Which formulas treat nerve pain?
I’ll give you two things to look up on our website: use AC-Q topically and internally in combination with Mobility 2. AC-Q contains a number of herbs that are particularly good for nerve pain and can be administered topically as well as internally, which is one of the reasons I suggest using it. It’s not uncommon to have elderly patients with neuropathy use both Mobility 2 (in terms of both swelling and blood stagnation type of pain) with AC-Q.
So what would be the general protocol for nerve pain?
If the joints aren’t hot to the touch, use AC-Q topically and internally, with Mobility 2. If the joints are hot to the touch, then use Mobility 2 and Clear Heat. I’ve had very good results with this. We had a male patient who was HIV positive and whose neuropathy was so bad he was only able to sleep 15 minutes a day. We put him on Mobility 2 and Clear Heat (again what we use when the joint feels hot to touch) and within a couple of days, he was only waking up every half hour; within a couple of weeks, he was getting a couple of hours of sleep at a time.
Would a patient be prone to bruising if they are taking blood thinners with some of these formulas?
This is actually more of an herb/drug interaction question. We do have a lot of information, and classes that you can sign up for, on our website regarding herb/drug interactions. In general, a person will not be more prone to bruising while taking the herbal formulas with anticoagulant type drugs.
This patient who is taking blood thinners is an active, competitive martial artist with joint pain.
We do have protocols in the Clinical Handbook and on our website for acute injury treatment, mainly the Resinall K and Resinall E Caps, so I’d invite you to visit our website and Clinical Handbook for information on these formulas. Also, consider Channel Flow when you want to relieve pain.
Serious, competitive martial artists are always getting bruised and beaten up, and of course, that’s when you want to treat the injury; but oftentimes they can be deficient underneath, so you also want to evaluate the tonic formulas, especially for patients in their 30’s or older.
We saw a patient in his 50’s in our clinic who led his division because there aren’t many competitors in that age group. We had to treat him with a combination of tonics to keep his Qi and blood healthy. He was also always getting banged up, so he used Resinall E Caps and Resinall K, as well as Channel Flow for pain, because he did not want to take NSAIDs.