Peripheral Neuropathy

Peripheral Neuropathy affects nearly 47 million Americans. Neuropathy can be caused by dozens of different conditions ranging from chemical exposures and chemotherapy to Diabetes. Diabetes accounts for ⅓ of neuropathy cases in the United States and over half of diabetics will eventually develop peripheral neuropathy. That means that there are over 15 million people with diabetes-related neuropathy in America.

Symptoms

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Tingling

Some people might describe this feeling as though it seems like there are ants crawling on their feet. Though this sensation isn’t necessarily painful, depending on the severity or intensity, it can simply feel weird or it can be unbearably annoying.

Numbness

When the nerves in your hands or feet have degenerated enough, they may stop working altogether. A lot of people describe it as feeling like they are walking on cardboard or like their feet are inside of a water balloon.

Hypersensitivity

As the nerves in the hands and feet get damaged, they can become more sensitive to touch. That means that something simple, like putting on socks, can feel painful, almost like sandpaper.

Muscle Weakness

The nerves affected by peripheral neuropathy can be related to sensation, but they can also be motor nerves. Motor nerves connect your brain to your muscles. If these nerves are injured, it will mean that the brain can’t tell your muscles to contract as effectively so you will lose strength.

Pain (mainly at night)

Many patients with diabetic neuropathy have constant nerve pain in their hands and/or feet that gets worse at night. This pain is one of the most difficult parts of having diabetic neuropathy as it is excruciatingly painful and prevents people from sleeping.

What Causes Peripheral neuropathy?

Neuropathy can be caused by many different processes. Whether it is caused by diabetes, which is the most common, or by chemotherapy, chemical exposure, disease processes, or medications, the basic mechanism of the degeneration is the same.

When a toxin like high blood glucose or a harsh chemical like chemotherapy is present in the body, it can damage the small blood vessels, called capillaries, in the hands or feet. After enough damage, the blood vessels are unable to supply enough blood to the nerves and skin. Without enough blood supply, the nerves and skin begin to degenerate. This is expressed as dysfunction of the nerves (Peripheral Neuropathy) and discoloration of the skin.

Conventional Medical Treatments

Medicine does not have a viable solution for the symptoms associated with Peripheral neuropathy. The medical approach consists of symptom management, but never addresses the underlying cause of the neuropathy.

Typical Medical Treatments Include:

Medications

The most commonly prescribed medications for nerve pain are Lyrica and Gabapentin. Gabapentin is an anti seizure medication that essentially turns a part of the brain off so that it doesn’t register pain signals. The typical dose begins at between 100-300 mg/day and will be increased as high as 7000 mg/day when it stops working. If the pain is severe enough, doctors will also prescribe opioid painkillers like Methadone, which are addictive and potentially dangerous.

Injections

If a patient has severe pain in their feet and the medications aren’t working, medical doctors will likely prescribe injections into the spinal cord to deaden the nerves that go to the feet. While patients experience significant relief with these treatments, it is short lived, with most patients needing another injection in just a few months with each subsequent injection lasting less time than the previous one. After four or five treatments, the injections usually stop working.

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Diabetic Ulcers – When to Amputate

With decreased blood flow to the feet or hands, wounds are unable to heal as quickly, if at all. In cases of severe neuropathy, many people can’t feel when they cut their foot walking to the mailbox or step on the grandchild’s toy. This is the reason that medical doctors recommend wearing shoes inside. Simply wearing a new pair of shoes can lead to amputation. If the new shoes cause a blister, the skin will not be able to heal properly. The wound is therefore likely to become infected. If the infection spreads to bone, it can be a life threatening situation and the infected bones must be removed.

Amputation is necessary in severe and untreated cases. With proper care, most patients can expect to recover from their neuropathic ulcers and save their feet from amputation. Unfortunately, over 150,000 people in the US require amputation due to their diabetic neuropathy. There are dozens of other causes of peripheral neuropathy that can end with amputation putting estimates of the total number of amputees is over 200,000 per year in the US alone.

Why We Are Better

Diabetic Neuropathy Treatment at Crabapple Wellness

Treating diabetic neuropathy is a relatively simple process. Whatever is causing the degeneration of the nerves, the disease process is the same. Damage to the small blood vessels surrounding the small nerves in the hands and feet eventually leads to decreased blood flow to these nerves, leaving the major nerves untouched. Interestingly, this is the reason that nerve conduction studies are typically inconclusive or show no problems in peripheral neuropathy.

There are many strategies that we use at Crabapple Wellness to heal the blood vessels, increase blood flow, and regrow the nerves affected by Peripheral Neuropathy. These include:

Prognosis

Many patients have found relief from their peripheral neuropathy at Crabapple Wellness. Our methods are safe and effective and hold very little risk of adverse side effects. With the typical patient, we see measurable improvement within the first few treatments and maximum resolution within 6 weeks.

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