Pain, Numbness, & Tingling In The Hands/Feet
The most common method your doctor will recommend to treat your neuropathy is with prescription drugs that may temporarily reduce your symptoms. These drugs have generic names such as Gabapentin, Amitriptyline, or Lyrica and are primarily antidepressant or antiseizure drugs. These drugs may cause you to feel uncomfortable and have a variety of harmful side effects. Figure 1: Notice the very
small blood vessels surrounding each nerve. Peripheral neuropathy is a result of damage to the nerves often causing weakness, pain, numbness, tingling, and the most debilitating balance problems. This damage is commonly caused by a lack of blood flow to the nerves in the hands and feet which causes the nerves to begin to degenerate due to lack of nutrient flow.
Figure 2: When these very small blood vessels become diseased, they begin to shrivel up and the nerves begin to degenerate.
As you can see in Figure 2, as the blood vessels that surround the nerves become diseased they shrivel up which causes the nerves to not get the nutrients needed to survive. When these nerves begin to “die” they cause you to have balance problems, pain, numbness, tingling, burning, and many additional symptoms.
The main problem is that your doctor has told you to just live with the problem or try the drugs which you don’t like taking because they make you feel uncomfortable.
There are now facilities right here in your area that offer you hope without taking those endless drugs with serious side effects. (see the special neuropathy severity examination at the end of this article)
In order to effectively treat your neuropathy three factors must be determined.
1) What is the underlying cause? 2) How much nerve damage has been sustained?
Note: Once you have sustained 85% nerve loss, there is nothing that we can do for you.
3) How much treatment will your condition require?
The treatment that is provided at Chronic Conditions Center has three main goals:
1) Increase blood flow
2) Stimulate small fiber nerves 3) Decrease brain-based pain
One treatment used to increase blood flow utilizes a specialized low-level light therapy (not to be confused with laser therapy) using light emitting diode technology. This technology was originally developed by NASA to assist in increasing blood flow.
The low level light therapy is like watering a plant. The light therapy will allow the blood vessels to grow back around the peripheral nerves and provide them with the proper nutrients to heal and repair. It’s like adding water to a plant and seeing the roots grow deeper and deeper.
Figure 3: The blood vessels will grow back around the nerves much like a plant’s roots grow when watered.
The amount of treatment needed to allow the nerves to fully recover varies from person to person and can only be determined after a detailed neurological and vascular evaluation. As long as you have not sustained 85% nerve damage then your condition can be treated.