Hello all,
SInce there was a lot of speculation on Alternative Therapies
against ALS, I thought of penning down some of my thoughts on the
same.

I firmly believe that we in our capacity should try all possible
treatments as long as they don't do the following:

1. Make false claims of curing ALS at the first point of
correspondence (be it website, articles etc) whereas the reality is
different.
2. Cause any kind of physical damage or injury to the patient (no
burning, puncturing or any kind of physical wear and tear)
3. Causes any kind of mental agony to the patient.
4. Portray themselves as a One of its kind treatment and hence
escalating costs for the patients and their care takers.

Also, we need to keep certain things in mind before we venture out
towards alternative therapies. These are:
1. Always do your research and ask as many questions as possible.
2. Enquire, enquire and more enquire... Ask for success stories or
people who have undergone similar treatments. Many times, the
Neurologists are a good source of authenticiating such treatments.
They are quite open about it as they know that the treatment of ALS
is not in their control.
3. Look for organisations who are into Research of Rare diseases
etc. They usually have some information on aternative therapies.
4. Last but not the least, be practical and reasonable. If due to
some reason, the treatment is beyond our reach then we need to
accept it and look for alternates. We should not kill ourselves in
this process. I am saying this cos I almost killed myself finding
alternative therapies for my father but in the end realised that
something are just not in my hand. Also, it would be good if we do
not set our expectations so high that any change in the treatment or
any kind of downfall just shatters us.

I keep on saying this to everyone I meet who has ALS or has family
members with ALS that the biggest strength we can gve to PALS is
Mental stability and empathy (not sympathy).

My father use to hate it when people would sympathise with him. He
never wanted us to feel what he was goin thru but always appreciated
that we treated things as normal.

As always, pls feel free to ask as many questions to me...I am
always available for advice/ suggestions/ help etc.

Regards,
Gaurav
98999 69781