Just my opinion, it seems you had a drug reaction from an antibiotic that resolved in about 12 weeks? I wouldn’t associate that to diabetic neuropathy.
Although you took a lot of supplements, It also may have naturally resolved. Although it is your belief and the proof is in the pudding, I find it hard to say you cured anything. I am so glad you are now feeling better. Did you come across any neuropathy trials or studies which showed some success with this therapy?
Janina
Thank you for the information. What b vitamins and other supplements did yiu take, how much and how often. I do not want to overdose myßelf but I will try anything. I am not having any pain but my hands feet stomach legs and back is numb. I have a difficult time walking and holding things in my hand. Please let me know what you did
Debra
I agree that side effects from fluoroquinolones can resolve on their own. I was affected by a strange neuropathy after receiving Cipro after gallbladder surgery. I had a strange buzzing in my left foot (imagine a bee embedded in your foot). The shock was jarring. The sensation lasted for about six months. My doctors were perplexed. I blamed fluoroquinolones but have no proof. I did find that some people have issues with fluoroquinolones and that spontaneous snapping tendons were a severe side effect. So many cases were reported that the FDA mandated the black box warning. As a runner, I can not imagine my tendons snapping! So, my health chart indicates that I should never receive this drug.
Perhaps, I am unusual. I have had anaphylactic reactions to many drugs. As a resulr, I must carefully weight out each drug and determine if the benefit out weighs the risk.
Later, I developed neuropathy again in my feet and legs. This time it was attributed to celiac disease which an cause vitamin deficiencies. I went Gluten Free (only known treatment for celiac disease) and at the same time went on a low carb high fat diet to combat insulin resistance. After four years my neuropathy has resolved. But it occurs again, if my celiac disease is activated.
Debra does not sound like a long term diabetic with uncontrolled blood sugars. Her neuropathy may not be related to diabetes at all. She should try to find the root cause and that is why I suggested getting screened for autoimmune disorders and even injuries that would cause neuropathy.
While I did have some vitamin/mineral deficiencies, I was able, with healing and an excellent diet, to resolve those deficiencies without supplementation. I highly recommend working with your doctor before adding supplements. Blood tests can help determine deficiencies.
I hope you find some relief Debra.
Hello cyclinglady
I plan on speaking to my doctor before I do anything
I appreciate your advise. I just want to get better. Can not walk in bed all day and feel so depressed. It scares me when I read that there is no cure because that would mean my life is over. I am use to being on the go and doing alot of activities with my family but I cant anymore. DO NOT WANT THIS TO BE MY LIFE. I cant even work anymore which is hard.
Debra
I am glad cyclinglady got herself better just with food. I resent that she decides to throw my suggestion out as unnecessary, as I can guarantee you will get nowhere if you just follow a conventional doctor’s advice. However, your doctor has proven himself as being better than most by taking you off that damned metformin which I am certain is the cause of your misery, but he might not have told you about that.
You will see from the following that many people are not told, but some doctors know more than they let on. I think your doctor is aware of the problems with metformin.
read this
http://www.diabeticconnect.com/diabetes-discussions/general/15824-nerve-damage-caused-by-metformin
The actual LINK was not shown but it has this title in it nerve-damage-caused-by-metformin. So put that into google and find days of reading.
This is extremely deceptive. Yes, metformin can in rare cases cause malabsorbtion of b-12 and b-12 deficiencies can cause neuropathy. But this is a condition that is easily monitored and suggesting that the hundred of millions of people who benefit from metformin should stop taking the medication is just whacked.
ps. The chances of b-12 deficiency are greater when you follow a vegetarian and/or vegan diet, but I doubt one would criticize those diets as promoting neuropathy.
