What is neuropathy? Neuropathy is a stabbing, burning or tingling sensation.  It can be caused by diabetes, spinal stenosis, chemotherapy, shingles or nerve damage.

Western treatments may include surgery, but generally neuropathy is treated with drugs.  Some patients cannot tolerate the side effects of drug treatment or it may be ineffective and they seek out alternative treatments like acupuncture to help the neuropathy and manage the side effects of the drugs.  In many cases patients are able to reduce the amount of drugs they are taking and sometimes even stop taking them, completely managing their condition with acupuncture.

Treatment outcomes with acupuncture

In general, the more severe the case the more acupuncture treatment a patient is going to need.  Your acupuncturist will discuss your general health, how severe the pain is, how large the affected area is and how long you’ve had the condition.  From the acupuncturist’s assessment you will be given a custom treatment plan.  Patients who follow the treatment plan exactly get the best results.

Supportive treatment at home includes quitting smoking, getting regular exercise and good sleep habits.  Acupuncture can help support you in lifestyle changes like quitting smoking, getting better sleep and starting an exercise routine.  Sleep is critical with any chronic condition because when we are sleeping is when the body is healing.  Walking, yoga, chair yoga and stretching are great exercises to begin with at home.

Make sure you get yourself some good shoes and treat your body well.  Compression socks might be helpful too.

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Think about the people you spend the most time with.  Are they adding to or subtracting from your life? Is there anyone who, after you interact with them, you feel consistently drained or negative?  Everyone has bad days, but do you have someone in your life who is always complaining?If you have energy vampires around you, maybe consider addition by subtraction.  Sometimes boundaries have to be set for people you interact with to keep them from sucking your emotional energy.

Most of us do not have unlimited energy and we need to be careful how we give our energy away and who we give it to.  Be selective with who gets your time.  We are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with.  We don’t have control over who we must interact with like family or co-workers or a boss.

The people we spend our time with are important.  Its helpful to surround yourself with positive, supportive people especially when you are trying to make a life changes.  Having an accountability buddy, someone with similar goals that you can check in with can help you reach your goals.  Having a buddy with similar goals can also help protect you when you fall down.  When you are also in charge of keeping someone else accountable it helps you stick to your goals, too.

Its also good to take some time to reflect on what kind of friend you are.  Are you supportive of your friends?  Are you there for them when they need you? Do you emotionally dump on them without giving in return?  As women sometimes we have difficulty being direct or asking for what we want.  Are you being passive aggressive or are you not feeling heard?  There is always room for self-reflection and improvement for all of us.

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