Peripheral Neuropathy Causes and Treatments: Conditions of Nerve Pain and Dysfunction

Peripheral Neuropathy (Causes, Symptoms, Treatment Medications) Center

---

Peripheral neuropathies are further classified by the type of nerve damage involved. Mononeuropathy occurs when only one nerve is damaged. Polyneuropathies, which are more common, occur when multiple nerves are damaged.

Explore Everyday Health

These symptoms can also indicate other conditions. Make sure you tell your doctor about all of your symptoms. People who have a family history of peripheral neuropathy are more likely to develop the disorder. However, a variety of factors and underlying conditions may also cause this condition. Nerve damage caused by diabetes is one of the most common forms of neuropathy. This leads to numbness, pain, and a loss of sensation in the extremities. The risk of neuropathy increases for people who:. This damage is often due to high blood sugar levels.

Physical trauma is the most common cause of injury to the nerves. This can include car accidents, falls, or fractures. Inactivity, or holding still too long in one position, can also cause neuropathy. Increased pressure on the median nerve , a nerve in the wrist that supplies feeling and movement to the hand, causes carpal tunnel syndrome. This is a common type of peripheral neuropathy. Alcohol can have a toxic effect on nerve tissue, putting people with severe alcoholism at a higher risk of peripheral neuropathy. Exposure to toxic chemicals like glue, solvents , or insecticides , either through chemical abuse or in the workplace, can also cause nerve damage.

Additionally, exposure to heavy metals such as lead and mercury can also cause this condition. Viruses such as herpes simplex , varicella-zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles , and Epstein-Barr virus damage sensory nerves and cause intense episodes of shooting pain. Autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus affect the peripheral nervous system in various ways. Chronic inflammation and damage to tissues throughout the body, as well as pressure caused by inflammation, can all lead to severe nerve pain in the extremities.

Recent research in The Journal of Family Practice also suggests that statins, a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol and prevent cardiovascular disease , may also cause nerve damage and increase the risk for neuropathy. First, your doctor will perform a physical exam and ask about your medical history.

What is peripheral neuropathy?

For this test, your doctor will place a small needle into your muscle. Your doctor will then ask you to move your muscle gently. Probes in the needle will measure the amount of electricity moving through your muscle. Sometimes the area becomes sore for a few days afterward. In a nerve conduction study , your doctor places electrodes on your skin. They then pulse tiny amounts of electricity through your nerves to see if the nerves are transmitting signals properly. The treatment is based on treating the underlying disorder. Neuromodulation can involve placing an electrode along a peripheral nerve.

How Will your Doctor Make the Diagnosis? A number of the complications associated with neuropathy stem from loss of sensation. Unfortunately, commonly, it requires amputations if it does progress to that point. Neuropathy can lead to complications during surgery as well, explains Dr.

That is because of a condition called Charcot neuropathic osteoarthropathy or Charcot, for short , in which inflammation and unaddressed injuries subject bones, joints, and soft tissues especially those in the feet to microfractures and deformity. Malnutrition — whether caused by disease-related malabsorption, alcoholism, or an unbalanced diet — can also lead to neuropathy. Vitamin B12 deficiency , which is prevalent in 10 to 15 percent of people over age 60, has been linked to neuropathy. The deficiency causes damage to the myelin sheath that surrounds and protects nerves.

Sources of vitamin B12 include fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and milk and other dairy products.

The recommended daily allowance RDA of the nutrient for most people ages 14 and older is 24 micrograms mcg , though women who are pregnant or lactating should get 26 mcg and 28 mcg, respectively. Taking Glucophage metformin , which people with type 2 diabetes commonly use to control their blood sugar, may increase your risk of vitamin B12 deficiency, so if you are taking the medication, be sure to inform your physician so he or she can look out for a possible deficiency and recommend supplementation or dietary advice.

Here are a handful of the most prevalent types and how you can help avoid them.

Type 2 Diabetes: Test Your Medical IQ

Beef, nuts, and legumes offer dietary copper, although Dr. Injectable and oral supplements can help treat the condition. Villani says he often recommends the multivitamin Metanx and eating a diabetes-friendly diet to help keep blood sugar controlled. In terms of diet, getting too much of a nutrient can also lead to neuropathy as well, Latov cautions. The normal requirement is less than 2 milligrams a day, yet many B6 supplements are milligrams or more.

Brown rice can have high arsenic levels, and that can cause neuropathy too. Making fitness a part of your routine can help to address the muscle weakness that some people experience with neuropathy, as well as reduce pain. In people with diabetic neuropathy, regular exercise can also help to lower high blood sugar hyperglycemia. Everyday Health Neurology Neuropathy. Neuropathy, or nerve damage, can result from a wide range of conditions such as diabetes and even treatments like chemotherapy.

