What is Peripheral Neuropathy (PN)?

What are the most common symptoms?

Does prescription medication help?

What is the cause of Peripheral Neuropathy?

How do you diagnose Peripheral Neuropathy?

Is there treatment for Peripheral Neuropathy?

How can Smith Chiropractic help?

Peripheral Neuropathy (PN) is the term used to describe disorders of the peripheral nerves. Even though 10 to 20 million people in the US suffer with PN, information is hard to come by. Approximately 50% of diabetics will develop the condition. Many people using Statin pills: ‘cholesterol drugs’, will be affected by this mysterious and under-recognized malady.

Neuropathy means “disease or abnormality of the nervous system”, which is not a very helpful definition. We think of neuropathy as any damage to the nervous system. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Herniated Discs and Strokes are all insults to different areas of the nervous system, all with different symptoms. The peripheral nervous system is made up of the nerves that branch out of the spinal cord to all parts of the body.
Peripheral nerve cells have three main parts: cell body, axons, and dendrites (nerve/muscle junctions). Any part of the nerve can be affected, but damage to axons is most common. The axon transmits signals from nerve cell to nerve cell or muscle. Most axons are surrounded by a substance called myelin, which facilitates signal transmission. PN is a deterioration of the peripheral nerves, those farthest away from the spinal cord and brain. Usually the furthest portion of the nerve, the feet, are the first to feel symptoms. More chronic sufferers will start to feel the pain or numbness into the upper portion of the foot, into the calf, and occasionally into the hands.
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There are two types of symptoms with peripheral neuropathy; negative and positive. Negative signs, which come first, are when damage to the nervous system brings about loss of a particular function. For example; loss of reflexes, loss of strength, and loss of sensation like numbness. But these are rarely detectable to the patient, because the brain makes up the difference in these losses.
Only after some time do the sick and damaged nerves develop the positive signs of neuropathy; tingling, burning, biting, stabbing, shooting pains. This too is a reaction of the brain and nervous system, unfortunately this overreaction tears apart the fiber of patients’ lives.
Each patient will describe their pain in their own individual language of “pain”. This can easily confuse a doctor not trained in the recognition and treatment of these patients. So the patient usually continues to suffer, going from doctor to doctor, to stronger and stronger doses of pills, until they are either completely drugged up and out of it, or lost in their own world of suffering.

Some neuropathies come on suddenly, others over many years. Some people are affected only by a weakness in the arms and legs which leads to difficulty standing, walking, or getting out of a chair. The loss of sensation from the feet, ankles and toes contributes to patients not having a “good sense” of where their feet are in space, touching the ground, and this causes them to fall very easily. Some patients will eventually become unable to walk at all. Others start with a tingling, pin pricking feeling that turns into deep sharp stabbing pains and burning electric shocks. These debilitating problems can also be at their worst at night while trying to get to sleep!
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Currently, ordinary medicine has no cure for PN at this time. The extremely powerful drugs dispensed to patients do NOT TREAT the NERVE DAMAGE! They numb the brain to numb the pain. Most patients cannot tolerate a drugged existence but feel they have NO OTHER OPTION against this horrifying pain. The most common prescription medication at this time is Neurotin and this has been found to not affect the symptoms or treat the underlying cause.
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The most common cause of PN is diabetes. Over 50% of diabetic sufferers will be diagnosed with PN. This is due to excessive amounts of glucose (sugar) in the blood stream. This damages nerve tissue over time and causes “shrinking” to the actual nerves.
Other common causes of PN are Statin drugs. Multiple studies have shown that long term use (over 3 months) of Statin drugs highly increased the chance of having PN. Those undergoing chemotherapy are at a very high risk of developing PN within a matter of weeks. Also, those who have had low back surgeries have shown a much higher incidence of PN.
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The most common way in the medical community is through EMG’s, electromylographs, where electric impulses are sent down the course of the nerve. This can be painful and expensive.
The most reliable of all tests is a skin biopsy in the foot to microscopically visualize the amount and size of peripheral nerves in the skin tissue.
The most common way of diagnosing is through a series of tests on the foot and calf. Sensations are scored on a scale of 1-10 in areas of vibration, heat and cold, light touch, pin prick, and reflexes. These tests are very reliable and can be administered without pain in a normal office setting. This test is also administered after a month of therapy to determine the effectiveness of treatment on the patient.
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Yes! There are clinics now available that are treating PN without medication or surgery. These are specialty clinics (Neuropathy treatment centers of America) that use non- invasive treatment modalities and supplementation to heal the affected nerves. Treatment protocols may include light therapy, vibration, skin sensation, adjustments of the foot joints, and supplementation. These therapies have been tested and researched and found to be highly effective. The approval rate of treating patients is over 90% at this time.
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