Pain, tingling, numbness in your feet. If you have that distinct “pins and needles” feeling, you know what it is like to be suffering from peripheral neuropathy. And it is terrible! It is hard to try to get around with neuropathy, your pain is near-constant, and because of the reduced sensation in your feet, you’re less stable.
When you think about peripheral neuropathy treatment, you probably want the pain to go away, but you also want your life back. You want to be able to move in a way that lets you get back to doing the things you love. That is where physical therapy at FYZICAL Oklahoma City can help.
If the burning, tingling, and pain aren’t enough to convince you to take care of your feet and maintain your blood sugar levels, preventing a fall should be. Neuropathy increases your risk of falling, and every 11 seconds an older adult has to be treated in the emergency room because of a fall-related injury.
Can Neuropathy Cause You to Lose Your Balance?
Your feet are extremely important in your ability to maintain your balance. They send signals to your brain to help make the minor adjustments that keep you upright. But neuropathy interrupts these signals or prevents them from happening altogether. If you can’t feel your feet on the floor, you can’t respond to changes in the surface.
Think about those icy Oklahoma City winter mornings. When you step on the ice, your feet send signals to your brain to say you aren’t on solid ground. The same thing happens on wet grass, when you walk over gravel or sand, and when you catch your foot on a rug. But if you have peripheral neuropathy, even solid ground can be shaky. Let’s look at why that is.
Your Balance System and Neuropathy
When it comes to your balance, there are four factors at play:
- Musculoskeletal System: Your Muscles and Bones. These must be strong enough to maintain your body’s weight. If not, there is no amount of sensory input that can keep you from falling.
- Vision: Your Eyes. When it comes to balance, your eyes allow you to see objects, interpret terrain, and alert you to dangers that may be in your path. Think about how much harder it is for you to get around in the dark.
- Vestibular System: Your Inner Ear. The signal between your inner ear and your brain is the link between your vestibular system and your brain. These signals tell your brain whether your body is upright, in motion, or changing directions.
- Somatosensory System: Your Feet and Body in Space. Your somatosensory system is what allows your body to feel itself in space. When your feet can sense gravel under them, wet grass, or transitioning from tile to carpet, this is your somatosensory system at work.
Your feet, are vital in how your somatosensory system interprets where your body is while you are upright and moving (e.g., walking, running, jumping). Neuropathy interrupts the ability of your brain to receive neural signals from your feet leading to a loss of balance and ultimately falls.
Neuropathy prevents your body from using all four balance strategies. It eliminates the primary way your body feels itself and the changes in your environment. Neuropathy prevents your feet from alerting you that something is different underneath them, and it can be incredibly painful. But just because you experience balance problems due to your peripheral neuropathy, that doesn’t mean you are resigned to a wheelchair. Something can be done. Can peripheral neuropathy cause you some balance problems? Yes, but you still have 3 other components of your balance system that can help you overcome the balance challenges neuropathy presents.
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| When it comes to peripheral neuropathy, you can sit around and wait to fall, or you can get up and move. Moving and balance rehabilitation has been shown to improve balance and reduce the risk of falls for people with neuropathy. |
Neuropathy and Balance Treatment
When it comes to peripheral neuropathy, your physician may have some options for managing the pain, but there aren’t any great options for recovering the feeling in your feet.
Diabetes is not a death sentence, but a fall due to peripheral neuropathy might be. And the less you move, the higher the likelihood that you are going to have a fall. Despite your impaired somatosensory system, you can still Love Your Life!
You still have three other components to your balance system, and these can be strengthened to help you prevent a fall. Balance Rehabilitation is a specific area of physical therapy that targets not just your muscles and strength training, but your visual, vestibular, and somatosensory systems. The Oklahoma City physical therapists at FYZICAL are specially trained in balance rehabilitation.
Here are three things to manage your balance loss due to neuropathy:
- Challenge your vision. When you lose feeling in your feet, it becomes far more important to see changes in terrain or obstacles to be avoided. By working with a physical therapist under low-light or with visual conflict (e.g., things moving around you) you can prepare yourself to identify challenges before they lead to a fall. At FYZICAL Oklahoma City, our physical therapists use a wide array of tools including our immersive virtual reality system to challenge and strengthen the brain-to-eye connection of your vision.
- Challenge your vestibular system. When you cannot feel the ground underneath your feet, your ankles, knees, and hips have to work harder, even though they aren’t going to respond as quickly. Your vestibular system, once properly trained, will be able to pick up on subtle changes that can allow you to reposition your stance or give you time to find a safer path.
- Strengthen your muscles. Without the muscles to keep yourself upright, it doesn’t matter whether you strengthen your vision and vestibular system, your feet, legs, and ankles won’t be able to keep you upright. But if you keep your ankles, legs, and core strong they are going to help when you can’t rely on your feet to keep you balanced.
- Bonus Tip: FYZICAL Oklahoma City has recently partnered with Naboso Technology to offer improved two-point discrimination, which can help increase your ability to distinguish different surfaces you are walking across.
Diabetes and neuropathy can be managed if you speak with your physician, track your blood sugar, and make necessary dietary changes. Incorporating balance rehabilitation into your weekly routine can help you improve the quality of your life, it can stop you from losing your balance, and t can help you Love Your Life!
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FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Centers of Oklahoma City provides balance rehabilitation physical therapy in Lakeside, The Village, Nichols Hills, and surrounding NW Oklahoma City. Our floor physical therapists are specially trained to treat all types of vestibular dysfunction including frequent recurrent. Our practitioners take a patient-centered individualized approach that focuses on your health needs. If you are unsure about your balance, or you want to see the FYZICAL Difference for yourself, schedule a free consultation today.