Neuropathy is any kind of pain that is radiating down a nerve pathway. Most commonly it is associated with what we call peripheral neuropathies. Pain going down the arm. Pain going down the leg or wrapping around from the spine wrapping around a rib path. Anything that’s traveling along the path of a nerve is considered a neuropathy.

There are many different causes. It can be caused by a pinched nerve or a herniated disk. There are diabetic neuropathies. There are other types of disease processes that contribute to it, but the most common one that we see in our office is typically something caused by a pinched nerve. Either a misalignment, or what we call a subluxation in chiropractic, or a herniated disc pinching a nerve and then the pain travels down the nerve path, whether it be the sciatic or down the brachial pathways. It is all kind of similar.

You can help yourself avoid neuropathy by making sure that you get plenty of exercise and stretching and taking care of your spine. If you get your spine checked periodically, that can prevent the misalignments that usually cause these types of things. If you are unfortunate enough where you have an accident and you have a herniated disc and that disc is swelling up enough where it starts to pinch or elevate the nerves, a chiropractor can help you.

Diabetic neuropathies usually require a bit more medical attention, because you need to manage the symptoms of diabetes. If diabetes is left unchecked, it will affect the way the peripheral nerves work and a neuropathy will start to develop. The important message that I like to share is that you try the least invasive things first. Try the chiropractor, try the acupuncture, because those are the things that are not invasive.

The drugs and surgical options will always be there for you, but the body has an amazing ability to heal itself. If we can remove the pressure or the cause of the neuropathy, very often the neuropathy will go away, or at the very least, be very manageable. My closing statement would be, try a chiropractor first, because drugs and surgery will always be there later.