Your nerves transform information from your environment into nerve signals that send messages to your brain and other body parts. Peripheral neuropathy can disrupt these signals and cause pain, weakness, or numbness in your feet, legs, and hands.
Your doctor will ask about your symptoms and examine you. A physical exam can include muscle strength, reflexes, balance, and coordination tests. Your doctor may also order blood tests to check for diabetes, nutrient deficiencies, and other health conditions.
Reputation
Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy are felt in the hands or feet and occur when nerves outside the brain and spinal cord become damaged. These nerves send messages to the body, telling it to contract muscles, feel sensations, and control involuntary functions such as blood pressure, digestion, and urination.
Nerve damage can result from diabetes, chemotherapy, HIV or Leprosy infection, severe infections such as Lyme disease and shingles, autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, genetic disorders, vitamin deficiencies, traumatic injuries, and toxins. These symptoms can be mild to severe, including tingling, prickling, or stabbing pain, often described as burning or throbbing.
The primary goal of treatment for neuropathies is to improve pain reduction. However, the medications currently available for neuropathic pain can be ineffective or have serious side effects. The best option is to go to neuropathy treatment Jacksonville FL, and work with a neurologist with extensive training in treating diseases impacting the central and peripheral nervous systems.
Experience
Peripheral neuropathy affects the nerves outside the spinal cord and brain that send signals between your hands and feet, for example, to let you know they are cold or when you need to contract your muscles. It can cause tingling and a burning or stabbing pain, usually worse at night.
Your doctor will take a detailed history and examine you for muscle weakness, numbness, and other symptoms of peripheral neuropathy. You may have blood tests to check for diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, liver or kidney problems, and other conditions that can lead to neuropathy. You may also have a lumbar puncture or spinal tap to identify infections and other diseases affecting nerves.
Your doctor might prescribe a medication that works with your body chemistry to reduce the sensations of neuropathy. Diabetes-related painful neuropathy can be alleviated with antidepressants, such as duloxetine (Cymbalta), venlafaxine extended-release (Effexor XR), and Pristiq. Other medications include a cholinesterase inhibitor or a pain-relieving injection.
Doctors
If your doctor suspects you have neuropathy, they may refer you to a specialist in nervous system diseases called a neurologist. Your physician will begin by getting details about your symptoms and performing a physical and neurological examination. The doctor will also order a series of tests to determine the cause of your neuropathic disorder. This may include blood tests that check for diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, liver and kidney dysfunction, infections, and signs of immune system activity associated with autoimmune neuropathies.
Your doctor may also request imaging tests to check for herniated discs, spinal stenosis, and other issues that could cause nerve compression or numbness. A skin or nerve biopsy, an electromyography, and a test to measure nerve conduction speed are some further examinations your doctor might advise.
Treatment options
A good clinic will perform a physical exam and ask questions about your symptoms, lifestyle, work, drinking habits, family history of neurological diseases, and exposure to toxins. The care professional will also check your tendon reflexes, muscle strength, tone, balance, and coordination.
Lifestyle strategies like wearing padded shoes and socks, regularly checking for injuries (often hard to feel due to reduced sensation), taking vitamin B12 supplements, and avoiding alcoholic beverages can help relieve symptoms. Mind/body techniques, like deep breathing and meditation, yoga, and tai chi, can reduce stress, improve flexibility, and ease pain and discomfort.
Peripheral neuropathy pain can be reduced with medication, especially if the condition that is causing it can be treated, like diabetes, or if it can be treated, like shingles, HIV infection, Lyme disease, rheumatoid arthritis, or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is the cause of the pain. Other medications include antidepressants, duloxetine, gabapentin, a numbing medication called lidocaine patches, and anti-seizure drugs, such as clonazepam.