What creates the nerve pain, tingling, numbness, etc. known as neuropathy? What you can do to get relief from the symptoms of neuropathy no matter what the cause?
Go directly to find what natural vitamins to take to relieve neuropathy pain, numbness and tingling
What is neuropathy?
How does it happen?
The word neuropathy is derived from two parts: "neuro" referring to the nerve and "pathy" indicating disease. Peripheral neuropathy is a condition involving the nerves outside the central nervous system, mainly in the arms and legs.
Nerves are the communication lines of the body. Electrical signals from the brain travel through the nerves and give instructions to the various body parts. The body receives information from the environment through the senses and sends this information to the brain via the nerves.
The majority of the peripheral nerves are responsible for sensations you feel such as touch, pain and temperature. There are literally millions of these nerve endings in your fingers, hands, toes and feet which are designed to keep you out of danger and away from the things that are hot, cold, sharp, etc.
These nerves in your hands and feet also help you control the numerous small muscles and intricate movements in these regions of the body. It would also be difficult to walk without knowing what your feet are standing on or to pick things up if you had no idea how hard you were gripping something.
Peripheral nerve cells have three main parts: cell body, axons, and dendrites (or terminal)..
Nerve damage or neuropathy normally occurs when the outer sheathing or the myelin (protective covering) of nerve cells degenerate. Without this protection the electrical signals are not transferred properly just like if you stripped the covering off of the electrical wires in your house.
As the nerve damage gets worse, the nerves either lose their ability to transmit information (numbness), or they start sending false signals (pain and tingling).
When the insulation begins to crumble, the unprotected "wire" will start short-circuiting.
When the signal cannot be sent through the nerve, the area not receiving the messages will result in numbness.
Neuropathy is the condition where the nerves have sustained enough damage that there is noticeable numbness, pain or tingling.
Types of Nerves that can be Damaged
Cranial: Nerves go from your brain to your eyes, mouth, ears and other parts of your head.
Peripheral: Nerves go from your spinal cord to your arms, hands, legs and feet.
Central Nerves are in your brain and spinal cord.
Autonomic: Nerves go from your spinal cord to your lungs, heart, stomach, intestines, bladder and sex organs.
What causes this nerve damage?
Most commonly, it is diabetics that suffer from this type of nerve pain and it is a major complication of the disease. It is the higher than normal sugar levels that creates the damage.
However, there are many other reasons some of which are listed below (alphabetically). It is an acquired disease.
Ø Alcoholism
Ø Amyloidosis (metabolic disorder)
Ø Autoimmune disorders
Ø Bell's Palsy
Ø Cancer
Ø Cancer treatments
Ø Carpal tunnel syndrome
Ø Charco Marie-Tooth disease
Ø Chemotherapy Treatment (See Chemo-Induced Side effects for other side effects)) See Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy
Ø Chronic kidney failure
Ø Compression neuropathy - pressure on an area
Ø Connective tissue disease (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, sarcoidosis)
Ø Diabetes mellitus
Ø Foods that are toxic
Ø Herniated disc
Ø Infectious disease (e.g., Lyme disease, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, leprosy)
Ø Liver failure
Ø Many Medications (such as Lyrica, Cymbalta, Duloxetine hydrochloride, Pregabalin, and more. See Neuropathy as a Side Effect)
Ø Radiation Treatment
Ø Radiculopathy
Ø Surgeries that damage a nerve
Ø Vitamin deficiencies (e.g., pernicious anemia, etc.)
Ø Zinc induced copper deficiency (denture adhesive creams)
Ø See Factors that can Cause Neuropathy or Nerve Damage
Ø The sad fact is that after a while this misfiring of the nerves can get so bad that people are unable to walk or pick things up and can get to a point where they would rather have a limb amputated then continue with this nerve pain.
How does this happen?
Chronic Neuropathy can start when your nerves are deprived of oxygen (anoxia). But, here are many reasons why this might happen and it is sometimes a combination of reasons.
· Too much sugar or insulin in your blood (diabetes)
· The use of many medications (a list can be found here Medications with Neuropathy as a side effect)
· Nutritional deficiencies,
· Exposure to toxic substances (ingested in food, drugs, chemicals, water or pollution)
· Radiation therapy for cancer,
· Chemo therapy for cancer
· Laying in one position too long (nerve compression, entrapment or laceration)
· Physical injuries (trauma) to the nerve
· Injury from a surgery.
