#151 - Neuropathy Explained

Numb toes, burning feet, random tingling, or unexplained weakness can feel easy to brush off until it starts messing with sleep, workouts, and daily life. We want to pull neuropathy out of the “medical mystery” category and make it practical: what it is, why it happens, and what you can do next.

We start with a clear definition of peripheral neuropathy as damage or dysfunction in the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. When those nerves misfire or stop carrying signals well, the result can be numbness, pins and needles, burning pain, or weakness. We also tackle a question we hear all the time: why does neuropathy often begin in the feet? The answer comes down to distance, because those nerve signals have the longest trip and the most chances to break down along the way.

From there, we zoom out to causes. Diabetic neuropathy is common because chronically elevated blood sugar can damage nerves over time, but it’s not the whole story. We talk through other contributors like vitamin deficiencies, autoimmune issues, chemotherapy, alcohol, infections, injuries, and medications such as metformin, plus what it means when you can’t find a single obvious cause.

We also dig into nutrition for nerve health, focusing on the nutrients most often discussed for nerve support: vitamin B12 in active forms (methylcobalamin, adenosylcobalamin, or hydroxocobalamin), smart dosing of vitamin B6, active folate (methylfolate or folinic acid), alpha lipoic acid (ALA), and CoQ10. We close with a simple action plan: don’t ignore symptoms, work with your healthcare provider, and tighten up the fundamentals like diet, exercise, sleep, and alcohol intake. Subscribe, share this with someone dealing with nerve pain, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

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Transcript

What Neuropathy Feels Like

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Today on the Frontline Health Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Diabetes is certainly one of the most common causes of neuropathy because you get that chronically elevated blood sugar and it damages your nerves over time. But it's not the only cause. You could have vitamin deficiencies, there could be some autoimmune health issues, chemotherapy, alcohol, certain medications like metformin. And in some people, unfortunately, we just never really know or can identify a clear cause as to why they may be having numbness or tingling in their feet.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Welcome back to the Frontline Health Podcast, where we share news, tips, and insights to help you take ownership of your health. I'm your host, Evan Patrick, joined by Troy Duell, founder and CEO of Centurion Health. And today we're diving into a topic that affects millions of people, yet I think it's often misunderstood, and that is neuropathy. If you've ever experienced numbness, tingling, burning pain, or weakness in your hands or feet, you've probably heard that term before. But what exactly is neuropathy? Why does it happen? Is it always related to diabetes? And what role can nutrition play in supporting healthy nerves? All questions we're going to answer today.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Yeah, and I think it's a great topic because there are so many people who may have some symptoms of neuropathy or at least know somebody who does, but they don't really understand what's happening. So I hope, I hope that by the end of this podcast, we'll able to educate a few people, give some insights to a few things, and hopefully allow them to make some other decisions to take better ownership of their own health.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Yeah, well, to get things started, let's start with the basics, define our terms. Uh neuropathy, it's really one of those medical words that people might hear, especially on you know the drug commercials that we're flooded with on TV nowadays. But if I were to ask 10 people what neuropathy actually is, I'm not sure many people could really explain what's going on. So what is neuropathy?

What Neuropathy Actually Is

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Yeah, I mean, ultimately neuropathy is just a damage or disease of the nerves themselves. So usually it refers to those nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord. So the peripheral nerves, if you will. And when these nerves get damaged, they often misfire or stop working properly. They cause symptoms that most people have would be like numbness, tingling, a burning pain, or some kind of weakness in those areas like the hands or the feet. Um and probably helps to understand a little bit of what those nerves actually do. So your nervous system is essentially about communicating. So it's a communication network. Every second of every day, our brain is sending messages out to our muscles, our organs, our skin, and to any parts of our body, or yeah, to any part of our body. And then our body and those parts are sending information right back. And uh, you don't really think about a lot of the things we're doing. We don't tell our heart to beat. We don't tell a lot of times our hand or foot to move, but it does, and that's all the nerves coming in and doing those things. But when those nerves get damaged or they get unhealthy, then those messages don't travel anymore. And the signal becomes weaker, it gets delayed or it gets blocked altogether. And then it starts uh sometimes sending signals that aren't even supposed to be there. And you have a lot of issues that can go on once you have some of this neuropathy going on, like that those symptoms we talked about earlier, the burning pain, the tingling, the weakness, and the numbness uh that's all there.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, it really is amazing the way that our nervous system has been designed to communicate these messages across our body. And uh, it's not good when that goes awry. But as you mentioned, neuropathy, it's not really a disease in and of itself. It's more of kind of the description of what happens when things go wrong with our nerve function.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah, I think if you think of our bodies a lot like a car, it's more like the check engine light that the car has. So it's not necessarily when you see that check engine light come on, it doesn't necessarily mean you know what is happening, but you know that something's wrong. In the same way, when you start to get some of these signs and symptoms of neuropathy, you're finding out that something's wrong with your body. And then hopefully that's a sign for us to go in, get a tune-up, if you will, get your car checked out, your body checked out, and find out really what's going on and get to the bottom of what is causing that neuropathy.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Mm-hmm.

