been a drastic reduction in recurrence of bleeding episodes, but the Simillimum has equipped the patient to deal with the disorder at all levels – physically, mentally, emotionally, in short, holistically!

About the author

Aparna Joshi

Dr. Aparna Joshi (M.D. Hom) has been practicing Homoeopathy for 20 years. She graduated BHMS from Pune University and did her M.D.from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. In 2014 she helped start a company named ‘Sweetpills Homoeopathy Clinics pvt. Ltd' with a few other doctors. This stemmed from a vision of promoting the concept of a ‘Family Doctor’ and providing the highest level of care. Sweetpills now has clinics in Kandivali, Dahisar, New Mumbai and Aurangabad . She hopes to spread 'Sweetpills' all over India and beyond. Recently the company has organized social camps in Aurangabad, Kandivli and Navi Mumbai and a series of seminars and webinars. Dr. Aparna has more such activities planned to manifest her vision of making quality homeopathy available everywhere. http://www.sweetpills.in/

14 Comments

  • Dear Dr. Joshi,

    as a hemophilia patient I found your article singularly unhelpful, as it offers no specific suggestions whatsoever neither for prevention of bleeding nor for treatment.

    Sincerely,
    Andras K.

    • Dear Andras,
      The idea behind this article was to generate awareness about haemophilia and the role played by Homeopathic medicines in treating it . Since you must be aware that Homeopathy is a system of medicine based on individualisation, we do not have any fixed medicines for all cases in general. What this means is that for every case of haemophilia, we need to take a detailed case history and then decide the medicine which will help in prevention of bleeding as well treatment during an acute episode of bleeding. This medicine will differ from patient to patient.
      With Regards

  • Dear Dr Joshi,
    Do I understand correctly, that you use the patient’s constitutional remedy for prevention?
    Which remedies do you use to controll the bleedings? Is that also a constitutional remedy or like during an acut injury in anybody else’s case you have a few selected remedies you choose from?
    Thanks,
    Agnes P.

    • Dear Agnes,
      You are right, the constitutional medicine helps to boost general immunity and prevent recurrent episodes of bleeding. During an acute episode of bleeding, a suitable acute remedy is employed depending upon the peculiar, queer, rare symptoms exhibited by the patient. As you know, we have no specifics in Homeopathy so the medicine will differ from person to person.
      Regards

  • DEAR DR,
    I AGREE WITH OTHER COMMENTATORS THAT TREATMENT PART WITH HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY IS ABSENT FROM THIS ARTICLE?
    THANKS

    • Dear Dr Gupta,
      Treatment in Homeopathy will always be based on the patient’s expressions and hence cannot be standardized. That is the beauty of Homeopathy!
      Regards

  • Dear Dr. Joshi,

    I undestand homeopathy is individualized. Yet treatment must somehow be based on symptoms/expressions (including both “subjective” and “objective” symptoms), and if an article doesn’t say which specific symptoms or expressions led the practitioner to which specific remedy there isn’t anything your fellow homeopaths or the patients can learn from the article. I also doubt your statement that there are “no specifics” in homeopathy. You must have used specific repertories (books and/or software) that led you to good results. Which books? What software? What repertorization and case management method(s)? Is there really nothing specific you can teach?

    Sincerely,
    Andras K.

  • Dear DrJoshi
    Yes I think this article could have been more informative if you would have analyzed the case rubric wise. Though we know individualization is the basic principle but in this case your treatment is palliative not giving cure. So every palliative treatment can have a set of specific remedies that first hit in mind.

    • Dear Dr Satpathy,
      You are right but we have not evaluated any particular case as that was not the intention. Problem is that once we as responsible doctors make a statement regarding specific medicines, it is likely that those medicines can be tried by patients obviously without any thorough analysis and this may very well be detrimental to the patient. Hence the restraint!
      Regards

  • Dear Dr. Joshi,

    Your article was intended to increase awareness that homeopathy can have a positive effect even in this genetic disorder. I believe it succeeded perfectly in that goal. I’m sure patients reading it will now consider homeopathic treatment, where they may not have before. Some conditions do not lend themselves easily to a “take this for that” approach, and this is one of them.

  • Dr Aparna Joshi,

    Madam, I am glad to see wonderfully compiled information on Hemophilia. It is quite informative for New Patients and more so because it is in Indian context.

    It also brings in relevance of options available with hemophilia patients. Role of Homeopathy in dealing with the disease.

    I appreciate your work. My good wishes for beautiful and creative work ahead.

    Thanks.

  • Hello madam……
    I am jitendra kumar from jhansi…my son 4year old suffring from hemofhilia factor 8…plz madam help me…..

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