Affecting around 20 million Americans in any given day, it’s fair to say Peripheral Neuropathy is a big problem. Unfortunately, the reason why this is such a common health issue is because there are thought to be 130 risk factors that can all contribute. Today, we want to talk about potential treatment options and how we can help at Quantum Medical & Wellness Center in Plantation, Florida. Above all else, we can locate the source of your troubles. Peripheral Neuropathy is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed, but we have the knowledge and experience to help you begin the road to recovery!
Today, we want to discuss four main areas;
- How to get the right support for your health both now and long into the future.
- The dangers of pills, cortisone injections, and surgery.
- Three important steps to finding the right treatment plan (and common mistakes).
- The importance of choosing the right treatment (and how some so-called solutions can have a negative impact!).
Often, those struggling with a health problem like peripheral neuropathy are told ‘you can’t do anything’ and ‘just deal with it’. We want to provide advice you’re unlikely to find elsewhere, because we don’t believe this to be the case.
What ‘problem’ are we referring to? In truth, it could be in the calves, hips, toes, legs, and feet; the discomfort can be caused by numbness, shooting pains, cramping, tingling, and even burning. For example, you might find your toes burning when scraping against the underside of bed sheets.
Of course, we all experience some aches and pains after a long day at work; after being on our feet all day or bending over a keyboard, our body needs a period of relaxation. However, you shouldn’t ever be worried about why your legs are so weak in the mornings. You shouldn’t be asking whether you’ll end up losing the use of your legs. You shouldn’t worry about amputation or infection. If you find yourself worrying excessively, we recommend getting in contact today with our Plantation chiropractors.
Not only can this type of pain and discomfort cause issues in themselves, they can also lead to frustration in mentality. Suddenly, you lose enthusiasm and dread getting out of bed in the morning because you know it’ll be a day full of groans. Unfortunately, this is a condition that will continue to gnaw away without getting better.
In the past, we’ve had patients who became a passenger in their own lives. With the pain intruding upon their daily lives, they made sacrifices and decisions based on what their body would allow them to do. If you can relate to this, you probably feel angry that you aren’t able to live a life of joy. Don’t worry, this is completely normal because nobody enjoys carrying pain in any part of their body. Nobody wants a condition that can be handled one minute before then transforming into excruciating pain the next. As you know, ignoring it will only get you so far.
Peripheral Neuropathy becomes more serious when it starts to impact what we would consider ‘normal’ daily tasks. For example, this could be walking to the shops, walking to a friend’s house, trying to get to sleep, and even just trying to find a comfortable position to read a book in a recliner. As chiropractors in Plantation, we understand how even simple tasks can be accompanied by numbness, pain, and burning.
In addition to this, we should also note that the pain you’re experiencing is likely to have been aggravated by a different condition. Whether you have numbness in the leg, soreness in the foot, or burning in the hip, other conditions play an important role with these ailments and they can make life more difficult.
Peripheral Neuropathy with Diabetes – As an example of this, you aren’t alone if you’re trying to battle pains along with diabetes. In the most recent set of statistics, published by the American Diabetic Society, there are now four million Americans with some form of diabetes. Of this number, up to half could simultaneously suffer from nerve damage. If you’re suffering from any of the problems we’ve listed so far, it could be that you’re also a victim of diabetes. Today, one of the biggest causes of morbidity in patients with diabetes is peripheral neuropathy.
Why Is Peripheral Neuropathy So Dangerous?
One of the biggest problems with peripheral neuropathy is that it manages to sneak up on its victims. While many diseases attack the body instantly and aim to spread from one body part to the next as quickly as possible, peripheral neuropathy works slowly. When coupled with diabetes, this effect becomes even stronger and the nerves are attacked slowly. In fact, many people aren’t even aware that damage has been done to their body because it’s so gradual.
Since everybody is unique, the next steps can vary somewhat but individuals tend to experience symptoms that repeat over time. For some, it’ll be a tingling sensation in the legs and, for others, it’ll be a burning feeling in the feet. As peripheral neuropathy takes hold, many are left with a pain that rarely goes away and this often occurs in the legs. It has been described as the feeling of wearing a high compression sock through both the day and night.
What Are the Long-Term Effects of Peripheral Neuropathy?
Lives have been ruined by peripheral neuropathy, and this isn’t an over-exaggeration. In serious cases, the victims are restricted to a wheelchair and this means a loss of independence. Suddenly, there’s no way to leave the house and visit the shops without a big upheaval (or even some help). Others lose their ability to walk for long periods or they don’t have the control in their legs to drive a car.
