Trigeminal Neuralgia / Facial Nerve Pain and Chiropractic

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Trigeminal Neuralgia / Facial Nerve Pain And Chiropractic
by David Ritchie DC

It wasn’t a long time back that a young woman in her early 70′s came in to see me because of a pain in her face and jaw diagnosed as Trigeminal Neuralgia, more commonly referred to as facial nerve pain. Trigeminal Neuralgia / Facial Nerve Pain is a severe, constant pain usually in one side of the face and jaw. Though there are experimental medical treatments for this disease they typically have little to no effect in ameliorating symptoms. Trigeminal Neuralgia is still considered to be an incurable disease.
When Lisa (we’ll call her Lisa for the sake of privacy) first came to me I knew this would be the ultimate test of chiropractic’s power to help free a body to heal.
Lisa explained to me that she had been suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia for over 5 years. It had been a constant, unbearable pain for over five years in the right side of her face and jaw. She found it very painful to talk and eat. This disease had stolen her life. Lisa had been to all types of doctors and had been on several medications that had no effect in helping her alleviate these symptoms. She was in my office as a last resort. She had no where else to go.

Incurable

Every week in my talk, The Hour of Power, I discuss the word “incurable.” What exactly does this word mean? Well, for most of us it means giving up hope. If something has been labeled incurable then it means there is no hope of getting better… aside from miracles and divine intervention. This is not the case. The word incurable simply means there is no medical treatment available. That’s it! It simply means there is no medical treatment available to alleviate the symptoms of the disease. The label incurable does NOT mean you cannot heal from the ailment. In-fact… every day people are cured (or better said ‘cure themselves’) of incurable diseases! It happens every day! To use the words of Dr. John DeMartini DC, ‘The word incurable simply means curable from with-in.’
At the time, still a green chiropractor I had heard the stories of people recovering from incurable diseases in chiropractic offices but had never witnessed it.

Upper Cervical Chiropractic

Upper Cervical Chiropractic is a term used to describe those chiropractors that pay specific attention to the top two vertebrae of the spine. These two vertebrae, calledAtlas and Axis are very important and play a significant role in the function of the nervous system. When aligned properly your nervous system is free to function at its absolute best allowing your body to function properly and heal from disease. When misaligned, the nerve fibers surrounding Atlas and Axis can cause havoc on the central nervous system and actually inhibit proper function of your body leading to a state of dis-ease. Upper Cervical Chiropractic aims at re-aligning the Atlas and Axis to restore balance and health to the nervous system and thus to the body.
I was first introduced to the power of Upper Cervical Chiropractic during chiropractic college when a gentleman named James Tomasi visited and gave a talk detailing his personal experiences as an ex-sufferer of Trigeminal Neuralgia. Mr. Tomasi suffered for over a decade with what he calls The Beast, Trigeminal Neuralgia. He finally found an Upper Cervical Chiropractor who aligned his upper cervical spine and soon after he not only became symptom-free… he healed from what has been labeled an incurable disease. It was because of Mr. Tomasi’s story that I decided to learn how to properly align the upper cervical spine to balance the nervous system and allow a person’s body to restore health from within.

Restoring Health

I told Lisa that healing takes time and it takes repetition. She followed a corrective course of care… similar to what I would recommend to most folks who visit my practice. Lisa continued to come in for her regular chiropractic visits. Visit after visit she would come in with no perceivable improvements but she continued to come because she had nowhere else to go. Then one day it happened. She walked in my office with a big smile on her face and said, “Dr. Ritchie… it’s just a twinge. The pain is just a twinge now. I can eat again. I can talk again.”
Lisa got her life back… from an incurable disease.
Chiropractic care removed the interference to the proper function of her nervous system. When the nervous system functions properly the body is free to heal. Sometimes it takes time. But it is a Univeral Law. When the power that created the body can communicate properly with the body, it will heal the body. Incurable simply means curable from within