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One morning this month a 70 year‐old woman presented in my office with what she feared was "rheumatoid arthritis" in her hands. Rheumatoid arthritis ran in her family and she was experiencing pain in both hands - in her thumbs and first metacarpals. After a brief examination, I reassured her that the pattern was not that of rheumatoid arthritis and that there must be some other cause. She had been packing her mother's household effects in boxes and suspected that the extra work had provoked the pain, but there was no sign of tendonitis, arthritis or synovitis in her hands. She also had been struggling with a "chest cold" and had been coughing a lot. Looking through her chart I noted that a few years before I had seen her for life‐long asthma and had cured her by neural therapy to her right lung. Could there be a connection? My readers who practice acupuncture have probably already guessed it. Yes, she had an interference field in her lung again, (as proven by autonomic response testing) and the pain in her hands coincided the lung meridia. The "chest cold" had settled, so neural therapy of her lung was all that she needed. (See pages 122-123 of my book.) On the same day, I had another patient, a woman in her 50's complaining of pain in her index fingers. Again there was no history of trauma or strain and the pain was bilateral. Examination of the hands was unremarkable and the woman was healthy, complaining only of chronic constipation. By this time, I was already thinking, "acupuncture meridia" and sure enough, on autonomic response testing the large bowel indicated an interference field. Neural therapy of the large bowel is of course the appropriate treatment, but particularly with viscera, I always wonder what triggered the interference field in the first place. In this woman's case she had begun a "Paleo" diet a month before, mostly in an effort to lose weight, but also to help her chronic constipation. Sudden changes in diet can sometimes be stressful to patients' gastrointestinal tracts and I suspect this is related mostly to changes (or lack of change) in bowel flora. The balance of strains needs to shift and probiotic support is sometimes required. In this patient, autonomic response testing confirmed this suspicion. Neural therapy was directed at the large bowel, but a good quality multi‐strain probiotic was prescribed as well. I think those who practice both acupuncture and neural therapy realize there is considerable overlap between the disciplines. Many of the points used in segmental therapy of the viscera coincide with acupuncture points. In Germany one of the largest neural therapy organizations is called the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Akupunktur und Neuraltherapie (German Society of Acupuncture and Neural Therapy). Personally I do not use acupuncture in my practice, mostly because many of my patients live too far away for the regular, repeat treatments that acupuncture requires. I have a great deal of respect for acupuncture, both the art and the science ‐ (that is slowly being revealed to us by modern research). But neural therapy's concept of the interference field seems to put it into a class of its own for many situations. Speaking of acupuncture research, I have recently read Jim Oschman's new release of "Energy Medicine" (second edition). A particularly rich section is his review of recent research into the nature of acupuncture points, their connection with fascia and the flow of energy through the meridia (and/or the matrix). It would seem that there is currently far more research into the science of acupuncture than that of neural therapy. (Some of the best is coming from Asia, especially Korea.) However careful reading of these reports will no doubt be of benefit to those of us trying to better understand the mechanisms of neural therapy. Classical neural therapy has served us well, but I believe that an understanding of energetics will be required to make further progress. Acupuncturists and neural therapists are on the same journey in this way. Sincerely, Robert F. Kidd, MD, CM |