The History of Neural Therapy Treatments

What Is the History of Neural Therapy?

Neural therapy was developed alongside the creation of local anesthetics, specifically procaine, which was synthesized by chemist, Alfred Einhorn in 1905. In 1906, Dr. Carl Ludwig Schleich and Dr. G. Spiess of Germany discovered that injecting procaine into a wound greatly improved healing. A famous French surgeon, Dr. Rene Leriche, was the first physician to successfully treat a migraine headache with an injection of procaine.¹ 

Dr. Leriche was famously quoted as calling procaine "the surgeon's bloodless knife,” as he used it frequently to alleviate his patients’ problems without ever having to perform surgery on them.²

In 1925, the Huneke brothers, Dr. Walter Huneke and Dr. Ferdinand Huneke, independently observed the extraordinary healing properties of procaine without any prior knowledge of what Speiss, Schleich, or Leriche had discovered. And the discovery was actually made by accident.

Dr. Ferdinand Huneke was treating his nurse and gave her a treatment of procaine with the intention of treating her rheumatism. This ended up treating her previously therapy-resistant migraine. It worked so well that Dr. Walter Huneke went on to spend the rest of his career researching and discovering more of the beneficial properties of using procaine beyond just its properties as a local anesthetic.

In 1928, Dr. Walter and Dr. Ferdinand Huneke first released results of their research in a medical journal. The article was entitled “Unfamiliar Remote Effects of Local Anesthetics,” and it was in this publication that the Huneke brothers reported that injection treatments in a localized area could help organ function throughout the body.

Since the Huneke brothers discovery, neural therapy injections have been a mainstay of medical treatment for many chronic conditions in Europe, Latin America, and now more recently in the United States.

What Is Procaine?

Procaine was the very first local anesthetic originally created in 1905 by a German chemist named Alfred Einhorn. Procaine is unique in that it has a short half-life of 15 to 20 minutes, and then it breaks down directly in the tissue into two different non-toxic compounds. These compounds have their own healing properties, which include anti-inflammatory effects and capillary stabilization, which can prevent excess bleeding at the injection site.

Procaine for neural therapy

Procaine is also known under the trade name of novocaine, which dentists use to numb patient’s mouths for dental procedures. The difference between novocaine and the procaine that a neural therapist will use is that epinephrine and preservatives are not added to the neural therapy solution. 

Because procaine breaks down cleanly and quickly within the tissues of the body, this is why neural therapists prefer to use procaine.

Safety and Insurance Coverage For Neural Therapy

Is Neural Therapy Safe?

Neural therapy is performed by injecting procaine or lidocaine into specific areas in the body. Any injection into the body carries a risk of infection. This can be reduced by using sterile needles and a clean injection site - both of which we always do at our clinics and stress to our students that learn neural therapy.

Additionally, patients with known allergies to anesthetics, such as procaine or lidocaine, may not tolerate neural therapy due to the risk of an allergic reaction. Therefore, this is not an appropriate therapy for these individuals. 

Neural therapy can also cause other problems if the injection is not done properly. That’s why our classes not only stress the importance of safety and proper injection techniques, but they also extensively review the risks and benefits of neural therapy. That way, providers will be able to discuss all aspects of neural therapy with their patients to provide safe and effective treatments.

Is Neural Therapy Covered by Insurance?

Although this has been a standard therapy for many chronic health conditions in Germany and other parts of Europe since the early 20th century, general acceptance of all injection therapies including neural therapy and prolotherapy is not quite there yet. Since there are relatively few practitioners doing neural therapy and other injection therapies in the United States, there is much less knowledge and awareness of the health benefits, the effectiveness, and the safety of these treatments. 

Insurance companies will adopt and pay for only what conventional medicine adopts as standards of care. At this time, insurance plans consider this treatment experimental and investigational and are not covering it. What this means is that neural therapy is a not-covered service - even if it's an effective treatment for many chronic health conditions.

Is Neural Therapy FDA Approved?

In order for a medication or therapy to become approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it must undergo and pass five different phases. These phases involve research, clinical trials, and ultimately review and approval by the FDA. While sometimes certain medications, immunizations, or therapies can be expedited, most FDA approvals take an average of 10 years from start to finish.³

Neural therapy has been used in Europe as a mainstay of treatment for many chronic conditions for over 50 years, but its benefit has only just started to become recognized in the United States. Due to this, procaine has not been approved by the FDA for use within the neural therapy spectrum of injection therapy. 

Procaine has been approved for use as an anesthetic to ease pain for procedures such as in dentistry as well as for eye surgery. It is also approved for use in trigger point injection therapy.

