submitted by Power Health |
Most people who suffer from peripheral neuropathy do not know that they have a full spectrum of treatment options. Most believe that (a) they have to take medications that give some relief and have side effects, or the medications do not work, or (b) that there isn’t anything else they can do. To start, clear the following myth from your mind: “only diabetics or multiple sclerosis sufferers get neuropathy.” There are a myriad of different causes of peripheral neuropathy.
Peripheral neuropathy is a problem with the nerves that carry information to and from the brain to the legs and feet. This produces pain, loss of feeling and the inability to control muscles. But there is already a problem with this definition, just because you feel a symptom in your hand or foot does not mean that is where the problem is. This is a huge, gigantic misunderstanding and it is where diagnoses and treatment of most peripheral neuropathy goes wrong. Most peripheral neuropathy is in fact a complex web of neurological, hormonal, immune and/or nutritional problems.
With so many potential causes or combinations of causes of peripheral neuropathy, it is important that peripheral neuropathy sufferers explore all of them, since “one size diagnosis and treatment” does not fit them all.
One of the most common causes of peripheral neuropathy is a functional disconnection syndrome affecting the parietal lobe of the brain. The right parietal lobe of the brain receives and processes all the signals that come from the nerves in your muscles and joints, on both sides of your body. When the right parietal lobe is functioning properly you have normal sensation, no numbness, tingling and no shooting pains. However, if the parietal lobe starts to weaken or slow down, the signals do not get processed correctly and you feel numbness, tingling and pain in both of your feet, and then months or years later in your hands. This is what happens when the functional disconnection syndrome occurs in the brain. Functional disconnection syndrome is an electrical imbalance in the frequency of firing between the two sides of the brain. The two parietal lobes should fire equally. When one starts to fire less frequently than the other (due to traumas, emotional stresses, inflammatory or toxic triggers), neurons in the parietal lobe lose their firing “timing” and we get all sorts of symptoms like numbness, tingling, weakness, pins and needles and pain; the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy.
Another major trigger of this condition is an autoimmune response against peripheral nerve tissue. Basically, what happens is your immune system attacks and destroys nerve tissue. It can even attack brain tissue itself. These attacks are triggered by food sensitivities, viruses, infections, high amounts of insulin (diabetics) and high amounts of inflammation. The immune system mistakenly destroys nerve tissue and causes all of the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy whether attacking brain or peripheral nerve tissue.
To properly assess and treat peripheral neuropathy, each system of the body must be reviewed and evaluated. Triggers must be eliminated and problems and imbalances in the hormonal, G.I. and immune systems must be corrected. Also, the various imbalances unique to the individual need to be addressed with a coordinated, non-drug approach all at the same time. If this is not done, the sufferer will often spend months and years going from practitioner to practitioner evaluating the various above-mentioned “pieces of the puzzle,” one at a time. Although the patient may occasionally “luck out” by accidentally addressing the correct cause, this disorganized approach to a problem as complex as peripheral neuropathy is usually doomed to fail. It is the reason why medications and surgery yield poor long-term results when utilized as treatment options for the peripheral neuropathy patient.
References:
- Paradiso, D; Crespo Facoaao; B. Andreason; N.C.; O’Leary, D.S.; Watkins, L.G.; Boles Ponto, L; Hickwa, R.D. Brain activity assessed with PET during recall of word lists and narratives. Neuroreport – 1997 Sept. 29:8(14):3091-6; ISSN: 0959-4965
- Alessandra Vanotti, Maurizio Osio, Enrico Mailland, Catorina Nascimbene, Elisa Capeluzzi, and Claudio Mariani – u.o. Neurologia, Ospedale Luigi Sacco, Milan Italy. Overview on Pathophysiology and newer approaches to treatment of Peripheral Neuropathies. CNS Drugs 2007: 21 Suppl. 1: 3-12 1172-7047/07/0001-0003.
For more info, contact Power Health Rehab & Wellness Center at (775) 329-4402 or visit online at www.RenoBBT.com.