Getting Professional Help
For those suffering with a problem of this sort, they wonder what they can do. From a very young age, we’re taught to visit the doctor with any ailments causing us problems. If you’ve tried this step for relief, we can guess that you were probably advised to take seizure medication (including either Gabapentin or Neurontin), Motrin, or cortisone injections. For some patients we’ve helped at our chiropractic center in Plantation who were even recommended surgery; let’s not forget, this is potentially life-changing.
With seizure medication, did it remove all your energy and cause drowsiness? Did it do this while also allowing only a small relief from the pain? Sadly, this is common with this type of medication because they have tranquilizing effects that aim to numb the affected nerves. However, this effect doesn’t last forever and the result is a return of the discomfort just a short time later.
We also want to address the suggestion of surgery; maybe this is a position you’re in now. Maybe the doctor suggested surgery but you aren’t sure of whether this is the best option for your overall health? What if you go through all the stress of surgery and find that the problem doesn’t go away? Or perhaps a new problem is created? The surgeon will try to repair the tendons, nerves, or whatever else they find, but surgery can often go wrong. What do you do now?
In our opinion, surgery is a big decision and one that doesn’t always yield big results. Thanks to the many technological advancements we’ve seen in recent years, we now have techniques that mean you can avoid the scalpel (like the arthroscopic solutions). This being said, there will always be a level of risk with surgery even just with the anesthesia. Once you’re under, the surgeon will need to play around inside the body and potentially cut and slice certain parts. With this in mind, we believe there are better ways to handle the issue.
So, how do you avoid both drugs and surgery? So far, we’ve been quite negative about the solutions your medical professionals are likely to suggest. If there are too many risks involved with surgery, and drugs only paper over the cracks, what does this leave? Do you have to put up with the pain? No, and we’ll tell you why!
The Answer to Your Peripheral Neuropathy Needs
When you visit a doctor with peripheral neuropathy, you have to realize their mindset. Most days, they deal with dozens of patients struggling with fractures, infections, and the flu. In the medical profession as a whole, the thinking is somewhat old-fashioned in that they want to hide pain through medication until it becomes medically necessary to intervene (normally through surgery) because rest isn’t doing the trick any longer.
Don’t get us wrong, we understand that medication can be pivotal when it comes to health. For many diseases, like a bacterial lung infection, medication is important and doctors feel happy when it starts to work. In such an example, medication not only hides the pain but also works towards treating the cause.
Despite the many positives of medication, there are some health problems that can’t be treated in this way and all they can offer is temporary pain relief. Peripheral neuropathy is a prime example of this because you’ll almost certainly feel relief from all discomfort. For the hours after taking the medication, you’ll probably feel great. Once the medication wears off, the pain will return and you’ll be right back in the same position.
Troubles in the Industry – Proof of this in action has been seen many times in the medical industry, but perhaps none more obvious than Pfizer and their fines in 2004 and 2010. Known as the manufacturer of Neurontin, Pfizer was fined a combined $572 million for suggesting their product could be used as a neurogenic pain treatment; ‘off label’. This breached their FDA approval which applied as a seizure medication alone.
Why have they been in trouble for the same problem on more than one occasion? In simple terms, they’re well aware that they CANNOT help you. If doctors or other medical professionals know they can’t help your condition, all they can do is remove the pain in short periods with medication and tell you to try and get on with your life despite the pain.
If you’re reading this and shaking your head, we’re right with you because this shouldn’t be the way the industry operates. Even if doctors aren’t the best professionals to deal with certain conditions, they struggle to relinquish control because they want to be the primary owners of the health care niche. Ultimately, this means they place profits above your health.
These days, you no longer have to fall into their trap and you’re taking a fantastic step by reading our brilliant guide here today. You now have more options for treatment than ever before and the industry is starting to see the positive effects of this. In 2018, it’s expected that more out-of-pocket money will be spent on alternative care than traditional care. You no longer have to accept what the doctor says, and you can control your own future when it comes to health.
Does ‘Alternative’ Still Apply?
With people spending more and more on alternative treatment, does the term ‘alternative’ really still apply? We could say that these are now mainstream options, and investment is allowing these methods to become more advanced. As a chiropractor in Plantation, and part of this alternative industry, we believe in finding the REAL cause of your medical condition. After obtaining this piece of knowledge, we can work towards a treatment plan that works for you.
Before going any further, we should say that not everyone will like alternative care. For many, they’re happy with the pharmaceutical approach that has been considered normal for so long. By clicking on this page and reading this guide, we assume you’re fed up of being told to deal with your peripheral neuropathy alone.
Three Pivotal Steps When Choosing Alternative Care
Over the many years we’ve been in the industry, we’ve seen people making the same three mistakes time and time again when choosing an alternative treatment for peripheral neuropathy. Below, we’ve listed the three pivotal steps you need to take so you can make the right decision and partner with a service that puts you on the right path (preferably one ending with long-term relief).
#1: Make Sure They Offer the Right Medical Care – This first tip comes in two parts because the professional needs to stimulate damaged nerves while also improving blood flow to the capillaries in the affected area. Sensory nerves can shrink (a process known as atrophy) in the legs and feet when damaged. This is seen commonly when a cast is removed from the leg or arm; the muscles will atrophy and get smaller in size.
In order to fix the damaged nerves, they need to be stimulated and this starts the rehabilitation process. At Plantation’s Quantum Medical & Wellness Center, we have the very best computerized treatment device that exercises the nerves (this is called neuromuscular re-education). With this treatment, the device takes advantage of patented frequency technology to get the nerves working electrically and this lends itself to long-term improvement.
After stimulating the damaged nerves, the next step is to make sure the professional is improving the blood flow to the capillaries in your legs and feet; capillaries are essentially micro blood vessels. How is peripheral neuropathy allowed to get worse over time? Well, damage is caused to the capillaries in the legs and feet and this prevents them from fulfilling their role as the source of life for nerves. In order for all body parts to thrive, they need blood flow. Without it, the area begins to die and this is the most common cause of peripheral neuropathy.
If results are to be seen at all with peripheral neuropathy, the treatment plan should aim to improve the blood flow to the feet and legs. At this point, we should note that handheld lasers aren’t the way forward so don’t use a professional who prefers this form of treatment. While handheld lasers can be fantastic for dealing with specific spots where pain is experienced most frequently, because they’re designed to go deep within the muscles and joints, they can’t provide an even treatment across an entire leg or foot. If the professional makes a small mistake with dosage and laser intensity, this can also make the neuropathy worse.
With our chiropractor in Plantation, we prefer ProNeurolight LED therapy. By using a wave length of light, more blood can access the damaged nerves after the blood vessels have been dilated. Suddenly, the nerves are receiving more oxygen and nutrition; a process of angiogenesis can also occur and this is where new blood vessels are produced. Why is this so effective? Because it means your body will continue to treat the area even after the session with us has ended.
Just as the name suggests, this solution has been designed specifically for peripheral neuropathy and it aims to do so without large quantities of pain. If you haven’t seen the device previously, it will be attached to your leg/foot before delivering energy at a discussed wave length. Therefore, it’s incredibly simple and can work for the majority of patients.
#2: Are They Dedicated to Neuropathy? – While looking for a reliable provider, you’re likely to come across some professionals who specialize in one area but offer neuropathy treatment on the side. We wouldn’t trust our accounts with a marketing consultant who also dabbled in accountancy, so why do the same with your health? Instead, choose a service entirely dedicated to treating people with neuropathy. This way, they’ll have a full understanding of your experience, they’ll have all the right equipment and training, and they’ll also be passionate about helping.
At Plantation’s Quantum Medical & Wellness Center, we’ve invested both time and money into this area and we love to bring an end to the pain and discomfort experienced by many. Our Plantation chiropractors can offer a tailored service and we’re always looking to improve our treatment plans with the latest innovations from the medical world.
#3: Make Sure the Service Is Sufficiently Trained – Although we touched on it in the previous step, you can’t undervalue the importance of training in this area. While your doctor is an expert in many fields, they aren’t trained in the intricacies of peripheral neuropathy which means they’re unaware of nutritional protocols. Neuropathy is commonly made worse by certain foods, and this is so easily preventable with the right professional at your side. Without an advanced nutrition and supplement plan, you could be making your neuropathy worse without even realizing.
The professional you choose needs to be aware of not only the danger foods, but how to replace them so your nutritional intake doesn’t suffer. What do we mean ‘foods can make the problem worse’? Well, some will cause an autoimmune reaction and others will decrease peripheral circulation while simultaneously promoting nerve inflammation.
These days, all of the above issues can be avoided with the right nutritional supplements. However, they can’t be obtained from the shelf and you’ll need to see a medical professional first. Once you’re eating correctly and the supplements are reducing nerve inflammation, the results are likely to be much stronger when the real treatment begins.