The therapy for Bell’s palsy or BP depends largely on the extent of the disease in you. The disease causes are quite a mystery and the mechanism of how the disease develops is still only a theory.
BP is a disease that is caused by the malfunction of a facial nerve that sends signals to one side of the face. This causes a loss of muscle function to one side of the face and paralysis. The appearance of this disease is a typical dropping of the face in just one side. The mechanics of the disease are theorized to be the inflammation of a nerve or the depression of the facial nerve causing inhibited function or death of the nerve. There is also a large belief that pathogens that attack the nervous system are also responsible for the disease, for example the Borellia bacteria from Lyme disease and the herpes virus are possible candidates. The herpes virus is an especially nasty infection that can occur in humans. It enters the body by spreading through air, as is the case in chicken pox or in the fluid from blisters of other herpes diseases. The herpes virus, once in a human host, never leaves. It can never be eliminated since after shedding, it retreats to lie dormant in the nerve cells. This attribute of its life cycle is what possibly implicates it in BP as well, since the dominant theory of the mechanism of the virus is inflammation.
The possibility of there being a pathogenic link and the theory of inflammation is the reason why the treatment for BP lies in the use of corticosteroids and antiviral drugs. The most effective and beneficial remedy has been observed from the immediate administration of prednisone on victims. The condition can usually deteriorate to its full potency in a matter or hours. Curiously, BP is also a disease that corrects itself in time with over 85 per cent of patients in one study regaining control of facial muscles in a matter of weeks. The rest were relieved of the disease in a matter of months. Since the disorder is of a facial nerve, there is little that a home remedy can do to alleviate the condition. The most promising alternatives lie in the practice of yoga or in seeking the help of acupressure and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Unfortunately, since both these forms of medicine tend not to coincide with modern medicine’s paradigm, the results have not been measurable.