Non Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

What is Non Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy?

Peripheral Neuropathy is what physicians call it when a person is suffering from damage to their peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system includes all of the nerves that branch away from the central nervous system. These nerves take messages from the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and pass them on to the far away parts of your body (toes, fingers and everything in between). These nerves also carry messages to the central nervous system from those far away parts of your body.

For example, these nerves are responsible for your brain knowing when your fingers or toes are getting too cold and that you need to get inside and warm up. But those same unpleasant feelings that let you know something is wrong can start occuring even when nothing is wrong. Damage to these nerves can cause pain and discomfort in a variety of forms for you. The burning sensation that you feel when you touch something too hot, can become an all the time kind of feeling. The stinging pain that you get from frostbite can be something you feel all the time. This is because something has damaged the nerves in your peripheral nervous system and they start sending out the wrong signals. This is when your physician will pull out the term peripheral neuropathy.

Parts of the Peripheral Nervous System

The peripheral nervous system is divided into the somatic nervous system, the enteric nervous system, and the autonomic nervous system.

The somatic nervous system regulates activities that you consciously control. It receives messages from external sources and coordinates how your body responds.

The enteric nervous system manages every aspect of digestion, from your esophagus to your colon.

The autonomic nervous system is further broken down into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The autonomic nervous system is automatic. It is not something that you can consciously control. The sympathetic nervous system is the part that responds to intense situations and causes your heart rate to increase, blood presure to rise, and feelings of excitement, fear, or nervousness. The parasympathetic nervous system is laid back. It comes into play when you are relaxed and it causes your pupils to dilate, your heart rate to slow and for you to feel relaxed and rested.

As you can see, your nervous system has very important functions in your body. And like all other parts of your body, things can go wrong.

Types of Peripheral Neuropathy

There are over 100 different types of peripheral neuropathy. They can be placed in the following categories:

• Idiopathic - unknown cause
• Pre-diabetic/Diabetic
• Hereditary - Charcot, hereditary neuropathy
• Toxins - methyl alcohol, alcohol
• Inflammatory - HIV/Aids, Leprosy, Hepatitis B and C, Shingles, and Lyme Disease
• Systemic/Diabolic - kidney failure, diabetes, vitamin deficiency
• Compression - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, tumor, trauma

If you believe you are suffering from Non Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy a visit with your physician can help you to get some answers!