Small fiber neuropathy?

Have a nerve biopsy as this will tell the doctor what you have. USA do it through the blood sample or skin biopsy I believe which is more accurate than an MRI. My blood sample showed damage to my sensory nerve panel and then the specialist was able to help me with treatment to repair the foot nerves. I hope this helps you decide. Ask lots of questions to the doctors. I did.

Good evening @ebero. Thank you for the reminder to eliminate processed sugar. I have noticed recently that more items like fruit juices are available with "NO SUGAR". So now I look for those options.
Chris

I hard arrhythmias first.. Scared me. I have a son with congenital heart disease that almost died from tachycardia. My heart started jumping in my sleep. It would stop and when it started back up it would jump and wake me up. I was afraid to go back to sleep. I had a one month holter monitor test showed the bradycardia and tachycardia. I was sent to a electrophysiologist that diagnosed with cardiac autonomic neuropathy. Being a RN I told him he was lying. I went to the neurologist and had the biopsies. Within the
last six months my BP has been high. 159/99. The arrhythmias have started back up so the cardiologist and electrophysiologist decided to do another one month holter monitor on me. We will see what happens from here. The BP medication made me nauseous and throwing up so we stopped it.

Up to 50 per cent of all small fiber idiopathic neuropathies are ultimately determined to have some glucose involvement. That doesn't mean this is the cause of your sfn, but getting a 2 hour glucose tolerance test is mandatory; some believe a new but not yet widely accepted one hour test is actually superior. HB1ac misses far too many cases of pre-diabetes and early diabetes and should not be relied upon. Given your spinal issues (which I share) you have to consider those as a source, though they may not be the real culprit. Do you have compressed, bulging or herniated discs in both your lumbar and cervical spine? Did the PN start in your toes, spread later through the feet and up the calf with subsequent paresthesias in the hands? Did it manifest symmetrically in both feet, ankles, calves, hands? If your PN followed that pattern it is less likely to be of spinal nerve compression origin, though not entirely out of the question. Yes, skin biopsies and nerve ultrasounds, in particular, can be helpful in differentiating the different types (etiologies) of PN, segregating, for example, those of auto-immune origin, malign origin, toxic origin, etc. Well worth getting in your situation. You should also get blood tests for monoclonal protein assessment, using the SPEP, IFE and serum free light chain tests. Yes, treatments can vary depending upon etiology, but there are researchers who make a persuasive argument that at base the proximal cause of almost all neuropathies are mitochondrial/endothelial dysfunctions that reduce and disrupt axonal energy. Some of this, I believe, is linked to small vessel disease that increases with aging, resulting in systemic disease that, among other things, causes axonal degeneration, demyelination, etc. The current accepted standard of care for this is not very effective, unfortunately, overall, when it comes to idiopathic (unexplained) PN, but such substances as alpha lipoic acid, methylfolate, acetyl L carnitine, propionyl L carnitine, B12, D3, etc. have shown some efficacy. There are a few promising things in the drug and device pipeline that may enter the market in the next year to next few years. For anyone with spinal issues that are a suspected or demonstrated cause, exercise, diet, physical therapy are vital, and acupuncture and low-level laser treatments may be helpful. A new magnetic treatment is being used at a few medical centers with early promising results in alleviating PN pain, though whether this modality addresses underlying causes remains to be demonstrated.

True! But if you read labels, many of the ‘no sugar’ items (I was looking for catsup yesterday) substitute stevia or other sweeteners for sugar. I see the most improvement with the least sweeteners of any kind. I use a spoonful of maple syrup or honey when I really want a bit of sweetening in something, like on a bowl of oatmeal.

Up to 50 per cent of all small fiber idiopathic neuropathies are ultimately determined to have some glucose involvement. That doesn't mean this is the cause of your sfn, but getting a 2 hour glucose tolerance test is mandatory; some believe a new but not yet widely accepted one hour test is actually superior. HB1ac misses far too many cases of pre-diabetes and early diabetes and should not be relied upon. Given your spinal issues (which I share) you have to consider those as a source, though they may not be the real culprit. Do you have compressed, bulging or herniated discs in both your lumbar and cervical spine? Did the PN start in your toes, spread later through the feet and up the calf with subsequent paresthesias in the hands? Did it manifest symmetrically in both feet, ankles, calves, hands? If your PN followed that pattern it is less likely to be of spinal nerve compression origin, though not entirely out of the question. Yes, skin biopsies and nerve ultrasounds, in particular, can be helpful in differentiating the different types (etiologies) of PN, segregating, for example, those of auto-immune origin, malign origin, toxic origin, etc. Well worth getting in your situation. You should also get blood tests for monoclonal protein assessment, using the SPEP, IFE and serum free light chain tests. Yes, treatments can vary depending upon etiology, but there are researchers who make a persuasive argument that at base the proximal cause of almost all neuropathies are mitochondrial/endothelial dysfunctions that reduce and disrupt axonal energy. Some of this, I believe, is linked to small vessel disease that increases with aging, resulting in systemic disease that, among other things, causes axonal degeneration, demyelination, etc. The current accepted standard of care for this is not very effective, unfortunately, overall, when it comes to idiopathic (unexplained) PN, but such substances as alpha lipoic acid, methylfolate, acetyl L carnitine, propionyl L carnitine, B12, D3, etc. have shown some efficacy. There are a few promising things in the drug and device pipeline that may enter the market in the next year to next few years. For anyone with spinal issues that are a suspected or demonstrated cause, exercise, diet, physical therapy are vital, and acupuncture and low-level laser treatments may be helpful. A new magnetic treatment is being used at a few medical centers with early promising results in alleviating PN pain, though whether this modality addresses underlying causes remains to be demonstrated.

I had a blood biopsy and it showed damage to my sensory neuropathy panel. Test was done at Washington University and requested by my neurologist in Sydney. We don’t have that type of test available in Australia. Showed damage and then I started appropriate treatment to help repair nerves. My nerves weren’t cut but badly damaged by my immune system. My nerves have started to recover but it takes a while. Not sure about broken or cut nerves. I have a very clever and wonderful neurologist.