· Prolonged compression as in the wearing of inappropriate footwear, etc.
· Infections that can all block oxygen getting to your nerve cells.
Too many free radicals in your bloodstream can also attach themselves to the oxygen and make it unavailable to the cells. Sometimes inflammation in the lower back or sciatic nerve area of the buttocks can restrict blood flow, depriving oxygen to the nerves.
Common drugs like statins (to reduce cholesterol) can eat away the myelin sheath - which is composed mostly of cholesterol. Statins are designed to lower the cholesterol which is what the body needs to maintain the myelin sheath.
High blood pressure medication can cause neuropathy by decreasing blood flow at the extremities, like the feet or hands.
There are many reasons.
Other terms for Neuropathy:
· Nerve Damage
· Paresthesia or paraesthesia
· Dysesthesias
· HSAN1 - Hereditory sensory and autonomic neuropathy
· HSN1 - Hereditory sensory neuropathy
· Neuralgia
· "Numbness & tingling" or "pins and needles"
· "Poor balance of nerve damage" - Ataxia
· Formication
· Demyelinating Syndrome
· Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP):
Neuropathy Symptoms:
More than 100 types of neuropathy pain have been identified, each with its own set of symptoms, development, Impaired function and symptoms.
These symptoms depend on the type of nerves -- motor, sensory, or autonomic -- that are damaged. Some people may experience numbness, tingling, and pricking sensations, sensitivity to touch, or muscle weakness. It is the cause of numbness in the fingers and even left arm pain and tingling.
Others may suffer more extreme symptoms, including burning pain (especially at night), shooting pain, muscle wasting, paralysis, or organ or gland dysfunction. When motor nerves are damaged, the muscles are affected and effect coordination and control. Small fiber neuropathy affects the nerve endings in the fingers or toes.
You can get nerve damage in any part of your body, it depends on what nerve is damaged. It can be your hands, feet, arms, legs, head, face, etc. etc.
The symptoms of nerve damage and thus what is referred to as diabetic nerve pain and other nerve pain are often slight at first. In fact, some mild cases may go unnoticed for a long time.
Numbness, pain, or tingling in the feet and ankles or legs may, after several years, lead to weakness in the muscles of the feet and burning feet.
Diabetic neuropathy can flare up suddenly and affect specific nerves so that an affected individual will develop double vision or drooping eyelids, or weakness and atrophy of the thigh muscles. Nerve damage caused by diabetes generally occurs over a period of years and may lead to problems with the digestive tract and sexual organs, which can cause indigestion, diarrhea or constipation, dizziness, bladder infections, and impotence.
Neuropathy as a side effect of chemotherapy can cause these same symptoms, can create a lack of coordination due to the motor nerves being effected and can even cause chemo-brain as it is due to nerve damage. See Chemotherapy Induced Neuropathy.
The loss of sensation in the feet may increase the possibility for foot injuries to go unnoticed and develop into ulcers or lesions that become infected, not to mention having trouble with coordination.
Certain artificial stimulants, namely cigarettes and alcohol, are known to aggravate the condition. Both of these work to slow blood flow throughout the body. In the process, less nutrients and oxygen is being delivered. This is the last thing that you want if you have neuropathy.
Peripheral neuropathy affects at least 20 million people in the United States.
Treatments for Neuropathy Pain:
There are several drug treatments for neuropathy. There are medications such as Lyrica and Cymbalta that attempt to cover up or block the pain. Lyrica, is an anti-seizure medication... It is used for neuropathy as it stops the nerves from talking to each other so you don't feel the pain. But long term it can cause more damage. Cymbalta is a anti-depressant which is used because it lowers a person's awareness and thus their awareness of the pain.
As with all medications, they have side effects that don't enhance your health. Additionally, Cymbalta as an anti-depressant can very often is difficult to get off without side effects. For info on Cymbalta & Neuropathy
Rebuilder: Combines a footbath with an electrical current. Claims to open up nerve channels and stimulate circulation. to the affected area.
