From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
My latest book, Exposing Sugar Toxicity is now available on Amazon Kindle (for $0.99) and in it, you’ll learn more about sugar and its effects on the human body than your doctor knows… or anyone knows for that matter. In this blog, I’m going to talk about peripheral neuropathy because I may have a simple solution to this complex, painful nerve condition that has no known cure in typical medicine.
I want you to see what Dr. Google has to say first because a diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy is lifelong, painful and scary for people and typical online searches do not produce much hope for people beyond increasingly heavy medications. Then, I’m going to provide you with that hope by sharing what I know to be true about peripheral neuropathy and sugar.
What Dr. Google or an MD might say about peripheral neuropathy
Peripheral neuropathy is the term used to describe nerve damage that occurs outside the brain and spine. Signals from the brain to other parts of the body are disrupted resulting in a number of difficult to diagnose symptoms. Apparently, symptoms often begin in the feet and move upwards. In the sensory nerves, it commonly causes feeling of tingling, pain, “pins and needles”, weakness and numbness in the feet and hands.
NOTE: This is different from restless leg syndrome, which is often related to magnesium deficiency.
If the motor nerves are affected, it can cause muscle weakness and cramps and a loss of coordination. The autotomic system can also be affected resulting in problems with vision, digestion, bladder control, sweating, and dizziness.
It’s indicated that people with existing conditions and situations may be more prone to peripheral neuropathy:
- Diabetes
- Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune diseases
- Viral or bacterial infections
- Chemotherapy
- Deficiency in B vitamins and vitamin E
- Inherited
Medical Tests
If, after a physical exam and taking your health and family history, your doctor suspects peripheral neuropathy you may be sent for blood tests to determine blood glucose levels, thyroid function, and sometimes vitamin B12 levels. They may also test for antibodies associated with autoimmune diseases. Your spinal fluid may be tested to identify inflammation or infection.
You may also be sent for neurological testing to measure how you sense pain, temperature, touch and vibration. Your coordination and balance as well as muscle strength will be tested.
You may also be asked to undergo tests to measure nerve damage. The nerve conduction test involves electrodes on the skin, which measure electrical signals to the serves. Another test, the electromyography involves the insertion of a needle electrode to record electrical activity in the muscles.
This gives you a sense of the extensive testing that you might be asked to undergo. There are more tests, scans and biopsies that you can research yourself if you’re interested.
Or, before you elect to undergo these invasive tests for peripheral neuropathy, you can remove all sugar from your kitchen and pantry (and your diet) and see how you feel after a week or so. I’ve had very few people tell me they’d rather have needles stuck in their nerves than stop eating sugar.
Prescription Drugs
You don’t have symptoms associated with peripheral neuropathy because you’re deficient in some drug. I won’t go into depth about the drugs being prescribed but here’s a snapshot from Google AI with drugs including anticonvulsants like gabapentin (neurontin) and pregabalin, antidepressants like duloxetine and amitriptyline, and topical treatments like lidocaine patches or capsaicin cream. Opioids may be used for severe pain.
Remember these prescriptions are likely to be “required” for a lifetime.
Under the title of “other options”, natural treatments which have limited evidence to support their effectiveness include Alpha-lipoic acid, acetyl-l-carnitine, and evening primrose oil. I was surprised to see natural options listed, but of course it’s diluted with the term “limited evidence”. I’m curious about the evidence that a drug for epilepsy is useful for people with peripheral neuropathy. I’m sure it was trial and error for the drug companies.
What I say about peripheral neuropathy
I’ve read most of what other authors have had to say about sugar but only one profiled peripheral neuropathy and because it makes such great sense, I wrote about Sugar Crush in my book. I learned from the brilliant peripheral nerve surgeon, Dr. Richard Jacoby, that sugar is constantly crushing our nerves. The full title of the book is Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage, and Reclaim Good Health.
Sugar inflames, irritates, and damages the peripheral nerves.
Here’s a snippet from my book that focuses on Dr. Jacoby’s analyses of the nerve damage and scarring that occurs from sugar:
- Too much sugar triggers inflammation in your blood vessels and causes the Maillard reaction, or glycation: the slow sugar-cooking of proteins in your body, causing the formation of AGEs. Among other things, this makes the endothelium rough and sticky, rather than smooth – it becomes more like Velcro than Teflon.
- When sugar is processed into sorbitol, it enters your nerves through the polyol pathway and gets stuck there. The sorbitol causes your nerves to absorb water and swell. When there’s no room for them to expand further, the nerve gets compressed against the surrounding bone and tissue. The pressure causes pain and numbness. In addition, the swollen nerve gets less oxygen and nutrients as it gradually stops conducting effectively.
- The nitric oxide pathway is blocked by high levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) (which is a sugar regulator). This causes the blood vessels to constrict, which reduces blood flow to the nerve – and reduced blood flow means that the tiny blood vessels bringing nutrients and oxygen to your nerves constrict and then clog up. A relatively minor amount of constriction can lead to a disproportionately large impact on flow. According to Poiseuille’s law, a 19 percent reduction in the radius of the vessel will reduce blood flow by 50 percent. Think of the implications. Less than 20 percent constriction results in blood flow being cut in half. When nutrient-rich and oxygen-rich blood can’t get to your nerves, they suffocate and black out, slowly and painfully.
I know this is a lot of science but that’s why I’ve included it in this blog (and in my book) because it’s important for you to see that science supports the idea that sugar is dangerous.
Healthy options for peripheral neuropathy
Step one is stop eating sugar, and limit carbs. Dr. Jacoby recommends the Keto diet, but I suggest my Sugar-Free Diet instead of the Keto Diet. In that plan, I recommend that people with yeast overgrowth only eat 2 pieces of fruit a day and that everyone else take no more than 4 pieces a day. A Sugar-Free Diet has all the benefits of a Keto Diet while reducing yeast overgrowth. I also add picometer minerals and natural and whole food vitamin co-factors to get the building block nutrients for your body.
To get the ball rolling, be sure and call our wonderful Customer Experience Team to help build a healthy protocol that you can depend on. That protocol will often include our picometer magnesium, multiple mineral combination, methylated, food-based Bs, and vitamin C.
More Sugar Blogs to Come! But in the meantime, be sure to pick up your $0.99 Kindle copy of Exposing Sugar Toxicity on Amazon.
Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future
