“Mesotherapy” may be a new word to you. It was new to me until recently. I will explain, but first a little history: Debra and I were scheduled to speak at the March 2012 ICIM conference in Lexington, Kentucky. In the process of preconference email discussions with Dr. William Faber, the doctor who had invited Debra and me to speak, I asked whether osteopaths had a way of addressing impaired hearing, which has been a concern of mine for the past few years. (You can download an ebook version of Dr. Faber’s book, The Osteopathic Medicine Advantage: How Medical Miracles are Made, here: http://www.milwaukeepainclinic.com/ebook.pdf)
Dr. Faber discussed my situation with Dr. Aline Fournier, one of the principal presenters at the conference. One thing led to another, and I volunteered to be a demonstration subject for a workshop on using complex injectable homeopathy. While I was familiar with common homeopathic remedies, I had no sense of what might be involved. I thought I had volunteered for hearing improvement, and my hallucination was having a big needle stuck in my ear, receiving an injection, and having my hearing instantly improve. That proved not even close…. What I received was much more comprehensive and much better than I had imagined.
The speaker for the workshop, Dr. Fournier, is considered one of the best in the world at Mesotherapy. She provided my introduction to the uses of Mesotherapy, in which homeopathic remedies are injected just below the surface of the skin. It is often touted as a way to induce weight loss (if you search online, that may be all you can find), but its applications are much more extensive.
The results of Mesotherapy typically occur in stages: (1) immediate to a few days, (2) intermediate—days to weeks, (3) long term—months to years. I am expecting the results of the work I received to follow that course. In preparation for the work, I was asked to obtain an audiogram so that we would have a way of evaluating the effect of the Mesotherapy on my hearing.
During the workshop, my role as demonstration subject began with assessment. First, I was tested to see which homeopathic remedy would be most appropriate for me. Testing was done using a standard holistic health application known as applied kinesiology, which is often called “muscle testing,” because the strength of a muscle to resist external force indicates the degree to which a substance is helpful. Drs. Faber and Fournier tested for the appropriate homeopathic remedy:
Once that determination had been made, Dr. Fournier put me on a massage table and conducted a variety of tests to see where my body was showing signs of compromise. During that time, she explained to those taking the workshop (including medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, and those who had earned both M.D. and D.O. degrees) what she was looking for and why:
She also demonstrated the appropriate technique for Mesotherapy injections.
Although I had originally asked about hearing improvement, I discovered the degree to which osteopaths consider the body as an integrated system. Rather than restricting their view to the stated concern, they examine the ways in which bodily systems are integrated. During the course of her assessment, Dr. Fournier discovered a variety of problems (including very old injuries to my liver and left kidney) that were having a deleterious effect not only on my hearing, but also on my general health and sense of well-being. The structure and function of physiology are interrelated. When an organ has been compromised as a result of injury or illness, the body attempts to protect the organ, often by reducing flexibility in adjacent areas.
During the assessment and throughout the process, she repeated the theme, “Fix what you find.” I was reminded of the saying from both Energy Medicine and hypnotherapy that “the presenting problem is not the problem.” People may come in wanting their claustrophobia “fixed,” when the real problem that needs addressing is birth or childhood trauma. When the real problem is addressed, the claustrophobia goes away automatically. Dr. Fournier would check my range of motion in a variety of ways, give me a series of injections, and then re-evaluate my range of motion. She checked my legs, my arms, my neck, and back.
She determined that I had suffered liver and kidney damage by the way my body had developed a protective rigidity to safeguard those organs. Although I don’t understand fully how Mesotherapy works, my sense is that it promotes healing from the outside in. “Meso-” means “middle” or “intermediate,” and the mesolayer into which the injections are given is between the epidermis and everything else. Once injected, the homeopathic remedies migrate inward.
Although contemporary Western science has not been kind to homeopathy, attributing the positive results it produces the to placebo effect, I am not sure that “science” hasn’t been influenced by monetary considerations. If you’ve ever had a serious case of poison oak or poison ivy, you know that the best of Western medicine isn’t of much help. What does work is a homeopathic remedy, rhus toxicondendron (which is usually called “rhus tox”). When it came to poison ivy, rhus tox worked for me when nothing else had, not only to alleviate symptoms when they developed, but also to preclude them when I knew I was likely to be exposed.
