Peripheral neuropathy (and what can be done about it)

Peripheral neuropathy is nerve damage, usually of the extremities. It can be caused by such things as:

• Diabetes
• Alcoholism
• Infection
• Injury

The manifestations can be different:

• In the case of diabetes, it’s also called diabetic neuropathy, and almost always affects the feet first.
• In the case of alcoholism, it is more generalized, but tends towards affecting the extremities first.
• In the case of infection, a lot depends on the nature of the infection and the body’s response.
• In the case of injury, it’ll naturally be the injured part, or a little “downstream” of the injured part.
  • This could be the case of a single traumatic injury (e.g. hand got trapped in a slammed door)

This could be the case of a repetitive injury (carpal tunnel syndrome is a kind of peripheral neuropathy, and is usually caused by consistent misalignment of the carpal tunnel, the aperture through which a bundle of nerves make their way from the forearm to the hand)

Prevention is better than cure

If you already have peripheral neuropathy, don’t worry, we’ll get to that. But, if you can, prevention is better than cure. This means:

• Diabetes: if you can, avoid. This may seem like no-brainer advice, but it’s often something people don’t think about until hitting a pre-diabetic stage. Obviously, if you are Type 1 Diabetic, you don’t have this luxury. But in any case, whatever your current status, take care of your blood sugars as best you can, so that your blood can take care of you (and your nerves) in turn. You might want to check out our previous main feature about this:
  • 10 Ways To Balance Your Blood sugars
• Alcoholism: obviously avoid, if you can. You might like this previous edition of 10almonds addressing this:
  • Rethinking Drinking: How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol
• Infection: this is so varied that one-liner advice is really just “try to look after your immune health”.
  • We’ll do a main feature on this soon!
• Injury: obviously, try to be careful. But that goes for the more insidious version too! For example, if you spend a lot of time at your computer, consider an ergonomic mouse and keyboard.
  • There are many kinds available, so read reviews, but here’s an example product on Amazon

Writer’s note: as you might guess, I spend a lot of time at my computer, and a lot of that time, writing. I additionally spend a lot of time reading. I also have assorted old injuries from my more exciting life long ago. Because of this, it’s been an investment in my health to have:

A standing desk

A vertical ergonomic mouse

An ergonomic split keyboard

A Kindle*

*Far lighter and more ergonomic than paper books. Don’t get me wrong, I’m writing to you from a room that also contains about a thousand paper books and I dearly love those too, but more often than not, I read on my e-reader for comfort and ease.

If you already have peripheral neuropathy

Most advice popular on the Internet is just about pain management, but what if we want to treat the cause rather than the symptom?

Let’s look at the things commonly suggested: try ice, try heat, try acupuncture, try spicy rubs (from brand names like Tiger Balm, to home-made chilli ointments), try meditation, try a warm bath, try massage.

And, all of these are good options; do you see what they have in common?

It’s about blood flow. And that’s why they can help even in the case of peripheral neuropathy that’s not painful (it can also manifest as numbness, and/or tingling sensations).

By getting the blood flowing nicely through the affected body part, the blood can nourish the nerves and help them function correctly. This is, in effect, the opposite of what the causes of peripheral neuropathy do.

But also don’t forget: rest

• Put your feet up (literally! But we’re talking horizontal here, not elevated past the height of your heart)
• Rest that weary wrist that has carpal tunnel syndrome (again, resting it flat, so your hand position is aligned with your forearm, so the nerves between are not kinked)
• Use a brace if necessary to help the affected part stay aligned correctly
  • You can get made-for-purpose wrist and ankle braces—you can also get versions that are made for administering hot/cold therapy, too. That’s just an example product linked that we can recommend; by all means read reviews and choose for yourself, though. Try them and see what helps.

One more top tip

We did a feature not long back on lion’s mane mushroom, and it’s single most well-established, well-researched, well-evidenced, completely uncontested benefit is that it aids peripheral neurogenesis, that is to say, the regrowth and healing of the peripheral nervous system.

So you might want to check that out:

What Does Lion’s Mane Actually Do, Anyway?

How To Reduce The Harm Of Festive Drinking

Not drinking alcohol is—of course—the best way to avoid the harmful effects of alcohol. However, not everyone wants to abstain, especially at this time of year, so today we’re going to be focusing on harm reduction without abstinence.

If you do want to quit (or even reduce) drinking, you might like our previous article about that:

How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol

For everyone else, let’s press on with harm reduction:

Before You Drink

A common (reasonable, but often unhelpful) advice is “set yourself a limit”. The problem with this is that when we’re sober, “I will drink no more than n drinks” is easy. After the first drink, we start to feel differently about it.

So: delay your first drink of the day for as long as possible

That’s it, that’s the tip. The later you start drinking, not only will you likely drink less, but also, your liver will have had longer to finish processing whatever you drank last night, so it’s coming at the new drink(s) fresh.

On that note…

Watch your meds! Often, especially if we are taking medications that also tax our liver (acetaminophen / paracetamol / Tylenol is a fine example of this), we are at risk of having a bit of a build-up, like an office printer that still chewing on the last job while you’re trying to print the next.

Additionally: do indeed eat before you drink.

While You Drink

Do your best to drink slowly. While this can hit the same kind of problem as the “set yourself a limit” idea, in that once you start drinking you forget to drink slowly, it’s something to try for.

If your main reason for drinking is the social aspect, then merely having a drink in your hand is generally sufficient. You don’t need to be keeping pace with anyone.

It is further good to alternate your drinks with water. As in, between each alcoholic drink, have a glass of water. This helps in several ways:

• Hydrates you, which is good for your body’s recovery abilities
• Halves the amount of time you spend drinking
• Makes you less thirsty; it’s easy to think “I’m thirsty” and reach for an alcoholic drink that won’t actually help. So, it may slow down your drinking for that reason, too.

At the dinner table especially, it’s very reasonable to have two glasses, one filled with water. Nobody will be paying attention to which glass you drink from more often.

After You Drink

Even if you are not drunk, assume that you are.

Anything you wouldn’t let a drunk person in your care do, don’t do. Now is not the time to drive, have a shower, or do anything you wouldn’t let a child do in the kitchen.

Hospital Emergency Rooms, every year around this time, get filled up with people who thought they were fine and then had some accident.

The biggest risks from alcohol are:

1. Accidents
2. Heart attacks
3. Things actually popularly associated with alcohol, e.g. alcohol poisoning etc

So, avoiding accidents is as important as, if not more important than, avoiding damage to your liver.

Drink some water, and eat something.

Fruit is great, as it restocks you on vitamins, minerals, and water, while being very easy to digest.

Go to bed.

There is a limit to how much trouble you can get into there. Sleep it off.

In the morning, do not do “hair of the dog”; drinking alcohol will temporarily alleviate a hangover, but only because it kicks your liver back into an earlier stage of processing the alcohol—it just prolongs the inevitable.

Have a good breakfast, instead. Remember, fruit is your friend (as explained above).

Want to know more?

Here’s a great service with a lot of further links to a lot more resources:

With You | How to safely detox from alcohol at home

Take care!