Can alternative medical methods evoke somatosensory responses and functional improvement?

Alhasn Otaif; Mashan Alshammari; Christine G Gerin

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30010

Can alternative medical methods evoke somatosensory responses and functional improvement?

Heliyon. 2024 Apr 23;10(9):e30010. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30010. eCollection 2024 May 15.

Authors

Alhasn Otaif¹, Mashan Alshammari^{1

2}, Christine G Gerin^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Texas A&M, Corpus Christi, TX, USA.
² King Khalid Military Academy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
³ Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Neuro and Behavioral Health, UTRGV-SOM, TX, USA.

Abstract

Background: Evidence-based scientific studies focusing on complementary alternative medicine (CAM) and potential functional improvement after an insult of the central nervous system are lacking.

Aims: We aim to demonstrate that functional recovery after stimulation applied as a CAM treatment through cauterization might trigger neural repair and regenerative paths similarly as acupuncture, cupping, electrical or magnetic stimulations. Those paths are important in recovery of function.

Procedures: Medical records and information of ten patients, with initial presentations of cerebral trauma or spinal cord insult inducing paralysis, were studied. Patients ages ranged from 17 to 95-year-old. Patients consulted for alternative medical treatment one year or more after initial diagnosis.CAM treatment consisted in 10-point stimulation on the skull and 4-point stimulation located at the right and left calves and forearms. Stimulations consisted of a heated steel rod application (cautery) in a one-time session. The duration of each stimulation was about 0.5 s.

Results: Most studies using CAM stimulations (acupuncture, cautery, cupping, moxibustion, electrical and magnetic stimulations) describe improvement. In all 10 medical records and information from our practitioner, patients had improvement in their motor skills, including gain of weight support, unassisted small walks, independent and voluntary movements of limbs. Improvement was steady over a period of one to several years.

Conclusion: We compared our findings to acupuncture, electrical, magnetic field effects to highlight common paths and to provide scientific evidence for recovery of the function. We believe that CAM treatments triggered existing or new neuronal networks as well as synaptic efficiency or reactivation, through highly increased, sensory nociceptive coupled to proprioceptive, afferences. Those results also highlight the need to further investigate neural function of cortical and subcortical areas through indirect pathways stimulations.

Keywords: Acupuncture; Cautery; Central nervous system injury; Motor and sensory function; Regenerative processes.

Publication types

Review