How do you manage neuropathy and loss of balance and walking ability?

@tsinnc. Because you ask, I’ll share my first falling problem was due to hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is a condition, at least part genetic, that causes too much fluid to build up in the brain, leading to loss of balance and eventually somewhat dementia-like loss of metal abilities. It usually occurs in young children or elders. They take forever to diagnose it in other ages. Mine was quite advanced when the finally did a brain scan (looking for a tumor) and found it. The solution is to drill a hole in the skull and put a shunt in the drain the fluid slowly for the rest of one’s life, which they did. In the following years, I got back some of my brain function.

The problem I have discussed since then, including balance and gait issues probably were not related to hydrocephalus, but were caused by liver damage. The liver makes a chemical called Glutathione, which affects many systems in the body. I experienced lack of balance and falling frequently. No one had any idea why, including the many doctors, including neurologists I consulted. I tried PT which helped only the slightest amount. I was lucky in that several years earlier, a chiropractor had me try glutathione cream as a treatment for pain. I had researched for several year why I was falling, and tried dozens of herbal and nutritional remedies, just trying to find something, anything that would work, when I tried glutathione again. It turned out that a lack of glutathione was causing most of my problems. I treated myself with glutathione in several forms: a cream form (very expensive), then I found glutathione in powdered form and tried to find a way to mix it with anything creamy (nothing worked) and finally mixed it with hair conditioner (never found anything else that it would stay suspended in.) I tried putting it in capsules, but I had to take it several times a day and any physical activity would “used up” any that my body would absorb. I continued to fall frequently. Finally I studied the physiology of glutathione in the body and realized my liver should have been making it, but wasn’t. So I started treating my liver. The most successful treatment was and is taking Milk Thistle powder. Now my liver makes glutathione so long as I continue to take milk thistle in small doses, (about 1/2 gram a day or several times a week) eat a good diet, including green leafy veggies, and, of course, I don’t drink alcohol. (Alcohol didn’t cause my problem, but would make it worse.)

I think many elderly people have damaged livers, just from all the crap we are all exposed to in modern life, and that a lot of the problems that occur in the elderly are improved or cured by fixing the liver so that it can produce glutathione like young livers do. I would recommend trying milk thistle because it won’t hurt you, but if your liver is damaged, the milk thistle will fix it, allowing it to make glutathione again, which helps balance and gait, reduces pain, and assists in dozens of other systems. If interested, get a book on glutathione (several have been written). No doctor will catch liver problems until they are so bad that they are killing you and you may need a transplant. No doctor (M.D.) will tell you to take glutathione (they barely know what it is.) If this is your problem, PT will do little to fix balance or gait. If lack of glutathione is your problem, the only thing that will fix it is glutathione, either from the outside, or more importantly, by fixing your liver so it will do its job and make glutathione. Balance problems are just one symptom of lack of glutathione, but one symptom that you can’t ignore (or if you do ignore it, you’ll keep falling and getting worse and end up in a wheelchair). You won’t happen onto a cure, except by accident. If you are having balance problems plus a lot of pain, drop things frequently, have mental issues (memory, inability to think rationally, basically slowly losing all your mental functions) and many other issues, read about glutathione, try it in some form, and if it helps, try taking milk thistle. Or just try taking milk thistle for a few weeks and see if it helps you get better. If liver function is your issue, you will improve dramatically. If it’s something else, it may just make you feel the tiniest bit better because milk thistle is an antioxidant. If you like, ask your doctor if milk thistle can harm you. It can’t (short of taking pounds of it).

@again

Thank you so much for sharing this. I nearly died in 2021 due to complications from MASLD that eventually caused all of my body systems to shut down. I was in a coma for two weeks, and in PT, OT, and speech therapy inpatient for four weeks, and outpatient for about six months after. My neurological issues started in late 2019, but I’ve suspected for a long time that at least some part of my them were exacerbated by my liver issues. I’ll read up on glutathione, and talk to the docs about it when I’m at Mayo in February.

Have to always be aware and cautious. For me it especially problematic walking down stairs or inclines.

@tsinnc I really hope that milk thistle/glutathione is the secret for you. If it is, things will get sooo much better in the near future. That’s why I share it so much—because it can make a big difference for the people it helps. For people it doesn’t work for, I’m as useless and clueless as everyone else, except to say that a better diet and more antioxidants in general help everyone at least a little.

@ahimsa I deeply appreciate this valuable information that you have probided me. I have an MRI scheduled soon. The previous one had shown a small lesion, in the white matter-brain, revealing demyelination, so we’ll see how this one goes!

Thanks for sharing this information. Since I have an appointment soon, I will explore
this information in relationship to my other medication.