Simply put, it is damage to your peripheral nerves. Like static on a telephone line when there is peripheral neuropathy in Retford, the message between the brain and the rest of the body becomes distorted or interrupted.
Peripheral nerves are outside the brain and spinal cord and carry information back and forth from the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body. “Peripheral” means away from the center: and this system contains the nerves that connect the central nervous system to the muscles, skin, and internal organs.
Damaged peripheral nerves do not communicate properly with the brain. For example, patients may experience a painful, burning sensation in their feet but do not actually have burning skin; their nerves are just sending incorrect signals to the brain, and the brain interprets those signals incorrectly.
Some neuropathies come on suddenly; others develop gradually over many years. The symptoms depend on the type of nerves affected and the location of the nerve. Most people’s symptoms start with tingling, weakness, numbness, and/or pain in the feet, hands, arms, and legs.
Most symptoms occur in the “stocking and glove” areas.
Here are some of the telltale signs people describe:
Weakness.
Usually caused by damage to the motor nerves (connected to the muscles), foot symptoms include the foot dropping or lagging behind, while leg symptoms include difficulty walking or running, “heaviness” – it takes most of your strength just to climb the stairs – and stumbling or tiring easily. Muscle cramps may be common. In the arms, difficulties with carrying a load of groceries, opening jars, turning door knobs, or combing your hair. Or you may be frustrated to find you keep dropping things you thought you had a good grip on.
Numbness, tingling, burning and pain.
The sensory nerves (connected to the skin), when damaged, can cause many different symptoms. Early on, you may have spontaneous sensations (called paresthesias), which include numbness, tingling, pins and needles, prickling, burning, cold, pinching, sharp, deep stabs, electric shocks, or buzzing. They are usually worse at night and are often painful and severe, or you may have unpleasant, abnormal sensations brought on by touching or other stimuli (dysesthesias). Or instead, you have a lessening or absence of sensation, which can cause you to burn or cut yourself and not know it (anesthesia).
Absence of Proprioception (Position Sense).
When you have this symptom, you’re probably not sure just where your feet are and may thus be uncoordinated and unsteady when you walk. Or you may realize that the way you walk has changed but are not sure exactly how or why. Chances are you have widened your gait in an unconscious effort to keep your balance, or that you tend to drag your feet.
“Glove and Stocking Sensation.”
This is what doctors call the odd feeling you may have that you’re wearing stockings or gloves or slippers when, in fact, your hands and feet are completely bare.
Other Symptoms
Damage to the autonomic nerves can cause difficulty breathing, heart problems, dizziness when standing up, constipation, bladder dysfunction, diarrhea, sexual dysfunction, reduced or inability to sweat, and/or thinning of the skin, with easy bruising and poor healing.
33% Diabetic
33% Idiopathic
34% Other
There are over 100 causes of Peripheral Neuropathy, the most common are as follows:
According to Allopathic medicine peripheral neuropathy can’t be cured, but you can do a lot of things to prevent it from getting worse. Therefore allopathic medicine will use different types of medications to minimize your symptoms.
No matter what is suspected to be the cause of your neuropathy they all have one thing in common, chronic inflammation. This inflammation deprives your nerves of nutrients, like oxygen, which is vital for nerve regeneration. So you would think that if you could decrease inflammation from your peripheral nerves and improve oxygen delivery to your nerves, then your peripheral nerves would start to regenerate, right?
At Achieve Health in Retford, we integrate the world-class Nerve Reboot™ Program into our advanced ARA™ (Achieve Restorative Acupuncture) system. This unique combination allows us to support nerve regeneration and help patients regain their quality of life.
The Nerve Reboot™ Program does 2 things that no other neuropathy program, therapy, or supplement does:
