Profound Neurological Disease
LOWER MOTOR NEURON DISEASE:
one patient suffered from pain and paralysis of the left arm after a viral infection that affected his the nerves at the level of his spinal cord in the neck. He could barely move the arm and could not drive his car. Strong and consistent acupuncture helped him regain his strength to 85% of normal after months. In this case I have to mention that he had other factors that contributed to his recovery. His neurologists treated him with infusions of immune globulin. He went to experts in Pilates who worked with him to exercise the specific muscles that were weak. HE ALSO ENGAGED A TRAINER TO WORK WITH HIM TO DEVELOP A PROGRAM OF RESISTANCE EXERCISES.
These evaluations and treatments by the Pilates trainers would help in planning his acupuncture therapy. He would come to the acupuncture appointment and say for, example, that his forearm supination was weak. specific acupuncture treatment was directed to that relatively subtle motion.
I have to give this patient considerable credit for his recovery since he took responsibility for doing whatever was necessary for him to regain his lost function. He came to each acupuncture treatment without fail once or twice a week and even asked if there were extra appointment times available in a given week. He sought out therapists for the Pilates and resistance components of his therapy. He never complained about the discomfort of needle insertion or the discomfort of strong electrical stimulation which had to be used to get his nearly dead arm muscles to move.
Cerebral palsy
Another patient was referred to the office for acupuncture to treat his cerebral palsy. He was 37 years old and his goals for treatment goals were straightforward. He said to me at the first appointment: “I do not want to walk and talk like a freak anymore.” His speech was so incoherent that none of the people answering the phone working as a receptionist could understand what he was saying. They only knew that it was this particular person calling because nobody else remotely sounded like him.
Despite his brain injury from the time of his birth that impaired his movements and speech he appeared to have relatively good intelligence. He could think about what was bothering him and express himself. He had 2 part time jobs: one in a supermarket and another in a home remodeling center. From what he related to me he had apparently been picked on and teased for his entire life. He was particularly insulted that the supervisors of the store would not let him speak on the store public address system.
The specific acupuncture therapy, which included needles placed in the tongue, improved the clarity of his speech considerably. He said that he could do jobs at work like collecting shopping carts considerably faster. He wanted to be cured of all of his impairments. I told him as honestly as I could that I could not promise such an outcome. Since he had improved considerably with the treatment he had received up to that point I could tell him that it is a good probability that he would continue to improve with continued treatment. He said that he wanted to have an operation that would cure him. He was willing to undergo an operation even if the operation had a significant chance that he would not survive the operation. I told him that as far as I knew there was no such operation that cured cerebral palsy and I do not think that any responsible neurosurgeon would do an elective procedure with such a poor benefit to risk ratio.
He stopped treatment at my office but still calls asking my opinion about treatments he is considering from other providers. The improvement in his speech seems to have persisted as far as I can tell over the phone.
These two cases illustrate that acupuncture combined with other treatment modalities can produce profound improvements in neurological function and quality of life in these patients with profound neurological pathology. The final most important factor is that the patient comes for the treatment consistently; is willing to undergo treatment "as long as it takes. " The patient should not have any expectations that were not discussed with the treating physician.
These evaluations and treatments by the Pilates trainers would help in planning his acupuncture therapy. He would come to the acupuncture appointment and say for, example, that his forearm supination was weak. specific acupuncture treatment was directed to that relatively subtle motion.
I have to give this patient considerable credit for his recovery since he took responsibility for doing whatever was necessary for him to regain his lost function. He came to each acupuncture treatment without fail once or twice a week and even asked if there were extra appointment times available in a given week. He sought out therapists for the Pilates and resistance components of his therapy. He never complained about the discomfort of needle insertion or the discomfort of strong electrical stimulation which had to be used to get his nearly dead arm muscles to move.
Cerebral palsy
Another patient was referred to the office for acupuncture to treat his cerebral palsy. He was 37 years old and his goals for treatment goals were straightforward. He said to me at the first appointment: “I do not want to walk and talk like a freak anymore.” His speech was so incoherent that none of the people answering the phone working as a receptionist could understand what he was saying. They only knew that it was this particular person calling because nobody else remotely sounded like him.
Despite his brain injury from the time of his birth that impaired his movements and speech he appeared to have relatively good intelligence. He could think about what was bothering him and express himself. He had 2 part time jobs: one in a supermarket and another in a home remodeling center. From what he related to me he had apparently been picked on and teased for his entire life. He was particularly insulted that the supervisors of the store would not let him speak on the store public address system.
The specific acupuncture therapy, which included needles placed in the tongue, improved the clarity of his speech considerably. He said that he could do jobs at work like collecting shopping carts considerably faster. He wanted to be cured of all of his impairments. I told him as honestly as I could that I could not promise such an outcome. Since he had improved considerably with the treatment he had received up to that point I could tell him that it is a good probability that he would continue to improve with continued treatment. He said that he wanted to have an operation that would cure him. He was willing to undergo an operation even if the operation had a significant chance that he would not survive the operation. I told him that as far as I knew there was no such operation that cured cerebral palsy and I do not think that any responsible neurosurgeon would do an elective procedure with such a poor benefit to risk ratio.
He stopped treatment at my office but still calls asking my opinion about treatments he is considering from other providers. The improvement in his speech seems to have persisted as far as I can tell over the phone.
These two cases illustrate that acupuncture combined with other treatment modalities can produce profound improvements in neurological function and quality of life in these patients with profound neurological pathology. The final most important factor is that the patient comes for the treatment consistently; is willing to undergo treatment "as long as it takes. " The patient should not have any expectations that were not discussed with the treating physician.
