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In the naturopathically oriented medical and 'Heil-raktiker'clinics 'neural therapy' as described by 'Huneke' (1925) has been considered to be one of the best therapeutic measures and empirically evaluated skills against degeneration, pain and disease.

The term 'neural therapy' has been coined to distinguish this approach from the pure 'local – or surface-anaesthesia' concept. They both treat the nervous system, but unlike the mere local analgesic effect, 'neural therapy' claims to have a beneficent effect on many more diseases and often complex reflexogenic physiological disturbances.

Anterior View                                                                Posterior View
Head Zones: The body segments (Head zones) are named after the spinal cord segments. Dependant on where the nerves leave the spinal cord, they are referred to as: 8 Cervical segments (C1–C8); 12 Thoracic segments (Th1–Th12); 5 Lumbar segments (L1–L5); and 5 Sacral segments (S1-S5). Skin, segment tissue and inner organs, which are supplied by the same spinal cord segment, can be seen as a functional unit.
Graphic re-worked from an original in ‘The Anatomical Atlas of Chinese Acupuncture Points’,
Shandong Science and Technology Press, 1982.

For a long time a commonly used approach for the suffering of intense acute or chronic pain has been the therapeutic destruction of pain-conducting (nociceptive) pathways by applying heat, cold, chemicals – and the ultimate deterrent: the surgeon's knife.

Nervine or neural treatment techniques instead aim to influence the signal transmission itself somewhere along the conductive nerve fibre.

This can be achieved by exciting or depressing the membrane potential of the myelinated fibre itself or by interfering with the pool of incoming (afferent) signals in the dorsal column of the spine. The result will be an inhibition of excitatory impulses within the grey matter of the spinal cord and a segmental analgesic effect. Pluri-segmental inhibition is also a well observed physiological phenomenon and is often used to account for the multi-level success achieved during a neural therapy treatment. And of course also the simple direct effect of the 'local anaesthetic (l.a.) upon the unmyelinated B and C-fibres and small Ad-fibres of the injected tissues can often provide the immediate explanation for the reduced nociception or local analgesia. However, it is important to distinguish the simple local switch-off effect from a narcotic substance in the tissues – the 'local anaesthesia' effect – from the more complex 'neural therapy phenomenon' where, as in other holistic therapies (e.g. acupuncture, osteopathy, shiatsu etc.), the curative effect will rarely be only limited to the simplistic dermatomal and myotmal demarcation lines of scholastic and sometimes very geographical neurology. Instead in many of these manual therapeutic disciplines the artificial stimuli generate descending inhibitory impulses which interrupt the pain reflexes, spasm, poor circulation cycle at the segmental level. Along with this, improved autonomic self-regulation is induced which further opens the way for increased tissue perfusion, elimination of metabolites and the shortening of recovery time from pain and disease which, can be easily observed after the application of neural therapy.

The Local Anaesthetics Used

In search for an ideal 'local anaesthetic' during the 'cocaine-era' at the beginning of this century Leriche and Wischnewski first stumbled across an unspecific analgesic effect of Lignocaine/Novocaine by carrying out experimental injections after this substance was first synthetically produced by Einhorn in 1905. The Huneke brothers reproduced these results in a similar way, but also for the first time managed to observe a distant or systemic effect after experimenting with its intravenous use. On one occasion a migraine headache attack was instantly alleviated when this local anaesthetic substance (l.a.) was added to some anti-rheumatic drugs used on one of their sisters. More systematic experiments followed and many therapists could reproduce these findings in their practices.

The Treatment

The treatment procedure itself involves local injections with these local anaesthetics (l.a.s) which inhibit nerve (neural) conduction by their 'sodium-channel blocking' properties. The most commonly used ones are Lignocaine, Bupivacaine and Procaine. Their tissue clearance rate after injection varies; Procaine is short-lasting, Lignocaine medium and Bupivacaine long-lasting (several hours). It is, however, always surprising that the pain-reducing (analgesic) effect turns out to last many times longer than the expected analgesic effect from the simple 'pharmacological half life' of the drug would suggest. This being the result of their membrane-stabilising, circulation-improving-vasodilating effect, these local anaesthetics are not only used for surface-anaesthesia, but also nerve blocks, epidurals, anti-arrhythmic treatment. In addition l.a.s also lower high temperatures, have anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory properties and have a mildly diuretic effect. Hypersensitivity reactions occur very rarely and can be safeguarded against by using a small test dose before using a large number of injection points. Understandably the selection of the injection sites is of fundamental importance; they can be tissue trigger points, acupuncture points, veins and arteries, inner organs, segment zones and 'Storfelder (irritation-zones)'.

The Techniques Used

Several techniques may be mentioned:

• Field blocks
• Nerve blocks
• Segmental therapy
• Storfeld-therapy
• Regulative therapy
• Combination therapy

The first two belong more to the skill base of the medical officer in the casualty department or the anaethetist. The remaining four, if applied via injection technique, should also be carried out by therapists who not only have background experience in giving injections but also are aware of the vasovagal or pneumothorax risks from inappropriate injections. The practical skill itself consists of placing small subcutaneous depots of Lignociane/Procaine (quaddles) by use of a hypodermic needle – alongside or at the centre of fibrotic tissue areas, – diffusely over whole pain dermatomes, – more accurately into related reflex-zones or acupuncture areas or meridians, an approach that would come under Regulative therapy. In the Combination therapy approach other therapeutic substances such as homoeopathic remedies can be mixed together with the injected l.a. provided they are mixed isotonically under sterile conditions.