Why It Often Starts In Feet

SPEAKER_01 4:48

So I'm gonna ask a question that I've always been curious about when it comes to to neuropathy, something that we're even aware of kind of in the in the operation of our business, as we know, you know, podiatrists are very concerned about neuropathy. Deal with a lot of patients who who deal with neuropathy. So, why does neuropathy tend to start in the feet? Like, why the feet and not somewhere else?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Yeah, I think it's uh similar to what we just talked about with a car and a check engine light. You usually have a check engine light that comes on after you've driven a long ways and you're on the road for a long time. Well, the body's the same way. Those nerves are traveling the farthest point from your brain is your feet. So you're having nerves go the farthest point across your body. And when that happens, there's a greater chance that somewhere along the way, there's going to be an incident that pops up that can cause that nerve pain or those nerve symptoms. And that's why you may end up having numbness uh around your feet or ankles and other places once uh once it starts.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

So if someone starts noticing numbness in their toes, that's probably a pretty serious sign that they need to not just ignore it, but actually do something about it.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah, absolutely. And and sometimes it may not be anything you can do because it could be a chronic piece. It's been bad decisions that a lot of people have made for 50 years and what have caused diabetes or other things, that could be what's going on, and it may not be an overnight fix for you, but it's something that you need to start paying attention to because it may be early enough that you can start changing some of your habits and really change uh the outcome of that neuropathy itself and use it as an opportunity to be a warning sign that you've heated and start changing your ways and your habits.

Sponsor Break And Discount Code

SPEAKER_01 6:42

This episode is brought to you by Centurion Health. We're leading to make life better by providing safe, effective, and affordable health and wellness products made in the USA to help you elevate your health into life. As a special thank you to our podcast listeners, Centurion Health is giving you 15% off when you use discount code Frontline15 at checkout. Visit www.centurion.health to elevate your health today. All

Diabetes And Other Root Causes

SPEAKER_01 7:10

right, so you mentioned diabetes, and uh, and that's really what most people think about or or associate with neuropathy. And I want to know, is that because diabetes actually causes the most neuropathy, or is it just something that's kind of become the most well-known cause? And so we just we associate neuropathy with diabetes, even though there are other things that can cause it.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both because diabetes is certainly one of the most common causes of neuropathy because you get that chronically elevated blood sugar and it damages your nerves over time. But it's not the only cause. You could have vitamin deficiencies, there could be some autoimmune health issues, chemotherapy, alcohol, could have a physical injury that messes up the nerve being sent down, could be some type of infection like Lyme disease, certain medications like metformin, which there seem to be a lot of people who take metformin. And in some people, unfortunately, we just never really know or can identify a clear cause as to why they may be having numbness or tingling in their feet.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Mm-hmm. And

Why Nutrition Matters For Nerves

SPEAKER_01 8:16

one of the things I really want to highlight there, you mentioned vitamin deficiencies first on that list, and we continue to beat the drum about how important nutrition is for people. And I don't think people a lot of people might not even realize that nutrition even plays into neuropathy.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah, I think uh it's an easy thing for us over to overlook because it it seems too simple for a lot of people. And I think most people think that vitamins are just something that simply prevents deficiencies. But we have to remember that those nerves need nutrients in order to perform at their best. And they're constantly going back and maintaining themselves. So we need the same type of nutrients that we need for our heart, we need for our nerves and our muscles and our brain. So ultimately, that's what we're trying to do is get the best and most nutrients into our body as possible so it can do what it's designed to do.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah, and really, like we come back to a lot, right? Even if nutrition is not the cause of your neuropathy, if you look at your nutrition and you realize that it is being neglected and you are not feeding your body properly, it can help still help you feel better in in any variety of ways. There is no reason to uh to put it off if you if you are intentionally trying to live a healthier life and and feel better. And even if it's not the root cause of your neuropathy, if that's something that you're dealing with, it can still influence that nerve health overall.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

