LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

diabetic neuropathy

Neuropathy Support Formula: 2 More Vitamins for Neuropathy

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I recently covered the use of whole body vibration to improve painful diabetic neuropathy.  CoQ10 also has research behind it for preventing it in the first place.

I won’t go into how much diabetic neuropathy sucks, because if you deal with it, you already know.  Likewise, I will not go over how important it is to manage the prediabetic and diabetic spectrum to prevent diabetic neuropathy in the first place.  This was covered ad nauseum in the blog article referenced above.

In painful diabetic neuropathy, there is a problem with the way the nerves going into the legs and feet are behaving.  Given how much nutrition and vitamin supplements play a role in healthy nerve function, it would make sense that there are natural tools in the supplement toolbox that can be used for this condition.  I’ve already mentioned Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10).  Since CoQ10 is absolutely essential for the high-energy cells in your body (such as nerve, heart and muscle cells), CoQ10 supplementation can benefit diseases and conditions associated with these types of cells.

B12, also known as cobalamin, is vitally important for quite a few processes in your body.  Cell division, the formation of neurotransmitters and nerve cell function (vitamin B12 plays a role in the formation of the myelin sheath that protects your nerves).  One thing to be careful of with vitamin B12 for neuropathy, though, is to absolutely avoid the cyanocobalamin form, which is the most commonly used in supplements AND vitamin B12 injections.  I’ve covered this topic in more detail in a prior blog article that can be read by clicking here.  As an interesting note: The very common diabetic drug metformin is well known to deplete the body of vitamin B12 stores…

Alpha lipoic acid (sometimes referred to as thioctic acid) is another naturally occurring substance that can follow in the footsteps of CoQ10 because it is used in the generation of energy for every cell in our body.  As always, the high-energy cells like nerve cells need more energy and thus can benefit greatly from alpha lipoic acid in neuropathy.  Alpha lipoic acid has also been shown to protect the beta cells of the pancreas, thus protect from or helping with diabetes.

This particular study just highlights what we’ve already seen with these two supplements for foot neuropathy treatment in diabetes.  Here’s the details:

  • 17 different studies were evaluated.
  • The treatment lasted from 2-4 weeks.
  • The form of vitamin B12 used was methylcobalamin (the preferred form for the nerves) at 500-1,000 mcg (the study states “mg” but I’m thinking that’s a typo).
  • Alpha lipoic acid was used in the 300-600 mg range given via IV.
  • Both vitamins for neuropathy were effective at improving nerve function, but the combination of both was 47% stronger than either alone.

Not too shabby considering that there were NO adverse effects noted.

Overall, though, I think we’re beginning to see some pretty successful tools to be used in foot neuropathy treatment for diabetics, both supplemental and mechanical (whole body vibration).  Side note: our office uses a B12 lozenge with 2,000 mcg that I would compare to the injectable forms and is much simpler to use.

Add 36 Minutes of This Therapy To Your Neuropathy Support Formula

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whole body vibration therapy and diabetic neuropathy
Whole body vibration therapy and diabetic neuropathy

Diabetic neuropathy is not fun. I recall a patient in tears; he didn’t want to get out of bed because he knew standing on his feet would hurt, but staying in bed hurt.

Once things get to this point, there are few options for the patient with painful diabetic neuropathy.  Mainstream medicine will usually throw medications at the problem, such as Neurontin (gabapentin) or Lyrica.

Diabetic neuropathy is a process that begins long, long before the pain starts.  Frankly, it starts even before the diabetic diagnosis.  You see, every point along the “diabetic spectrum” is dangerous for you.  That means being prediabetic is very bad for your health.  But regular readings of the Rantings already know this.  If you need a little brushing up, you can read prior blog articles by clicking here.

Basically, when the body begins to poorly manage blood sugar, one of the first tissues affected are the nerves.  Your nerves require a tremendous amount of energy to function and the diabetic spectrum affects the way that cells use glucose for energy. Yes–this means that your painful diabetic neuropathy begin decades ago.  Decades. All of this means that doing everything to manage your blood sugar is of the utmost importance.

Certain supplements, like Coenzyme Q10, have been shown to delay onset of diabetic neuropathy (you can read about this in a previous blog article that can be found by clicking here). This applies before the painful neuropathy starts as well as after you begin to experience symptoms.

So what can you do? This particular article gives us some information about an additional tool to use for painful diabetic neuropathy. Our office has had a whole body vibration unit for quite a few years now.  We originally purchased the unit for its benefits on bone density, but quickly realized that patients who had circulation issues, leg pain or diabetic neuropathy. As a matter of fact, one of the common side effects found with whole body vibration is an itching redness of the legs.  This is because of the increased blood flow.  Increased blood flow means more nutrients to the nerves in your feet.  More nutrients to the nerves in your feet can help with the pain of diabetic neuropathy.

So what did researchers find in this small study?

  1. Sessions were 3 times per week for 4 weeks.
  2. Treatment time was 3 minutes.
  3. Scores on the VAS and the Neuropathic pain scale (NPS) were improved in this short period of time.

So basically, a mere 36 minutes of vibration therapy was enough to make significant changes to the pain levels in these patients.  Pretty impressive.

By the way, that patient I described at the beginning of this article?  We used our laser unit and he spent some time on whole body vibration.  With a single treatment session, his pain was vastly improved.

Does Your Neuropathy Support Formula Include This?

