January 2013
1 post
11 tags
My head shakes: is it dystonia?
Keith Haring
Millions of people all over the world, uses her head and neck to carry heavy goods. The control of her head posture must be phenomenal and does not allow any slight involuntary movement of her head. Unfortunately, for some people the head starts shaking and even without relying on their head as a way of carrying, they found this condition very disabling.
Head tremor described a...
September 2012
2 posts
6 tags
Living with dystonia: disability, distress and...
Recently an English lady suffering with longstanding cervical dystonia decided to end her life, with the help of Dignitas in Switzerland.. This tragic event reminds us as doctors how difficult it can be to live with dystonia. I gave a lecture few months ago for the Dystonia Society in London about disability, distress and despair when living with dystonia. The patients afterwards told me how...
4 tags
Meeting the experts in Guildford, UK: What about...
Last weekend, 15 movement disorders clinicians from Europe, Russia, USA, and Canada gathered in Guildford, to share views on Botulinum toxin treatment for focal dystonia., This meeting was sponsored by Merz Pharma.
Dr Elin Forsaa,Dr Svetlana Khatkova, Dr Torsten Grehl, Dr Flavia Coroian, Dr JM Meyer, Dr MH Marion, Dr Dirk Dressler, Dr Sylvain Chouinard,Dr Robert Chen, Dr Sophie Sangla, Dr Said...
August 2012
1 post
7 tags
Strangulated and whispery voice due to laryngeal...
Our voice, like our handwriting, is an individual signature.
Just answering Hello on the phone is enough for our relatives or closed friends to identify who is speaking.
The daughter or the son of a friend, who speaks just like their parents, sometimes mistakes us. Study on monozygotic twins showed that the voice pitch can be a familial characteristic, which can be useful in the...
June 2012
2 posts
1 tag
Meditation and dystonia: an insight from a lady...
Meditation refers to a family of self -regulation practices that focus on training attention and awareness in order to bring mental processes under greater voluntary control and thereby foster general well-being and development and/or specific capacities such as calm, clarity and concentration.…( Walsh and Shapiro, 2006, quoted in Wikipedia on meditation...
10 tags
Swallowing difficulties after Botox...
Swallowing difficulties can be a side effects of Botox injections, when treating neck dystonia, tongue dystonia, jaw dystonia and voice dystonia. It can occur in the most expert pair of hands as the response to Botulinum toxin varies among patients…
What is important to know?
Some patients experience swallowing difficulties after Botox injections, due to the spread of the Botulinum toxin...
May 2012
1 post
11 tags
Droopy eyelid, double vision..after Botox...
Double vision, droopy eyelid, tearful eye can occur in the most expert pair of hands as the response to Botulinum toxin varies among patients…Dr Marie-Helene Marion tells you the facts behind these side effects and what to do when they occur . Dr Marie-helene Marion will also share her tips to avoid them…
Botulinum toxin injections can cause side effects due to the spread of the...
April 2012
1 post
11 tags
Living with dystonia
Dr Marie-helene Marion (neurologist), Mrs Linda Baker (secretary of the Kent group) and Ms Angie Brown (Dystonia Society representative)
Dr M-H Marion, neurologist, specialised in the treatment of dystonia, explains how dystonia is a source of disability, distress, anxiety and despair and what can be done to help.
Mr Dave Ward, Dr Marie-helene Marion and Mrs Linda Baker ( Kent dystonia society...
March 2012
2 posts
2 tags
Treatment of spasmodic torticollis by a...
I was invited last week to lecture at the University of Liege ( Belgium ) about the understanding of dystonia by Henry Meige, a French neurologist . I went back to his original publications and found that he advocated in 1907 a psycho-motor retraining (“discipline psycho-motrice”) for the treatment of spasmodic torticollis…..
The Magic...
13 tags
Don’t push your dystonia!
Push up and Press up have became part of the life of young adults…
Dr MH Marion explains why weight lifting is not advisable in cervical dystonia patients….
Don’t push your dystonia!
