Trigeminal Neuralgia - Resources and Training recommendations?

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
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Hey BBM team,

I have been following your work for a while and want to thank you for all of it. It has improved my life in more ways than I can explain, and definitely not only by increasing my lifts.

I am writing to ask (the doctors) if you can point me towards any patient-oriented resources on Trigeminal Neuralgia (I am a med student), other than the explain pain book (I don’t have the budget for it right now, planning to buy it though). A search on painscience.com didn’t bring up anything either, which I found strange… Would you say that their material on neuropathic pain is a good fit for TN?

Other than that, have you trained people with TN before? I suspect training doesn’t worsen the pain or cause crises, but there is sometimes fear of even moving or eating, so urging someone to train can seem a bit tone-deaf… How would you handle a patient that has accepted that resistance training is important and wants to partake in it, but doesn’t due to fear of a TN crisis?

Thanks a lot again,
Nick Tsaftaridis

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While I’ve seen a handful of cases of TN, I haven’t (as far as I know) trained anyone with it. It can be a pretty difficult condition to deal with. I would strongly encourage you to get the EP (or EP Supercharged, since you’re a med student) book when you’re able to. I don’t have a go-to resource on the matter, however.

I am not aware of any evidence or mechanisms suggesting that training would exacerbate the condition, but in general I would recommend they be seeing a physician for it, as there are some medication options that are available to help treat it (although with a less-than-ideal base of supporting evidence), and I wouldn’t change programming prospectively for this condition – start low, go slow, and adjust based on response.

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