And while neural therapy is not FDA approved, it has been studied extensively and found to be a safe, effective, and beneficial treatment for many chronic medical conditions. Therefore, neural therapy is currently practiced as an experimental therapy.


The Details of Neural Therapy - For Patients

How Does It Feel to Get a Treatment? 

During neural therapy, a very fine needle is used to inject a local anesthetic. There are often multiple small injections made at specific points just below the surface of the skin, and they are typically injected into an acupuncture point, nerve, scar, gland, or another trigger point.

Sometimes, a deeper injection is necessary. The required depth of an injection depends on where the inflamed tissue is located and what's needed to begin the healing process for chronically inflamed areas.

The skin contains many nerve endings, and the amount of nerve endings present in a specific place varies throughout the body. Patients may feel more pain in certain areas of the body when receiving injection treatments because of this. If pain is felt during an injection, it's often minor and only lasts briefly. Because procaine is an anesthetic, it will immediately numb the area.

Depending on what's being treated, a single injection treatment may greatly improve symptoms. In fact, many patients notice beneficial effects immediately, and the treatment is considered successful if pain and symptoms resolve partially or completely after the 24 hour mark. Sometimes, a short series of injections may be required for more chronic symptoms and illnesses.

When multiple injections are completed, the benefits and relief of symptoms are collective and long lasting for many patients. 

Do Neural Therapy Treatments Hurt?

The pain felt from neural therapy injections is the equivalent of a mosquito bite. But for some patients, the pain can be much greater. The amount of pain that a patient feels from an injection is based on several factors including:

  • Sensitivity of the area

  • Depth that's required for an injection

  • Thickness of any scar tissue being injected

How Many Treatments Are Needed to Get Better With Neural Therapy?

The amount of sessions needed for neural therapy to work is varied and depends on the injury and the length of time the area has been inflamed. After receiving a treatment, your therapist will ask you to think about if your symptoms return and what percentage better they are.

The percentage better can range from 10 to 100 percent. If your symptoms have improved by 100%, that’s great! You wouldn’t need any more treatments. But if it’s not 100%, then typically we’ll want to either repeat the treatment or treat other areas of the body that may not show symptoms.  

It's not uncommon for there to be symptom improvement in one area and then nerves close by decide they would like to chime in and cause some symptoms. This is because the brain can only handle so many signals at one time. These were nerves that were likely being affected all along, but their signals weren’t as loud as signals from nerves that were treated. 

With each injection that follows, the goal is to see symptoms continue to improve and then subside.

It's also not uncommon for emotional blocks to be released during a treatment, and this may result in a strong emotional response. It's important to remember that the release of both physical and emotional responses is important in the healing process.⁴

What Are the Risks and Benefits of Neural Therapy?

Benefits of Neural Therapy

Neural therapy is an effective alternative to surgery or pain pills for the treatment of chronic pain and many other chronic conditions. Neural therapy has been shown to improve:⁴

  • Digestive health

  • Chronic lymph congestion

  • Joint and muscle pain

  • Scar tissue that forms due to surgery or injury

  • Chronic pain conditions

  • Certain skin conditions, such as acne

  • Thyroid and hormonal issues

  • Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

  • Infertility and menstrual issues

  • Mental health conditions, such as depression

Patient's often find enough relief from neural therapy that they're able to avoid surgery all together. Additionally, patients also avoid having to take addictive pain medications.

Neural therapy is safer, cheaper, and more convenient than surgery. Each treatment can be done in an outpatient setting and requires no hospitalization or overnight care. On average, three to six injection treatments are needed for patients to have pain relief and improvement in symptoms. The exact amount will vary depending on the patient and the condition that's being treated.

Risks of Neural Therapy

Oftentimes, the benefits of certain treatments outweigh the potential risks, but they're always important to consider. When it comes to neural therapy, any negative effects tend to be temporary and may precede improvements. One risk of neural injection therapy is a needle entering an organ beneath the skin, which may or may not have negative consequences.

The main risk that a well-trained neural therapist is sure to watch out for is a needle entering the lungs. This can cause a condition called a pneumothorax. And while it’s not an emergency, it can be a painful condition that typically has a healing time of several days or more.

Another potential risk of neural therapy is an allergic reaction. Patients that are allergic to anesthetics like novocaine, lidocaine, and other forms of anesthesia medications are not good candidates for neural therapy injections. This is something that every patient is screened for prior to moving forward with treatment.

As with any injection-based therapy, there is also a chance of infection. However, this decreases by using a highly-trained provider that uses sterile equipment and proper medical protocols.