1-Push up and Press up have became part of the life of young adults. Going to the gym is a healthy and an advisable way of keeping fit in a urban society, which expect us to be sitting all day long...
February 2012
1 post
9 tags
Meige syndrome
Henry Meige (1866-1940)
A grimacing face … not an expression of pain or disgust
but a neurological condition:
A Meige syndrome
Forceful dystonic spasms of the face, in particular when trying to speak or to eat have been called Meige syndrome.
Henry Meige was a French neurologist who published as a junior neurologist, about facial tics with his friend Feindel in 1894 and 2 years later with his...
January 2012
2 posts
10 tags
The Bali’s dancers head posture in patients with...
Sometimes the analysis of the posture of a patient with cervical dystonia can be tricky; For instance the horizontal translation of the head is a movement that the dancers from Bali can do side to side so graciously. For us European it’s far from natural to dissociate the movement of the head from the neck in a side to side shift. Dystonic patients sometimes have their head shift to one side...
8 tags
How much sweat marks can alienate your life?
How much sweat marks can alienate your life?
You may found the word alienated as “excessive” as is the sweating of these patients …I was myself very surprised when one my patient wrote to me after being successful treated, that she felt FREE .. when the excessive sweating stopped.
Patients who presents with excessive sweating suffered from a lot of stigmas.
Daily life problems of a young...
December 2011
6 posts
3 tags
Happy New Year 2012
Happy New Year 2012.
Bonne Annee 2012
I wish to all of you and in particular to all the patients affected with dystonia a happy New Year. I hope 2012 will be a year of good response to treatment and very mild difficulties due to the condition.
Dr Marie-Helene Marion
14 tags
Emergency Botox clinic for dystonic patients,...
Emergency Botox clinic, for dystonic patients, provided by Dr Marie-Helene Marion, neurologist.
Severe cervical dystonia (torticollis), head tremor, blepharospasm and jaw spasms are so incapacitating that patients often can’t wait 3 months or even 3 weeks to be treated. Dr M-H Marion is available to see patients at short notice and to proceed the same day with Botulinum toxin...
10 tags
Management of arm spasticity in Liverpool, 9th...
Management of arm spasticity in Liverpool
9tH December 2011
Last Friday, I went to a Masterclass of Management of arm spasticity organized by Professor Paul Mc Arthur hand plastic surgeon and Ms Jane McPhail, consultant maxillo-facial prosthetist.
It amazed me how much I always learn from colleagues from other specialties.. We all learn the same functional anatomy of a given muscle, so...
11 tags
It’s not only emotion that leaves you speechless!
It’s not only emotion that leaves you speechless! There are many reasons for losing our speech during life. Dr Marion tells you how spasmodic dysphonia is a disconcerting condition…
Please go to the spasmodic dysphonia page to read more or
Click on http://drmarion-londonbtxcentre.tumblr.com/spasmodic%20dysphonia
10 tags
Botulinum toxin has transformed the treatment of...
Botulinum toxin (Botox) has transformed the treatment of focal dystonia over the last 25 years. Dr Marion lectured at the SENA meeting about the contribution of Botox to neurology..
South of England Neurology Association (SENA)
The 2nd December, St George’s Hospital
Botulinum toxin (BTX/ Botox) has transformed the treatment of focal dystonia.
Dr Jeff Kimber, neurologist organised The South of...
5 tags
More than a wink!
More than a wink! Find out with Dr Marion, movement disorders specialist about hemifacial spasm and how Botox injections can help you
please go to the hemifacial spasm page to read or click on
http://drmarion-londonbtxcentre.tumblr.com/hemifacial%20spasm
November 2011
10 posts
10 tags
Sweating in Winter: a serious problem
Sweating in summer on a hot day or after a long Sunday jog may feel good, or at least normal. But sweating in winter when the weather is cold or you just come out of the shower can be a nightmare for individuals suffering from a condition called Hyperhydrosis (also spelled Hyperhidrosis).
Primary Hyperhydrosis or excessive sweating is in third of the cases a familial condition, which can have...
