Why Should You Seek Neuropathy Treatment?

Neuropathy is nerve damage or compression somewhere in your body. If you have nerve damage, you will notice symptoms such as numbness, tingling, pain, burning, swelling and more. If you have nerve compression, you will have similar symptoms as well as muscle atrophy and loss of fine movement or control. Some forms of neuropathy are treatable, whereas others can only have some of the symptoms relieved. Not seeing a medical professional can lead to even more problems than neuropathy. You risk permanent pain and worsening symptoms without treatment. You may even end up with numbness that can’t be eliminated, scarring, nerve swelling and more. Don’t wait to receive help for your symptoms. Find out why seeking neuropathy treatment is so important and how therapy can benefit you!

Known Sudden Neuropathy

As we mentioned, neuropathy is an umbrella term that means “nerve damage or defect” in our patients. There are millions of people that struggle with neuropathy on a daily basis. Some of those symptoms include numbness, chronic pain, numbness and tingling. These are the most common symptoms in patients, however, many patients also struggle with centralized pain in one area (such as a foot or ankle). Neuropathy can cause frequent headaches and migraines if your damaged nerve is in your neck or back. It can also cause stiff neck muscles and limited range-of-motion.

People who get a sudden injury may experience neuropathy symptoms. If you have torn a muscle or damaged a limb in an accident, you will have many symptoms that may or may not stem from neuropathy. Only time will tell if numbness, tingling, chronic pain and more are from a damaged nerve that has not healed. After an injury, many people experience swelling and inflammation in an area of their body. These two symptoms alone can cause neuropathy because the fluid in your body is pressing down on a nerve, compressing it. If you have been injured and experience neuropathy symptoms in the area of the injury, it’s fairly easy to determine what is causing the problem and where it is located.

Unknown Injuries

However, there are people that can injure a nerve without knowing they have, depending on their symptoms. Many people experience chronic pain if they suffer from neuropathy. Every patient is different, and one patient may have 10 symptoms, while another will notice that they suddenly have lost feeling in their foot. A common injury in runners is a collapsed arch or metatarsalgia. These and other injuries can cause a patient to lose feeling in part of their foot or in their toes. The numbness that this causes can go on for weeks and months without a patient knowing why.

Some runners will have a nerve injury that only produces symptoms when they are running. For example, a runner that has metatarsalgia—or that has damaged a metatarsal in their foot—will have symptoms. However, they may only have symptoms when they are actually running or if they are wearing shoes without support. Other times, there won’t be numbness in that foot. In cases such as these, a simple orthotic or proper shoes can fix the neuropathy symptoms. However, only a foot doctor can diagnose the cause of the symptoms and why neuropathy is happening in the first place. For unknown injuries, we recommend that you definitely seek neuropathy treatment through a medical professional to stop your symptoms. Unknown injuries that are causing you symptoms can worsen without proper neuropathy treatment. You could even end up damaging other nerves in your body without seeking medical help.

Long-Term Neuropathy

There are many people that will injure themselves and only know it because of their neuropathy symptoms. If you fix the initial problem, your neuropathy can go away in many cases. However, there are patients that have long-term neuropathy from chronic conditions. Alcoholism—especially if it has gone on for many years—can cause long-term neuropathy that won’t go away. This is because substance use damages nerves. Chronic conditions such as HIV, hypothyroidism, Lyme disease, AIDS, diabetes and more also cause long-term neuropathy. If you have a curable condition, you can likely cure your neuropathy with proper neuropathy treatment through a medical professional. However, treatment may take years.

No matter how long treatment takes to take effect, it is still worth it to seek neuropathy treatment for your symptoms. Even if you have been diagnosed with neuropathy that likely won’t ever go away, you can significantly ease your symptoms with effective neuropathy treatments. Countless patients use therapies to help their symptoms and see reduced problems that allow them to enjoy their lives more fully. If you have chronic conditions, ask about neuropathy treatment to help your condition be easier.

Does Treatment Help Idiopathic Neuropathy?

About 30% of neuropathy cases are idiopathic, which means that they have no discernible cause. Finding effective treatments that completely rid a person of their neuropathy symptoms is hard if your case is idiopathic. Some patients will have symptoms come and go, whereas others will have nerve damage for no apparent reason that treatments simply can’t help. Physicians don’t know why this happens, but it steadily happens to that 30% of people. If you have idiopathic neuropathy, you can still find relief for symptoms (such as pain, swelling, inflammation, headaches, etc.) through physical therapy treatments. Just as idiopathic neuropathy might affect you for no apparent reason, a neuropathy treatment might soothe your symptoms for no apparent reason as well.

The bottom line: you should always seek some form of treatment if you have an injury or ailment. Letting injuries continue without medical supervision or help is just asking for more health problems in the future. Even if your neuropathy symptoms don’t go away with treatment, you can at least know that you are keeping your health monitored.