Side Effects of Neural Therapy

Neural therapy also poses the risk of several side effects including bruising, bleeding, pain, and usually transitory numbness and lightheadedness. You may even experience something called a Herxheimer response, which is discussed more below.

If bruising occurs, it’s most often minor and occurs at the injection site. Bruising tends to be more common with scar tissue treatments, but it can really happen anywhere where an injection may accidentally come in contact with a small blood vessel called a capillary.

Some patients may feel slightly lightheaded following an injection, and this is typically due to a temporary decrease of the heart rate caused by the anesthetic. This is because anesthetics like procaine are sympatholytics, which means that they shift the autonomic nervous system from a sympathetic state (fight or flight) into a parasympathetic state (rest and digest).

It's important to remember that this side effect of lightheadedness only lasts a few minutes and passes within 10 minutes after the injections are completed.

Luckily, the parasympathetic state of ease and relaxation tends to last much longer than the amount of time that the procaine is in the body. This is actually an important part of the treatment, as we cannot fully heal if our bodies are in a fight or flight state the majority of the time.

Sometimes patients say that they can initially feel worse for the next day. Typically, they may notice worsening symptoms from the chronic condition being treated, such as having headaches or stomach pain. 

This is typically followed by an improvement in their symptoms. This is what’s called a Herxheimer reaction.

What Exactly is a Herxheimer Reaction?

A Herxheimer reaction is a response by the body that can sometimes occur following neural therapy injections. Sometimes when the body is being triggered to detoxify and heal, the immune system and the detoxification systems within the body have to ramp up their work to overcome the obstacles to heal.

Once this response has passed, the body has a greater capability of moving into a permanent state of health. As a patient, you’ll have your own individual response, and any of the above side effects should be reported to your provider. 

There are many things that we teach our neural therapy providers to do in order to help prevent and, if needed, help support you through a Herxheimer response. There are many therapies and nutraceutical prescriptions that can help support lymphatic drainage, aid in detoxification, and fortify the immune system response. When we’ve used them to help our patients going through a Herxheimer response, we’ve seen great success.

Our goal is to help relieve the suffering that can occur during the healing process.

What Can I Expect When I Go In for a Neural Therapy Treatment?

Once you’ve found a well-trained and skilled neural therapist near you, you’re probably wondering what to expect next. For this reason, we’ve broken it down for you. 

1) Review Your History 

First, your neural therapist will take your case and will thoroughly review your medical history. You can expect them to ask about any scars that you’ve had as well as questions about surgeries, accidents, or other physical and emotional trauma that you feel comfortable sharing with them. 

2) Discuss Your Treatment Plan

Then, an appropriate treatment will be discussed, and your provider will review any reactions or sensitivities you may have to procaine and/or other anesthetics. 

Sometimes, in my practice, if a patient is concerned about a bad reaction to treatment or if they want to know how the injection will feel before a full treatment, I’ll do a test injection. This is essentially an injection of a very small amount of procaine, and it can oftentimes bring peace of mind to many patients. 

3) Complete Your Neural Therapy Session

Next, your neural therapist will prepare the injection or injections. Rest assured that they’ll talk you through exactly what they’re going to do and will give you an idea of how it will feel in your body.

Depending on where the injection is, it’s rare that you’ll need to take off any clothing. However, you may need to remove some items of clothing if the area to be injected cannot be accessed by pushing aside clothing. If this is the case, a gown or drape will be provided for you. 

Following preparation, your provider will inject the areas that you discussed. Throughout the treatment, you can expect your provider to check in with you to see how you’re doing. 

Most sessions of neural therapy last an average of 30 to 45 minutes. 

4) Begin Your Healing Process

After your session of neural therapy is complete, your provider may give you instructions to rest, drink more water, and even take certain nutraceuticals that help support detoxification that can occur following a neural therapy session.  

What if It’s My First Neural Therapy Session?

First off, know that you’ll be in the best hands! Providers who practice neural therapy have one goal in mind: to help you heal. And that means including you in every step along the way. 

Neural therapy may sound intimidating, but it’s important to note that your first treatment will consist of a small amount of procaine and a small amount of injections. This is to ensure that your body responds well to the procaine. 

You may feel a little lightheaded from the procaine, and this can be a normal reaction. Procaine takes about 10 minutes to break down in the body. So if you’re worried about this effect, you can expect it to only last for up to 10 minutes. Your neural therapist will monitor you during this time and make sure these effects wear off before you leave the office. 

If you’re having trouble finding a provider near you, don’t worry. We understand that finding a well-trained neural therapist can sometimes be difficult, and that’s why we’ve compiled a list of neural therapists that offer treatments in the following locations: Oregon, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Vancouver.