10 tags
Few words about me...Dr Marie-Helene Marion
Few words about me…Dr Marie-Helene Marion, specialist in Botox treatment for 25 years
My name is Marie-Hélène Marion and I am a consultant neurologist, specialized in the use of Botulinum toxin (also called Botox) in Neurology. I started blogging 2 months ago about Botox, Dystonia and Hyperhydrosis and I enjoyed every minute of it. Of course at the beginning I had some hesitations, but...
8 tags
What makes my head turn?
What makes my head turn? Find out with Dr Marion, neurologist which muscles of the neck are responsible of turning the head on one side in neck dystonia
What makes my head turn?
The neck muscles involved in the involuntary posture in cervical dystonia need to be identified for Botulinum toxin injections and physiotherapy. Here are some hints.
See the sketche below.
The head is placed on the...
6 tags
“With Africa, for Africa”: The World Congress of...
At the XXth World congress of Neurology in Marrakesh, yesterday a group of French neurologists (Dr Christophe Vial from Lyon, Pr Pierre Krystkowiak from Amiens,) with Pr Ouafae Messouak from Fes (Morocco) and I run a workshop of Botulinum toxin injection techniques in Neurology. It was a great success with more than 45 people attending and working with us all day. We had colleagues from Morocco,...
12 tags
The diagnosis of Blepharospasm is always delayed!
The diagnosis of Blepharospasm is always delayed!
Blepharospasm is a focal adult- onset dystonia, responsible of an involuntary eye closure. It can start with an increased blinking explained by dry eyes, gritty eyes or intolerance to bright lights. Gradually the patient, more often a woman around her 60’s, complains of difficulty to watch TV, to drive at night or just to walk outdoors on a...
13 tags
So many different types of focal dystonia!
So many different types of focal dystonia!
Depending of the body part affected,
· Eye closure is called Blepharospasm (blepharo means eyelid in Greek).
· Jaw opening or clenching is called Oro-mandibular dystonia (oro means mouth and mandibular means jaw in Latin).
· Tongue protrusion is called Tongue dystonia
· Twisting of the head to one side is called Cervical...
6 tags
There is more than one Botulinum toxin!
There are 4 different botulinum toxin brands available in UK; let’s Dr Marion guide you through the pharmaceutical maze of the botulinum toxin.
Various names and abbreviations are attached to Botulinum toxin. I hope these explanations will make reading and listening about the topic less confusing….
- Botulinum toxin is called a Neurotoxin as it’s a toxin, which is active on the...
6 tags
H.Oppenheim, 100 years ago was the first to use...
H.Oppenheim, 100 years ago was the first to use the word “ Dystonia”…what does the word Dystonia means? Dr Marion will take you back 100 years ago…..
Dystonia is a neurological condition, characterized by involuntary sustained pulling of the muscles in one part of the body (focal dystonia, mainly in adult) or spread in the all body (generalized dystonia, mainly in children) and associated...
10 tags
Cervical dystonia: what does the examination look...
Cervical dystonia: what does the examination look for? Dr Marion tells you how the clinical examination is important to optimise the Botox treatment.
Cervical dystonia: what does the examination look for?
Patients with cervical dystonia described at onset an intermittent feeling of pulling in the neck muscles; over the months, the head take an abnormal posture. Torticollis is defined by the head...
7 tags
Are all the blepharospasms the same?
Are all Blepharospasms the same?
BSP can vary from one patient to another and also change overtime after few sessions of Botulinum toxin injections.In daily life, we can close our eyes in different ways; for instance when we are in the shower and we get shampoo into our eyes (by the way I am not sure that shampoo are still stinging), we spontaneously frown, screw and close our eyes very tight. On...
August 2011
1 post
4 tags
Welcome
I have been treating patients with dystonia for the last 25 years with Botulinum toxin injections. Patients have many questions left unanswered because dystonia is a rare condition and the image of Botox has been diverted to the cosmetic industry. Patients with hyperhydrisosis also feel very isolated and often don’t dare talking about their condition. The aim of this blog is to help patients...
