Neural Therapy

Neural therapy is a gentle but very powerful healing technique, developed in Germany, that involves the injection of local anesthetics (usually procaine) into autonomic ganglia, peripheral nerves, scars, teeth, acupuncture points, trigger points, and other issues. The body contains two nervous systems: the somatic and the autonomic. The somatic nervous system is under a person's voluntary control. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) functions automatically. The autonomic ganglia are like tiny "brains" where the centers of the autonomic nerve cells are located.

The functioning of the ANS is vital, for it controls blood flow throughout the body. Illness often begins when the blood flow to a limb or an organ is decreased. A limb with decreased blood flow feels cold and may experience dull, burning pain. Decreased blood flow to an organ hinders its ability to function. For example, decreased blood flow to the thyroid gland may result in hypothyroidism.

Disturbed autonomic nervous system function has been implicated in the following conditions: headaches, migraines, dizziness, confusion, optic neuritis, chronic ear infections, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), vertigo, hay fever, sinusitis, tonsillitis, asthma, liver disease, gallbladder disease, menstrual pain, eczema and a host of others. Neural Therapy, because it regulates the ANS, may have profoundly positive effects on such conditions.

INTERFERENCE FIELDS
The founder of Neural therapy, Ferdinand Huneke, M.D., and his brother, Walter Huneke, M. D., felt one of its beneficial effects was the elimination of interference fields. An interference field is any pathologically damaged tissue, which becomes electro-chemically abnormal. In layman's terms, any time a tissue is injured, it can continually excite the ANS. These centers of irritation through the autonomic nervous system may cause pain and disease in other parts of the body. Most interference fields are found in the head region. According to Dr. Huneke, teeth and tonsils are the two most common, probably because they are close to the brain, autonomic ganglia, and nerves.

Interference fields have lower electrical potentials (lower voltage) than the surrounding tissues. This area of lower voltage sends confusing signals to the body’s nervous system. Sometimes the body will react in an inappropriate way resulting in chronic pain and/or illness.

Interference fields can be found almost anywhere in the body and are often far from the part of the body experiencing symptoms. For example, an old appendix scar might cause migraine headaches or a wisdom tooth extraction scar might cause chronic low back pain.

Scars are the next most common interference fields Any scar, no matter how small or old, even if it dates back to early childhood, can be the interference field causing therapy-resistant rheumatoid arthritis, hearing loss, sciatica, or many other serious disorders.

NEURAL THERAPY AS PAIN MANAGEMENT
Neural Therapy involves the injection of anesthetic solutions, such as procaine, into these interference fields. The areas injected may include various areas of the teeth, tonsils, autonomic nervous system nerves, or gang1ia, somatic or peripheral nerves, scars, the epidural space, or the area surrounding various organs. Immediate pain relief is often observed after the first injection because nerve irritation has been resolved. This is called the "Huneke phenomenon" or "lightning response." An ANS disorder should be suspected if any of the following conditions are evident: burning pain, excessively cool or hot extremities, pale or red hands or feet, skin sensitivity to touch; scars, root canals, chronic problems occurring after an infection or accident, chronic pain not responsive to other forms of therapy, shooting burning nerve pain, pinched nerve, or a chronic medical condition that has not responded to other treatments.