australian tropical research foundation

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Capsaicin – is it the magic bullet for Trigeminal Neuralgia?

I have been feeling more than a little guilty about the fact that I haven’t taken the time to post this much earlier … I have been looking through the various blogs and information sites on Trigeminal neuralgia in the last couple of days (Feb 2010) – and nothing seems to have changed at all in the past 10 years! In fact, the dominant paradigm for treating TGN seems to be a total reliance on surgical intervention, which is exceedingly worrying - and probably totally unnecessary.

So I am posting my experiences with trigeminal neuralgia and my highly successful treatment of it, for the benefit of other sufferers.

A biographical note. I am a biologist, with a PHD in neuropharmacology (not that that knowledge kicked in, until rather late! – as you will read), and am now a field-based conservation biologist. I have thought long and hard about this issue – and have discussed it with a number of my neurobiologist colleagues as well. Frequently being in the position of both sufferer and trained observer really sheds new light on the processes involved.