We see a lot of cases of trigeminal neuralgia at our Acupuncture Clinic in Delaware. It usually causes sudden episodes of severe intense pain on one side of the face that can last for a few seconds up to several minutes. Another form (called atypical trigeminal neuralgia ) is less intense, but with constant burning pain in the same areas.
There are several possible causes, the two most common being loss of myelin—the fatty protective layer around the nerve tissue—and compression on or enlargement and stretching of blood vessels exiting the brain stem.
Either of these can occur as a result of multiple sclerosis, stroke or various types of trauma or blockage.
Acupuncture Treatment for Trigeminal Neuralgia
One review of the literature on acupuncture for this problem compared its efficacy on 506 people total versus 404 people taking the standard sodium channel blocking drug Tegritol. The study concluded that they were of similar efficacy, but acupuncture had fewer side effects. These studies were not considered to be of sufficient quality.
However, more recent research in China has reported better results using acupuncture at four acupoints (ST7, BL2, ST2 and Ren24) that align with the sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia nerves adjacent to the trigeminal nerve behind the nose.
If you want to experience pain from this ganglion for yourself, it’s the pain you feel when you eat a lot of ice cream too fast. If your partner or family member is going through trigeminal neuralgia, this fact will allow you to get an inkling of just how painful it can be.
In a later study on 80 patients using the acupoints Tai yang, LI14, L17, ST7, Yin tang, Du20, GB29 and ST6, also compared to Tegretol, showed a 95% effective rate vs. 87.5% for the Tegretol.
An interesting animal study inducing pain in the trigeminal nerve using cobra venom showed that acupuncture could also reduce the cognitive problems associated with trigeminal neuralgia.
Successes and Failures
Of course, like with all disease processes, there are successes and failures. But sometimes the successes can be quite amazing.
Here is the case of a 66 year old woman with Trigeminal neuralgia for 25 years, for whom multiple other forms of treatment failed, who finally became pain free after 14 sessions of acupuncture. She remained pain free without treatment six months later.
Herbal Treatments
In addition to acupuncture, for more difficult cases we use herbal medicine that treats the underlying weakness in the myelin sheath. I learned how to do this when observing my Ayurvedic teacher Dr Mana treating multiple sclerosis.
The idea here is to strengthen the myelin sheath. I developed a formula called Myelin Sheath Energy for this purpose, based on the traditional Ayurvedic formula Mahayograj guggulu used as a basic nerve tonic, along with TCM energy tonics.
When I lived in Nepal, I saw Dr. Mana treat multiple sclerosis successfully using this formula, increasing walking capacity for a British engineer who was there at the same time as me. Around 1999, at my herbal medicine clinic in Delaware, I used this as a base formula for an MS patient. Once I added the TCM energy tonics to the Ayurvedic base herbs, she got remarkable benefit.
For trigeminal neuralgia, it works the same way. Naixin has had many successful cases using acupuncture alone, and with the added herbal strategy for difficult cases.
Acupuncture at Chrysalis Natural Medicine Clinic
The Chrysalis Natural Medicine Clinic is a family-owned integrated holistic health center. We have been in operation since 1986.
Alan and Naixin (Nai-shing) Tillotson are both licensed Acupuncturists, trained in the formulation of safe nontoxic Chinese medicine treatments and Acupuncture treatment according to the pattern differentiations of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
References
Chen Kepeng, Tian Long, Clinical discussion on treating primary trigeminal neuralgia, Clinical Journal of Chinese Medicine, 2015 (13).
Xia Caiqiu, Xun Xuelian, Liu Shuang, Wang Chunbo, Liu Mingliang, , Discussion on primary trigeminal neuralgia treatments, Chinese Journal of Modern Drug Application, 2010 (4).