Twenty-five percent of people with diabetes develop diabetic neuropathy-glucose caused damage to nerves throughout the body, particularly in the hands, arms, feet and legs (peripheral neuropathy).
You experience tingling and prickling. Numbness. And pain-from annoying, to burning, to stabbing, to excruciating. Drugs hardly help.
"Many studies have been conducted on drugs for diabetic neuropathy, and no drug is really effective," says Anne L. Peters, MD, professor of medicine and director of the USC (University of Southern California) Westside Center for Diabetes, and author of Conquering Diabetes.
But a new study says a vitamin can help...
Less Pain and Burning
Researchers in Iran studied 100 people with diabetic neuropathy, dividing them into two groups. One group received nortriptyline (Pamelor, an antidepressant medication that has been used to treat neuropathy. The other group received vitamin B-12, a nutrient known to nourish and protect nerves.
After several weeks of treatment, the B-12 group had...
• 78% greater reduction in pain,
• 71 % greater reduction in tingling and prickling and
• 65% greater reduction in burning.
"Vitamin B-12 is more effective than nortriptyline for the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy," conclude the researchers, in the International journal of Food Science and Nutrition.
Latest development: A few months after the Iranian doctors conducted their study, research in the US involving 76 people with diabetes showed that the widely prescribed diabetes drug metformin may cause vitamin B-12 deficiency-and that 77% of those with the deficiency also suffered from peripheral neuropathy!
Anyone already diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy who uses metformin should be tested for low blood levels of B-12, says Mariejane Braza, MD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center and the study leader. If B-12 levels are low, she recommends supplementing with the vitamin, to reduce the risk of nerve damage.
Heal the nerves
"If you take metformin, definitely take at least 500 micrograms (mcg) a day of vitamin B-12, in either a multivitamin or B-complex supplement," advises Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, author of Pain-Free 1-2-31. "It's the single, most effective nutrient for helping prevent and reverse diabetic neuropathy.
"On a good day, the best that medications can do for neuropathy is mask the pain," he continues. "But vitamin B-12 gradually heals the nerves."
Best: If you already have neuropathy, Dr. Teitelbaum recommends finding a holistic physician and asking for 15 intramuscular injections of 3,000 to 5,000 mcg of methylcobalamin, the best form of B-12 to treat peripheral neuropathy. "Receive those shots daily to weekly-at whatever speed is convenient to quickly optimize levels of B-12," says Dr. Teitelbaum.
Resource: To find a holistic physician, Dr. Teitelbaum recommends visiting the website of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, www.abibm.org.
If you can't find a holistic physician near you, he suggests taking a daily sublingual (dissolving under the tongue) dose of 5,000 mcg for four weeks. (Daily, because you only absorb a small portion of the sublingual vitamin B-12, compared with intramuscular injections.)
At the same time that you take B-12, also take a high-dose B-complex supplement (B-50). "The body is happiest when it gets all the B-vitamins together," says Dr. Teitelbaum.
He points out that it can take three to 12 months for nerves to heal, but that the neuropathy should progressively improve during that time.
Also helpful: Other nutrients that Dr. Teitelbaum recommends to help ease peripheral neuropathy include...
• Alpha-lipoic acid (300 mg, twice a day)
• Acetyl-1-camitine (500 mg, three times a day)
