Diagnosed with Bell's Palsy(facial paralysis)

[Thrasymachus]

I developed a case of bell's palsy starting on July 3rd and it is still afflicting me. Bell's palsy is caused by some unknown affliction temporary impinging on the 7th cranial nerve which results in a lack of control of the muscles of one side of the face. I have gotten slightly better over time, at first I could barely stand to eat as I lost control of my right taste buds making everything taste very bad and metallic, plus I could barely open the right side of my mouth. But I am slowly recovering and now if I want to with great difficulty I can fully close my right eye, I can open the right side of my mouth fully, but I just cannot separate my gums and lip from the right side of my teeth. However I still cannot fully blink or tear in my right eye, so I put a thick Systane gel ointment made of petroleum jelly and mineral oil to keep it from drying up.but it is very thick and opaque and results in blurry vision.

I am so pissed off that it happened when it did, because I look forward all year to summer living in New Jersey(USA) and this stupid bell's palsy ruined this summer for me. Due to the fact I cannot fully blink or tear, and it is also doesn't help that I essentially have vaseline in my eye(Systane), so when the sun is strong and bright and hot, I cannot stand it, it is too glaring and unpleasant for my eye. I went to the emergency room(doctors were closed when I first realized something was wrong leaving the emergency room as the only recourse), I saw a neurologist twice and an ophthalmologist. The emergency room prescribed me a corticosteroid, which I took and ran out of and was not given a refill. But according to the Cochrane Review the evidence for the benefit corticosteroids is weak. The neurologist prescribed me an oral anti-viral, acyclovir, which also didn't help. I found this [url-http://www.lifeextension.com/protocols/neurological/bells-palsy/page-01]great writeup from Life Extension about the possible causes of bell's palsy[/url], the conventional treatment and alternative treatments after which I purchased the following supplements: Solgar Zinc Picolinate 22mg, Solgar Full Spectrum Curcumin, Solgar Niacin(non-flush) 500 mg, Life Extension Acetyl L-Carnitine Arginate, Solgar L-Lysine 500 mg since the Life Extension article said they could help, but I took them for several days and didn't notice anything so I stopped. Also some co-worker told me to suck on a whole nutmeg nut and Googling resulted in one result of a claim saying it helped, but I tried it during one work shift for 8 hours but I didn't notice anything and it was inconvenient so I stopped that practice.

Does anyone know if anything can actually help people recover from bell's palsy recover faster? I don't want to waste the few nice days left in the year.

Here is a government site on bell's palsy:
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Pat ... Fact-Sheet

[Chumly]

I'm sorry for what you're going through. The only thing I can suggest is trying to take the supplements longer, unless they are giving you really bad side effects. Taking them for several days might not be long enough to establish whether or not they are helping you. I have some friends that are suffering from other afflictions and found relief through medications/supplements, but it took a few weeks to see any effect.

Michael

[viv]

I'm a proponent of homeopathy, always works for me. A google search will give you a number of options.

Viv

[Thrasymachus]

It is has been almost a year since my last post to this thread and I have still not recovered and probably won't, unfortunately I am one of those people that will never recover fully.

Now my right eye is fine and I almost never have to use Systane lubricating gel to combat dry eyes from blinking problems. I seem to blink fine now and I can close my eyes and sleep fine. The persistent issue is that I cannot move my right eyebrow or the muscles of my right forehead at all. I cannot smile fully on my right side and my smile looks lopsided now and I try to never smile. If I try to drink something with those tapioca balls I practically cannot do it since I don't have enough sucking power on the right side of my mouth. I cannot whistle any longer. When I eat sometimes food spills out of the weaker right side of my mouth which makes me self conscious eating infront of others, especially unfamiliar people. When I drink from a water bottle sometimes water slips from the right side of my mouth. When I bicycle it is harder to suck water out of a water bottle or bookbag reservoir system due to the weaker right side.

From all my searching on the net there doesn't seem to be any hope for people like me, no treatment seems to work for this illness. I am just one of the unlucky 10% that has permanent damage from bell's palsy.

[GeoffreyLevens]

No research or even clinical statistics but it is possible acupuncture could help with this. There is a whole sub-set called "scalp acupuncture" that was developed in China and has had some remarkable results with post stroke paralysis. You might have to hunt around a bit to find a practitioner, but if you're in or near a big city there just might be someone.

[GeoffreyLevens]

One of my acupuncture teachers told us about a case he'd had when he first started. It was an old, retired logger, very tough salt of the earth type. The man came in because he'd hurt his back splitting fire wood (in his 80's). He also had facial numbness and some paralysis from going through a car window in a crash 20 or 30 years before. My teacher told him, "The back should be no problem, couple treatments and you'll be fine. The issues with you face have been there so long it is not so likely acupuncture will help but I"ll treat that anyway as well if it's ok with you, just to see what happens...." And of course 1 treatment completely alleviated the numbness and paralysis in his face and 20 treatments did very little for his back. The moral being "Ya never know so explore all options and never give up!"

[QubitBob]

No research or even clinical statistics but it is possible acupuncture could help with this.

In early spring of 2017, my (female) manager at work developed Bell's palsy and experienced the usual facial paralysis. She was horrified by this, felt it was disfiguring, and stayed out of work for several weeks. A family friend suggested that she try acupuncture. She gave it a try, and within 3 - 4 weeks began to see improvement in her facial paralysis. If I recall correctly, she was largely "cured" by about the 3-month mark, although she continued to get "touch-up" treatments for another three months after that.

I note that several years ago, the BBC produced a series of documentaries on alternative medicine. One of the films was on acupuncture (it is available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D53UwyJWa3w . At one point in this documentary, the film crew travels to China to speak with some "masters" of the art. While there, they talk with some patients about their experience with acupuncture. One of the patients states that he had been cured of facial paralysis (he doesn't use the term, "Bell's palsy") through the use of acupuncture.

[Thrasymachus]

@GeoffreyLevens:
I found a location that does scalp acupuncture in my area, it is located in Morristown, NJ:
http://www.cmharmony.net/index.html

I will look into if my insurance will cover it. If not I will probably only try like 3-5 sessions and if I don't notice anything call it quits.

@Quitbob:
Most people, about 90% recover from bell's palsy within a few months whether they do or anything or not. So likely your co-worker would have gotten better with or without acupuncture. Unfortunately I am one of the 10% that didn't recover...

To tell if a treatment is effective it has to do something for people like me, not the 90% majority that will recover from the affliction no matter what.

[GeoffreyLevens]

@GeoffreyLevens:
I found a location that does scalp acupuncture in my area, it is located in Morristown, NJ:
http://www.cmharmony.net/index.html

I will look into if my insurance will cover it. If not I will probably only try like 3-5 sessions and if I don't notice anything call it quits.

Sounds good. From perusing his site, looks very promising. If it could work, he would be one to make it happen. Seems to have excellent credentials.