Peripheral Neuropathy is a condition that many people suffer from especially as they age and body systems begin deteriorating at a faster rate.
The hard fact to accept is that we are all aging and that we are dying from the day that we are born. However, just chalking up the loss of balance, tingling, burning and numbness to “old age” is unacceptable in my book.
Of course, aging causes breakdown of tissues in the body, loss of lean muscle mass and neurological decline but it doesn’t mean that someone has to suffer for the rest of their life with horrific neuropathy pain either.
I have helped many patients completely recover from their neuropathy and get back to living vibrant, healthy and normal lives. They all say it is a complete miracle and to be truthful about it, I would agree.
Neuropathy is supposedly an “incurable” condition. So, in plain black and white letters, neuropathy is a condition that can’t be cured according to the mainstream healthcare model.
I admit that there are some types of neuropathy that I can’t help. However, most of my patients are over 65 years of age. Most of them have lost some height due to breakdown of soft tissues.
When I first opened my practice, I quickly became recognized as a premier Dr. for the treatment of severe neck and low back pain, spinal stenosis, and sciatica.
Neuropathy wasn’t on my radar. I wasn’t interested in neuropathy because I didn’t know much about it.
However, my severe neck and back pain patients started coming to me asking what I was doing that was helping their Type 2 Diabetes. I would explain (over and over again) that I wasn’t treating their diabetes and that I was only treating their neck and back pain or sciatica.
Over time, so many people came to me with the same questions that I realized that I was on to something with this condition called peripheral neuropathy. I began researching neuropathy and found a condition called “compressive radicular neuropathy”.
It became immediately clear to me that what I was doing was taking pressure off of nerves and relieving not only people’s neck and back pain but also their peripheral neuropathy.
All nerves understand is pressure. If a nerve cell membrane reaches -70 mV of pressure, the nerve will conduct an electrical signal that can be interpreted as pain, tingling or numbness.
When someone has degenerative arthritis, spinal stenosis, a herniated or bulging disc, degenerative disc diseases, disc desiccation, etc…, it can put a tremendous amount of pressure on spinal nerves that run down into the legs and feet.
My treatment protocols focus on relieving spinal cord and nerve root pressure. When you consider the fact that over 80% of people over the age of 65 have degenerative disc disease and spinal arthritis, it’s no wonder so many people will develop peripheral neuropathy.
Yes, conditions such as diabetes and other situations such as chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer are known to cause neuropathy, but spinal cord and nerve root degeneration always has to be a consideration in my opinion.
Most of my patients are over 65 years of age. Most of them have lost a little height which is a sign of possible disc degeneration. When the spinal discs dehydrate, the nerves can get “pinched” and have pressure applied to them which can show up as neuropathy.
Something that I always find interesting is that many diabetics come to me with neuropathy. The way that diabetes breaks down nerves and causes neuropathy is through destroying the fatty insulation that surrounds the nerve.
Nerves are encased in a “myelin sheath”. The myelin sheath is made up of sphingomyelin which is fat. When the fat gets broken down, the nerves can’t conduct their electrical signals the way that they should and develop neuropathy.
One question I always ask my new patients is, “Is the neuropathy in your feet as bad as it is in your hands?” If the answer is no, I automatically consider another possible cause of the patients neuropathy than diabetes.
I know that this may sound crazy to some, but consider this: The arms and legs are both peripheral nerves. Diabetes is stingy. It’s a greedy condition and it doesn’t just go after one set of peripheral nerves and leave the other set alone.
Yes, the legs are slightly longer that the arms, but all in all, they length is very close to the same. So, diabetes wants both sets of peripheral nerves and if one set is attacked, so will the other.
When a patient comes to me and complains of horrible burning, tingling, or numbness in their feet but they don’t have any of those symptoms in their hands, I explain that there is a possibility that their neuropathy may not be coming from their diabetes.
I explain how they could have a form of compressive radicular neuropathy due to degenerative conditions in their spine and their nerve problems could be solely related to that and not their diabetes.
The good news is that I’m usually right. Most of my neuropathy patients have significant improvement and are happy with their new and improved quality of life.
I have had patients come to me who explained that they never have had any neck or low back pain at all but that they still have peripheral neuropathy. I tell them that I will work on their hands and feet with my lasers but that I am also going to perform my disc rehydration protocol on their neck or back depending on the area of neuropathy.
In the end, we don’t care what helps as long as something helps and for the last 13 years, my neuropathy treatments have helped countless people get help.
Health is Happiness,
Dr. Keith Currie
