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Neural Reset Therapy eliminated fibromyalgia pain

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
I've had just about every kind of bodywork/massage therapy imaginable, so I went to my first Neural Reset Therapy appointment with Lawrence Woods heavily skeptical about anything changing with regards to the chronic pain that I have experienced for so many years.

Over the years, I have thankfully found some things that helped manage the symptoms (nimodipine being the most significant improvement) but nothing ever changed my body until Neural Reset Therapy. I haven't taken any medication for pain since my first treatment over the summer.

After the first NRT session, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. I honestly felt like I had the flu. Massage therapists always say that treatment can cause this reaction, but it was the first time I had ever experienced it myself. And still, underneath those symptoms, I could tell that something had fundamentally changed in my body and that was the release of the near constant state of tension in my muscles.

I've watched all the YouTube videos now and I can't say that I truly understand all the theory behind the treatment, but I can say that it definitely does work and it seems like magic. I actually felt a little angry the week after my first treatment, that I had suffered for SO LONG. I was mad at what suddenly seemed like wasted time, in pain. I see after some reflection that that is a pointless track, but it was a truly profound experience for me.

We are working now on some long standing patterns of autonomic imbalance using vagal stimulation, but even if I had only been able to have that first treatment, it would have been worth it.

I realize I sound like some insane advertisement, but it really has been a life changing experience to be free of this weight of chronic pain. If there is a practitioner near you, I hope you will consider giving it a try. I would love to hear more reports!

 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
I can't believe I forgot to mention this part, but the treatment has also completely changed how my lower left leg feels as well. I got hit by a motorcycle when I was crossing the street in 2001 and broke my tibia and fibula. Since that time, my lower leg was mostly numb, especially where the bones broke through my skin, and I intensely disliked having anyone touch the scars.

I had had a lot of treatment on the scars, both at the time of the accident and over the years, including some neural therapy that involved injections to restore the energy meridians that made me double up in pain and anxiety.

Nothing ever changed it until NRT.

Now I can run my hands over the scars without that sick feeling in my stomach and it mostly just feels like normal skin, like anywhere else on my body. The scars have even flattened somewhat and seem less prominent.

I wonder all the time what it would be like if everyone was able to utilize NRT immediately following surgery or accidents as a normal matter of course. I would love to see if it is able to reduce the use of pain medications both in the short and long term across the population.
 

voner

Senior Member
Messages
592
Ema,

would you please be more specific as to which specific symptoms resolved, the time frames involved & /#of treayments.

thanks.
 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
Ema,

would you please be more specific as to which specific symptoms resolved, the time frames involved & /#of treayments.

thanks.
The pain in my lower back, the pain in my psoas, the pain that kept me from sitting cross legged in my knee, and the coathanger pain in my neck and upper traps, specifically. I washed my dog the other day, bent over her in the tub and realized that I had no pain in my lower back for the first time the other day.

Overall, the sensation was that my muscles had all been held taut like a rubber band and then after the first treatment, all that tension was gone.

It worked instantly, he checked the trigger points as he worked until each one was no longer painful to the touch and then he moved on to the next area. Even when I didn't think a spot was terribly painful, I could notice a difference after the muscle was released.

My neck has been a little trickier. It feels 80% better but still tends to act up a little. But the stabbing pain I have had in my occiput for years has been gone since the first treatment.

This all happened in the first 1-2 treatments and we have been working on some other, more "woo" energy treatments since then to balance my autonomic nervous system and help me get out of fight or flight.
 

voner

Senior Member
Messages
592
Very interesting. Thanks for the details. They’re quite helpful. Do you have any allodynia? So you noticed changes in 1 to 2 treatments I am how long has that held?
 

dreampop

Senior Member
Messages
296
That sounds very interesting. I have tried massage, osteopaths, chiropracters, neurologists, orthopedists for my neuromuscular issues - many which are intractable and don't respond to anything (but do 'tighten' with exercise). And many end in the upper mid back. And just recently my ribcage as started to feel sketchy, like unstable and swollen and I have to crack it (also unpleasant). I'm going to try the chirporacter again first, since there is no NRT therapist in my state, but I will consider a longer trip to get 1 or 2 session in a see if it does anything.

GLad your feeling better! It's always crazy when we can find a breakthrough in this things that are myserious for so long and get a little bit of life back.
 

junkcrap50

Senior Member
Messages
1,330
So what was the treatment like? He massaged or stretched your muscle, then had you bend over and tapped your spine, then massaged or stretched your muscle again?

What other treatments have you tried in the past? Have you tried trigger point injections or dry needling?

I'm fairly convinced that muscle tightness and knots are due to the muscle-nervous connection. There was another therapy that I wanted to try that would retrain your brain or nervous system by sending electrical impulses to your muscle while you exercise them to retrain its contractions. I can't remember what it was called though. I heard about it because some tri-atheletes were using it to maximize their muscle performance. EDIT: Found it. It's called ARP Wave.
 
