Understanding Peripheral Neuropathy

People with peripheral neuropathy have sustained damage to their peripheral nerves, located throughout your body, but outside the brain or spinal cord.  When these nerves sustain damage, you may start to notice pain, numbness or tingling. And, immediately, your risk for limb loss rises dramatically. 

There are many different reasons why you might develop peripheral neuropathy. People with autoimmune diseases, including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, have an elevated risk for this type of nerve damage. You may also develop neuropathy after having infections such as HIV, Lyme disease or even shingles. 

For some patients, this type of nerve damage is the result of an inherited condition. Others develop neuropathy after sustaining kidney damage or as an effect of bone marrow or thyroid conditions. And some tumors, whether or not they are cancerous, can damage your peripheral nerves. 

Now, your lifestyle could also impact your nerve health. Neuropathy could be the result of excessive alcohol consumption, deficiencies of vitamins E, B-1, B-6 and/or B-12, or low levels of copper in the blood. 

Exposure to lead, mercury or even chemotherapy medication could lead to neuropathy. And, sometimes, your peripheral nerves sustain damage and we just don’t know why. Most often, however, patients at our DeSoto, TX podiatry practice develop peripheral neuropathy because they have diabetes. 

Unfortunately, nearly half of all diabetic patients develop neuropathy. Often, this is because elevated sugar levels in your blood cause damage to your peripheral nerves. This process can be slowed down and interrupted. And, even if you have this type of nerve damage, we can prevent additional complications and help you relieve its most painful and frustrating symptoms. 

Many neuropathy patients experience stabbing, burning or tingling pain in the feet. They may also lose sensation in their feet, or develop numb spots. Others experience slow onset of tingling or prickling foot pain or numbness, that eventually spreads up the legs. Additionally, your feet may become extreme sensitive to touch. Some people with neuropathy lose their coordination and balance, or lose strength in their feet. (These symptoms can make mobility challenging, and may lead to more frequent falls.)

Now, there’s no way to predict which symptoms of neuropathy will or won’t affect your feet. And that’s because your specific neuropathy symptoms depend on the specific nerves in your body that sustained damage. Yet, even if you start with one or two symptoms, more may develop unless you seek treatment. And that’s because, without intervention, neuropathy causes progressive damage in your body. 

As mentioned earlier, having peripheral neuropathy increases your risk for foot and leg amputation. But why is that the case? Here’s the story. When you have neuropathy, sensation in your feet may be compromised. As a result, you could have a pebble stuck in your shoe for a full day, without even realizing the disturbance. 

Now, for some people, that might not be a big deal. But if you have neuropathy and diabetes, even the minor irritation from that pebble could cause a major problem. And here’s how. Let’s say you get a little cut on your foot. But you don’t feel it, because you’ve got reduced sensation due to neuropathy. Then, you don’t see the cut—it’s on the bottom of your foot—so you don’t clean it, or treat it with antibiotic cream. At this point, troubles could begin. 

Luckily, this outcome is highly preventable. For starters, you can perform daily, at-home, diabetic foot checks. At this time, you can examine every surface of your feet, looking carefully for any changes to the surface of your skin. By examining your feet daily, you’ll discover small problems before they become limb-threatening medical emergencies.