Hi Janina. I am glad that you cured your neuropathy. I am suffering from this (all body) since august 2016 and I am only 20. I believe that is due to the medication than I took for an urinary infection…My doctor consider it as a possibility, but he refuses to do more than an MRI and he sends me to biofeedback if he can’t find anything there. I talked to a friend who is a doctor and she won’t prescribe me any injections and where I live (Portugal) we can’t find them easily…So, my question is: can I take the vitamins orally? I already take magnesium, vitamin D3 (10.000 ui a day), B12 (and my pain is more intense when I take b12, but I don’t have a deficiency), omega 3, soy lecithin…
@BrianBSC I definitely did not say a vegan diet causes neuropathy. And if someone on that DiabetesConnect site said anything like that it is not a reason not to put up the link to the article as they would not have published it except that they do think it is relevant.
I would love to be of help, but the dragons on this site breathing down my neck make this close to impossible.
However, this is a very good start and it must be done this way. The supplement I am going to suggest is an extremely good one, rated 5/5 by a scientific team and you can get it on Amazon.com. If you agree to never take it only with water as that would WASTE it down the drain and who wants to do that? To be properly absorbed vitamins need to be taken with food so they go into the bodily system with the digestive enzymes working. It is the case that unused vitamins end up being eliminated and that is not how to get better.
So to LunaS please get the professional grade Douglas Laboratories Ultra Preventive X tablets for which an adult dose in the USA is 8 per day and take two per each of four little meals that would be enough to get them absorbed and allow the nutrients to run around the body in the blood to feed the nerves as they want when they want. Simple, yet who thinks of it…apparently no one accept it crossed my mind and my approach does work. Go Figure. That alone can most likely get you better, but you could also add a few more, but at least try that for two weeks and see how that goes and report in here so others see the progress, as I sure hope others will follow suit. That will end up costing you about $2 a day and for the price of a daily coffee I think that is not too much to have to dish out to get better. It also will help your health in other ways. Vitamins need to be in balance, so this is the best first step and may be all you need.
But also since your case sounds like it was due to a possible antibiotic, make sure you take prebiotics after ever course of antibiotics as B6 is absorbed through the intestines with the help of friendly bacteria and killing them off is probably one main reason the antibiotics cause neuropathy and the reason why my providing them via injection which bypasses the absorption issue as they then go into the blood without needing the intestinal absorption. That might well be why I got 50% better in just two weeks with the injections.
So make sure you read up on prebiotics and establishing a friendly bacteria level in your intestines. This knowledge will help you for life.
It is highly likely the medication you took for that urinary infect was indeed a fluoroquinolone antibiotic as that is commonly used for that purpose. Are you a diabetic or not? Some have not been a diabetic but got the neuropathy for the same approach where they were given an antibiotic to kill of the urinary bacteria considered to be the problem, but ended up with another problem as neuropathy can be horrendous.
So given you are in Portugal does that make importing an order form amazon difficult? If you have any professional grade Multi, tell me what the name is and I will se what reviews there are for it. It might be just as useful. But not all drug store brands are even worth considering. My goal would be to get you better FAST.
Please also look up on the Dr Mercola website about how vitamin D needs K2 in order to be properly used. Glad you are using D3 instead of the synthetic D2 which is what vitamin D drugs are made out of and is harder to be made use of in the body.
About the B12 causing pain. If you take it with food and your blood sugar level goes up after a meal as it does for everyone even non-diabetics that would be the cause of the pain not the B12. And more at one time is not effective as it is better to take very small doses though the day. Are you using methylcobalamin or cyanocobalamin? The latter is synthetic with cyanide included and I do not suggest that is a good choice but doctors use it because they don’t know better. A few years ago my doctor told me he decided to only order the methylcobalamin in vials instead of the cyanocobalamin and he felt I would like to know as we had discussed it in 2003 in January. He has three clinics and treats myriads of people in two cities. So my influence has at least bought about some positive changes with one md rated as top GP in Toronto according to a patients ratings on www.rateMDs.xxx which means you know what as this site has a policy of eliminating any reference to a dot com site as they consider that bad practice. It is a rate the doctors site and does not sell anything, but shows which doctors do well by their patients worldwide. So that again is the system doing us harm and TuDiabetes needs to be taken to shame once again.