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Lisa108

Senior Member
Messages
675
I'm not impressed by the range-of-motion test around the 9 minute mark of the video. During the second try (after his treatment), her left leg does come up a bit more, but only because her right leg comes up more, too. This is a compensation movement. She notices it and then tries to bring the right knee down.

Maybe she was already at the end of her (anatomically possible) motion range at the first try. I would have been more impressed if the therapist had chosen a model with shortened hamstrings and had the test done correctly (preventing compensation movement).

That being said, and as a former physiotherapist with lots of experience in massage and stretching, I would love this therapy to work. Like the therapist in the video said, it is hard work, straining the hands, wrists, shoulders, and back of the therapist, and is mostly painful and highly uncomfortable for the patient.

Thanks for sharing your experience, @Ema, I hope you'll have lasting improvements!
 

Wayne

Senior Member
Messages
4,300
Location
Ashland, Oregon
Hi @Ema,

Thanks for sharing your experience, and congratulations on your amazing improvement(s). I was wondering if you know whether NRT might be helpful for tinnitus. Or perhaps some forms of tinnitus caused by tight neck muscles, or TMJ issues, etc. If you think of it, would you mind asking your practitioner about this. -- Thanks!
 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
So what was the treatment like? He massaged or stretched your muscle, then had you bend over and tapped your spine, then massaged or stretched your muscle again?
Yes, that's basically it. He will have me resist against him while he moves what he is working on. Sometimes there is tapping with the little hammer or a massage vibrator. He works on hundreds of different muscles, depending on the person, and each one has a different release procedure.

What other treatments have you tried in the past? Have you tried trigger point injections or dry needling?
Yes, to trigger point injections, both dry and with lidocaine or marcaine.

I've done acupuncture (which helped somewhat), something called a Dolphin neurostim device (which didn't seem to help much), traditional massage, chiropractic care, craniosacral manipulation, ice/heat, sauna, supplements and pain meds up the wazoo! There are probably more that I haven't thought of yet this morning.

I'm not impressed by the range-of-motion test around the 9 minute mark of the video. During the second try (after his treatment), her left leg does come up a bit more, but only because her right leg comes up more, too.
I totally agree.
 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
Hi @Ema,

Thanks for sharing your experience, and congratulations on your amazing improvement(s). I was wondering if you know whether NRT might be helpful for tinnitus. Or perhaps some forms of tinnitus caused by tight neck muscles, or TMJ issues, etc. If you think of it, would you mind asking your practitioner about this. -- Thanks!
Here is the response:

If it was caused by a loud sound or medication, then no. If it was caused by muscular tension, a concussion, infection, or other things, then it is possible to reverse that condition.
 

junkcrap50

Senior Member
Messages
1,330
Hi @Ema,

Thanks for sharing your experience, and congratulations on your amazing improvement(s). I was wondering if you know whether NRT might be helpful for tinnitus. Or perhaps some forms of tinnitus caused by tight neck muscles, or TMJ issues, etc. If you think of it, would you mind asking your practitioner about this. -- Thanks!

I believe I read on his website that it can help TMJ issues. I believe, at least with me personally, that (my) TMJ issues are due to tight muscles in the jaw, might even include tiny muscle knots in the jaw muscles. I notice my TMJ problems improve slightly if I massage my jaw muscles. I've tried looking for massage therapists that do TMJ massages, but couldn't find any in my area.
 

Wayne

Senior Member
Messages
4,300
Location
Ashland, Oregon
broke my tibia and fibula. Since that time, my lower leg was mostly numb, especially where the bones broke through my skin, and I intensely disliked having anyone touch the scars.

I was wondering, do you know (or suspect) this accident precipitated your CFS? -- Also, I had a serious head injury/whiplash when I was 15, and believe it precipated my own CFS. Somewhat similarly to your situation, I find it difficult to have just about anybody touch my head since that accident. Perhaps someday I can figure out a way to dissipate more of the trauma surrounding those injury sites, and perhaps even help my tinnitus at the same time.
 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
I was wondering, do you know (or suspect) this accident precipitated your CFS? -- Also, I had a serious head injury/whiplash when I was 15, and believe it precipated my own CFS. Somewhat similarly to your situation, I find it difficult to have just about anybody touch my head since that accident. Perhaps someday I can figure out a way to dissipate more of the trauma surrounding those injury sites, and perhaps even help my tinnitus at the same time.
Yes and no. I had my first episode of illness at 18, precipitated by mono and was sick for a little more than a year before I "recovered" enough to live a fairly normal life, although with a far greater amount of fatigue than my peers. I marched on pretty happily for about a decade before having my second bout of illness in my late 20s, which also lasted about a year. So while I would say that getting hit definitely didn't do me any favors, it also wasn't the only trigger. Maybe if I had properly processed the trauma better, it wouldn't have been such a precipitous decline though. Who knows?
 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA