A Guide to what is Neuropathy and its Treatment

Neuropathy or peripheral neuropathy is a widespread issue nowadays. With this being common, studies show that around 20% to 30% of Americans face neuropathy. Besides, every year, new cases of neuropathy are found worldwide. This condition involves many conditions where our peripheral nervous system faces damage. Since our peripheral nervous system sends signals between our brain and spinal cord, it helps build our nervous system.

However, with neuropathy being so common, many people mistake their health signs and symptoms directed towards this issue. Yet, most of the time, the situation isn’t similar. Wrong identifications and treatments in this matter can be harmful to a person. Therefore, it’s crucial to understand how peripheral neuropathy works and how you can gain effective neuropathy treatment.

Now let’s explore that below in detail!

What is Neuropathy?

Neuropathy is the damage that affects the functioning of our peripheral nervous system. This nervous system involves the nerve tissues that are located outside our brain and spinal cord. When the PNS or the peripheral nervous system of our body is affected due to neuropathy, various nervous injuries or health issues may occur. For instance, the wounds of motor nerves, sensory nerves, and the nerves directed to our gut or other organs.

Types of Neuropathy:

Neuropathy is further divided into various types that affect our body’s PNS in multiple ways. Two such types include:

1. Mononeuropathy: 

Whether it is one or more than one injury in our PNS, neuropathy can be a common cause of these injuries. Usually, when there is only an injury or one or a few nerves, it can be mononeuropathy. In this type of neuropathy, the pain, weakness, or numb feeling is limited to a specific limb or small part of our head/trunk.

The cause of this neuropathy type can be either compression or any kind of trauma due to a physical injury.

For example:

• Carpel tunnel syndrome:

The cause of this injury can also be mononeuropathy. In this syndrome, we face a nighttime numbness and a tingling feeling in our hands during that time.

• Radial Nerve Palsy: 

The cause of this mononeuropathy can be an injury in our nerves that run under our upper arm. Commonly, fractures of our humerus bone in our arm’s upper position can cause this mononeuropathy injury.

• Ulnar Nerve Palsy: 

In this injury, the nerve that passes near the surface of our elbow skin faces the damage. During this injury, our hand’s 4th or 5th digit faces numbness.

• Peroneal Nerve Palsy: 

In this injury, the nerve resent on top of our calf located outside our knee is compressed. As a result, this injury causes a foot drop in the patient, making it hard for the person to lift his/her foot.

1. Polyneuropathy: 

Most of the cases of neuropathy face polyneuropathy. This type of neuropathy is formed when various peripheral nerves in our body start malfunctioning at the same time. There are multiple causes of this type of neuropathy, including; exposure to toxins like alcohol abuse, vitamin B deficiency. Also, when patients face complications during any disease, i.e. cancer, etc., they can face polyneuropathy.

Commonly, diabetic patients face this type of neuropathy with the name of diabetic neuropathy.

Symptoms: 

We can diagnose this type of neuropathy in a patient through some common symptoms (mostly occurring in our arms and legs) including:

• Numbness
• Loss of sensation
• Tingling
• A burning sensation

Causes of Neuropathy:

Like any other disease, neuropathy is also a health condition that can be caused due to various reasons. Handling neuropathy and obtaining the right neuropathy treatment is only possible if you can understand what has caused this issue in the first place.

For a more precise viewpoint on that, let’s explore some common causes of neuropathy.

• Different medical problems: 

Any medical history/problem can be a common cause of neuropathy. Therefore, doctors firstly examine the patient’s medical history before testing their neuropathy condition. Some specific medical issues that can cause neuropathy include; autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases, endocrine diseases, organ failure, and various infections.

• Nutritional Deficiencies:

The deficiency of various vitamins and minerals like vitamin B, vitamin E, copper, etc., can also cause neuropathy.

• Toxins: 

Various industrial chemicals like solvents and heavy metals can also be a cause of neuropathy.

• Genetically passed neuropathy.
• Various injuries/compressions and traumas
• Tumour infiltrations, etc.

Symptoms of Neuropathy: 

Common symptoms of peripheral neuropathy involve pain, numbness, tingling, or even weakness (occasionally). However, we can’t determine the initial symptoms because different nervous system damage can bring various types of symptoms.

Types of Neuropathy Treatment:

Various medical centers and health practitioners offer FDA approved breakthrough approaches to heal and treat patients’ peripheral neuropathy injuries. However, these approaches aren’t similar in every health center for neuropathy treatment. Instead, various reliable and professional healthcare centers/professionals utilize different methods.

Finding a reliable health center/practitioner to help heal and treat neuropathy can be challenging, especially when you don’t have positive feedback to guarantee the outcomes. At times like these, reliable sources like Healthsoul offer lists of best-reviewed health care centers in your region/location. In this way, you can be sure to avail yourself of the best and most effective neuropathy treatment and prevent neuropathy injuries in the future.

Conclusion: 

In the end, neuropathy can be common and equally devastating in many patients (depending on what type and disease are diagnosed), but proper treatment can help reduce its effects. Once you have analyzed the type of neuropathy on time and have started appropriate neuropathy treatment, you can easily combat it effectively.