To be more specific, I took antibiotics for urinary infection and then I needed to take antifungals too, because the antibiotics made me get candidiasis. It took like 2 days to feel an extreme and constant pain in the vulva. My doctors prescribed me more antifungals because they though that I have candidiasis yet, although I didn’t had the symptoms…I took them and none of them worked, for about 1 month and a half. Then I decided to stop it and 2 weeks later I had this neuropathy in my whole body. At the same time, my vulva pain stoped…That was weird, for me, but it happened. I did an exam that showed that I didn’t have candidiasis, so that all medication was for nothing.
I would love to have access to injections, but here it does not suit doctors and everyone else seems to have very closed minds …
I am not diabetic. It is a bit complicated, that is a supplement that in Europe seems there is not much for sale, and where there is, it is rare to ship to Portugal. But I’ll see if I find it, so far I’ve found it on German Amazon. And no, I don’t have any Multi, I already tried to figure it out one, but the reviews were so ambiguous…I saw one by Nu U (Multivitamins), but I am not sure if it is good or not…
About b12: I am taking methylcobalamin, 1000 ug, sublingual. Sometimes with food, sometimes not.
So, in conclusion, your suggestion to me is to try to find out that supplement and what more? B12, b6?
I really appreciated your answer, thank you!!
I did try to find in the ratings book for North America but it isn’t there so it could be from another European country. So I can’t say how good it is, but will try and find the contents with further searches as I will be able to see that way. And then one has to trust that it does have in it what it says.
See here….it is synthetic and looks as bad as they come….I would say avoid it totally.
Anything that looks like they are saying take one per day for 365 days a year and it has those ingredients are showing you they think you are a regular non thinking consumer. Notice they do not say how much of everything is in it, but if one tablet a day is all one takes, that is like saying a thimble of soup is a serving……maybe for a mouse, but not a full grown adult. I can guarantee you that is a FAIL and you would give up before you saw any improvement. It is all marketing to people who do not know better. I have been studying supplements since the 1970s.
I fully understand your comment about closed minds as I have come across that a lot.
Here is the one I suggest.
Notice the label is plain as it is sold to patients of doctors and is not readily available in all vitamin stores as it is indeed a professional grade supplement. That is why my doctor has used it since before 2000 when I met him, but he even suggests a lower level one of the exact line for price conscious patients, but I do not suggest that until you are already well !!! He uses Ultra Preventive III instead of Ultra Preventive X but there is much less in it, so you get what you pay for and but the brand is excellent. It is also produced without magnesium stearate to lubricate the machinery which is another detail showing they know what they are doing, so it costs more to make.
From the above you see the 2 weeks of 8 per day should help make a noticeable difference. BUT NEVER take the 4 at a time even though the instructions might suggest that….it says “such as 4 tablets with 2 largest meals of the day.” And I TOTALLY DISAGREE……I say spread it out more for more effectiveness and you are not as large as man. This is an adult dose and my suggestion makes way more sense to spread it out.
Also read the amazom.com user reviews and see how it is recommended even by amazon as a better product.
But you could also add in some more things like more antioxidants, all with the 4 times a day approach. If I were to make too many suggestions you would not do any of them. Been there, done that with the people I have helped. And getting something and not using it also does not help. I also know people also feel so badly with neuropathy that it is a lot of trouble to do anything.
Now that you have the PDF from the manufacturer’s site, use that to compare any other product you come across. Even get people to find some but not necessarily buy them but tell you the names so you can look up the ingredients.
You could eat nuts with Omega 3 fats. You could listen to nice music and stay positive. Always stay positive.
Eating probiotics and prebiotics to help B6 be absorbed is also an important tip. So yogurt of a real kind, not the kind that has been on the supermarket shelves for weeks already and has dubious live cultures.
Just as a comparison here is something that is too little to fully work.
