The pain associated with neuropathy often prompts a visit to a health care provider for relief. Sometimes medications help with symptoms, but that doesn’t mean the problem has been resolved. When neuropathy continues or worsens, even with no symptoms at all, it puts people at risk for serious complications.
Neuropathy may involve a lack of sensation in the extremities, including the toes, feet and hands. If pain isn’t alerting you to the problem, there may be no reason to seek care for the condition. Unfortunately, this opens up the possibility of undetected injuries, especially to the toes and feet. It is easy for small injuries to go unnoticed when the toes and feet lack sensation. Left unmanaged, small cuts or sores like calluses or blisters may become infected.
When diabetes is the cause of neuropathy, blood flow to the extremities may be reduced, which minimizes the body’s ability to heal from an injury or infection.
Diabetes also reduces blood flow to the nerves and to the extremities. This contributes to neuropathy and infection, and also affects the body’s ability to heal from injuries that occur. The result may be a complication that unfortunately is very common among those with diabetes: foot disease. Eventually, the inability to recover from foot disease can result in extremity amputation.
Amputations are a serious complication that is associated with neuropathy, especially diabetic neuropathy. Lower-extremity amputations are also highly preventable with the right care. Your health care provider can likely help with regular exams. For care that goes beyond attempting to minimize risks associated with neuropathy, work with a functional neurologist. A practitioner who is trained in functional medicine will get to the root cause of your neuropathy and develop a customized plan of care that can help you look and feel your best long term.