Neuropathy Care in Perkasie

The short answer

Peripheral neuropathy is nerve damage that causes numbness, tingling, burning, or weakness, usually in the hands and feet, and it deserves an honest answer up front: chiropractic care does not cure it, and its most common causes are medical ones like diabetes. What a chiropractor can do is assess whether any mechanical or spinal factor is adding to your symptoms, work on that part, and coordinate with the medical care that manages the underlying cause.

Neuropathy attracts a lot of overblown promises, and we will not add to them. Here is the honest version: what peripheral neuropathy is, where chiropractic care genuinely fits, where it does not, and when your doctor needs to lead.

What is peripheral neuropathy?

It is damage or dysfunction in the peripheral nerves, the ones that carry signals between your spinal cord and the rest of your body. When they are affected, you feel it as numbness, tingling, burning, or weakness, most often in the feet and hands. It has many causes, and the most common by far is diabetes; others include injury, certain medications, and nerve compression.

Because the causes are so varied, the single most useful thing is an accurate picture of what is driving yours. Some of that is squarely medical and belongs with your doctor. A part of it, sometimes, is mechanical.

Where chiropractic care fits, and where it does not

Here is the honest boundary. Chiropractic care does not repair damaged nerves or resolve a systemic cause like diabetes, and we will never tell you otherwise. Where it can help is the mechanical side: if a nerve is being compressed or irritated where it exits the spine, or if joint and muscle problems are adding to your discomfort, that part is workable, and it is what we assess for.

So a first visit is about getting you an honest picture:

• A careful assessment of whether a spinal or mechanical factor is contributing to your symptoms.
• Hands-on care for any nerve-compression or joint-and-muscle component we find.
• Movement and practical guidance to reduce mechanical load on an irritated nerve.
• Coordination with the doctor managing the underlying cause, and a referral when that is the right call.

If your neuropathy is entirely medical, we will tell you that a chiropractor is not the answer to it, and point you to who is.

When it belongs with your doctor first

Neuropathy is often a signal from the rest of the body, so some of it is medical before it is anything else. New, spreading, or rapidly worsening numbness or weakness, symptoms alongside diabetes that is not well controlled, or any loss of function needs a medical work-up. Diabetic neuropathy in particular is managed medically, and good blood-sugar control does more for it than anything we offer. We work alongside that care, never instead of it.

What does an assessment cost, and do you take insurance?

No referral is needed to book an assessment, and we are happy to check your benefits for you first so there are no surprises. If all you need is an honest assessment and a straight answer about whether there is a mechanical component we can help with, that is a short conversation and we will keep it that way.

Neuropathy by the numbers

These are the figures this practice publishes about how common neuropathy is and how it is usually managed.

• Peripheral neuropathy affects nearly 46.5 million Americans.
• Approximately 150,000 patients per year have amputations due to neuropathy.
• It is estimated that 60 to 70 percent of diabetics suffer from peripheral neuropathy.
• 30 to 40 percent of all cancer patients have chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.
• 90 percent of neuropathy sufferers depend on medications or injections to manage their symptoms.
• Falls and hip fractures caused by the balance problems that come with neuropathy are rising.