Some of your bodily functions are autonomic, which means that you don’t directly control them. Nerves that are part of the autonomic nervous system help to regulate heart rate, body temperature, respiration, and blood pressure. Polyneuropathy involves damage to more than one nerve at the same time, usually multiple nerves throughout the peripheral nervous system and all over the body. In addition to medical treatments, lifestyle changes play a significant role in managing alcoholic neuropathy. These changes include maintaining a balanced diet rich in nutrients, engaging in regular exercise to improve overall physical health, and abstaining from alcohol to prevent further nerve damage.
What Are the Treatments for Alcoholic Neuropathy?
More recent research, however, suggests that alcohol can directly damage nerves. The evidence points toward alcohol-related peripheral neuropathy being a form of toxic neuropathy, rather than nutritional neuropathy. One of the key nutrients inhibited by alcohol is thiamine, vitamin B1. Thiamine serves as an important coenzyme in carbohydrate metabolism and neuron development. The lack of thiamine in the nervous system affects the cellular structure and can cause cell membrane damage and irregular ectopic cells. Other vitamin deficiencies seen with alcohol abuse include but are not limited to, B vitamins, folic acid, and vitamin E.
Study characteristics
Individualized treatment programs delivered in a comfortable, relaxed setting promote healing in your recovery journey. The challenges faced in this arena have provided her with a strong base of practice in assessment, treatment, and case management. But, instead of putting needles into skin and muscles, it places electrodes alcohol neuropathy stages on the skin. The electrodes give detailed information regarding the speed and strength of the nerve signals. All Addiction Resource content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible. Additionally, if a person does not feel pain, they can leave themselves more open to infection.
What Nutritional Support and Medication Can Help?
- Affected nerves include the peripheral nerves, primarily located in the arms and legs, and the autonomic nerves, which help regulate our internal body functions.
- The alcohol’s toxic effects on our nerves disrupt the intricate communication network between the brain, muscles, skin, and internal organs.
- In addition, about 40 to 60 percent of people who experience chronic alcohol misuse also experience alcohol-related myopathy.
- Not being able to tell when things are too hot because of the way the nerve damage interferes with the ability to sense temperature changes can make one more susceptible to burns.
- The damage from alcohol neuropathy can affect the nerves that control movement, senses, and organ function.
The sural nerve was the most commonly reported nerve [2, 3, 5, 11, 27, 37–39, 51, 53, 59, 63, 68]. Deficiency of vitamins other than thiamine may also contribute to clinical features of alcoholic neuropathy. Chronic alcoholism can alter the intake, absorption and utilization of various nutrients (nicotinic acid, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folate or vitamin E).
Researchers have not determined if this is caused by the effects of alcohol on the brain or is the result of thiamine deficiency. A diet poor in nutrients or avoiding eating can make nutritional deficiencies worse. ALN can manifest differently, and patients might experience one, two, or even more clinical manifestations of ALN. Patients who have ALN might present such symptoms as cramps, impaired movement of the limbs, muscle atrophy, muscle weakness, spasms, or contractions, loss of sensation, or feeling of tingling.
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