Beating Neuropathy & Chronic Pain» Podcasts

Russ McCann is back again for another show of Beating Neuropathy. Metabolic syndrome is once again the topic of the hour. The five risk factors of metabolic syndrome is being overweight in the stomach area, having too much fat in your blood steam, not having enough good cholesterol, having high blood pressure, and having high fasting blood sugars. The most simple solution to metabolic syndrome is to lose weight. This gets rid of the fat around your stomach, which is risk factor number one. You would lower your blood pressure by getting to a healthier weight. This would also help to lower the amount of sugar in your blood stream. Metabolic syndrome is a controllable condition. If we do not start to prevent metabolic syndrome then it could overtake smoking as the number one cause of heart disease. In order to lose the weight you need to be able to not only change your habits but to change your lifestyle. Dr. Hayes and many other professionals offer an amazing program called Take Shape for Life. Take Shape for Life is a program that teaches you to how to live by these healthy habits. With this diet, you would eat every 2-3 hours and drink plenty of water. You would be able to lose 2-5 pounds a week. Over a period of 16 weeks you would lose around 50 pounds. The meals are very nutrient rich, which increases your energy to burn more calories. Once you reach your goal body mass index you would be able to eat more of the right kind of food. Once at this point, you have to increase your exercise to burn fat. To get more information on the Take Shape for Life program please visit www.drjohnhayes.tsfl.com.  

Special guest Russ McCann is joining us today on Beating Neuropathy to speak with us about the dangers of metabolic syndrome. Another self-induced cause of neuropathy can be obesity. It is very important to manage your weight in a healthy way to avoid health risks. One of the health risks of being overweight is inflammation that can eventually lead to neuropathy. Russ himself was overweight and finally one day decided that he was going to improve his lifestyle. Over a period of 18 weeks, he managed to lose 75 pounds. Once losing the weight, he was able to get off some of the medications he was on. His doctor told him before losing the weight that he was in risk of having metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome has five risk factors. The first risk factor is having belly fat. The second risk factor is having high levels of fat in your blood stream, which can lead to heart disease. The third is to have low levels of the good cholesterol in your body. The fourth risk factor is high blood pressure. The fifth risk factor is to have high blood sugar when you are not eating. If you have three of these risk factors then you are at great risk of having metabolic syndrome. It only takes one of these risk factors to have a large effect on your health and your lifestyle. Metabolic syndrome is becoming more and more common because people are very overweight. The only way to successfully control metabolic syndrome is to change diet habits and exercise habits. The biggest mistake is to blame being overweight on aging. It is not normal for your health to fail just because you are getting older. Your health can be helped by changing your habits. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns email us at neuropathydr@gmail.com.  

There are other causes of nerve damage besides diabetes or metabolic syndrome. Some of these causes may even be self caused. Examples of this are alcohol abuse and cigarette smoking. Patients that put on weight before being diagnosed with neuropathy can have changes in blood sugar. It also creates an inflammatory environment in your body. Inflammation is a process that occurs in the human body when the tissues become irritated. Where you would normally after an injury or during infections see some swelling and redness inflammation can show up all over the body. When this environment is created it is not just neuropathy that has to be worried about. It could lead to other conditions like heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses. The best way to fix this is to create an anti-inflammatory environment in your body. This can be done easily by changing your diet to foods that stop inflammation. Another thing that patients need to be familiar with is their CRP levels. CRP means C reactive protein. The CRP is a test for inflammation. In the test you would be able to see very early forms of some arthritis in CRP levels. A lot of times when people that complain of being tired, feeling depressed and not following a good diet they have high CRP levels. Most of the time all that needs to be done to fix this is to change their diet. To create an anti-inflammatory environment you should change your diet to mostly plants. This means to eat mostly vegetables or small servings of grains. You could also snack on very small servings of fruit. An example of a small serving is half a banana. This can really make a huge difference in how you are feeling. Post your comments, or concerns or please email neuropathydoctor@gmail.com.

One thing that some patients have been told over the years that is not necessarily true is that they have to be diabetic to have neuropathy. Some common causes of neuropathy are diabetes , metabolic syndrome and chemotherapy. Many patients and physicians are not familiar with metabolic syndrome. A quick definition of metabolic syndrome is a problem in your body that causes issues with the way your body handles blood sugar and blood fats. When you take in too much sugar and do not exercise enough your body begins to store more fat. Fat serves as fuel for your body. Your body burns this fat to keep you energized throughout the day. When you being to eat more but you do not increase your exercise, you begin to store too much fat for your body to burn. This is becoming a big problem in our world because people are starting to get less fit and larger instead of more fit and smaller. This leads to people developing more conditions, including neuropathy, because of their metabolic syndrome. Neuropathy can be actually be diagnosed as the condition that is causing the patient to feel uncomfortable sometimes YEARS before being diagnosed as Diabetic. Many people with neuropathy can have normal tests when they are tested for nerve problems. In the beginning stages of neuropathy these test results are normal. This makes it extremely hard for a doctor to be able to test for neuropathy. A better way to diagnose the neuropathy is for us to look deep into the patients personal history. In the patient’s history, we may find past habits that triggered neuropathy. Please post your comments or send and questions, concerns to neuropathydoctor@gmail.com.

Neuropathy is just a technical term for "nerve damage". Chronic pain of very many forms usually comes with some form of neuropathy. Many doctors that treat neuropathy have patients with chronic pain conditions that cannot be explained. We discuss in this show diabetic neuropathy patients that were given the nutrient had improvement in their diabetes and their neuropathy. With this news we want to remind people that even though some nutrients can help you, you should never take it without your NeuropathyDR Clinician telling you too. It can have a very bad effect on a diabetic’s blood sugar if not taken as directed. When at a health care provider you should always let them know of the medications that you are taking. Cholesterol lowering medications have been shown to cause neuropathy and chronic pain. Even though it has happened, it does not mean that you should not take this medication. You should always check everything with your doctor and be honest about your concerns when a medication is shown to cause another condition. Even though cholesterol lowering medications are very effective there are other things to use. Patients with a better lifestyle with natural approaches can reduce their medication intake. When cutting down the use of medication you can greatly reduce the chance of getting neuropathy. If there are any questions, concerns, or comment please send them to neuropathydoctor@gmail.com.