To truly handle neuropathy, we must address a systemic or internal problem occurring within your body: insulin resistance. Insulin resistance occurs when cells in your muscles, fat, and liver don’t respond well to insulin and can’t easily take up glucose from your blood. As a result, your pancreas makes more insulin to help glucose enter your cells, and those cells, when bathed in too much insulin, resist the uptake and create insulin resistance. Professor Emeritus at Stanford University coined the term Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X, which resulted from Hyperinsulinemia (too much insulin in our blood) and Insulin Resistance (our cells’ inability to uptake and use insulin’s transportation of energy into the cell). He found that Syndrome X had, like the four points on an “X,” four symptoms: central or abdominal obesity, high blood sugar leading to diabetes, high blood pressure, and dyslipidemia (trouble with cholesterol and triglycerides). This Syndrome X, or Metabolic Syndrome, creates a reduced blood flow to extremities and other parts of the body and is, in turn, a prescription for neuropathy. Therefore we must address diet as part of successful neuropathy treatment.
External treatments are often useless as they are only half the battle. If we do not address the cause of insulin resistance, diet, then we will never get a resolution of its symptoms. Nerves can only heal if they are in the proper internal environment, primarily dictated by what we consume in our diet. Most Americans have a poor, pro-inflammatory diet that is high in sugar and low in nutrients. This promotes insulin resistance which has a cascading and detrimental effect on all our physiological processes.
The average neuropathy patient is elderly (67 years of age), obese (females with a 31 BMI or greater and males with a 33 BMI or greater), and 80% have hormonal issues. Inflammation is a by-product and producer of insulin resistance, stimulating cardiovascular disease and poor circulation. This lack of blood supply is toxic to nerves and blood vessels and causes a lower pH balance in the blood (more acidic). Neuropathy has other symptoms not commonly associated with it, such as sexual dysfunctions like erectile dysfunction and female sexual pain syndromes. A healthy internal environment is necessary to truly heal from this debilitating condition. This is why your food is indeed your medicine OR your poison.
For this reason, applying our dietary weight loss method within our clinic will decrease inflammation and create a more stable internal environment. Like any diet, it must be consistent, or it won’t work. It must become a lifestyle if a person is serious about addressing neuropathy.
Supplements are vital for the proper function of nerves, such as B Vitamins, antioxidants to decrease inflammation, and magnesium to reduce muscle spasms. Nitric oxide is another excellent way to dilate blood vessels to get more blood flow to wilting nerves so they can receive the nutrients they need.