Neuropathy is more than just pain; it’s a disruption of your everyday life. You live daily with the burning, tingling, and numbness, and it can make even the simplest of tasks, like walking across a room, feel exhausting. But, here’s something to remember – your body is not broken, it’s inflamed, and this means there’s hope for healing from neuropathy.
Chronic inflammation is a prominent player in the nerve damage and neuropathy pain you’re living with. The good news here is that you can fight back against inflammation with food. Nourishing your body with nutrients won’t just ease your symptoms; it will support your healing and calm your nervous system.
Supporting your body by nourishing it with healthy foods isn’t a quick fix. It’s giving your body exactly what it needs to repair and thrive. Healing from neuropathy begins with what’s on your plate, and it’s not as challenging as you might think.
The pain you feel with neuropathy doesn’t exist in isolation – it’s often the result of a complex interconnection between nerve damage and chronic inflammation. While treating your neuropathy involves understanding its root cause, you do have one very powerful tool for reducing the effect of inflammation on nerve health, and that’s nutrition.
Inflammation is nothing more than your body’s natural response to injury or infection. In the simplest terms, inflammation is one of your body’s natural defense mechanisms. Inflammation becomes problematic when it’s chronic, rather than the acute type of inflammation you experience from an injury.
While acute inflammation serves an important purpose, chronic inflammation is the exact opposite. Chronic inflammation can be the result of lifestyle factors, such as inadequate nutrition or stress, and it can be connected to certain health conditions, such as diabetes.
In fact, chronic inflammation is associated with many of the chronic health conditions our society faces today, from cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disease, cancer, and mental health, to nerve health and neuropathy.
When chronic inflammation is present in your body, there are inflammatory molecules, like cytokines and free radicals, that disrupt blood flow to peripheral nerves, damage the protective sheaths around nerve cells, and heighten your nerve pain sensitivity.
The foods you choose to nourish your body with can either fuel or fight inflammation. When you consume high amounts of refined sugars, saturated fats, and processed ingredients, your blood sugar spikes, and the inflammatory response kicks in.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we know that inflammation can be reduced through healing dietary choices. Consuming foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, magnesium, antioxidants, and other key nutrients helps to support your body by reducing inflammation and promoting nerve repair.
For your neuropathy, choosing foods that nourish your body can ease and repair neuropathy symptoms. You can experience:
Filling your plate multiple times a day with a rainbow of vegetables is a great foundation for nourishing your body with anti-inflammatory foods. For the most part, all vegetables offer anti-inflammatory properties, with a few exceptions.
For example, you might want to go easy on potatoes, with the exception of sweet potatoes, when adopting an anti-inflammatory way of eating. Potatoes can cause blood sugar spikes, especially if your neuropathy is diabetes-related, leading to an increased inflammatory response.
Potatoes are also part of the nightshade family, which some people are sensitive to, including people with arthritis and autoimmune conditions. Other members of the nightshade family include tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, and eggplant. It’s smart to assess your own reaction to nightshades when deciding if nightshades can be included only in moderation as part of your anti-inflammatory eating plan.
Now, for the vegetables that you can load your plate up with. Here’s a short list of favorites:
Fish can be a wonderful source of omega-3s and healthy proteins to fight inflammation. Fish like salmon are high in omega-3 fatty acids, including DHA and EPA. These types of fats not only reduce inflammation, but they also help to improve the health of your cell membranes, which is protective for nerve health.
Berries, packed with antioxidants, are among nature’s best gifts. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are packed with anthocyanins, which fight free radicals and reduce inflammation. The compounds in berries also help to protect your nerves from further oxidative damage. Plus, berries are a sweet treat without a huge blood sugar spike.
Avocados are nutrient-dense, contain healthy fats, and provide a wonderful satiety factor due to their creaminess. Avocados contain powerful vitamins and antioxidants, including vitamin E, vitamin C, and carotenoids, all of which work together to produce a strong anti-inflammatory effect. If you love chips and guacamole, try substituting regular fried tortilla chips for baked chips, or choose fresh veggies instead to boost the anti-inflammatory power.
Nuts and seeds, in moderation, are excellent additions to your anti-inflammatory food list. Almonds, walnuts, cashews, and pistachios are just a few examples of how nature has packed a load of anti-inflammatory goodness into small packages. Nuts and seeds are high in nutrients like B vitamins, magnesium, and omega-3s, all essential for calming inflammation and supporting nerve repair.
Moderation is key here. First, nuts are calorically dense and taste so good that you can over-eat them, which can be a dangerous combination. But some nuts, like pistachios, are also high in vitamin B6, which in high amounts can hinder nerve repair. Eat your nuts and seeds, but limit consumption to no more than ¼ cup per day.
When eating to reduce inflammation, what you don’t put on your plate is just as important as what you do. Certain foods produce a strong inflammatory response in your body, and can slow healing and nerve repair.
The main culprits to avoid are any foods containing:
While gluten and dairy are more significant issues for people with known sensitivities, they are known to produce an inflammatory effect in most people. Even if you don’t feel you’re sensitive to gluten or dairy, it’s best to reduce or completely avoid these foods when healing from neuropathy.
Neuropathy can feel overwhelming, but nourishing your body with anti-inflammatory foods offers a path toward relief and resilience. An anti-inflammatory diet, rich in whole, nutrient-dense foods, is key to managing symptoms and supporting your body’s natural healing process. Nutritional changes can be hard, but each step brings you closer to regaining control of your life from neuropathy pain.
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In God and in Health,
Dr. May