What is Neural Therapy?
Neural therapy is a treatment that treats chronic pain and other illnesses primarily through injections of local anesthetics into scars, peripheral nerves, and other areas of the body. Neural therapy injections are commonly mistaken as nerve blocks or trigger point injections, but it’s actually a completely different system of treatment. Each treatment is focused on regulating autonomic nervous system dysfunction, which has been linked to many chronic conditions.
Treatments most commonly involve the injection of a local anesthetic called procaine, which is also known as novocaine. Sometimes vitamins or homeopathic injectables are used as well. Injections are made into specific areas of the body based on the condition being treated.
Neural therapy is based on the theory that physical trauma to the body can cause chronic dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system. When the body undergoes physical trauma, it most commonly causes inflammation in these types of tissue:
Scars
Nerves
Ganglions (a cluster of nerves)
When this inflammation occurs, nerves are affected and become dysfunctional. This dysfunction presents itself as either underactive or overactive nerve cells.
As a result, nerves either aren’t able to send proper signals throughout the body or they send too many pain signals to the brain. This dysfunction is the underlying cause of many chronic medical conditions.
When correctly administered, neural injection treatments can often instantly and lastingly correct this dysfunction and resolve many chronic symptoms and chronic health conditions.¹
How Does Neural Therapy Work?
The effectiveness of neural therapy all comes down to the physiology of a nerve cell.
Nerve Cell Physiology
At rest, healthy nerve cells have what's called a “resting membrane potential." This is defined as the difference between electrical charges inside and outside of a cell.
A healthy nerve cell is able to respond quickly to stimuli and send a nerve impulse throughout the body. In most neurons, a resting membrane potential is about 70 mV. If a nerve cell is stimulated, the resting membrane potential decreases. When it drops to about 45 mV, an “action potential” is generated. This causes the nerve to release a signal, or a nerve impulse, throughout the body.²
Nerve cells can be damaged, and it's commonly due to surgery or trauma. In damaged cells, the resting membrane potential is abnormally low and has been measured to be about 47 or 50mV.²
These abnormal signals that are sent within the body can result in many of the painful conditions patients suffer from.
The Nervous System and Chronic Illness
Damaged tissue creates the potential for underactive or overactive signaling within the autonomic nervous system. This happens most commonly due to scar tissue or adhesions created from surgery and inflammation, and when an abnormal signal is released, it travels throughout the entire body.
All nerves are connected, and they oftentimes will send signals that we can feel even far away from an initial place of injury or inflammation.
This is why some patients have pain in areas that aren’t close to scars or damaged nerve cells.
Neural therapy is used to correct this abnormal signaling and restore healthy functioning of the autonomic nervous system, which ultimately restores the body’s natural ability to heal itself.
Why Neural Therapy Works
Neural therapy works largely in part due to the anesthetics that are used during the injection treatments. During these treatments, a very fine needle containing a local anesthetic is inserted into areas of damaged nerve cells. This normalizes their electrical charge, which reduces pain in that area and promotes healing within the cells.³
It's well known that these substances raise the resting membrane potential of nerve cells which helps to stabilize the cell membrane. Studies have even shown procaine's profound ability to increase the time between nerve firing, which is also known as the refractory period.²
And even though the half-life of local anesthetics is short, treatments are able to result in long-term change within the body. This is a result of the anesthetic.
With neural therapy, the autonomic nervous system is able to start functioning properly again, and affected patients are able to find relief from their symptoms.
Providers who wish to learn how to bring neural therapy treatments to their practice can sign up for one of our many live or recorded neural therapy classes.
What Does Neural Therapy Treat?
Neural therapy is most commonly used for the treatment of chronic pain, but it’s also been proven to effectively treat many other chronic conditions.³
Gastrointestinal Health
Many chronic illnesses are a result of the direct relationship between the immune system and the gastrointestinal system.
When administered over specific points of the abdomen, neural therapy injections can help restore gastrointestinal health and, ultimately, many chronic illnesses. Treatment is beneficial for patients suffering from:
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
Pancreatitis
Fatty liver disease
Other gastrointestinal disorders
Neural therapy can also improve pain due to scar tissue in the abdomen from past surgeries, injuries, and chronic inflammatory disorders such as endometriosis and chronic constipation.
Joint and Muscle Pain
Patients that suffer from chronic conditions such as arthritis can have muscle and joint pain. Injections that target painful joints and muscles can result in improvements in inflammation, pain, and healing. Many patients who receive treatments may be able to avoid surgery by implementing other therapies such as physical therapy and exercise.
Neural therapy offers a viable and effective solution for acute and chronic pain without the need for surgery or lifelong prescription pain medications.
Organ Function
By regulating the autonomic nervous system, organ function and overall health will improve blood flow, lymphatic drainage, and bring nutrients and nervous function to the organs. This will directly provide relief of chronic issues such as:
Headaches
Brain fog
High blood pressure
Chronic Lymph Congestion
The lymph system plays an important role in the immune system, overall health, and the ability to heal from chronic disease. When the lymphatic system isn't able to function properly due to congestion, toxins accumulate, infection risk increases, and overall inflammation in the body worsens.
Neural therapy is used to improve the circulation of lymph in the body, which results in the removal of toxins and improved healing. It's also used to treat acute conditions which become exacerbated by lymphatic congestion, such as sinusitis.
In addition to the above, other chronic health conditions that can be treated with neural therapy injections include:³
Scarring and scar tissue due to surgery or injury
Detoxification issues
Fibromyalgia
Acne and other skin conditions
Sinusitis
Lyme disease
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Infertility and menstrual issues
Thyroid and hormonal issues
Depression
Nerve pain (neuralgia) and numbness
Allergies and asthma
Do You Want to Learn Neural Therapy?
When performed by a trained and skilled provider, neural therapy can be an effective treatment for many medical conditions. If you’re a medical provider and you’d like to learn more about how to bring injection therapy into your practice for your patients, take a look at the classes we offer.
We offer classes for beginners and for those looking to add to their injection therapy skill set.
Dr. Anne Hill ND and Dr. Ilana Gurevich, ND, LAc both use neural therapy every day in their practices to help their patients with a range of physical and mental-emotional disorders. And now they’re sharing their knowledge and expertise with other providers. Classes will not only include injection techniques, but they’ll also cover:
The background and history of neural therapy
Anatomy of the nervous system and how procaine affects nervous system health
Physiology of procaine
A variety of different treatments for medical conditions found in everyday clinical practice.
Consent forms
How to bill for treatments
Imagine a Simple Tool to Relieve Pain and Suffering
If you don’t have experience with this type of injection therapy, don’t worry. If you’re a:
Naturopathic Doctor
Osteopathic Doctor
Medical Doctor
Dentist
Nurse Practitioner
Chiropractor
Doctor of Oriental Medicine
Acupuncturist
Any other provider who has injection scope of practice
This class is for you.
You’ll learn everything you need to know, from start to finish, to feel confident about this effective treatment you’ll be bringing to your practice. We can’t wait to share our experience with you, your practice, and your patients.
Citations:
1. Neural Therapy - (osteopathicvision.com)
2. Neural Therapy and Its Role in the Effective Treatment of Chronic Pain - (practicalpainmanagement.com)
3. Understanding Neural Therapy - (rahavwellness.com)