Segmental Therapy

The Segmental Therapy approach is based on the findings of Sir Henry Head who already at the beginning of this century described the geography of visero-somatic reflexes.

The injections consist of bee-sting like small local subcutaneous depots of l.a. (described as wheals or quaddles) placed under the skin into the appropriate segment of pain or disease projection. This form of Segmental Therapy does not require specialist training and is therefore the one we mostly relate to in this article. The injection areas may depend upon the therapist's preferred system or method of diagnosis, whether the neurological pain-pathways, local nerve plexi, ganglions etc. are used or other diagnostic models instead, such as: reflex-zones; segments of palpated 'altered tissue texture'; areas of stiffness; trigger-point activity; hypomobility; deficient perfusion zones etc.

The Storfeld Concept

Regarding the 'Storfeld'-concept, energy medicine describes a flow of Chi alongside hypothetic channels maintained by differences of polarity between the thorax and the head. On its course from the chest to the head this energy flows along the arms via the fingers and on its course from the head back to the chest it flows along the legs via the toes. External and internal injuries, any scars cause energetic blockages within this linear distribution system of vital energy resulting in stagnation of Chi and circulation deficiency further along.

Common examples are tonsillectomy and appendectomy scars, but also superficial scars caused by vaccinations, tattoos, scars from tooth extractions, internal scars of ruptured ligaments, scars related to ulcers, caesarean sections may be mentioned. It remains important to say that the 'Storfeld' is not merely a mechanically obstructed area, it is also a source of disturbances from toxins and from alterations in the electric charge of the tissue due to inflammation, stagnation, deposit of metabolites etc. Common foci of such irritation are caused by poor dentistry, chronically inflammed sinuses or middle ear cavities, stones in the digestive or urinary tract, lymphatic organs like tonsils, the appendix, prostate etc.

The duration of the curative process depends upon the chronicity of the problem and like other therapies may take up almost half the time of the initial disease development phase. But it is important to mention that certain types of distresses, –pain, – congestion, –pressure symptoms often find instant relief after or even during the neural-therapy treatment. This has been described as 'Sekunden-Phenomenon' a type of spontaneous reflexogenic release process.

Restrictions in Britain

Injection therapies in this country are legally restricted to licensed health professionals. For therapists without these rights, Neural-Therapy can nevertheless be practised by using a technique known as Iontoforesis where the analgesic substance is introduced electronically rather than by needle injection. For the chosen area of treatment an artificial electric field is created by an machine (as for example described by Knoch, Lindeman) inducing a flow of 'ionised diffusion of the analgesic fluid' transdermally to provide the desired pain relief or trophic changes in the tissues. Instead of creating reservoirs, a dispersed way of tissue infiltration is used in this method, often with similar baffling results.

Indications for Neural Therapy

The range of indications is so immense that it is easier to sum up the diseases where neural therapy is not successful or not indicated: mental / psychiatric illnesses, deficiency diseases, hereditary diseases, congenital convulsive disorders, advanced infectious illnesses or immunological diseases like MS, advanced degenerative disease like liver cirrhosis, kidney or heart failure, arrhythmias, bleeding disorders and anti-coagulation therapy.

Summary

Neural therapy aims at restoring circulatory flow within vital tissues found to be often compromised by the degenerative factors such as pain, spasticity, tissue acidity (low p.h. from toxic – metabolic waste products), scar tissues, contractures, adhesions, external toxins to name a few. The remedies used are polarised electrically charged substances capable of directly affecting redox-potentials in living tissue.

This in combination with the therapeutic skill and knowledge of correct application or injection has provided the highly rated value of neural therapy within the healing arts.

Amongst the celebrity patients treated was J.F. Kennedy who, according to one of his biographers, recovered from an army trauma to his spine, which forced him to use crutches and even wheelchairs in his daily life. After many years of debilitating pain it was a series of Procaine injections which started off the recovery process and made him symptom-free soon after. But the spectrum of ailments indications for neural therapy lists not only back and joint pains. There is also undisputed empirical value for treatment success upon a much wider range of disturbances such as endocrine and systemic diseases and even skin disorders.

Head Zones: The body segments (Head zones) are named after the spinal cord segments. Dependant on where the nerves leave the spinal cord, they are referred to as: 8 Cervical segments (C1–C8); 12 Thoracic segments (Th1–Th12); 5 Lumbar segments (L1–L5); and 5 Sacral segments (S1-S5). Skin, segment tissue and inner organs, which are supplied by the same spinal cord segment, can be seen as a functional unit. Graphic re-worked from an original in 'The Anatomical Atlas of Chinese Acupuncture Points', Shandong Science and Technology Press, 1982.