Kresser Institute

Tools, Training & Community for Functional Health Professionals

  1. Home
  2. Knowledge Base
  3. General Functional Medicine
  4. One of my clients with typical trigeminal neuralgia really wants to stop taking anticonvulsants that have helped her with pain up until now. Experienced rapid decline of other aspects of health since having started to take them. Desperate to find another option to control or eradicate the pain. Diet is fine. Testing seems a bit nonsensical since we already know her gut is messed up due to the meds. TSH is normal but free T3 is a little low and free T4 is a little low. Her gynecologist put her on 50 micrograms of thyroxine, TPO is 8.4, tracked below 0.3; serum ferritin, 47.8; DHEA sulfate, 60; and morning basal cortisol is 60.5. Sex hormones in the reference range but very high sex hormone-binding globulin at 233, has also consulted a specialized dentist for her TMJ, who made a full coverage occlusal splint for her lower jaw. Unfortunately, she’s found herself unable to use it since it gives her terrible headaches and muscle cramps in the back of her neck and shoulders. Although she meditates and is trying to get exposome factors in orders, she’s experiencing increased jaw clenching during the nights and strong feelings of misalignment during the past few weeks. Since the actual cause of trigeminal neuralgia is unknown, I’m working on nutritional lifestyle and relaxation techniques and was wondering if you have any other ideas how to help this young woman. Would you consider LDN?

One of my clients with typical trigeminal neuralgia really wants to stop taking anticonvulsants that have helped her with pain up until now. Experienced rapid decline of other aspects of health since having started to take them. Desperate to find another option to control or eradicate the pain. Diet is fine. Testing seems a bit nonsensical since we already know her gut is messed up due to the meds. TSH is normal but free T3 is a little low and free T4 is a little low. Her gynecologist put her on 50 micrograms of thyroxine, TPO is 8.4, tracked below 0.3; serum ferritin, 47.8; DHEA sulfate, 60; and morning basal cortisol is 60.5. Sex hormones in the reference range but very high sex hormone-binding globulin at 233, has also consulted a specialized dentist for her TMJ, who made a full coverage occlusal splint for her lower jaw. Unfortunately, she’s found herself unable to use it since it gives her terrible headaches and muscle cramps in the back of her neck and shoulders. Although she meditates and is trying to get exposome factors in orders, she’s experiencing increased jaw clenching during the nights and strong feelings of misalignment during the past few weeks. Since the actual cause of trigeminal neuralgia is unknown, I’m working on nutritional lifestyle and relaxation techniques and was wondering if you have any other ideas how to help this young woman. Would you consider LDN?

Chris Kresser:  Yeah, the dentist thing is interesting because I’ve talked about Dr. Jennings in Alameda and his work with TMJ and many other conditions, including Parkinson’s to success. I’m not sure where your patient is, but, and it sounds like she’s already seen a dentist, but the work that that dentist does, the full coverage occlusal splint is different than the work that I’m talking about. But I’ve seen the biggest response to TMJ and trigeminal neuralgia with this dental orthopedics work. So if there’s any way of her; it sounds like she’s pretty desperate. So if there’s any way of her seeing, even coming out to see Dr. Jennings, that would be something I would consider. Since the ideology of trigeminal neuralgia is unclear, and there is certainly some central nervous inflammation, it’s characterized by that and LDN reduces central nervous system inflammation, I would definitely consider that. You could consider CBD for inflammation and pain. That’s not really addressing the root cause necessarily, but it could help especially if she wants to get off the meds. So those are a few ideas to consider.

Was this article helpful?

Related Articles

0 Comments

Leave Comment

Leave a Reply

Need Support?

Can't find the answer you're looking for?
Contact Support
Kresser Institute Icon ADAPT Health Coach Training Program Icon ADAPT Practitioner Training Program Icon ADAPT Courses Icon