Understanding Peripheral Neuropathy

Your nervous system is a complex assembly of nerves running throughout your body, carrying messages to and from your brain. Unfortunately, there are many things that can go wrong and disrupt your body’s communication system.

To better understand peripheral neuropathy (also known as peripheral nerve dysfunction), consider how your nervous system is divided into two distinct parts. The first is your central nervous system, which includes your brain and spinal cord. They work together to process information and control everything that your body does.

But your central nervous system needs help to make the rest of your body function and do what you want it to. That’s where your peripheral nervous system comes in. This is the vast network of nerves that spread throughout your body, including your toes, fingers, shoulders, stomach, kidneys and skin.

Peripheral neuropathy refers to any condition that affects that network of nerves.

Symptoms of Peripheral Neuropathy

Because of the wide range of nerves that can be affected, the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy can vary significantly from person to person, based on which nerve or group of nerves has been affected. The dysfunction can be broken into three groups:

Motor Symptoms

These are the nerves that carry commands from your brain to your muscles. You use these nerves when you go jogging, reach for a cup of coffee or pick up a child. Dysfunction symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness: The weakness, which can be severe enough to cause paralysis, can make it challenging to move your arms, legs and other body parts.
• Muscle atrophy: Damaged nerve connections can lead to muscle shrinkage. This is particularly common in the lower legs, feet and hands.
• Difficulty controlling muscles: When the nerve connection between your brain and a muscle is lost, it can lead to cramps and twitchy muscles.

Sensory Symptoms

This affects the group of nerves responsible for helping you gather information about the world around you. You use these nerves when you pick up something and it feels hot, when you feel a chill on a cold morning walk or when you run your fingers through your pet’s hair. Dysfunction symptoms include:

• Numbness: You may not be able to feel texture, sensations or variations in temperature in the affected area.
• Tingling: You may feel like pins and needles are dancing across the surface of your skin.
• Pain: Nerve damage can alter the way you experience pain, which may happen more easily, be more intense and even have no obvious cause.
• Clumsiness: Damage to the nerves that help your brain control your hands and feet can make it hard to stay balanced or use fine motor skills.

Autonomic Symptoms

You also have nerves that manage important functions without you needing to think about them. This includes digestion, sweating, blood pressure and heart rate, among others. Dysfunction symptoms include:

• Changes in blood pressure
• Abnormal sweating (too little or too much)
• Bowel or bladder problems
• Sexual dysfunction
• Skin swelling or discoloration
• Blurry vision

What Causes Peripheral Neuropathy

The most common cause of peripheral neuropathy is unmanaged type 2 diabetes. Your nerves can be come damaged when blood sugar levels remain high for too long. That leads to one of the more common diabetes symptoms: lost feeling in the feet or lower legs.

But peripheral nerves can be damaged in many other ways, including alcohol abuse, vitamin deficiencies, autoimmune conditions (including rheumatoid arthritis), malignant or benign tumors, infections, genetic disorders, trauma, surgery and vascular disorders.

When Is It Time To Seek Help?

Considering the many forms that can be taken by peripheral neuropathy, it is difficult to point to a particular symptom as a trigger for seeking help. But if you have been dealing with a particular pain or discomfort for several weeks, with no sign of relief, you should talk with a doctor. Your primary care physician can do the initial assessment and make recommendations on next steps.

If you are diagnosed with neuropathy, treatment often starts with lifestyle changes, physical therapy and medications. If those options don’t provide enough relief, you may need to work with a pain specialist, who can offer therapies and treatments targeting the damaged nerves.