After a full morning of serving as the demonstration subject, I took a much-needed break, while Dr. Fournier supervised those taking the workshop in practicing Mesotherapy on one another so that they would be able to use what they had learned in their practices. While they were doing that, I took a nap.
Dr. Fournier had asked me to return at 5 p.m. when the workshop ended so that she could do some additional work on me. In addition to giving me more injections in places she determined I needed them, she did what I consider cranial-sacral work on me. I don’t know whether she would have called it that, but that’s the term that came to mind when she was working on me toward the end of my time with her. Here’s a photo of one of her holds:
When I saw the photo later, what caught my attention was her total concentration on what she was doing, which is often called presence (a state of focused attention with compassionate intention). Before finishing, Dr. Fournier checked to see how my flexibility had improved as a result of the Mesotherapy:
As an example of the effect Mesotherapy has on fat, after I had received the first of two rounds of injections by Dr. Fournier, one of the workshop attendees addressed a trauma-induced lipoma that had been on my head for about 15 years. Here’s a “before” picture:
A number of those in the workshop asked me if the needles hurt. I found them a lot like acupuncture needles: most don’t hurt, but a few do. Here’s another photo of the Mesotherapy on the lipoma. It looks more painful than it was:
And here’s what the lipoma looks like three weeks after the Mesotherapy. I was not able to replicate the angle of the “before” photos, which was taken by Debra, my co-author and co-presenter at the #ICIM Conference. My “after” photos were taken with the camera on my computer. They will give you an idea of how much the lipoma has changed over the intervening time:
The “After” picture of the lipoma gives a fairly clear indication of the progress I have experienced with it. My hearing is not so easy to assess. One of the things about hearing impairment is that individuals have no way of knowing what they aren’t hearing that they should be able to. Based on a reduction in how often I feel compelled to ask, “What,” and my being increasingly aware of what I hear said on TV, I think my hearing has improved. I intend to have it tested again after the Mesotherapy has had more of a chance to work so that I will have before-and-after charts indicating the effect the Mesotherapy had on my hearing acuity.
While at the #ICIM conference, I also had the benefit of meeting a number of gifted, caring M.D.s, Osteopaths, and Naturopaths. After the workshop was over, Dr. Simon Yu, author of Accidental Cure: (Extraordinary Medicine for Extraordinary Patients), volunteered to check to see whether TMJ (temporomandibular joint) problems might be influencing my hearing.
In general, allopathic medicine (practiced by most M.D.s in the U.S.) is effective for acute problems, and typically involves pharmaceuticals (prescription drugs) and/or surgery. Western medicine is not able to make much difference for chronic conditions, which tend to be systemic rather than local. The Osteopathic Medicine advantage that Dr. Faber writes about is the focus on the body as an integrated system rather than a collection of separate parts. Practitioners of allopathic medicine are trained to fix the presenting problem. Osteopaths and Naturopaths are trained to fix what they find.
From the perspective of allopathic medicine, my hearing problem was in my ears. A hearing aid would have been recommended in spite of the fact that hearing aids still don’t work very well. (How many people do you know who have given up on them?) The osteopathic approach was to consider my body as an integrated system and to bring the entire system back into balance.
All things considered, I had a powerful experience with Mesotherapy, and the ICIM conference was a great—life-changing—experience for me. If you’re interested in this modality, check with D.O.s in your area. Not all D.O.s have been trained in Mesotherapy, and laws governing osteopathic practice vary from state to state. If you have a condition for which you believe Mesotherapy would be appropriate, your best bet for finding a qualified physician is to use the ICIM directory and search using your ZIP Code.
My hearing does seem to be improving, and I feel better in general. The practitioner of Chinese Medicine I see (Leah Ke at Lakeshore Acupuncture in St. Joseph, Michigan, confirmed the improvement in my health. Perhaps asking, “What?” will fade from my vocabulary.
Stay tuned….
