The Best Treatment Options for Neuropathy

Neuropathy is a common condition — around 20 million Americans live with pain and other symptoms caused by nerve damage. Depending on the type of nerve affected, you can experience symptoms, including:

• Increased sensitivity to touch or pain
• Burning, tingling, numbness, or stabbing pain, especially in the hands, arms, legs, or feet
• Muscle weakness, lost coordination, or paralysis
• Intolerance to heat 
• Sweating too much or too little 
• Loss of bladder or bowel control 
• Changes in blood pressure, leading to lightheadedness
• Digestive issues

Neuropathy symptoms range in severity and can become more intense when your condition is unmanaged. 

At Foothill Pain Management in Glendale and Boyle Hills, Los Angeles, California, Christopher J. Charbonnet, MD, diagnoses neuropathy and offers personalized treatment programs to relieve your symptoms and restore your quality of life. As a pain management specialist, this is what Dr. Charbonnet wants you to know about neuropathy and your treatment options. 

Best treatment options for neuropathy

Dr. Charbonnet provides a personalized approach to managing neuropathy. After evaluating your condition, he tailors your treatment program to relieve your symptoms and manage your condition. Parts of this approach may include eating a healthy diet high in B vitamins, exercising regularly, and avoiding things that could lead to nerve damage. We may also suggest any of the following:

Lifestyle adjustments

You can make small changes to your daily habits that go a long way toward relieving your neuropathy symptoms. For example, choosing healthy, nutritionally dense food is good for your overall health and nerve function. You might also benefit from staying active and finding new ways to manage stress and negative feelings. 

Medications

Depending on your condition, we might prescribe medications such as pain relievers, anti-seizure drugs, or antidepressants to manage your symptoms. In some cases, topical creams or lidocaine patches can reduce your pain. We also offer nerve blocks, trigger point injections, and epidural catheters. 

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)

TENS treatment uses a mild electrical current to stimulate your nerve fibers. This noninvasive treatment interrupts the pain signals traveling to your brain. We offer in-office TENS treatment, and you can purchase a device for at-home use. 

Regenerative medicine treatments

Regenerative medicine, such as platelet-rich plasma therapy, stimulates your body’s ability to create new cells and repair itself. We might recommend regenerative medicine to encourage your body to repair your damaged nerve cells. 

Physical therapy

Physical therapy can help you improve your balance and strength. Enhancing your muscle strength and balance reduces your risk of falling and can relieve neuropathic pain. 

Spinal cord stimulation

Spinal cord stimulation is an innovative treatment that uses a mild electrical current to stop pain signals from traveling through your spinal cord to your brain. It involves implanting an electrode wire into your spine and connecting it to a small generator that Dr. Charbonnet surgically places under the skin of your lower back. 

Surgery

In severe cases, when other treatments haven’t relieved your pain or if you have neuropathy symptoms because of pressure on a nerve, we may also recommend surgery to release the pressure on a nerve or repair a damaged nerve. 

Managing the root cause of neuropathy

It’s also critical to address the condition causing your nerve damage. For example, if you have diabetes, your disease continues to damage your nerves if you don’t get your condition under control. 

To learn more about living with neuropathy and managing your symptoms, request a consultation online or over the phone with Foothill Pain Management today.