A Detailed Look At Nutrient (And Thus Non-Medication) Treatments For Nerve Damage

Today's follow up to yesterday's post looks at neuropathy treatment with the same degree of scientific complexity as the systematic review of yesterday's article. It requires a bit of concentration but is worth the effort if you're really trying to understand your nerve damage and the means used to treat it in this day and age. It generally addresses non-standard and non-medication treatments and for that reason alone is worth a read, as we try to move away from reliance on chemical drugs for our disease. It's also a little more reader-friendly than yesterday's post and also covers some of the areas that yesterday's article did not. If you're interested in how neuropathy is currently treated then this is the post for you but you may need a dictionary at hand for some of the more technologically challenging terminology. Nevertheless, as with all posts of this nature, the effort is generally worthwhile, even if you only increase your knowledge and understanding just slightly. 

How To Treat Peripheral Neuropathy.
Della Luce August 2018
 
What Is Peripheral Neuropathy?


There is no need to despair if you are dealing with the “pins and needles” or burning sensation in your feet, legs, and arms from some kind of neuropathy;

A vitamin deficiency
Diabetic neuropathy.
Major Abdominal Operations.
Shingles.
HIV infection.
Lyme disease.
Guillain-Barré syndrome

Infections: Shingles, HIV infection, Lyme disease, and others kinds of Infections can lead to nerve damage. Guillain-Barré syndrome: This is a specific type of peripheral neuropathy, triggered by infection.

You don’t have to rely on prescription drugs for relief. There are natural ways to achieve recovery.

Fortunately, they are some safe and effective nutrients that can make a big difference.

Together, they will:

Stop tingling and numbness

Reduce pain in feet, legs, fingers, and hands

Repair damaged nerves and blood vessels

Prevent damage to nerve endings

Help metabolize carbohydrates and sugars
 
If you deal with the feeling of “pins and needles,” a burning sensation in your feet, legs, and arms, intense stabbing pain and struggle with blood sugar, you may be experiencing peripheral neuropathy. Go and get a blood test to confirm or eliminate your findings. Talk to your general practitioner, don’t suffer in silence.

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease:

About 60 to 70 percent of diabetes patients have neuropathy.

Symptoms may not appear until about 10 to 20 years after the diagnosis of diabetes.

Sedentary lifestyles, poor diets, and insulin resistance may mean that many people aren’t aware they have diabetes until they have symptoms.





Prescription drugs typically recommended for diabetic neuropathy vary, but all cause their share of significant side effects. They range from

Antidepressants

Anti seizure medications.

Pain relievers.

Anti-nausea medicines.

The above medications will and could give you some short term relief but none of them really get at the core of the problem.

Fortunately specific nutrients can stop and in most cases reverse the symptoms of the causes of neuropathy. Nutrients can help in repairing delicate blood vessels and nerve endings and helping the body repair some of the pathways that are involved in metabolizing blood sugar.

What Vitamins And Minerals Reduce Neuropathy Symptoms?

They are a group of vitamins;

Vitamin B1 ( thiamin).

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin).

Vitamin B3 ( Niacin).

Vitamin B6 P-5-P.

Vitamin B5 ( Pantothenic Acid)

Vitamin B9 (Folic Acid)

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) 

What Is The Role Of Active B Vitamins?



Most forms of B vitamins need to be converted by the liver into a form that is readily used by the body.

For example, patients with high rates of blood sugar have been found to be deficient in vitamin B6.

The active form of vitamin B6 (‘Pyridoxal-5′-Phosphate’ (P-5-P)). It is driven to approximately 168 vital enzyme processes within our body. Among these vital roles, vitamin B6 (P-5-P) facilitates a process known as deamination . Deamination is responsible for converting essential amino acids into non-essential ones. B6 (P-5-P) also helps shuttle certain nutrients . One of those nutrients include magnesium which is found  across the cellular membranes, helping to increase the absorption rates. Unfortunately B6 (P-5-P) is often found in short supply but yet, it is a known compound vital to our health. B6 (P-5-P) has even showed to reduce blood glucose levels after only 7 days.

However, vitamin B6 as pyridoxal-5-phosphate (P-5-P), vitamin B12 (cobalamin), and folate as L-methylfolate are already in the form the body uses. Together, they protect nerve endings and reduce levels of inflammatory homocysteine that damage blood vessels.

Other B vitamins are important for blood sugar metabolism and nerve health as well. For example, people with diabetes are typically deficient in vitamin B1 (thiamin), much like vitamin B6. Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) helps the body metabolize carbohydrates effectively and to turn those calories into energy.

Without it, not only do sugars not break down as they should, (leaving more in the bloodstream), but your chances of oxidative damage and inflammation in the blood vessels increase.

Benfotiamine is a fat-soluble form of vitamin B1 (thiamin) that can achieve five times the concentration in the body compared to standard water-based thiamin. Benfotiamine prevents glucose toxicity and brings elevated blood sugar levels back down to normal. Benfotiamine has also been clinically proven to reduce pain and complications of diabetic neuropathy, the “pins-and-needles” and “tingling” that people with diabetes feel in their feet and legs.

