Peripheral neuropathy is an aggravating condition caused by damage to peripheral nerves (nerves that are located outside of your brain and spine) - symptoms of this condition include chronic pain, numbness and tingling, and general weakness, most commonly occurring in the hands and feet. Oftentimes these symptoms are worse at the end of the day and during the night - after you’ve spent the entire day on your feet and are resting. This pain is incredibly debilitating because nerve pain is much more difficult to treat than other varieties of pain, including muscle pain and joint pain.
Unfortunately, those suffering from diabetes are at greater risk of developing peripheral neuropathy, as having chronically high blood sugar levels eventually leads to nerve damage. If you’re someone with diabetes dealing with peripheral neuropathy, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll be highlighting some natural ways for you to help treat your diabetic neuropathy and avoid expensive and potentially harmful surgeries.
Natural Remedies for Nerve Pain: Options for Natural Nerve Pain Relief
Diabetic Socks
As we said earlier, most diabetic neuropathy pain is felt in the hands and feet. For people with diabetes, neuropathy pain in the feet is by far the most common of the two and is particularly debilitating since having an active lifestyle means spending time on your feet, which causes pain. It’s a vicious cycle.
However, wearing diabetic socks can be a great (and inexpensive) way to treat your peripheral neuropathy pain without taking any medication. That’s because diabetic socks help to improve blood flow to your feet, reducing inflammation and numbness. They can also help to prevent infections based on the types of materials they’re made of. Our pick for the best diabetic socks is definitely Viasox.
Vitamins
Didn’t your mom always say to take your vitamins? While ensuring that you have your proper intake of crucial vitamins will help boost your health as a whole, it also can help to reduce your peripheral neuropathy pain. Vitamin deficiencies can make your peripheral neuropathy even worse, so ensure that you’re getting proper amounts of vitamins A, B, and D, as these vitamins help to boost the health of your nerves and will help to reduce your chronic nerve pain.
Vitamins B1, B12, and B6 help to prevent cellular damage in the nerves, lower inflammation levels and help to maintain the covering of the nerve endings. Some foods rich in Vitamin B include fish, meat, eggs, seafood, and vegetables.
Vitamin D on the other hand is proven to help reduce neuropathic pain and also helps to prevent neuronal degeneration.
Essential Oils
We have an entire article about the types of essential oils you should be using to help treat your diabetic nerve pain. To summarize that article, some of the most important essential oils for nerve pain include:
- Peppermint Oil
- Ginger Oil
- Lavender Oil
- Holy Basil Oil
- St John’s Wort Oil
- Chamomile Oil
These oils have a combination of benefits that help to treat chronic nerve pain caused by diabetes. For example, in medical studies, lavender oil was proven to help reduce pain after surgeries and holy basil oil was proven in rats to significantly decrease sciatic nerve pain.
Home Remedies For Nerve Pain: Our Suggestions
Exercising
Exercising is always recommended by health experts when it comes to reducing peripheral neuropathy pain. This is because regular exercise reduces blood sugar, which helps to maintain healthy nerves. Additionally, it also helps to increase blood flow to your legs, which helps to reduce discomfort and pain in those areas.
All in all, exercising is definitely a practice to include in your holistic lifestyle plan to help deal with diabetic neuropathy pain.
Quit Smoking
This may not apply to everyone, but smoking tobacco is one of the worst habits you can have as someone dealing with diabetic neuropathy. This is because smoking is proven to have a negative impact on blood circulation, which leads to nerve damage and inflammation. While it’s definitely not easy for longtime smokers to drop the habit of smoking, it’s one of the most important lifestyle changes you should make if you have diabetic neuropathy.
Natural Remedies for Nerve Damage: Viasox Diabetic Socks
We touched upon the fact that wearing diabetic socks is one of the top natural remedies for peripheral neuropathy pain. However, there are plenty of options on the market to choose from, so how do you know which socks will help you the most? At Viasox, we’ve made that decision easy.
Viasox is North America’s favorite diabetic sock brand and for good reason. We’ve designed our diabetic socks to help improve the lifestyles of people with diabetes across the continent - they’re full of thoughtful features including:
- Non-binding fit, which helps to improve blood flow
- The softest antimicrobial bamboo construction - preventing infections and improving comfort
- Seamless toe design to reduce the risk of painful blisters
- Triple padded bottoms so you can stand comfortably
- Dozens of fun styles - so you never have to sacrifice style!
