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Fatigue is not a
symptom that attracts much attention (from the medical community,
that
is). No specialty has taken "fatigue"
under its wing and no anti-fatigue medication
has yet appeared on the market.
In fact, I suspect that most patients mentioning "fatigue"
to their doctors
encounter a certain (invisible) rolling of the eyes.
From the physician's point of view, our difficulty with fatigue is that we have received
so little training
in its diagnosis. It just does not rank in importance with pain, fever,
cough, epileptic seizures and a host of other more pressing symptoms. Patients
are aware
of this and often do not even mention their fatigue, unless they are
asked.
However, fatigue is important, not only in how it affects
our patients' lives, but also as an
indicator of their general health. It is not unusual for those in chronic pain
to experience
fatigue, but if fatigue preceded the onset of pain, the
pain has a whole different meaning.
Asking patients when they last felt really
energetic can be a key to understanding the
pathophysiology of their pain.
The presence of
fatigue is important in predicting the outcome of neural therapy.
Generally patients with fatigue do not
respond as well to neural therapy as they should,
presumably because of
underlying malnutrition, toxic processes (including medication)
psychological
problems, etc. This whole subject is an
important one, but too large to
cover in this space.
However, occasionally
one finds that an interference field is a cause of fatigue. A
case is presented here:
A 58 year old
electrician complained of fatigue of 7 years duration. His problems began
in 1999 when he was
injured at work, sustaining a complicated fracture of his right ankle
and "torn
ligaments" in his right shoulder. Multiple surgeries were required over several
years for the ankle and shoulder, including plating of the ankle and a graft
from his right
"hip". During this period
of surgery and rehabilitation he developed hypertension,
diabetes, osteoporosis,
a renal stone, cardiac palpitations and fatigue. Cushing
Syndrome was diagnosed and a tumor
was removed from his left adrenal gland in 2003.
The hypertension and diabetes resolved but
fatigue persisted.
An interference field
was detected (using autonomic response testing) in one of the
laparoscopic
scars from the adrenal tumor surgery. Infiltration of the scar combined with
an
intravenous bolus of procaine ½% resulted in immediate improvement in his
energy
level and relief from coincidental backache in the upper lumbar and
lower thoracic
regions. This improvement lasted for about a week. A repeat treatment in the same way a few
weeks later resulted in a permanent resolution of both the fatigue and
backache.
This case is another example of Dosch's injunction that:
"Any chronic illness can be due
to an interference field!"
Dosch was able to state this on the basis of many years of
clinical experience, but the
theoretical explanation comes from Speransky*
who showed experimentally that all
illness, whether manifesting as pain, an
inflammatory process, infectious disease,
epilepsy, or whatever, is directed at
least initially by the nervous system.
The above
example shows that fatigue, like any other disease process,
can be neurogenic in origin as
well.
So although fatigue is usually a confounding factor in
neural therapy, the possibility
should
be entertained that fatigue is a result of an interference field and is
therefore easily treatable.
* Speranksy AD A basis for the theory of
medicine. 2nd English ed. Dutt CP, translator.
New York (NY): International Publishers;
1943.
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A clinical tip from
our dental colleagues at the recent Mid-winter Neural Therapy
Retreat: When treating dental interference fields with
procaine injections, avoid the gum
margin.
The gingival margin is
exquisitely pain sensitive. It is
not necessary to inject
as far down as the dental root, (as shown in the Dosch
atlas), but your patients will
appreciate you avoiding this most sensitive
area.
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