That is absolutely true. And I think no matter what we do, no matter what we're talking about, if you get your diet right, there is a strong likelihood that it's gonna help those outcomes be that much better. So it never hurts to get our diet right.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Mm-hmm. And uh and let's really hammer this down because I think nutrition is so important, especially when it does come to something like neuropathy. And what what I don't want people to hear when we say, when we talk about nutrition for neuropathy, is just thinking about supplements. We do know that supplementation is important and can definitely be something that's helpful because even eating the healthiest diet, there are still a lot of things that it's easy for us to miss out on. And and supplements can can be a great tool to help us, you know, get over the top and and really get give our bodies those nutrients that we need, but it's it's so much broader than that. And obviously, it starts with the food that we eat. So, why does what we eat really matter to our nerves?

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yeah, I mean, I think it's as simple and as basic as the fact that every cell in our body depends on nutrition. So it's not just nutrition for your muscles, it's not just nutrition for your heart, but it's nutrition for our nerves as well. And we've already gone over the fact that nerves are constantly repairing themselves. They constantly need energy because they're moving every single second of the day, even when we're not thinking about it. So they need nutrients as much as our heart does and as much as the rest of our body does in order to maintain the proper function and the proper uh working order that it needs to have each and every second of the day.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yes, that's that's a great way to look at it. It's not just like, you know, repairing, it's not just like you have to eat a certain way to repair nerves that have already become damaged. It is just normal maintenance, something that your body's always doing is to repair those nerves.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

That's right. That's right. And I think we also probably need to understand it is the support mechanism of what our body is designed to do. We know there's certain things that your body needs to work properly. Just like in a car, you're not going to fill it with water and you're not gonna fill it with sugar, you're filling it with the right gas in order for it to work well. We have to do the same thing for our body, which is just a very, very complex machine that we have. And we know the things we're supposed to do, but we don't always do them.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Mm-hmm. So,

Key Nutrients That Support Nerves

SPEAKER_01 12:28

which nutrients are actually the most important for people who are dealing with neuropathy?

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yeah, I think that's a a great question. What we do know is that B vitamins, and that's a common theme, it seems, across across our body, but B vitamins in particular, vitamin B12 is probably the most essential of those B vitamins because we know that if there is a deficiency of B12 in people, it leads to demyelination, which means that that nerve cell itself is starting to break down. It causes numbness, tingling, burning, and weakness. So just understanding that a deficiency in B12, we have all those symptoms of neuropathy. And uh there are plenty of studies that have come out that show when you actually give B12, you improve that neuropathic pain, meaning it doesn't hurt as bad anymore, and you improve nerve conduction. But I think it's also important to point out you want to make sure you're taking the right form. Specifically, you want to use methyl, adenosil, or hydroxyl cobalamin, and not cyanocobalamin. So you need to avoid cyanocobalamin all altogether. Uh, B6 is the other one that we know. It's involved in neurotransmitter synthesis and it supports the peripheral nerves itself. So we know that if you're deficient, it can contribute to neuropathic symptoms. But kind of the interesting thing with B6 is you can have too much B6. So if you take too much, it has the reverse effect. It actually causes neuropathy if you take too much of it. And most of those studies suggest if you have greater than 50 to 100 milligrams per day, it can cause that. There's some that suggest if you take the pyridoxyl five phosphate, which is the metabolically active form of vitamin B6, then you don't have as much of a likelihood of that happening. And then, of course, you have folate, which is vitamin B9. And if you combine that with the methylcobalamin and P5P in studies, it shows that it lowers elevated homocysteine levels, which has been linked to that vascular and nerve damage that we've been talking about. So, with that, again, avoid folic acid, go after the methylfolate or the folinic acid because they're the active forms that your body can use. And then you've got alpha lipoic acid. It's a strong antioxidant. It's been studied quite a bit and how it affects nerve cells. And a lot of those reviews and meta-analysis, meta-analysis seem to conclude, it's not an easy word for me to say today, apparently, that ALA provides symptom relief in mild to moderate painful diabetic neuropathy. And they typically did that study at 600 milligrams per day for about three to four weeks. And then the final one would be CoQ10. We know that CoQ10 helps with nerve conduction and it helps repair those nerves and it supports that mitochondrial energy production. And they did a couple of studies in people with diabetic neuropathy, gave them CoQ10 versus a placebo over eight weeks, and they found that they had significant pain reduction in those patients. So several options out there for you to jump on.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Yeah, thank you for sharing that list. And just to recap, there, we've got the active B vitamins, the active forms of folate, we've got the ALA, the alpha lipoic acid, and the CoQ10. So these are all things that uh or nutrients that can kind of help nerve health.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

That's right. All of them studied to actually reduce uh nerve pain and some of the numb, numbness and tingling that goes along with it.

