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
Diabetic neuropathy occurs when the nerves in your feet, and occasionally hands, become dysfunctional leading to a range of strange and potentially painful symptoms. Degeneration in the peripheral nerves can cause symptoms such as:
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.
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.
Lifestyle Alterations
Pain management with peripheral neuropathy is challenging and rarely effective as a long term solution. Eventually, medical doctors will recommend altering lifestyle decisions. Wearing special neuropathy shoes at all times, even inside, is a typical recommendation as any injury to the feet could eventually lead to complications. Loss of balance is common with diabetic neuropathy so canes, walkers, and wheelchairs are also typical recommendations.
One of the best parts of cold laser therapy is that it is effective at helping the body heal more effectively without any negative side-effects.
Diabetic Ulcers – When to Amputate
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:
Corrective Chiropractic
The body cannot heal properly if the nervous system is not functioning correctly. Corrective Chiropractic focuses on eliminating spinal subluxations allowing nerve impulses to flow freely along the spinal cord and nerves. This is a foundational aspect of all of the treatments we provide for our patients at Crabapple Wellness.
Cold Laser Therapy
The laser technology we use has been FDA cleared to treat the symptoms associated with Peripheral Neuropathy. Research on laser technology has shown significant improvement in microcirculation and pain levels in patients with diabetic neuropathy patients under care with a Class IV laser.
Nutritional Support
Healing the nerves affected by peripheral neuropathy takes a lot of energy and it is tremendously important that you receive the correct nutrition to support the process. A superfood supplement provides the building blocks for the tissue repair and a potent blend of vasodilating supplements helps to increase blood flow.
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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