According to the National Institutes of Health, Bells Palsy is caused by inflammation to the facial nerve, which causes a person’s face to droop typically on one side. Blinking, smiling, raising the eyebrows, flaring the nose and even taste can all be affected by the same nerve damage. If you have ever experienced Bells Palsy, it can be very frightening. For women especially, it can be traumatic to see your face so disfigured. Most people recover completely within 3 to 6 months. For some, the symptoms may never completely disappear.
There are many theories as to why people get Bells Palsy, but I have my own since I experienced it personally. For me, I was exposed to someone with shingles, which is the chicken pox virus about eight weeks before. The shingles virus can lay dormant in the body for months. [To learn more about shingles, you can read my post 7 Ways to Treat Shingles Naturally.] During that time, my resistance was low and I was experiencing stress. I developed what seemed like the flu with terrible ear pain for about two weeks along with my paralysis.
My first Bells Palsy symptoms were loss of taste and twitching in my face. I went immediately to the ER where they ruled out a stroke. My face on the right had completely dropped. I could no longer close my eye, wrinkle my nose, smile or chew my food…Traumatic! And now I couldn’t even open my eyes because the sunlight was too bright. I had a severe case unfortunately. Recovery took me two years with acupressure therapy and I never fully recovered. My case was not typical however, but I learned from it.
Help Yourself Recover From Bells Palsy
There are things that one can do to improve the recovery time and extent of damage. Here are some things I wish I would have known:
- Learn more about the shingle virus. I wrote a blog post that you can read here.
- Bell’s palsy occurs when the nerve that controls the facial muscles is inflamed. You need to reduce the inflammation as soon as possible for the least amount of nerve damage. Aspirin or ibuprofen may help with this. Doctors typically prescribe the steroid, prednisone.
- Strengthen your immune system quickly to encourage full recovery. Vitamins and supplements are important, especially alpha lipoic acid and B vitamins.
- Take it easy, this is a serious illness. Rest and relax as much as possible so that your body can heal quicker, however, exercise the face as much as possible.
- Here is a tutorial:
- Use essential oils: frankincense and helichrysum. Put one drop of each on your finger and gently apply and massage to the inner and outer ear. There is research that supports anti-inflammatory benefits of essential oils and I believe helichrysum may help with nerve damage.
- You may have have to address the nerve pain at some point, and the earlier the better. I have never used this cream, but it seems to have good reviews for pain relief.
- Consider Acupressure. This is much like acupuncture only without the needles. This therapy can potentially open up the nerve channels originating from the inner ear.
- See the nerve points in this graphic (Source):
- Consider using therapeutic frequencies to counter the effects of the palsy. Frequencies are a therapy that seems a little out there, but it may have merit. You can start here where it is discussed in correlation with fighting cancer.
Bells Palsy is a very unfortunate virus. However, there is much we can do today to counter it. Hopefully, these few ideas will help you or your loved one heal quickly. Wishing you much health!
Leave a Reply