How to Treat Bell’s Palsy

Bell’s palsy is a paralysis of one side of the face resulting from a lesion on a particular nerve. Typically the eye on that side can’t be closed, and speak­ing and eating are impaired. In about two weeks, the paralyzed muscles begin to atrophy. Some facial paralyses may clear up in a few months, while others are permanent. The triggering cause may be infection, trau­ma (particularly surgical), or weather exposure, but the underlying cause remains elusive. A recent study linked Bell’s palsy to the same herpes sim­plex virus that causes cold sores.

Conventional Treatment

Western medical treatment consists of salicylates, heat treatments, elec­trotherapy, and steroids. Steroids are given to stop inflammation. However, they aren’t very effective for this purpose, and they seriously impair the body’s recovery, deadening the immune system and making natural meth­ods aimed at stimulating it much less effective.

The Oriental Approach

Oriental doctors attribute Bell’s palsy to a condition called “wind in the channels.” In the typical case, the victim has fallen asleep under a fan. If the condition is treated immediately with acupuncture, the paralyzed nerve can be stimulated back to health in a few days. But if the palsy has been treated with steroids that suppress the immune system, allowing the nerve to atrophy for several months, cure is much harder to effect.

Prompt Treatment Produces Prompt Cure

Jan, 46, sought health advice the day after she awoke with a crooked face after falling asleep under a fan on a hot day. Immediately treated with acupuncture needles, she immediately improved. After receiving three acupuncture treatments a day for the next three days, her symptoms com­pletely resolved.

Another woman who had fallen asleep under a fan and developed Bell’s palsy wasn’t so fortunate. She had already had the condition for four or five months and had been treated with steroids before she sought relief from acupuncture. She couldn’t smile or close her eye completely to sleep. Acupuncture treatments succeeded in stimulating the nerve enough that she could close her eye and smile, and she was therefore happy with the result.

Homeopathic Treatment

The appropriate homeopathic remedy for Bell’s palsy is aconite. It needs to be taken, however, immediately on contracting the condition. Later in the course of the disease, acupuncture is much more effective in reviving deadened nerves.