Nerve Pain
Background
Nerve pain (neuropathy) is characterized by pain that is burning, shooting (often to distant areas), or stabbing. It also has an "electric" quality about it. Tingling or numbness (paresthesias) and increased sensitivity with normal touch being painful (allodynia) are also commonly seen.
Nerve pain can be triggered by malfunction of nerves associated with illness (e.g., diabetes, low thyroid, etc.), infections (e.g., shingles), pinched nerves (e.g., from muscles or disc disease), nutritional deficiencies (e.g., vitamin B6 and B12), injury (e.g., stroke, tumors, spinal cord injury, and multiple sclerosis), fibromyalgia, and medication/treatment side effects.
Treatments
Recommended Supplements
PEA
Research is mounting that for nerve pain, and neurodegenerative diseases in general, especially in the presence of chronic pain, a supplement called PEA (Palmitoylethanolamide) 600 mg a day can be quite remarkable in both decreasing pain and regenerating nerve and brain cells. It takes three months to start seeing the effect however, so give it time.
Give these 6-12 months to work (it takes time for nerves to heal), though you’ll likely feel better much sooner. These, especially acetyl L-carnitine, may also prevent nerve pain from developing (such as it might during chemotherapy).
Multivitamin powder
Nutritional support is critical! Use a good multivitamin powder along with a B complex capsule. This (along with the lipoic acid below) may take 6 months to kick in (but may begin working after a few weeks) — so start now. In addition to the B vitamins, coenzyme Q10, magnesium, biotin and vitamin D can also help nerve function.
Lipoic acid
Lipoic acid 600 mg a day. A special nerve mix, called "Healthy Feet and Nerves" by EuroPharma, can be especially helpful.
Acetyl L-Carnitine
Acetyl L-carnitine 1,000-3,000 mg a day.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D 1,000-2,000+ units a day. In one study, this decreased diabetes nerve pain by 47%. The vitamin D can be obtained from many sources, including sunshine.
Coenzyme Q10
200-400 mg a day.
Comfrey topical cream
Other Therapies & Advice
Do a blood test
Do blood testing to check for diabetes, low thyroid, or vitamin B12 deficiency (I give B12 injections if the B12 level is under 540 in nerve pain).
Medications
Lidoderm patches and topical gels
Many medications can be very helpful for nerve pain. For small areas, begin with the Lidoderm patch (very expensive) and compounded topical creams. For large areas, or if these are not effective, use the oral medications.
Give the topical medications 2 weeks to work. Give the natural remedies at least 6 months to work.
Topical pain creams (from compounding pharmacies)
Your physician can call in the “Nerve Pain Cream” prescription to ITC Pharmacy at 888-349-5453 and they can mail it to you. Apply the cream to the painful area(s) 2-3 times a day and give it 2 weeks to start working. If you suffer from nerve pain, also read the nerve pain chapter in the book Pain Free 1-2-3. This has a lot of helpful information.
Ibuprofen and other NSAIDs and even codeine/narcotic medications are not very helpful for nerve pain. For nerve pain, I recommend first using the medications Neurontin, Elavil (25 mg at bedtime), Ultram, Cymbalta and Lyrica (often in combinations if needed), followed if needed by over a dozen other medications that can help nerve pain. A reasonable treatment trial is 6 weeks. Again, if side effects occur, this does not mean you can’t use the medication. If these happen, it is often necessary to go with a lower and more comfortable dose of the medication. The body adapts, which results in being able to raise the dose over time without the side effects, while the medications’ benefits persist.
Two other helpful treatments for nerve pain include:
- The hormone HCG 125-750 units under the tongue daily (give 6 weeks to see the effects — available from compounding pharmacies). This allowed a 30% drop in pain medication dose in people with severe chronic pain in 2 studies by Dr. Forest Tennant, editor of the journal Practical Pain Management.
- For a type of nerve pain called Small Fiber Neuropathy, IV gamma globulin can be very helpful.