The active form of vitamin B12, methylcobalamin, is another “must-have” for those with diabetic neuropathy. Vitamin B12 supports the nerve structures that move signals throughout the body . Some of the very structures that are threatened by inflammation and damaged from elevated blood sugar levels. The sooner you get this nutrient into your regimen, the better. According to the Annual Review of Nutrition, up to 15 percent of individuals over 60 are B12 deficient. This is one of a group of nutrients, that researched to have reduced diabetic neuropathy symptoms.

Of course, the same damage that occurs to the nerves and blood vessels in our legs, hand and arms, can happen in the delicate structures of the eye as well.

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) helps keep glutathione reduced. This is known as the body’s natural free-radical fighter, which is active in the eyes. In fact, there’s a correlation between vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) deficiency and the development of cataracts. In clinical research, the greatest reduction in cataract risk was seen in those taking a combination of vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) and Vitamin B3 (Niacin).

Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid) deficiencies can cause numbness and tingling in the feet. The nutrient’s primary role in the body is as a Coenzyme A. As a coenzyme, it is involved in many important functions, one of which is healthy tissue formation (including that of nerve endings and blood vessels). But high blood sugar levels can affect your levels of Coenzyme A, so it’s a good idea to include Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid) along with these other B vitamins.

Alpha-lipoic acid can boost levels of glutathione, helping save delicate nerves from oxidative damage. It fights diabetic neuropathy by normalizing the intake of blood sugar by the muscles, in addition to reducing the pain and tingling of peripheral nerves. The best results come from a 600 mg per day dose of alpha-lipoic acid.

Chromium is an essential trace mineral that helps prevent the build-up of glucose in the bloodstream. If you have just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, or have elevated blood sugar levels, getting chromium into your regimen is important. In a clinical study, individuals taking chromium reduced their fasting blood glucose level from an average of 197 to 103 in just three months.

Zinc promotes tissue and wound healing. It also stabilizes pancreatic storage of insulin and inhibits oxidative stress that promotes insulin resistance and diabetes. Reduced zinc levels in the pancreas are associated with diabetes, and proper amounts of this mineral tend to keep insulin levels at an even keel.

While there are many forms of minerals available as supplements, amino acid chelated forms are easily used by the body. The bonding of a mineral to the amino acid glycine creates a mineral form that passes through the intestinal wall and is incorporated into the bloodstream much more efficiently.

Boswellia (Boswellia serrata) is one of nature’s most powerful anti-inflammatory medicines. It is a specific inhibitor of 5-LOX, an enzyme that activates inflammation-inducing leukotrienes. One of the biggest difficulties for people with nerve damage from diabetes is the pain and inflammation that goes along with it.

So How Do Vitamins Get Absorbed?





Two steps are required for the body to absorb vitamin B12 from food. First, hydrochloric acid in the stomach separates vitamin B12 from the protein to which vitamin B12 is attached in food. After this, vitamin B12 combines with a protein made by the stomach called intrinsic factor and is absorbed by the body.

So lets break it down a little more;

The ileum absorbs vitamin B12 and bile salts.


The Ilium( Plural ilia) is the uppermost and largest part of the hip bone.

The gastrointestinal wall is made up of folds, each of which has many tiny finger-like projections known as villi, on its surface. In turn, the epithelial cells which line these villi possess an even larger numbers of micro villi. The cells that line the ileum contain the enzyme;

Protease.

Carbohydrate.

These enzymes are responsible for the final stages of protein and carbohydrate digestion. These enzymes are present in the cytoplasm of the epithelial cells.





The vitamin B12 that is now free then binds to one of the three vitamin B12 binding proteins, called haptocorrin, which is produced by the salivary glands and the parietal cells in the stomach. In the duodenum the pH is now less acidic and this allows pancreatic proteases to degrade the haptocorrin, and vitamin B12 (both newly ingested and from the bile duct) is released again and binds tightly to Intrinsic Factor produced by parietal cells.

In the mucosal cells of the distal ileum, the vitamin B12-Intrinsic Factor complex is recognised by special receptors.

Vitamin B12 then enters the blood bound to another binding protein, transcobalamin, the complex is known as holotranscobalamin (Active B12).

The majority of vitamin B12(70-80%) in the blood is bound to haptocorrin and only a minor proportion (20-30%) is bound to transcobalamin.

Holotranscobalamin (Active B12) is the biological active fraction of vitamin B12 in the blood as it is in only this form that vitamin B12 is delivered to all the cells of the body.

Vitamin B12 is then absorbed in the intestine and subsequently gets transported to the liver via the bile duct, to the duodenum.

The terminal ileum continues to absorb the bile salts, and is also crucial in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (Vitamin A, D, E and K). For fat-soluble vitamin absorption to occur, bile acids must be present.

Like vitamin B12, folate can be administered in forms that are easier for the body to absorb, and L-methylfolate is one of them. Research published in the journal Reviews in Neurological Diseases found that L-methylfolate, methylcobalamin, and P-5-P improved the epidermal nerve fibre density (ENFD) in 73 percent of the treated patients with type 2 diabetes in just six months. Additionally, 82 percent reported reduced frequency and intensity of the “pins and needles” feeling or of the painful sensation (or lack of sensation) brought about by simple touch and contact.

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