Disease States: Systemic/Metabolic Neuropathy

Systemic/Metabolic Neuropathies are caused from disorders that affect the entire body. Nerve tissues are highly vulnerable to damage from diseases that impair the body's ability to transform nutrients into energy, process waste products, or manufacture the substances that make up living tissue.

Examples of Systemic/Metabolic Neuropathies:

Diabetic Neuropathy: Nerve damage caused by high levels of blood sugar. When the blood sugar level is higher than normal for an extended period of time, the blood vessels and nerves start to degenerate. This degeneration is what causes the nerves to be less effective. Diabetic Neuropathy is the leading cause of peripheral neuropathy in the United States and about 60 percent of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of nervous system damage. It is a progressive disease that can involve pain, weakness, and loss of sensation. There are times where it can suddenly flare up or it may slowly progress over time. It also can interfere with the normal functioning of the digestive system and sexual organs.

  • Symptoms: Initial symptoms usually include numbness, tingling, or pain in the toes, feet, legs, hands, arms, and fingers. Over a longer period of time it can lead to muscle weakness and loss of reflexes, especially in the feet. Other symptoms and signs may include indigestion, nausea, or vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, dizziness or faintness due to a drop in blood pressure especially when rising to a standing position, problems with urination, erectile dysfunction or vaginal dryness.

    • Nutritional Neuropathy: Neuropathy can occur due to malnutrition through an unbalanced diet, alcoholism, or deficiency in vitamins such as Vitamins E, B1, B6, B12 and niacin. Vitamins are essential to healthy nerve function and when they are deficient nerves stop functioning properly and conditions such as peripheral neuropathy occur. Vitamin B12 deficiency is common in the United States especially among the elderly and can cause serious anemia, nerve damage and degeneration of the spinal cord. Early diagnosis and treatment may restore nerve damage.

    There are several causes of B12 deficiency such as, a strict vegetarian diet that lacks sources of food that carry B12, the inability of stomach acids to aid in the absorption, and a number of other diseases, drugs, and procedures that can also cause a deficiency.

    • Symptoms may include pain, numbness, and tingling in hands or feet, lack of coordination, sensory loss, and weakness.

    Alcoholic Neuropathy: Alcohol is a toxin to the body and can cause damage to the nerve tissue. Alcoholism is also linked to poor nutrition which in can be associated with nutritional neuropathy as well. People who have alcoholic neuropathy and stop drinking will usually alleviate symptoms and prevent and more nerve deterioration. If nerves are damaged from alcoholic neuropathy, it usually is permanent.

    • Symptoms may include burning and tingling in feet, pins and needles, numbness, muscle weakness, cramps, aching, muscle spasms, constipation, diarrhea, incontinence, impotence in men, and nausea/vomiting.

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