Monthly Miracles

by Michael Gerber, MD, HMD

HCG and Pain Management

HCG has many uses besides weight loss and post–steroid use hormonal normalization.^1-4 It has several potential mechanisms of action for pain management. It stimulates the production of testosterone, progesterone, estradiol, and thyroid, all of which should bring obvious benefits to some pain patients.^2–4 HCG may also achieve pain reduction through neurogenesis and tissue healing.

Intractable Leg Pain

A 62-year-old farmer presented with a 1-year history of intractable leg pain after being suspended in an unusual surgical position during total prostatectomy. The pain was constant, sharp, stabbing, and aching in nature and ran down the anterior aspect of both legs. He was also very toxic to aluminum, arsenic, and cadmium and complained of erectile dysfunction, hypertension, polycythemia, hypogonadism, hypothyroidism, and a cough when he put food in his mouth. During his postsurgical course, he had been tried on many opiate analgesics, gabbapentin and muscle relaxants to no avail. The side effects of the drugs inhibited his ability to work.

I thought that it was a clear case for neural therapy injections with procaine and ozone to address the pain and did a Frankenhauser injection above the prostate and Prolozone with Zeel, triamcinolone, procaine, and ozone to the lumbar spine. This was repeated twice with no improvement in his pain. Referrals were made for chiropractic with ABS back stretching (the computerized rack), massage therapy, physical therapy, and stress reduction techniques. IV chelation therapy and oral chelation therapy were commenced, and we found an infected root-canalled tooth, which was removed with much pus exuding from the wound. He was started on thyroid replacement, cortisol replacement, neurotransmitter precursor therapy with 5-HTP, tyrosine and cysteine, Pandan for erectile dysfunction, homeopathic remedies, parasite treatments, viral detox, parent essential fatty acid replacement, and other anti-inflammatory nutrients.

After 2 years with no improvement in his pain, I referred him to a pain management clinic which started him on a morphine pump and a spinal electrical stimulation device. This approach made him nauseated and dizzy and wasn’t helpful for his pain, and he couldn’t work.

Upon reading an article in the Townsend Letter on pain relief with hCG, I decided to try it. It took us some time to adjust the dose. At first we tried 1/10 cc sub Q daily of 1000 IU/ml with a little improvement in his pain and then increased to 1 cc three times per week, and he has been stabilized for 2 years on ½ cc six days per week. This has resulted in nearly total relief of his pain. He notes a slight twinge upon going to bed but otherwise is completely pain free all day. A side effect of this therapy has been a 75-pound weight loss. The pain relief commenced before the weight loss, and he has no more erectile dysfunction with a PSA of <0.1. HCG has been life transforming for this gentleman.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

A 51-year-old woman body builder with a many-year history of RA had utilized hCG for weight loss and athletic performance in the past and noted that her joint pain improved. Now using 1/10 cc of hCG, 1000 IU/ml sub Q daily, she has had no arthritis pain for several years.

These successes give me hope for hCG’s use in fibromyalgia and other chronic pain syndromes.

Notes

1. Tennant FS. Hormone treatments in chronic and intractable pain. Pract Pain Manag. April 2005;5(3):57–67.

2. Matura S, Okashi M, Chen HC, et al. physiochemical and immunological characterization of an HCG-like substance from human pituitary glands. Nature. 1980;286:740–741.

3. Odell WD, Griffin J. Pulsatile secretion of human chorionic gonadotropin in normal adults. N Engl J Med. 1987;317:1688–1692.

4. Braunstein GD. Human chorionic gonadotropin. In: Williams Textbook of Endocrinology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders; 2003:800–803.