- Cloud 9 Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine22 West Padonia Rd. Suite A-203
Timonium, MD 21093 Follow Us!
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Our Life Changing Neuropathy Program
It started out as a normal outing.
Irreversible is not a word you want to hear from your Doctor but it’s a common one if you’ve been diagnosed with Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy or CIPN.
Elliot S. of Towson survived testicular cancer only to be living life in constant pain. He felt as though he were walking on pins and needles, becoming weaker and weaker by the day. “I was beginning to be worried that one day I would be wheelchair-bound.”
Nearly half of patients who undergo chemotherapy will develop Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy or CIPN.
Chemotherapy meds travel throughout the body and attack cancer cells, sadly they can also cause severe damage to healthy nerves. CIPN can begin within weeks of starting treatment and can worsen as treatment continues. A high number of really unfortunate people will be forced to endure the symptoms associated with CIPN for months or even years after they’ve completed chemo.
When asked how CIPN was affecting his quality of life, he responded, “It was difficult to even walk up and down stairs and do other things we usually take for granted.”
The most common symptoms include:
- pain, tingling, burning, weakness, or numbness in arms, hands, legs or feet
- sudden, sharp, stabbing or shocking pain sensations
- loss of touch sensation
- clumsiness and trouble using hands to pick up objects or fasten clothing
- loss of balance or falling
For some, their nerves will recover over time. For most, the nerve damage is ‘irreversible. ‘ Elliot had been told just that by a series of Doctors and specialists. Essentially they could cure his cancer but couldn’t fix the damage done by the drugs used to cure his cancer.
Then Elliot made a call to Acupuncturist Laura Parks of Cloud 9 Acupuncture right here in Timonium, MD. Acupuncturist Laura Parks is using time-tested science of Acupuncture and technology originally developed by NASA that assists in increasing blood flow and expediting recovery and healing to treat this debilitating disease.
After a series of treatments, Elliot was taking stairs with stride! “We have a house and it has stairs. This morning I walked right down the stairs and got into the car,” Elliot shared.
“I remember thinking ‘that’s become mighty easy for me,’ I didn’t have to hold on to the handrail or anything!
It’s life changing to have this mobility back!
Again and again, we meet with patients who were once diagnosed as “untreatable” or “incurable” but after receiving Laura Parks’ treatments are now living lives free from pain and suffering. For over 11 years she has been reversing the effects of CIPN and other varieties of Peripheral Neuropathy, including that caused by diabetes without invasive surgeries and medications that come with uncomfortable side effects.
If you’ve recently beat cancer only to find that you’re living a life in constant pain and discomfort or you’re struggling with the same symptoms as a result of either Idiopathic Neuropathy or Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy, Acupuncturist Laura Parks and the incredible team at Cloud 9 can help!
Neuropathy Program at Cloud 9 Acupuncture
Did you know… We have a specialized Neuropathy Program at Cloud 9?
We begin with a thorough assessment and something called The Toronto Exam, which we revisit every 30-60 days to monitor the patient’s progress with our custom treatments.
Neuropathy responds well to acupuncture, and by combining acupuncture with our other advanced therapies ATP Resonance BioTherapy, Electroacupuncture, and Direct Vitamin Injection Therapy utilizing B12.
Depending on the initial cause of the patient’s neuropathy, we customize our approach. If the neuropathy was caused by radiation or chemotherapy for a cancer patient, a different blend of injections may be used, or the ATP program may be different to address the health of the nerves or the connective tissue.
If a patient’s onset of neuropathy is stemming from a compressed disc in the lumbar area of the spine causing neuropathy in the feet, with confirmed arthritis in the spine, we may consider the addition of O3 Regenerative Therapy to address the arthritis in the spine as well to improve the health of the nerves by relieving micro pressure on the spinal nerve roots from the arthritis.
On the contrary, if the neuropathy is determined to be induced by diabetes, we will look to ATP programs that address insulin resistance, pancreas function, and candida to improve the root of the diabetes as we also run ATP programs for peripheral or small fiber neuropathy, based on the patient’s diagnosis from their neurologist.
Sometimes the root of neuropathy is considered “medically unknown”- we still have a very high success rate in treating this type of neuropathy as well.
The biggest success factor in our neuropathy treatments are
- How much sensation has the patient lost so far? 80% loss of feeling in one’s feet, for example, is much more difficult to treat than 50% loss, and this combined with medical history will determine our estimate for that patient what the success rate for neuropathy treatment at Cloud 9 will be.
- Patient Compliance. Patients must adhere to the treatment plan and frequency of treatment to expect the most optimal results. Usually, if a patient is compliant, they can typically expect an 85% success rate in improving their neuropathy by 70-90% over the course of their recommended treatment plan.
This is very good news, actually, as western medicine does not present many viable treatment options. Neuropathy is considered a degenerative condition that worsens with age, especially without any medical intervention. Usually, a neurologist will recommend a nerve medication like Cymbalta or Gabapentin to reduce the inflammation and burning sensations of neuropathy. However, patients many times will build a tolerance to said medication and continue to worsen in their condition because the root causes of their neuropathy has not been reversed, nor have any changes been made that would support the rejuvenation of cells and nerve tissue that would reverse neuropathy (which is essentially the death of the peripheral endings of the nerves). As neuropathy worsens, it creeps up the legs or arms and can lead to mobility issues and functionality of those limbs, as well as make the patient a fall risk.
That is why we are so happy at Cloud 9 to offer this innovative Neuropathy Program as a solution for neuropathy sufferers.
Now there is hope!
Acupuncture for Diabetes
More than 34 million Americans have diabetes, and approximately 90 percent of them have type 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Type 2 diabetes, while its exact cause is unknown, develops when the body becomes resistant to insulin or the pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin. Because of this, treatment often involves taking “insulin sensitizers” or medication that helps the body increase its sensitivity and therefore ability to process insulin, keeping the blood sugar from getting too low. Unfortunately, this medication often causes side effects, including weight gain and anemia. continue reading