Warning Signs Of Peripheral Neuropathy

Peripheral neuropathy is a condition where an individual experiences damage to the nerves responsible for carrying messages to and from the spinal cord and brain and the rest of their body. Many factors can cause an individual to develop peripheral neuropathy, including exposure to toxins, illness, trauma, infection, diabetes, rare inherited diseases, poor nutrition, alcoholism, vitamin deficiency, chemotherapy, cancer, thyroid disease, kidney disease, Lyme disease, AIDS, shingles, autoimmune diseases, certain medications, and other hereditary factors. A peripheral neuropathy diagnosis is made with the use of medical history, physical examination, neurological examination, blood tests, CT scans, MRIs, electromyography, autonomic reflex screen, nerve biopsy, and skin biopsy. Treatment may include the use of pain reliever medications, anti-seizure medications, topical treatments, antidepressant medications, plasma exchange, intravenous immune globulin, physical therapy, surgery, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.

There are several warning signs of peripheral neuropathy. Learn about them now.

Gradual Numbness In The Extremities

An individual can experience a progressive numbness in the hands and feet when the sensory nerves of the affected extremity become damaged over time. Sensory nerves are the nerves outside the central nervous system with the responsibility of communicating changes in temperature, pain, touch, and vibration to the brain. The sensation may start as tingling or prickling feelings that come and go, which progress to complete numbness that may start to spread upward to the arms or legs. Peripheral neuropathy does not usually cause symmetrical nerve damage, so sensation in one hand may be stronger than a sensation in the other. The numbness in the extremities can also have a layered nature, where patients may feel like they have a pair of thick gloves and or socks on the extremities that impair the normal function of sensation in the upper layers of tissue.

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Increased Sensitivity To Touch

The term hyperesthesia is used to describe when an individual experiences an increase in any one of their five senses, including touch. Tactile defensiveness is an increase in sensitivity to the sense of touch specifically. Individuals affected by tactile defensiveness may experience pain when certain nerves in their body are triggered by a simple and benign touch or other stimuli. It is thought that peripheral neuropathy can cause increased sensitivity to touch due to ectopic discharges in sensory neurons and an increased level of excitability that occurs when the nerves incur damage. This increased sensitivity to touch in peripheral neuropathy patients is most often episodic, and it tends to have certain triggers. Individuals affected by this increased touch sensitivity describe it as burning, electric shock, and shooting sensations.

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Lack Of Coordination

A peripheral neuropathy patient may experience damage to the nerves that control the muscles in the feet and legs that enable them to be able to stand and walk. When these nerves become damaged, they cannot effectively transmit impulses to the muscles to tell them to contract at the right time or at all. Sensory nerves in the legs and feet that become damaged can cause an individual affected by peripheral neuropathy to be unable to keep their balance properly due to intermittent numbness and other abnormal sensations. The foot of an affected individual has the same feeling healthy individuals experience when they have a foot that has fallen asleep, and then they try to stand up and walk on it. The lack of feeling causes an inability to coordinate the sequence of muscle movements required to stand and walk properly.

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Sharp Or Throbbing Pain

An individual affected by peripheral neuropathy may experience sharp or throbbing pains in their hands, feet, arms, and legs. Many describe this type of pain as a sharp burning pain, or a deep throbbing ache that comes and goes. Some individuals with peripheral neuropathy experience pain derived from the cramping and spasm of the muscles being controlled by the damaged nerves. This pain occurs when nerve impulses command a muscle or muscle group to contract, and then the impulse that is meant to tell the muscles to relax becomes lost along the damaged nerves. This malfunction causes the patient to experience muscle cramping and spasm pain the same way a healthy individual experiences pain when they get an occasional leg cramp. A patient may experience sharp pain when damage to the sensory nerves causes the fibers to become abnormally oversensitive to non-painful stimuli. Affected individuals describe this pain as a sharp jabbing pain that can be triggered by a light touch.

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Muscle Weakness

Muscle weakness is when an individual is unable to produce a muscle movement when they make their greatest effort to do so. A muscle movement begins with stimuli that trigger the individual's brain to react. The brain determines which muscles need to be moved and then sends impulses to the nerves connected to the muscles it intends to move. The nerve impulses travel from the individual's brain to their spinal cord and then to the branched out nerves the control the target muscles. For an individual to move their muscles normally, this process of communication cannot be interfered with or interrupted in any way. Nerves in the extremities become damaged when individuals are affected by peripheral neuropathy, which keeps nerve impulses from moving along to the appropriate muscle without any interruption or interference. As a result, an affected individual may experience muscle weakness or be unable to move a muscle to the extent they are attempting to.