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As diabetes increases, so will peripheral neuropathy. Many turn to supplements for help, but you need to make sure your neuropathy support formula contains this.

Diabetic neuropathy is serious stuff and can become one of the most devastating and life-destroying side effects of diabetes.  Worse, there are few treatments that can effectively treat the pain.  Imagine that your feet are on fire.  Walking, sitting and even sleeping can be difficult.  I have had a grown man cry from the pain and frustration.

You can try some of the anti-seizure drugs like Neurotonin (gabapentin) or Lyrica, but the results from these drugs are not exactly stellar and can leave you walking around like a zombie.  And since you were probably limping around like a zombie before you took the medications, it’s hard to see this as an improvement.

The best approach possible to avoid diabetic peripheral neuropathy is to not become diabetic in the first place.  Diabetes is very bad for all of your nerves.  That is why Alzheimer’s dementia and Parkinson’s disease are being considered as a Type 3 diabetes.   That is why tinnitus may be a decades-early warning sign that you are on your way to diabetes.  It’s all because glucose is the preferred form of fuel for your brain and nerves.  Mess with that, and you’ve got problems.

Let’s say that the first hurdle to avoiding diabetic neuropathy is a little past (in other words–you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes).  The next most important step is to do everything possible to manage your blood sugar.  This does NOT mean taking the medications you’ve been given the way you’re supposed to be.  Here’s a wee bit of knowledge…the most commonly prescribed first line medication for diabetes is metformin.  Metformin is designed to improve the way your liver uses glucose.

Yep.  Just your liver.  As a prediabetic or a diabetic, every single cell in your body is having a problem using blood sugar the way and at the levels it is supposed to be used.  That means your liver, your heart, your muscles and your brain.  And how many of these important organs does metformin address?  Just one.  That means that, using metformin in the hopes of lowering your risk of developing peripheral neuropathy is not a bet you should be placing.

Lifestyle changes (my general recommendations can be read by clicking here), on the other hand, increase every single cell’s relationship with insulin and blood sugar in your body.  To me, this seems like a much better option than a medication that only works on a single cell type in your body.

Besides lifestyle, there are certain supplements that have been show to increase the efficiency at which your neurons work.  This particular article highlights one of the most powerful.

While you have to keep in mind that this is a mice study, researchers found some very interesting results when mice who were prone to diabetic neuropathy were given coenzyme Q10 and compared to mice who were not given CoQ10.  Here’s what they found:

  • The mice not given CoQ10 had a loss of sensation, decreased touch and pressure sensation, more pain sensitivity to cold (allodyna), and the sciatic nerve was not working as well (decreased conduction velocity). Overall, the nerves were not happy.
  • All these changes were mostly absent in the group with the daily CoQ10 treatment when started at 7 weeks.
  • There was a 33% loss of neurons in the lumbar 5 nerve root ganglia (DRGs).  This loss was not present when CoQ10 was used.

Overall, it was clear that coenzyme Q10, when used early, protects the nerves from damage that occurs during diabetes (Tweet this).  While lifestyle changes are a must, if would be a smart idea to include CoQ10 as a part of your neuropathy support formula.

The question is, however, can CoQ10 help with diabetic peripheral neuropathy once it’s already present?  If you have taken CoQ10 to help, did it work for you?

OTHER NERVE PAIN TIED TO DIABETES

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When we think of diabetic neuropathy, we generally think about the painful condition that affects the bottom surfaces of the feet.  This can become debilitating and drastically lower the quality of life for patients suffering with this condition.  However, there are other nerve conditions that are affected by diabetes.  One particular condition can cause pain that is located over the side and front of the thigh.

Meralgia paresthetica is one of my favorite diagnosis.  Not because it responds well and that patients are happy to have a simple answer to their problems.  No–I just happen to like the ring of it.  Kind of makes me sound like I know what I’m talking about in front of patients.  Sometimes I just throw it out there even though it has nothing to do with a new patient’s complaints–again just merely to sound important.  Maybe this is a cheesy reason, but this is why I like meralgia paresthetica so much (there–just used it again!!).

You can see from this diagram the distribution of this particular nerve.  Pain is usually superficial and can present as a numbness or, later on, as a burning pain.  Most often, this condition responds very well to stretching and soft tissue work over the front and side of the hip.  However, MP can be associated with a much more ominous condition.

Finding out that diabetes is associated with another nerve condition besides pain across the bottoms of the feet is not a big shocker.  Diabetes has already been strongly linked to other neurological conditions like tinnitus, Alzheimer’s and Parkinsons, so to add MP to the list is a pretty comfortable feeling.  The next step is a big one.

I can honestly say that I have not viewed this association in reverse.  I’ve never looked at a healthy patient who has MP and suggest that they are at increased risk of diabetes.  But maybe I should.  This particular study found that, in those who were diagnosed with MP, the risk of developing diabetes in the future was doubled.  Pretty high odds.

Why is this?  Is it possible that, like tinnitus, MP is merely a very early warning sign that the nerves aren’t happy?  That, because of a prediabetic state, the nerve cell cannot quite get the energy it needs from sugar to generate the ATP requirements of the cell and the nerve function begins to fail in subtle ways? 

We don’t exactly know yet, but the above hypothesis seems to fit well (ok–so maybe it is because I came up with it, but it sounds good to me…).  Either way, I know that in my office, I will now view any MP patients with a much broader eye and try to connect any poor lifestyle choices to their current condition and their risk of diabetes in the future.