Now notice that years ago Richard asked about Metanx, but I forgot to answer about what I thought. I had not used it but when one looks at the ingredients it has 3 B vitamins in high doses and I would say all used are indeed good and they come in capsules so would suggest someone could divide a capsule and take two per day but half at a time. Yet that only covers 3 ingredients and costs just as much as the more complete Douglas Labs which also has the same components which are indeed the best going……see PDF below.
Metanx as example from wikipedia
• Folate =B9
• L-methylfolate (Metafolin): 3 mg =B9
• Pyridoxal 5’-phosphate: 35 mg =B6
• Methylcobalamin: 2 mg[2] =B12
This is deceptive as it looks like 4 but the first is a link to an explanation of the importance of the special form of Methylfolate which is indeed a sign of a superior supplement. See Dr Ben Lynch and all he says about it. I’ve used it for years but was not aware back in 2002 of how poor anything with folic acid is as it is synthetic and some people have a genetic problem converting it to the human form so you are better off with real greens or at least get a professional grade Multi which is aware of these things…
Now 3 mg of folate is a lot at one time, but there is no danger, but it just gets wasted down the toilet. You get more B6 in the Douglas Labs product per day and you will notice you already do take the Methyl B12 in 1 mg amounts.
I did know back then that the cyanocobalamin was the synthetic form to be avoided and the methylcobalamin is the best form of B12.
On the whole the cost of Metanx is about the same as the professional grade I suggest and yet one has 3 elements in it and the other has a mix of over 52 elements but in smaller amounts and in a way the 8 tablets can be paced over the day. You see why I am still saying the DouglasLabs is the best approach.
Now Richard157’s doctor said he did not trust someone saying a drug can cure. Well it is not a drug and it is limited. I noticed the people who do use it like it and that is indeed because of the elements being helpful. They may sell it like a drug to get the doctors to look at it, but it is a supplement in composition, but too limited for the amount it costs.
I can see that is a super supplement, it has many thing on it, very good. Is hard to find as complete as this, indeed…import vitamins from the USA has a serious risk of being retained, as they may be seen as unauthorized drugs.
If I take a good Multi, you recomend take b12, b6 individually too?
You have a suggestion of a good brand for the antioxidants, pro and prebiotics?
My doctor prescribes me Neurobion, very weak, and b12 inside it is cyano…He say all the time that vitamins can arm me, so, I can’t take many of them. Closed mind…
P.S; I just saw now and I have that product here in Portugal! I am seeing the info now, but seems equal to pdf that you sent.
So does that mean you have found you can get the Douglas Labs Ultra Preventive X in Portugal as well?
Also, down the road when you feel better, can you ask your pharmacist what exact name of antibiotic it was that you took, as I know here in Canada there are 3 of the fluoroquinolone family that are sold and in the USA there are others. but it is wise to let people know on this site which one it was so they can be prepared.
It does not mean that all people will get neuropathy, but it is not necessary to be diabetic to get neuropathy and it is false in my opinion to blame the uncontrolled diabetes on getting neuropathy as I am ready to believe that it is by far more likely to be a result of Metformin as a long while ago a young very well controlled woman on this site had an excellent HbA1c yet had neuropathy and could not understand why, but she was taking Metformin, so there you go. This note is for those on metformin to be aware they need to be taking a good supplement to provide the B vitamins the Metformin compromises, as it is wise to take B vitamins in balance.
That does not mean they can not take those antibiotics, but they must also take B vitamins at the same time. I know people have tired taking probiotics and so forth at the same time, but why let the antibiotic have more to work on at the same time and just limit it to B vitamins while taking it and then immediately take the prebiotics and probiotics as soon as the antibiotic is finished.
Yes. It is a bit expensive for me, because I am in college too, but I will give it a try, for sure!
I took amoxicillin+ clavulanic acid and a week before that, an antibiotic called Monuril (I had 2 urinary infections) , but I took a lot of antifungals after too…I have pain since I took the antifungals, but probably my organism was weak because the antibiotics…But it was everything at the same time, so…
So, Janina, can I take an extra dose of b12 and b6, while I take the multi?