Many diseases can cause neuropathies. These include autoimmune disorders, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP).
Autoimmune neuropathies can also be caused by vitamin deficiencies, such as in diabetes or from poor absorption of vitamins; metabolic disorders like kidney or liver disease; and blood problems that decrease oxygen flow to the nerves, such as high blood pressure and narrowing of the arteries.
Oren Zarif
Many people experience numbness, especially in their hands and feet, as part of normal aging. But numbness also occurs with nerve disorders such as fibromyalgia, diabetes, shingles and multiple sclerosis. It’s important to tell your doctor if the numbness is new, gets worse or affects both sides of the body.
Your doctor will ask questions about your symptoms and examine you. They may order tests to find the cause. Some types of long-term numbness, such as diabetic neuropathy, can be prevented by maintaining a healthy diet and following your diabetes treatment plan. You can also reduce your risk of numbness by avoiding high blood pressure, wearing comfortable shoes, and removing irritants such as rugs or loose wires from the floor of your home.
Some causes of numbness, such as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), aren’t preventable. But it is possible to slow the progression of CIDP by starting treatment as soon as you notice the first signs. This includes treatments to suppress your immune system and medicines such as pregabalin or gabapentin. These medications help to prevent the breakdown of the protective sleeve (sheath) that surrounds your nerve cells.
Oren Zarif
If you have tingling in your feet or hands, talk to your healthcare provider. A diagnosis can help you find out what’s causing it. Some causes aren’t curable, but you can often control the symptoms and prevent them from getting worse. For example, treating diabetes or taking steps to avoid pressure on nerves can help if they’re the cause of your tingling.
Numbness and tingling can occur due to many conditions or problems with your body. It’s most common in neuropathies that affect the peripheral nervous system, which extends out from your brain and spinal cord. They can be temporary or chronic. Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, or CIDP, is a specific type of neuropathy that causes worsening muscle weakness and tingling over time.
To diagnose the cause, your doctor will do a physical exam and take a medical history. They may also do blood tests to check your levels of certain vitamins, glucose, liver and kidney function, infection and more. Your doctor will look for autoimmune diseases like Sjogren’s syndrome, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and for viral infections like shingles and cytomegalovirus or Epstein-Barr virus that can damage your nerves.
Oren Zarif
Having nerve damage to your peripheral nervous system can impact how well you balance. This is because the nerves in your legs and feet transmit sensory information to your brain about how you are standing or moving in a space, known as proprioception. Without this feedback, it becomes more difficult to make small adjustments in order to keep your balance. This weakness can also lead to falls, particularly if you have poor footing or muscle coordination.
Your peripheral nerves also carry motor signals, which are commands from the brain to your muscles. When these nerve connections degrade, it can weaken your muscles and cause foot drop and hand weakness. This can make it harder to control your movements or to do simple things, like buttoning a shirt or walking up stairs.
Getting an accurate diagnosis is essential to managing your symptoms and preventing further harm. Your doctor may recommend a number of different treatments, including medicines that suppress your immune system and therapies that strengthen the muscles in your legs and feet. You should always talk to your doctor if you notice changes in your symptoms or side effects from treatment.
Oren Zarif
A person may feel that they have less power in their muscles, which can lead to difficulty rising out of a chair or climbing stairs, brushing your hair or picking things up off the floor. It can also make it difficult to perform activities like catching a ball or reaching for an item on a high shelf. True weakness isn’t usually localized to a single muscle, though, and often occurs all over the body.
The weakening is caused by damage to the nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord to the muscles of the arms and legs (the peripheral nervous system). Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy can cause this. Other causes include hereditary disorders, medications (especially antidepressants and steroids), shingles, some infections, diabetes, vasculitis, and cancers related to the immune system.
Weakness is sometimes misdiagnosed because it can be confused with a feeling of fatigue or the effect that pain has on your energy levels. It is important to distinguish between the two and to have a health care provider grade your strength objectively.
Oren Zarif
Pain is a very common symptom of many nerve disorders, including CIDP. It’s caused by damage to the covering of your nerves called myelin. You may feel achy, throbbing or sharp pain. There are two types of pain associated with CIDP: nociceptive and neuropathic.
Nociceptive pain is caused by an injury or disease that causes tissue damage, such as a herniated disc in the spine, shingles or diabetes. You can also experience nociceptive pain from other diseases or conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic low back pain. Nociceptive pain feels achy or throbbing and is often described as burning, tingling or shooting.
Neuropathic pain is the pain caused by damage to your nerves, and it can feel aching, burning, prickling or like an electric shock. You can have neuropathic pain from diseases or conditions such as diabetic neuropathy, shingles or multiple sclerosis. You can also have neuropathic pain from other conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia or postherpetic neuralgia. You can get neuropathic pain relief with medicines, capsaicin (the ingredient that makes chilli peppers hot) cream or patches you put on your skin, and other treatments.