What is neural therapy?

Neural therapy is a method of diagnosing and treating illness and pain caused by disturbances of the body's electrical system. These electrical disturbances are called "interference fields" and may be found in scars, autonomic ganglia (or nerve junction boxes), internal organs and other places.

How do doctors recognize interference fields?

Interference fields have lower electrical potentials than surrounding tissues. Currents flow from areas of higher voltage to areas of lower voltage and seem to send confusing signals to the body's nervous system. The body sometimes reacts in inappropriate ways, resulting in chronic pain and/or illness.

An interference field in one part of the body can cause pain in another

Interference fields can be found almost anywhere in the body. Often, they are far from the part of the body where you feel symptoms. For example, an old appendix scar might cause migraine headache, or a wisdom tooth extraction scar might cause chronic low-back pain. Because these relationships are totally unpredictable, doctors need to search for interference fields everywhere in the body.

How are interference fields found?

1. The doctor looks for an injury, operation or illness that happened before the health problem began. The traditional way of finding interference fields is for the physician to take a careful history of the patient's problem, looking for an injury, operation or illness in the months before symptoms began. Presumably, part of the body's response to the injury or illness was a local "alarm reaction" involving the autonomic nervous system.

The autonomic nervous system controls circulation to each part of the body. When an emergency arises—such as an injury or surgery—the autonomic nervous system changes circulation to the affected body part. Interference fields seem to develop when the autonomic nervous system control does not return to normal after the emergency.

2. The doctor touches possible trouble spots while testing the patient's muscle strength. Another way of finding interference fields is by making use of the body's electromagnetic field. The electromagnetic field depends on the generation of electricity by healthy tissue. If tissue is not receiving adequate circulation, as in an interference field, it will be less vigorous and not have as strong an electromagnetic field over it.

The interference field can be "boosted" temporarily by another person (usually the physician), touching the spot with his or her hand. When this occurs, all of the patient's muscles become temporarily weaker. Thus, the physician can search for interference fields by touching possible spots while testing the patient's muscle strength.

What health conditions can interference fields cause?

The autonomic nervous system regulates the body's automatic functions. It helps control, for example, heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, bowel movements, urination, sexual function, menstruation, perspiration and skin temperature. Any symptom related to these functions, such as palpitations (rapid heartbeat), indigestion, constipation or even cold hands may be partly or totally caused by an interference field.

Chronic pain—especially migraine—often has symptoms caused by the autonomic nervous system, such as nausea or sweating. An interference field may also be involved if sciatica or any other leg pain is accompanied by coldness or change in skin colour.

How does neural therapy treat interference fields?

If a physician finds an interference field, he or she can easily treat it by injecting it with a local anesthetic (pain killer). Local anesthetics have an interesting property apart from their ability to "freeze things"—they also can restore abnormal electric potentials or regulate unstable electrical membranes in living tissue. In fact, conventional medicine often uses local anesthetics for this purpose in treating certain heart problems.

In recent years a non-injection therapy has been developed which seems to work as well as the caine anesthetics. A proprietary electrical device, called a Tenscam® is held approximately 18 inches from the body and directed at the interference field for a minute or two.

The effect of injecting interference fields is immediate. There is sometimes sudden relief of symptoms—a "lightning reaction"—but any response typically will be within the first few days.

How long does the relief last?

More often than not, response to treatment of an interference field is temporary, sometimes lasting even less than a day. However, even a very short response is encouraging and indicates that treatment should be attempted again. Each time an interference field is treated, there should be a longer response. Treatment is then repeated until it is no longer required.

How safe is neural therapy?

Neural therapy is a remarkably safe medical treatment. The most commonly used anesthetics (procaine and lidocaine) rarely cause allergic reactions. Allergic reactions to these anesthetics in the past seem to have been caused by preservatives such as methylparaben. These preservatives are no longer used by most physicians practicing neural therapy.

Occasionally, patients will feel faint for a few minutes after neural therapy injections. This may be caused by "needle fright" or by a short-lasting lowering of the blood pressure caused by the local anesthetic itself.

Puncture of an internal organ is a theoretical possibility with certain injections. Because the needles used are of small caliber, this is rarely (if ever) of any consequence. The one exception is the lung which, if punctured, may collapse. For this reason, special care must be taken with any deep injection into the chest wall or near the lungs.

Another area of injection that carries a slight risk is the head and neck. Injection of a large volume of anesthetic into an artery could bring on a seizure. To avoid this, injections in the head and neck are always performed slowly, drawing back on the syringe from time to time to make sure the needle has not penetrated an artery.

What conditions may prevent successful treatment?

• Drugs—legal or illegal. The most common reason for poor response to neural therapy treatment is the presence of a drug. Any drug with a prefix of "anti"—such as antibiotics, anti-inflamatories, antidepressants or antihypertensives—tends to block the autonomic nervous system. Illegal drugs will block it as well.


• Poor nutrition. An improper diet can result in unsuccessful treatment of interference fields. Poor nutrition is much more common than most people realize. Mineral and vitamin deficiencies must be corrected or interference fields will either recur or the response to treatment will not increase with time.


• Toxins. Drugs, tobacco and alcohol may be considered toxins and can cause a poor response to neural therapy. Environmental toxins such as herbicides and fungicides also affect some people. The metals in dental amalgam fillings, especially mercury, poison the autonomic nervous system and may defeat neural therapy.

When and where was neural therapy developed?

Neural therapy was developed in Germany beginning in the 1920s. (See the FAQ for details.) A considerable body of scientific research supports its basic principles; unfortunately, almost all of the literature is published in German and has never been translated into English.

Neural therapy is a remarkably safe and simple method of treating many medical problems and is taught in German medical schools. Only in recent years have some in the English-speaking world of medicine become aware of neural therapy.