Dear Colleagues: Neural therapy has a place in treating many medical conditions, but I doubt many of us would consider it a first option when dealing with fatigue. Fatigue is just too nebulous and multifactorial a symptom to expect the simple solutions that we hope to obtain from procaine injections. Not that fatigue is unimportant ‐ it is often the "elephant in the room", not brought up unless asked about, yet a sign of deeper problems in the patient's health. These are the problems (malnutrition, toxicity, allergy, emotional problems, etc.) that can defeat the most skillful neural therapist if not addressed. Fatigue is a big part of my practice. My patients generally have chronic conditions for which they have already sought medical care with little success. If they weren't in trouble beforehand, they certainly were after being treated conventionally for any length of time. Anti-depressants, ant-inflammatories, stomach acid suppressants, etc. are one-way tickets to poor health which includes fatigue. But then there are exceptions: A vigorous, generally‐healthy 62 year old man (whom I knew well) presented with fatigue of three months duration. He was fit, physically very active and an outdoorsman, so fatigue was unusual for him. He reported that he "could sleep anytime" and was waking in the mornings feeling un-refreshed. His fatigue had begun during maple‐syrup making time, a few weeks in the early spring of heavy work, long days and little sleep. He felt that he had been "burned out" and had simply not recovered. His appetite was good; there had been no change in his weight and no other symptoms suggesting serious illness. On examination he appeared very healthy and his general examination was unremarkable except for two interesting findings. One was a weak "Vatta" pulse on the right side. A weak "Vatta" pulse indicates an interference field in the upper third of the body on the same side. (See newsletter Vol.6, No.2). The second finding was a "Therapy Localization sign" on the left, indicating an important interference field somewhere in the body. It does not have to be on the same side. (See page 51 of my book.) These findings meant that I could with confidence know that an important interference field would be found in the right lung, upper shoulder, neck or head on the right side. And sure enough, with autonomic response testing an interference field was found in tooth 1.6(the first upper molar) that could be matched with the Therapy Localization sign. Moreover, when challenged with the presence of dental infection homeopathic nosodes, there was a strengthening of the indicator muscle, denoting a (silent) infection of the tooth. See newsletter Vol.4 No. 10. This was treated using the ultraviolet function of the Tenscam. (Procaine injection with an appropriate homeopathic would no doubt have achieved the same result.) Two days later, the patient reported that for the first time he could "feel something in the tooth". No interference field was detected with autonomic response testing and no treatment was given. A week later, the patient was regulating and again no interference field was found. Because tooth 1.6 is on an acupuncture meridian connected with the thyroid, and my patient's only complaint was fatigue, I ordered a serum TSH at this point. The TSH level was 2.37 ‐ not elevated by many physicians' standards, but possibly significant and possibly lower than before he was treated. Two months later (and after only one treatment) the patient reported that his fatigue had disappeared and he was feeling well. This was certainly not a dramatic case of hypothyroidism, but I have learned to look for the mild cases as well. Although many labs consider TSH below 5 acceptable and the American Endocrinology Association makes it's cut‐off 2.5, I find many mild cases with even lower TSH levels. In fact I generally aim for my patient's TSH to be 1.5 or lower. Happily in this case I did not need to make the decision on whether to treat with thyroid supplementation or not, as the patient's own regulation corrected his fatigue. Just after writing this report, I noticed that I have already written on this topic once before ‐ ten years ago in newsletter Vol.2, No.3. Yes, let's keep considering neural therapy's applications, even in unlikely conditions like fatigue! Sincerely, Robert F. Kidd, MD, CM |