Taipei City Hospital

      A 54-year-old male manager underwent a lot of work pressure and often stayed up late having social intercourse and drinking. His left eyelid occasionally twitched spontaneously. One day, when he got up, he found his left facial muscles had become numb, the left forehead wrinkles disappeared, his mouth and eyes were slanted, and water would flow out of his mouth when he rinsed his mouth. He also suffered from nonstop tears and tinnitus. The symptoms did not completely improve after taking steroids. The physicians point out that this is a typical patient with facial nerve paralysis. Typical facial nerve paralysis patients do not necessarily have twitching eyelids.
      Chou Tzung-Han, physician of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department in Taipei City Hospital Ren’ai Branch, says that when the eyelids keep twitching, most people consider it as a sign of emotions and very few will doubt that it is a warning of unhealthiness. He expresses that about 90% of patients will recover slowly after treatment, but about 10% of patients will suffer from permanent facial paralysis due to the lack of treatment.

      The symptoms of the aforesaid male patient did not improve after two weeks’ steroid treatment, so he turned to traditional Chinese medicine. Eight acupuncture treatments within 2 weeks combined with the Chinese medicine helped him to recover completely. For most other patients with numb and even slanted face, significant improvement can be achieved after 10-15 acupuncture treatments.

      Moreover, Dr. Chou also suggests that one should avoid overwork, exercise regularly and eat more vegetables and fruits and less processed food, to help improve the body’s immune system. This will prevent facial nerve paralysis from affecting you.