Anyone know about peripheral neuropathy?

[timsmolens]

My mother has peripheral neuropathy. Her feet feel like they are on fire if she is not on pain meds. I am in the process of converting her from a SAD diet to a raw food vegan. I am trying to bring about healing her through many different things like food, meditation, superfoods, supplements, and lifestyle changes. Does anyone know any specific foods or supplements that help or aggravate this condition.

Right know I am giving her green smoothies with (chlorella, spirulina, bee pollen, E3 live, and B12), big salads, green juices. She does however have a sweet tooth and often has organic snacks that have some sugar added.

If anyone has any ideas or experience with PN please feel free to share.

thanks,
Tim

[DebB]

Hi Tim ~ I order a couple products from this company, one of them is my organic cold pressed Evening Primrose Oil. This caught my eye as my best friend is diabetic and suffers from neuropathy. You may like to read what it says about it here. (http://www.bio-alternatives.net/EPO.htm)

[Marine Mom]

My first question is why does she have the peripheral neuropathy? Is she diabetic? If so, by going raw and getting her blood glucose levels within normal limits this will definitely decrease if not completely eliminate the neuropathy. Or does she have neuropathy due to low back problems? Dropping weight can help that. Some people have what is called idiopathic peripheral neuropathy which basically is neuropathy of unknown cause and generally seen in people over 60 years old.

I have neuropathy in my feet due to a bad spinal cord injury I had in 2005. When I started changing my diet I mainly wanted off of the pain pills and the neurontin (for neuropathy). Since going raw a month ago I am off of the pain pills and neurontin. My feet no longer feel like they are being held against fire. I will say I am only about 10 pounds overweight and as I have taken weight off my back feels better as do my feet.

So, not knowing her weight or the reason for the neuropathy it is hard to say, but I can see that going raw should decrease the symptoms if not totally eliminate them. You didn't say what she is taking for the neuropathy but Lyrica is one powerful drug and can be habit forming. I took it once and called it the Lyrica coma. Other drugs are Mirapex and of course, neurontin (gabapentin). Many of my patients are reluctant to give up their neuropathy medications.

Kris

[streetsurfer]

Celiac disease/gluten intolerance can cause peripheral neuropathy.

[DeniseM]

Over the years I've heard many success stories about neurological disorders reversing themselves on raw.

If I were in your shoes, I would focus on simply getting her on a diet of fresh, whole, raw foods and perhaps green juices, rather than loading her up with supplements. The body is amazingly self-healing once you remove the things that stop it from regenerating (processed and refined foods, especially) and many times, simplifying the diet is enough to let the body fix what's wrong. Foods provide the fuel for healing, but the body is ultimately what does all the work.

Omega-3 fats are essential for nerve function. You can get this in abundance from flaxseeds and flaxseed oil and walnuts, but also from leafy greens. Purslane is particularly high.

The one thing I WOULD supplement with is B12 -- in fact, she may be B12-deficient even if she's eating animal products, if she has any issues with digestion and absorption. Lack of B12 can cause wonky nerve issues in the hands and feet especially.

Other nerve-friendly nutrients are abundant on raw, like folate and B6. Get any highly salty foods, white sugar and white flour, and artificial ingredients out of her diet ASAP even if she doesn't go raw right away... then load her up with fruits and veggies.

Hope things improve for her :)

[timsmolens]

Wow! Thanks so much everyone for the suggestions. We are 5 days into a non fruit green juice fast. The fast has allowed her to reduce the pain meds by about 25% and improving. I think she wants to break the fast tomorrow because she feels too weak... So I think I am going to give her only veggies and a little low glycemic fruit.

[timsmolens]

Marine Mom,

She doesn't have diabetic neuropathy but she has major lower back problems.

[Azaria]

She doesn't have diabetic neuropathy but she has major lower back problems.
So it would make the most sense in addition to what you are already doing to explore the skeleton / spine and nerve compression connection...have you looked into chiropractic / osteopathic treatments?

[stellaJewels]

I'd also recommend very gentle rebounding. you can even get one of the rebounders that has a bar across the top to hold onto for extra stability. I have extreme low back and neck problems with neuropathy issues and rebounding really helps. Gentle yoga stretching helps a ton too

Good Luck! And you're a really good daughter for taking care of your mom :D

[DebB]

I'm so glad to read all these replies, how interesting.

My SIL has neuropathy resulting from a horrible auto crash. She does have chiro & osteo treatments, spinal decompression (I'm probably not using the correct terms) - where she's sort of strapped on a table and stretched (?) - she's also had a second round of some type of spinal injections that offered no relief this time around (they did the first time, they're some type of block..)

She's wanting to get off her pain meds onto something more natural.

Can anyone offer advice for her? Thanking you in advance. I'm not trying to threadjack timsmolens post - but I thought this would be a good place to ask. *Ü*

[timsmolens]

No Problem at all Deb! This place is here for all of us.

[stellaJewels]

my issues are from many car accidents too. (none my fault b4 u call me a bad driver!! ;))

First advice - STOP the injections. I did several rounds of them, both the regular cortisone type and the nerve root block type. They gave me more swelling and pain, NO relief and left me with a lot of scar tissue. (as an aside, although I'm sure this was only an issue for me as I unknowingly had progressing Addison's Disease, it's also injecting steroids, which can mess up natural hormone levels)

Chiropractic (this is just my opinion) doesn't help. It too violently jerked my bones into alignment and left the muscles even more in spasm. Deep tissue massage, yoga stretching, acupuncture, and STIM helps way more, as it focuses on relaxing the muscles around the injury.

A really good book on pain relief is Pete Egoscue's Pain Free. He's the guy who helped golfer Jack Nicklaus with his back pain. Good easy stuff in there!

I'm not totally pain free yet and I do still have to take some pain meds (mainly b/c of the Addison's Disease, my body can't handle the stress from the pain with no adrenal function), but I'm miles away from where I was when I started this Raw lifestyle! Good luck to both of you and I hope I can be at least a little bit helpful

[DebB]

Thank you so much stellajewels ~ I will pass along this information to my sister-in-law, I know she'll appreciate it.

Have you had good results with any natural supplements, teas, tinctures -- that sort of thing? *Ü*

[stellaJewels]

I'm trying to overcome a LOOOOOOOT of different issues, and I recently got really discouraged and felt like I needed help, so I quit trying to do it all on my own and went back to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Man, who has me making crazy weird teas and has me off everything else...

So I can only say with certainty that a few things have helped tremendously... Coconut in any way shape or form (have her read The Coconut Oil Miracle and The New Arthritis Cure both by Bruce Fife) , Ginger to help with inflammation and circulation, short Green Juice Fasts (I'm sure you already know that Aleesha's the reigning Fasting Queen!), and trying to determine and eliminate allergens (which is the hardest thing by far). Also, it may seem unrelated, but I feel it's helped a lot, a good probiotic; I like Dr Ohhira's best (it's dairy free and vegan) and Garden of Life second.

Hopefully that will help her some! Good Luck! :)

[DebB]

Wow - that's a lot of great information! I appreciate you taking the time to type it all up and sharing it. I'll definitely pass it all along - she's really hoping to lessen her doseage(s) of Rx pain meds, etc. Thank you stellajewels. *Ü*

[stellaJewels]

no problem, glad to help! Make sure you come back and post her results and let me know if you find out anything else I could try in the future. :)

[DebB]

You bet stellajewels, I sent her the info! *Ü*