So, I’m hoping I’m just going crazy, or that I may just need inserts for my feet, but I’ve noticed a huge difference in my feet the past couple of months.
I have been a diabetic for 18 years now and I can still feel pain/pressure/sensitivity/etc in my feet, but I’ve noticed they ‘fall asleep’ quickly when I relax and put them up, that walking is hurting more, and that I almost feel like I’m gonna take a misstep/trip when walking randomly (not quite dizzy but almost like there is a disconnect between my brain and my feet for a split second).
I know this is a question for my doctor, and I plan to ask him when I see him in a couple months, but I’m curious if anyone with neuropathy can share their thoughts and if they experienced anything similar at the early stages. Whenever I go to my doctor with concerns he always shrugs me off, and I know something isn’t quite right.
@schwaBAM I have neuropathy in my feet, but before that I had plantar fasciitis. The plantar fasciitis was so painful i almost welcomed neuropathy. Now I have little if any pain, but I also have little if any feeling. I stumble, run into things, even walked around a farmers market with glass imbedded in my foot. I only recognized that my shoe felt slippery, and not the size of the glass or the pain of the glass slicing my foot up (22 stitches).
I have read that many types of neuropathy are reversible over time with good bgs. I almost welcome the pain of plantar fasciitis to the neuropathy.
Wow, OUCH! Have neuropathy bil. Am very familiar. Sometime I “overstep”-for lack of a better word–& nearly fall because of it.
Former Endo (he retired) Rx’d Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) & Benfotiamine (simplky vitamin B1 caps) for me. Sometimes I forget to take my daily vitamins & supplements; so, unsure just how much these DO or DON’T help.
Hope the foot is healing nicely!
Yep, also have neuropathy bilaterally. However, have been Tl for 54 years & didn’t…
become AWARE of the numbness till about 30 years after dx. Was a nurse & ALWAYS did a great amount of walking–'round the hospital/seeing patients, etc. That probably kept my circulation going good. Doc Rx’d Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) & Benfotiamine (vitamin B1 caps) for me to help.
Seem to feel/do better as long as I REMEMBER to take all my vitamins/supplements.
Also, I DO have foot drop, & wear AFO’s (Ankle Foot Orthotic)on both feet. Otherwise, wouldn’t have been able to work at the hospital as long as I did.
despite having a great A1c for a number of years, neuropathy only is kept at bay for me by taking Lyrica 3x a day. If I miss my afternoon pill by more than about 2-3 hours, I begin feeling the pains break through, which prompts me to get myself over to my pill box and take my Lyrica.
When I got the pins & needles along with the volcanic lava heat in my feet, I used ice to mitigate the pain. Worked reasonably well, and at the time it fit into my limited financial means. Now… I would most likely try something like Lyrica.
When benfotiamine, which had been developed in Japan and had then come into use in Germany, was introduced in the U.S. in the early 2000s there was great hope that this simple supplement would stop diabetic complications. One German researcher claimed that 600 mg/day would prevent the further development of all diabetic complications, so diabetics would only have to worry about avoiding hyperosmolar coma from excess blood sugar or ketoacidosis from inadequate insulin dosing but would no longer have to manage blood sugar levels closely. Unfortunately, this didn’t turn out to be the case.
However, I do notice that as long as I take enough benfotiamine I have no neuropathic pain, and if the pain suddenly reappears, increasing the benfotiamine dose completely stops it again. I would much rather take a supplement like benfotiamine, which just enables a more intense concentration of vitamin B1 along the nerves than would otherwise be possible, than simply to mask the symptoms of uncorrected diabetic neuropathy, which is what conventional medicine and Big Pharma want you to do by suppressing nature’s warning that something’s wrong with your feet by anesthetizing them.
Thanks for the replies! Good information. Seydlitz, I’m curious as well. What dosage do you take typically? Is a once a day thing or multiple through the day?
I usually take 200 mg. of benfotiamine with breakfast and another 200 mg. with dinner, though I raise it to 300 mg. twice a day when I’m starting to get neuropathic pain, which then disappears. For many years I used to import it from Germany since it did not trust the American formulations, but now I just order it from the U.S. or buy it locally. I did some translation work of the original German research for the American company that wanted to make a case to the FDA to permit benfotiamine to be sold in the U.S., but at the end all they did was thank but not pay me!
Yes, i think it is neuropathy. Ask to get a neurological feet nerve test. The test tests how well your nerves in your feet respond to stimulus. I had it for years. Did not take med for it. Will check out the supplements. Feel the pains when sugar is elevated
and not so much when sugar is not so high. I thought the stumbling was due to early stages of MS. I do have tingling in hands and feet
I only wear one type of shoes Asics Gel Foundation.
Fixes plantar fasciltis and helps me from falling.
Take a look at M1 muscaniric receptor antagonist impacts on peripheral neuropathies, including DPN – on animals and with respect to clinical trials. Very compelling stuff on nerve regeneration.
I have been taking alpha lipoic acid every day for many years and have little to no neuropathy. I was told that this supplement protects the sheath that surrounds the nerves. Seems to work for me.
I have also had good results with alpha lipoic acid, though it is much easier to protect nerves which are still intact than to revive nerves which are already nearly destroyed from many decades of diabetes.
Well I am new to this forum. I have been diabetic for over 50 years. I have neuropathy in my feet, started 3 years after I was diagnosed. The leg and foot cramps were horrible. We didn’t have anything like there is now. My job kept me on my feet in heels for 8 hrs a day. I didn’t have any problems until 1986 when I started a new job. 3 years later I lost toes 3 & 4. 5 years later I lost toe 5, all on the right foot. Through these years we were moving every 2 years due to my husbands work. We have settled in TN and I’m still walking and have found the best Podiatrist in the world. I don’t take supplements, I have a CGM and a tubeless insulin pump that have saved my life. Check your feet every time you sit down if you have just noticed the signs of neuropathy. It could save them. Thanks for letting me share.
Oh yes they are signs of neuropathy. Sometimes my toes would even turn up, yes I said up. I would have to get out of bed and stomp to get everything back to normal. As things progressed my legs would cramp. OUCH! I have great circulation in my feet and my legs, crazy but God has blessed me. I don’t mind the neuropathy like others do. I wear shoes all the time. No sandals or heels. Just flat shoes or sneakers. Since the neuropathy I only wear SAS shoes. Plus I have an extra wide foot. It helps to keep your feet elevated when you sleep to keep the blood flowing. Hope this helps.
Neuromodulation is an option for (diabetic) peripheral neuropathy when all else fails. Also called a spinal cord stimulator it essentially blocks the nerve signals from the brain. Our practice has had great results but not a lot of medical practicioners are up to speed on this technology.
