Overconsumption of alcohol may directly harm and hinder the nerves’ ability to communicate information from one body area to another. Chronic heavy drinkers may be at risk for several different alcohol-related neurological issues. Alcoholic neuropathy can be treated, and if it’s caught early enough, it can be partially or fully reversed. The biggest thing you need to do when dealing with alcoholic neuropathy is to stop drinking. This will halt the damage being done to the nerves and allow them to begin regenerating themselves. You also need to begin eating a healthy diet, and you may need to take vitamin supplements to improve your levels of B12, thiamine, Vitamin E, and folate.
How Does Alcohol Damage the Nerves?
If you are having difficulty avoiding alcohol, there are resources that can help you quit. Since nutritional deficiencies are partly to blame for alcoholic neuropathy. To combat these https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/what-is-the-life-expectancy-of-an-alcoholic/ deficiencies, supplementation with vitamin B12, folate, vitamin E, and thiamine may be recommended. Nerves don’t have a resilient ability to regenerate if they are severely damaged.
Causes of Alcoholic Neuropathy
A medical detox program followed by a comprehensive alcohol rehab program can manage alcoholism and help a person to get sober and stay that way. Many alcohol rehab programs help to manage co-occurring alcohol neuropathy stages disorders, such as alcoholic polyneuropathy. A program that caters to co-occurring disorders ensures that the alcoholism is being treated and so are any other medical or mental health issues.
The role of inflammation
Treatment for alcoholic neuropathy first focuses on stopping or significantly reducing alcohol intake. When speaking with a doctor, a person should be honest about how much alcohol they consume. There are several possible causes of neuropathy, and knowing about a person’s alcohol intake can help the doctor to make an accurate diagnosis. Heavy alcohol use can also impact how the kidneys, stomach, and liver function.
- Treatment options include steps to quit alcohol use and managing symptoms of the disease.
- The prevalence of peripheral neuropathy amongst chronic alcohol abusers is 46.3% (CI 35.7– 57.3%) when confirmed via nerve conduction studies.
- The data indicates that there is both small and large fibre loss in alcohol-related neuropathy, but that small fibre loss is generally predominant [3, 51, 53, 56, 59, 63, 86].
They get worse with more alcohol consumption, so if you stop drinking and seek professional medical attention, you can manage the symptoms of the disorder and potentially keep the nerve damage from worsening. Among patients with chronic alcohol use disorder, neuropathy is the most common harmful sequelae. It is estimated that in the United States 25% to 66% of chronic alcohol users experience some form of neuropathy; however, the true incidence in the general population is unknown. The majority of patients were middle-class, working men and continuous drinkers were more affected than episodic drinkers.
Other areas of the body
