Have any of you tried them? I know some of you have tried acupuncture with various results, but from my experience with acupuncture, it's actually the herbal medicine that's the primary form of medication and the acupuncture is only a supplement to the herbs. I recently started an oriental medicine program here and the acupuncture treatment itself was about 7 dollars (cheap!) but the herbs were 160 dollars (expensive!) for a two week supply. I asked the doctor, and he confirmed what I thought about chinese medicine. www.bluepoppy.com (search neuropathy, burning foot) has a wealth of information on eastern medicine's effect on neuropathy. The clinical trials taken place here show that there is really no effect; but they don't use herbal medicine, they only rely on acupuncture. Also, the acupuncture program probably wasn't specialized for the individual.

Anyways, I don't know how you guys feel about eastern medicine, but I think it deserves a shot, if you can afford it at least. I don't think insurance covers it, however. Maybe I'll update if I feel anything. The doctor says 2~3, possibly 6 months of treatment. =| Oh joy.

Good day!

Acupuncture is worth a try.

I am skeptical on the herbs. Many Chinese herbs are contaminated and this
is becoming a huge problem. I would not take any herbal over there without
proof of purity, and free from contamination.
There are few places here even that test their products before giving to people.
So be careful with herbs.

Type in contaminated Chinese herbs into Google:
example
http://www.itmonline.org/arts/cleanhrb.htm

My husband John just started TCM two weeks ago. He's doing acupuncture twice a week and herbs daily. I actually brew the dried herbs daily. It's a bunch of dried twig, seeds, flowers, fruits and roots. The formula changes as needed. John's original reason for trying TCM was to see if he can get his hormones working again. But as you know, TCM is holistic so his doctor is working on restoring his blood counts/bone marrow function as well.

He too has told us that for John's condition, herbs are necessary.

We lucked out and found a TCM doctor who studied in China under a doctor who successfully treated patients with Aplastic Anemia (john's first problem) with TCM and western medicine. We are also fortunate that this doctor is trained in western medicine so he understands all the lab tests.

He mentioned that it would take at least 12 treatments to affect the PN.

So we will take this one month at time and see how it goes. So far, John has more energy, his inflammation is down and his nausea has resolved.

If he gets any relief from the PN, I will post it.

I too was worried about the contamination of herbs but I'm not as worried since I'm working with the whole herb and not a pill. Have to take a leap of faith sometimes.

Marlene

marlene,
I'll be interested in how John does with this treatment. When my neuropathy first started, I had accupuncture treatement by a naturopathic doctor, but no herbal treatment. The accupuncture helped the pain in my back but did nothing for my neuropathy. I've actually started the ReBuilder treatment again. We've been doing it for about 4 days. We thought it might help the inflammation and swelling in my left ankle (ankle break and Rheumatoid).

I've bought herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs. They are organic growers and reputable. Not sure what you are using, but they might be a source for you.

Billye

Hi Billye,

I will certainly post the outcome. The PN is not the reason he's going but it would be nice if he benefits from it. The TCM approach and chinese diagnosing is very different from western methods. If two people walk in with PN, you can be sure that your chinese diagnosis will not be the same. Therefore, your treatments would be different.

This TCM doctor supplies the raw, dried herbs. There's anywhere from 8 - 15 different herbs and he mixes up one bag for each day. Thanks for the tip on the Mountain Rose Herbs.

I'm sorry to hear your struggle with the ankle. I hope the rebuilder helps. BTW....I actually learned how to do reflexology and practiced on John. It really helped alleviate the pain and swelling as well as improved his flexibility. Of courese I had to work his feet very gently at first.

Marlene

Marlene, it sounds like you have found someone you can trust who has helped, and that is great. But as a general rule, I think that people need to be extremely cautious. Herbs are drugs. They are unregulated drugs. This means that contamination can be a problem, but also dosages are not always standardised and can vary widely. They can also interact with other things we might be taking. And often, there are not good research studies to demonstrate their efficacy or side effects or dangers. Gee, I sound like an alarmist, but I do believe that (for all it's huge faults!), the medical model we have today is the best so far in history for the safe use and regulation of drugs. It will certainly be nice when some of the herbs and oriental medicine philosophy are studied more and brought in to the mainstream so that we can all benefit from that wisdom. But for now, I feel that I cannot safely evaluate the care I might get from herbal treatments or from some "doctors" who are not licensed. That is not to say that they might not have something to offer, but the opportunity for harm or unscrupulous practice is out there. I would just advise folks to keep this in mind as they make their medical decisions. I would hate for any of us to get hurt more than we are. This is just my bent -- don't mean to offend anyone.