Alpha lipoic acid which as an anti-oxidant attempts to protect the nerves that no further damage is done to the body. It can help with the symptoms, but will not repair the nerves. In some cases, it can bring some relief (mostly for diabetic neuropathy), but needs to be taken in large amounts 800-1200 mg a day.
Glutamine & B6 - although no scientific evidence, some people with chemo induced neuropathy have said they had some relief. There is, however, some concern that it may stimulate tumor growth.
Anodyne Therapy: Infrared light to increase circulation and stimulate production of nitric acid. It is supposed to relax the arteries and eliminate free radicals. Pads are put over the injured areas. Pain is supposed to be relieved with increased circulation and more nitric oxide in the blood. Can treat common injuries.
None of the above treatments, however, have the nutrients the body needs to repair the damaged nerves They do not address the actual cause of neuropathy - the nerve damage.
Natural Neuropathy Pain Treatment:
Most people with neuropathy are only treating the symptoms of the nerve damage and not the cause of the problem. Whether it is diabetic nerve damage, or damage from chemo, the cause has to be addressed.
Many medications given for this problem only attempts to cover up the pain. Sometimes the medications actually makes the problem worse due to side effects of the drug given. This can cause more problems instead of correcting the problem.
Other electronic devices (infrared) that merely heat the feet have been tried unsuccessfully.
The only way to correctly manage neuropathy is to address the real causes, not the symptoms. The body will heal the nerve if it is given the correct tools to do so. The correct tools are specific nutrition needed. What are they? Read on.
It has been known for some time that increased levels of Thiamine (vitamin B1) in the blood stream are very effective in reducing and reversing neuropathy.
It is needed by the body to heal the nerve damage.
Unfortunately, the oral intake of vitamin B1 does not greatly increase the levels of B1 in the blood stream. Previously, intravenous feeding or injections directly into blood stream every few weeks were needed to increased levels of B1.
The reason methods like this had to be used is that Thiamine (sometimes spelled Tiamine), like all of the B vitamins, is water-soluble. Thiamine cannot be stored in the body and flushes out within 4 to 5 hours. Oral intake of Thiamine over 5 mg results in greatly reduced bioavailability (available for the body to use) and immediate flushing from the body (this is why urine frequently turns yellow when taking larger doses of B vitamins).
Neuropathy has also been found to be caused and made worse by deficiencies of vitamin B12 in the body. Vitamin B12 supports the sheathing that protects nerve cells and has shown in studies that it promotes the regeneration and growth of nerve cells.
In the past it has been difficult to remedy this deficiency. The reason for this is that while vitamin B12 is readily stored by the body, it is not readily absorbed by the body. For this reason much larger amounts have been used in supplementation, but even large oral dosages have not been an adequate solution.
Keep reading, there is a solution:
The most common type of vitamin B12 used in supplements is called Cyanocobalamine. Taking Cyanocobalamine can result in absorption of as little as 1/2 of 1% of the amount taken, which makes it almost impossible to get enough of this vitally important vitamin.
In addition to the very low absorption, the body must convert the Cyanocobalamine (which cannot be used by the body) to a form of vitamin B12 the body can use called Methylcobalamine. Unfortunately, as the body gets older it loses this ability to convert Cynocobalamine to Methylcobalamine.
For the above reasons, as people get older, many physicians recommend regular monthly injections of vitamin B12 to maintain adequate body levels or to replenish greatly depleted stores of this vital nutrient.
A Remedy for this Problem:
You might have heard of the new type of vitamin B1 being produced, called Benfotiamine. It is a fat-soluble version of vitamin B1. What does this mean? It means this new form of vitamin B1 can be taken orally in large dosages and it will not flush out of the body the way ordinary Thiamine (vitamin B1) does.
The result is that by taking Benfotiamine the blood stream levels of vitamin B1 can now be greatly increased, nutritionally supporting the body to rapidly and effectively decrease or eliminate the symptoms of Neuropathy.
Also available is Methylcobalamine (called Methyl B12). This is the form of vitamin B12 that can be directly utilized by the body and is available in the quantities nutritionally needed by the body to repair itself. Methyl B12 can be taken orally and is immediately available to the body much like injectable vitamin B12.
Original Article: Dr. Idris Modi
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