Most Recent in Neurology. Finding a Cure for Hydrocephalus.

Peripheral neuropathy: Symptoms, causes, and treatment

Research suggests a certain chemotherapy treatment for early-stage breast cancer may lead to long-lasting nerve damage. Most Popular in Neurology. In non-length dependent polyneuropathies, the symptoms can start more toward the torso, or are patchy. Motor nerve damage is most commonly associated with muscle weakness. Other symptoms include painful cramps, fasciculations uncontrolled muscle twitching visible under the skin and muscle shrinking.

Sensory nerve damage causes various symptoms because sensory nerves have a broad range of functions. Autonomic nerve damage affects the axons in small-fiber neuropathies.

Common symptoms include excess sweating, heat intolerance, inability to expand and contract the small blood vessels that regulate blood pressure, and gastrointestinal symptoms. Although rare, some people develop problems eating or swallowing if the nerves that control the esophagus are affected.

There are several types of peripheral neuropathies, the most common of which is linked to diabetes. Common types of focal located to just one part of the body mononeuropathy include carpal tunnel syndrome, which affects the hand and the wrist, and meralgia paresthetica, which causes numbness and tingling on one thigh. Complex regional pain syndrome is a class of lingering neuropathies where small-fibers are mostly damaged. Acquired neuropathies are either symptomatic the result of another disorder or condition; see below or idiopathic meaning it has no known cause.

Genetically-caused polyneuropathies are rare. Genetic mutations can either be inherited or arise de novo , meaning they are completely new mutations to an individual and are not present in either parent. Some genetic mutations lead to mild neuropathies with symptoms that begin in early adulthood and result in little, if any, significant impairment. More severe hereditary neuropathies often appear in infancy or childhood.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, also known as hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy, is one of the most common inherited neurological disorders.

Type 1 Diabetes Quiz: Test Your Medical IQ

The small-fiber neuropathies that present with pain, itch, and autonomic symptoms also can be genetic. As our understanding of genetic disorders increases, many new genes are being associated with peripheral neuropathy. The bewildering array and variability of symptoms that neuropathies can cause often makes diagnosis difficult. A diagnosis of neuropathy typically includes:. Muscle and nerve ultrasound is a noninvasive experimental technique for imaging nerves and muscles for injury such as a severed nerve or a compressed nerve.

Ultrasound imaging of the muscles can detect abnormalities that may be related to a muscle or nerve disorder. Certain inherited muscle disorders have characteristic patterns on muscle ultrasound. Treatments depend entirely on the type of nerve damage, symptoms, and location. Your doctor will explain how nerve damage is causing specific symptoms and how to minimize and manage them.

With proper education, some people may be able to reduce their medication dose or manage their neuropathy without medications. Definitive treatment can permit functional recovery over time, as long as the nerve cell itself has not died.

Correcting underlying causes can result in the neuropathy resolving on its own as the nerves recover or regenerate. Nerve health and resistance can be improved by healthy lifestyle habits such as maintaining optimal weight, avoiding toxic exposures, eating a balanced diet, and correcting vitamin deficiencies. Smoking cessation is particularly important because smoking constricts the blood vessels that supply nutrients to the peripheral nerves and can worsen neuropathic symptoms. Exercise can deliver more blood, oxygen, and nutrients to far-off nerve endings, improve muscle strength, and limit muscle atrophy.

Self-care skills in people with diabetes and others who have an impaired ability to feel pain can alleviate symptoms and often create conditions that encourage nerve regeneration. Strict control of blood glucose levels has been shown to reduce neuropathic symptoms and help people with diabetic neuropathy avoid further nerve damage. Inflammatory and autoimmune conditions leading to neuropathy can be controlled using immunosuppressive drugs such as prednisone, cyclosporine, or azathioprine. Plasmapheresis—a procedure in which blood is removed, cleansed of immune system cells and antibodies, and then returned to the body—can help reduce inflammation or suppress immune system activity.

Agents such as rituximab that target specific inflammatory cells, large intravenously administered doses of immunoglobulins, and antibodies that alter the immune system, also can suppress abnormal immune system activity. Medications recommended for chronic neuropathic pain are also used for other medical conditions. Among the most effective are a class of drugs first marketed to treat depression.

Another class of medications that quiets nerve cell electrical signaling is also used for epilepsy. Common drugs include gabapentin, pregabalin, and less often topiramate and lamotrigine.

• Macroeconomic Theory: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Approach
• You Are Enough: Always Have Been... Always Will Be: Always Have Been - Always Will Be
• The Ship That Found Herself
• The Collected Works of Stephen Crane (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics)
• Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period (Illustrated with
• Woe Is I: The Grammarphobes Guide to Better English in Plain English(Third Edition)