DOs and DON'Ts in Managing Peripheral Neuropathy: DO take care of your feet, especially if you have diabetes. DO keep healthy. Exercise, eat healthy meals, lose weight, and quit smoking. DO avoid repetitive movements, cramped positions, toxic chemicals, and too much alcohol—things that cause nerve damage.
Include fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean protein in your diet. Avoid excessive alcohol. Alcohol can worsen peripheral neuropathy. Monitor your blood glucose levels.
Smoking and Drinking Alcohol
Cigarettes and alcohol have a toxic effect on nerve tissue. Heavy drinking makes neuropathy worse. Vitamins and minerals are essential for your body functions but smoking and drinking can alter the level of minerals and vitamins that are needed for proper nerve function.
Lifestyle choices can play a role in preventing peripheral neuropathy. You can lessen your risk for many of these conditions by avoiding alcohol, correcting vitamin deficiencies, eating a healthy diet, losing weight, avoiding toxins, and exercising regularly.
Nutritional or vitamin imbalances, alcoholism, and exposure to toxins can damage nerves and cause neuropathy. Vitamin B12 deficiency and excess vitamin B6 are the best known vitamin-related causes. Several medications have been shown to occasionally cause neuropathy.
Drink lots of water
Water should be a staple in any diet, and even more so for those looking to reduce nerve pain. It's critical to stay hydrated throughout the day to reduce inflammation and avoid triggering pain receptors. Aim to drink eight 8-oz. of water each day.
Intraneural Facilitation (INF) treatment effectively restores blood flow to damaged nerves, decreasing pain caused by diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), according to a new study conducted by researchers at Loma Linda University Health.
Vicks Vapor Rub® – Massaging one's feet with Vicks, particularly at night, soothes neuropathic pain and distress in one's feet and legs. It is also excellent for softening your toe nails and diminishing common toe nail problems.
Cayenne pepper
Capsaicin has been used in topical creams for its pain relief properties. It decreases the intensity of pain signals sent through the body. Incorporating cayenne pepper in your diet or taking a capsaicin supplement can help to reduce neuropathy pain.
The following foods have the potential to increase pain in neuropathy: dairy products, wheat, citrus fruits, corn, caffeine, meat of all kinds, nuts and eggs.
How do I know the nerve is recovering? As your nerve recovers, the area the nerve supplies may feel quite unpleasant and tingly. This may be accompanied by an electric shock sensation at the level of the growing nerve fibres; the location of this sensation should move as the nerve heals and grows.
If the underlying cause of peripheral neuropathy isn't treated, you may be at risk of developing potentially serious complications, such as a foot ulcer that becomes infected. This can lead to gangrene (tissue death) if untreated, and in severe cases may mean the affected foot has to be amputated.
Whether or not neuropathy can be reversed depends on the cause of the nerve damage. In some cases, the pain may go away entirely. In others, nerve damage may be permanent. For example, when neuropathy is caused by an infection, symptoms might go away completely when the infection is treated.
Drinking is the second-leading cause of neuropathy, so the elimination of alcohol is the best thing you can do for yourself. If you abstain from alcohol, your neuropathy shouldn't get any worse.
Capsaicin is used to help relieve a certain type of pain known as neuralgia (shooting or burning pain in the nerves). Capsaicin is also used to help relieve minor pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis or muscle sprains and strains.
Over time, those fibers may undergo degeneration and die, which means the neuropathy is worse because of the loss of more nerve fibers.
Vitamin B-12 is present in some foods and helps with proper nerve function and red blood cell production. People who don't get enough vitamin B-12 may have a higher risk of neuropathy and other nervous system (neurological) problems.
Cold Temperatures. When you have peripheral neuropathy, your feet become much more sensitive to the cool air. When the temperatures drop, your peripheral nerves can tingle more, causing you to feel more burning or sharp pain.
caffeine – Caffeine can irritate the nerves and make neuropathy symptoms worse. It is best to limit or avoid caffeine if you are experiencing nerve pain.
There is no cure for peripheral neuropathy but proper treatment will slow progression and address your symptoms. If the cause of the foot neuropathy is known, then treatment of the underlying cause may provide relief.
Diabetes. This is the most common cause. Among people with diabetes, more than halfwill develop some type of neuropathy.