Neuropathy Specialist

What is neuropathy?

In the simplest of definitions, neuropathy describes damage to your nerves in your extremities, most notably in your hands and feet, which is why the condition is also referred to as peripheral neuropathy.

Peripheral neuropathy most often leads to the following symptoms in your feet:

• Numbness and tingling
• Pain
• Extreme sensitivity
• Problems with motor skills, such as balance
• Muscle weakness
  
  

While the immediate symptoms of neuropathy are significant enough, the condition can also lead to poor circulation (peripheral vascular disease), dry skin, hammertoes, and bunions.

What causes neuropathy?

Many conditions can cause neuropathy, with diabetes at the head of the list. If you’re diabetic, or if you have insulin resistance, your blood sugar levels creep higher, creating higher levels of sorbitol, which circulate through your nerves and elevate the intra-neural level of sorbitol. This, in turn, leads to nerve malfunction, which brings on the symptoms of neuropathy.

There are other causes of neuropathy, which include:

• Traumatic injury
• Infections
• Inherited diseases
• Environmental toxins
  
  

These causes are far less common than those associated with diabetes and insulin resistance.

How is neuropathy treated?

When it comes to neuropathy in your feet, Dr. Michaels first sits down with you to review the extent of the damage, which dictates his next steps. His overriding goal is to alleviate your discomfort and to prevent the condition from progressing further, which he does through:

• Physical therapy and exercise
• Lowering your blood sugar levels
• Vitamin supplements, such as benfotiamine and R-Lipoic acid
• Footwear recommendations
  
  

Using a combination of the therapies above, Dr. Michaels is often able to effectively eliminate your symptoms of peripheral neuropathy and prevent the condition from doing more damage.

If your neuropathy has created ancillary problems, such as bunions or hammertoes, Dr. Michaels treats these conditions separately.

The bottom line is that if you have any condition related to diabetes, it’s imperative that you seek the expert medical oversight of a podiatrist to protect yourself against neuropathy. Dr. Michaels understands the signs, allowing him to step in early, giving you a better chance of avoiding the unpleasant — and dangerous — side effects that come with neuropathy.

For more information on neuropathy, call Reconstructive Foot & Ankle Institute or set up an appointment using the online booking tool.

At the Reconstructive Foot & Ankle Institute, LLC we have a Neuropathy Center of Excellence that deals with this debilitating disease.  Some of the many treatments we use are listed below:

1. Mega-Benfotiamine

Mega-Benfotiamine relieves symptoms of peripheral neuropathy including pain, burning, tingling and numbness.  Many people receive great relief with this within about 2 weeks after trying Mega-Benfotiamine.  

In order for the nerves in our body to function properly we need to maintain adequate levels of B vitamins and recent studies show that many suffering from peripheral neuropathy have low plasma levels of B vitamins.   Thiamine (Vitamin B1) is especially important and because most forms are water soluble they are not stored in the body.  Mega-Benfotiamine is fat soluble so it stays in the body better than the water soluble forms so it works better. 

There are no drug interactions or bad side effects to this medical foot for that nourishes your nerves. 

2. Prescription drugs-these are used after the first two choices as there are many bad side effects to these

Surgery-often if nothing else helps we can release the nerves to allow them to “breathe” and then they start working again so you get your sensation back or get rid of the pain, burning or tingling.