What is Neural Therapy?

Neural therapy is used to treat acute and chronic pain, chronic illness, and injury. Originally developed in Germany, it has become a mainstream treatment to alleviate pain in many European countries. Neural Therapy was founded on the belief that trauma, whether that is related to injury or surgical procedure, disrupts the electrochemical communication between different tissues within the body. This disruption can lead to long-standing miscommunication in pain pathways, and in time, this miscommunication becomes chronic pain. Neural therapy uses non-toxic medications, is quick acting, has limited side effects, reverses the disease process, restores tissue to its normal functioning state, and offers long lasting results.

Injections often feel like little "pricks' in the skin that are often described as being "uncomfortable, but tolerable"

The neural therapy procedure is easily administered. It consists of micro-injections of medications into and under the skin, allowing small amounts of medicine to be delivered to the site of injury without affecting the rest of the body. The non-toxic medications consist of the local anesthetic, procaine, and specific plant derived homeopathic medications if warranted. Neural therapy is unique in that the injection of the medicines into the skin or dermis allows for a time-released dosing system, which allows for both immediate and long-term relief of symptoms. This application can provide relief from weeks, to months, and even years when the injections are performed correctly. 

Within the nervous system, there are two different and contrasting systems, the sympathetic system and the parasympathetic systems. The parasympathetic system is responsible for digestion, rest, repair, and sexual function. The sympathetic system is responsible for our flight or fight response including protecting us during injuries/pain.

When a person is in pain or a state of chronic disease, they are what we call, “sympathetic dominant,” meaning the sympathetic system is the prominent system functioning at most times throughout the day. Continued sympathetic dominance severely inhibits a person’s ability to heal and leads to chronically elevated inflammation in the body.

Neural Therapy shifts the body into a more parasympathetic state promoting healing and repair. Neural Therapy consists of injecting procaine and homeopathics into the epidermis and subcutaneous tissue where there is the highest concentration of pain and nervous system fibers. Normally an area of pain within the body is consistently firing nerve impulses and rests in a slightly aggravated or partially excited state. Injections into areas of pain and/or dysfunction scramble the pain signal from the pain fibers to the brain, and help to reduce the pain fiber back down to its normal resting state, re-setting the proper peripheral communication so that the body can again see itself as well.

Neural Therapy injections help to drain inflammation by flushing lymphatic tissue, stimulating white blood cells to promote healing, and providing nutrition to soft tissue for healing.

One of the very special and unique qualities of Neural Therapy, specifically with the use of procaine, is that procaine is metabolized into DMAE and PABA, which are nutritive to the nerves, act as co-factors to help facilitate metabolism, offer anti-oxidant support, and have anti-aging qualities. Most importantly, these nutrients can be directed to specific areas by an experienced physician. This is a technique that is extremely exclusive and individualized to the patient that cannot be attained by taking these nutrients orally.

Want to know more? Check out Gwyneth Paltrow's article on Goop about Neural Therapy.