Lesser-Known Things That Impact Your Nerve Health

Burning, tingling, numbness, weakness. All of these are symptoms of peripheral neuropathy, a condition that affects neural feedback to the spinal cord and brain.

Instead of notifying you about damage or injury, your nerves may send pain signals for seemingly no reason or make you feel numbness or a buzzing sensation.

At Advantage Spinal Dynamics & Innovative Medicine in Meridian, Idaho, we can help diagnose the cause of your nerve pain and offer treatments for neuropathy.

While patients with nerve issues often have conditions in common, such as diabetes or alcoholism, lesser-known factors can also affect nerve health.

Signs of neuropathy

Your peripheral nerves are responsible for transmitting messages from other areas of the body to the brain, including sensations like temperature, touch, and damage.

If you’re experiencing pain or other sensations for seemingly no reason, you have peripheral neuropathy. You can also experience neuropathy of the motor and autonomic nerves, which control muscle movement, bladder function, digestion, and more.

Symptoms of neuropathy include:

Increased sensitivity
Muscle atrophy and weakness
Tingling sensation
Prickling or pins-and-needles sensation
Numbness
Urinary problems
Organ or glandular dysfunction

Sexual dysfunction can also be a sign of neuropathy, affecting both men and women.

Lesser-known factors that affect nerve health

Your nerve health can be compromised by any health condition, lifestyle, or workplace condition that directly or indirectly affects nerve function.

Autoimmune diseases

Certain diseases can cause nerve damage, including Guillain-Barré syndrome, lupus, Lyme disease, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBS).

Compression

Pinched nerves in the neck or spine, ruptured discs, and carpal tunnel syndrome can damage nerves through compression, causing numbness, pain, tingling, and burning feelings.

Drugs and medications

Certain drugs damage the myelin sheaths that insulate the nerves, causing nerve pain when the effects of the drugs wear off. Aggressive medications used for chemotherapy to treat cancer or medicine used to treat HIV can also cause nerve damage.

Exposure to environmental hazards

Exposure to lead, mercury, cadmium, and other heavy metals over a period of time can cause damage to your nerves.

Motor neuron disease

Illnesses that affect the brain and spinal column nerves can cause progressive nerve damage; an example is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's disease.

Nutritional deficiency

Lack of sufficient B6 and B12 vitamins can cause nerve issues, including weakness, burning sensations, or numbness.

Treating neuropathy

To treat neuropathy, your doctor must first diagnose the cause. At Advantage Spinal Dynamics, our team of chiropractors and therapists work with you to determine the source of your symptoms. We can provide the following treatments for nerve pain: