29. Pain management with neural therapy
Sarah discusses the use of neural therapy for pain management with Dr. Kumar Biswas, a Canadian naturopathic doctor on Vancouver Island. Developed in the early 1900’s in Germany, neural therapy is now practiced across Europe and North America. Dr. Biswas explains that biological medicine, which is practiced throughout Europe, integrates alternative medicine and modern medicine. While modern medicine is based on diagnosis, biological medicine is based on functional physiology, and aims to understand and correct imbalances in the body. He further explains that functional medicine has developed in the US in recent years as a marriage of the art and science of medicine.
Neural therapy was developed in Germany. Local anaesthetics were injected into various structures in the body, including parts of the autonomic nervous system, to bring regulation to the body. Dr. Biswas explains that procaine is not only a local anaesthetic, it also balances or upregulates nerves by normalizing their charge. He elaborates that interference fields occur with changes in tissue due to things like surgery, piercings, tattoos, traumas, infection and inflammation. A surgical scar can cause an interference in the electrical, physical and energetic flow within the body. He explains that changes can occur in the direction of charge within the autonomic nervous system, and that an injection can help bring balance back into that process. Dr. Biswas points out that these treatments are not yet considered conventional medicine, although some medical doctors and anesthesiologists in Canada and the US have been trained and are using the techniques.
“When we think about chronic diseases, especially chronic infection like Lyme, neural therapy really matches for controlling some of the symptoms.”
Dr. Kumar Biswas
Quoting one of his teachers, Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, Dr. Biswas agrees that one of the best advances in the last 100 years is the hypodermic needle. He explains that this allows for small doses of medicine to be delivered to specific locations in the body, rather than taking pills, in much higher doses which are distributed throughout the body. Neural therapy is used routinely in places like Europe and South America not only as a therapy, but also as a method of assessment. Dr. Biswas explains that, in some cases, a response to an injection can help assess a problem in that area. He points out that Swiss experts in the field have gained great skill over time using these techniques.
What does the concept of chi, found within Chinese medicine, have to do with neural therapy? Dr. Biswas explains that fascia functions like saran wrap to hold muscles and tendons in place, and that when the fascia is interrupted, it disturbs the flow of chi through meridians in the body. He points out that osteopaths also understand the role of fascia in the body. Neural therapy addresses disturbances in the fascia by resetting the autonomic nervous system to downregulate pain. He has found that patients with infections such as Lyme have found relief from some symptoms, sometimes permanently.
Dr. Biswas describes the role of neural therapy in treating neurological pain caused by an entrapped peripheral nerve as releasing the nerve so it can polarize properly. The goal of procaine injections is to rebalance the nerve and alleviate the pain. He also refers to Janet Travell’s work on trigger point therapy and myofascial pain and explains that neural therapies such as this can lead to the release of toxins in the body that are interfering with the body’s healing capacity. He recommends the use of binders to counteract the release of toxins in the body. In his practice, he also screens patients for a history of prolonged effect of procaine or other local anaesthetics, caused by a pseudocholinesterase deficiency.
“Treating trigger points can be extremely helpful with Lyme patients because of the chronicity of their symptoms.”
Dr. Kumar Biswas
Because of the knowledge he gained through his training in Europe and in the US with Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD., Dr. Biswas was invited to assist and teach in the US with Dr. Jeff Harris. Patients can find a list of neural therapy practitioners through the North American Association of Neural Therapists. Dr. Biswas affirms to patients that neural therapy is safe and gentle, and that patients can decide the level of intervention. In his own experience, the brief discomfort from the therapy is vastly outweighed by the benefit received. For those wanting to learn more about neural therapy, Dr. Biswas recommends books by Dr. Robert Kidd, Dr. J. Peter Dosch & Dr. Mathias Dosch, and Dr. Ferdinand Huneke. Thank you Dr. Biswas for sharing your expertise on neural therapy with us!
Related resources
- Trigger point therapy
- Klinghardt Academy
- Jeff Harris, Neural Therapy
- North American Academy of Neural Therapy
- Neural Therapy: Applied Neurophysiology and Other Topics
- Atlas of Neural Therapy: With Local Anesthetics
- Manual of Neural Therapy According to Huneke
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