Building A Nerve Support Formula

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Okay, so so this brings us to a product that we have that we have designed for this reason. It's called Puralure DN, and it is a supplement to help support nerve health. And, you know, we have when we looked at a lot of the other products out there on the market, we saw that they were either missing some of these important ingredients or that they were just really pricing these things at a at a price that is just not affordable or attainable for a lot of people. So can you just kind of speak to the formula of Puralore DN and uh and just kind of your thought process in developing this product?

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Yeah, I mean, I think with any of the products we develop, we look at it from the standpoint of how many different ingredients are there that people are taking individually that we can combine together that we know don't have a negative impact if they're taken together on one another and help reduce the cost and hopefully increase compliance because there's nothing more difficult than taking a handful of pills and taking eight, 10 pills to get the effects that you're looking for. And ultimately, that's the reason we put together the Pure Lorde. We came in with that folate, the B12, the B6, all in the active forms. We added the alpha lipoic acid, the CoQ10, and vitamin D, because we know that vitamin D is also a big player when it comes to nerve health and put all those things together, trying to reduce the number of capsules that somebody might have to take each and every day.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

And and how, I mean, that's really great. You make a great point. People, a lot of people who are going to be taking something to help with nerve health, they're probably on other medications as well. So, again, like just trying to make that easy for people, giving them everything that they need in one pill so that they're not having to do that is uh is something that I'm sure a lot of people really appreciate. And so, how does Puralorden compare to the other nerve support products that are on the market?

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Yeah, I think a lot of those other nerve support products are great because they, in and of themselves, have a few components that that work well and they've got a few of those ingredients, but they miss out on the synergism of having all those ingredients work together. So we try to provide everything at a at an affordable price, but in a way that you can take it each day and hopefully miss what I like to call that medical meal uh that somebody has every day, because you can take so many capsules that you feel like you're just eating capsules or pills or whatever it is. And we're trying to cut back on that by combining everything together.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

That's awesome.

First Steps And When To Get Help

SPEAKER_01 18:53

And uh let's kind of finish this off for someone who's listening and they've been experiencing tingling or they've had numbness. Maybe it's something they've kind of been ignoring or putting off, and it's getting to a point where they want to they want to do something about it and they're they're tired of experiencing this. They want to see if they can reverse it or at least just help their body have what it needs to support their nerve health. So, so what would be what would be your advice if we want to give something practical to people who have been experiencing tingling or they've been experiencing numbness, maybe they've been ignoring it, putting it off. What would you say to them would be some good first steps to start taking care of their nerve health?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, I think the first thing is obviously you don't want to ignore anything that's going on. So go to your healthcare provider, talk with them, come together with a plan and figure out what might be contributing to it. Second, go back to those fundamentals, which we talk every single time. Make sure that you're eating right, more whole foods, make sure that you're exercising, make sure that you're getting good sleep, uh, make sure that you're avoiding smoking and you're limiting your alcohol intake. And then check and see if nutritional support may make sense for you. Because I in my estimation and my opinion, nutritional support is never a bad thing for somebody because it's only going to provide the things that your body needs to function the way that it was designed to function.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

That's super helpful, Troy. Thank you for sharing that with our listeners. And I think one of my biggest takeaways for today is just that if you are experiencing those things, you really don't want to ignore it because the longer that you wait, when you start experiencing tingling or or pain to put it off, it's just going to compound and get worse. So if if you're dealing with some of those issues, your body might be telling you that something deserves a closer look. As Troy mentioned, maybe it's blood sugar, maybe it's nutrition, maybe it's something entirely different. But understanding the why is kind of the first step towards making better decisions about your health, whether it's neuropathy or whether it's it's anything else. So, Troy, thank you so much just for helping us unpack an important topic today that affects millions of people.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Absolutely. Enjoyed it. Always uh enjoy going through things like this.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Well,

Final Takeaways And Share Request

SPEAKER_01 21:10

to our listeners, thank you for listening to today's episode of the Frontline Health Podcast. If you found today's episode helpful, be sure that you subscribe so that you don't miss future conversations. And if you know someone who's dealing with neuropathy or nerve-related symptoms, please consider sharing this episode with them. As always, go out and take ownership of your health because you are your best health advocate. We'll see you next time on the Frontline Health podcast.