Sir, I write this as a letter to the BDJ in order to communicate an interesting new treatment for trigeminal neuralgia. This distressing and intractable condition was recently diagnosed in a 47-year-old call centre operative and was the reason for her ceasing her daily work which involved almost continuous closely timed calls for eight hours a day. Treatment with tegretol did little to alleviate the right sided numbness of lips, cheek and tongue and had no effect on the shooting pains characteristic of the condition. The lady was asked to try a treatment currently on pre-trial for arthritis, namely lemon fish oil 5 ml/day and palmitoyl ascorbate (PA) 1 g/twice daily. Within 90 minutes of the first dose the numbness started to recede reminiscent in the patient's words of 'a local anaesthetic wearing off after having a filling'. The normal sensation returned fully a short time later but receded after eight hours or so. Since then periods of stopping this treatment for three days at a time whilst maintaining the tegretol have shown conclusively that it is the PA and fish oil that are responsible for the recovery.

PA is a food additive aka E-304 (EU) or ascorbyl palmitate (USA) and as a powerful, lipid soluble anti-oxidant is widely used in the food industry as a preservative and freshener in meats and salads. It is cheap (£45/kg) and safe (LD50 3,000 mg/kg). It is freely available in bulk or personal quantities online.

The result shown in this case is similar to that we have found in some cases of rheumatoid arthritis with rapid reductions in swelling and pain in finger joints and long-term reduction of back pain.

This result must be of interest to researchers and to dentists and their patients with intractable trigeminal neuralgia. We look forward to an explanation in due course. I will be happy to correspond with any interested parties on andrew@brainhelp.info.