Mel,
Here's my 'take' on your question.

The body has myelinated (with a sheath) and unmyleinated
(with no protective sheath/coating) nerves, naturally.

Myelinated nerves can have the sheath affected and become exposed
due to outside reasons/causes.
Result- neuropathy.

Unmyelinated nerves can be disturbed more easily than myelinated.
(less protection because they naturally never had a sheath)
Disruption of the sheath doesn't necessarily cause the entire nerve to become unmyelinated - just a portion, but that's all that is necessary to cause a neuropathy
These nerves can be affected by weather change due to barometric pressure on our bodies.
Its not the weather itself, but the change of pressure in the atmosphere,
whether you're in the house or out- doesn't matter, the barometer is
the same, unlike the temperature - which can be different than the
outside weather.
The atmospheric pressure is what bothers the neuropathy-
pressure on the nerves that give signals to the brain that are
mixed and 'corrupt'.
The brain interprets theses signals as pain, or other Sx of our PN.

I am sorry its my mistake, Bob's right we have them both unmyelinated & myelinated naturaly, jeez its 2.am in the morning here, time to hit the sack.
good night, morning whatever

There are actually numerous types of sensory nerves, generally labelled with both Roman and Greek letters.

Take a look at this:

http://www.neuro.wustl.edu/neuromusc...other/axon.htm

While this gets complicated, the nerves can be basically divided into those that naturally have myelin coverings--all motor nerves fall into this group, as do many larger sensory nerves that sense vibration, position, mechanical touch--and those that do not (the so-called "free nerve endings"); these are either sensory or autonomic, and the sensory ones are responsible for temperature and pain sensation.

Once can have a neuropathy that damages the myelin coverings of larger nerves, OR one that damages the axons (fibers) in these nerves from the inside out. AND, one could have a neuropathy that preferentially damages the free nerve endings--the "small fibers". Such a neuropathy is by definition axonal. Some people have mixtures of all these types.

For diabetics, the most common presentation is that of a length-dependent small-fiber neuropathy, with symptoms of burning, stabbing pain and/or numbness. (These different symptoms may represent different stages of damage--though the pain of damaged nerves, which are sending erroneous signals to the brain that are being interpreted as pain, can be extreme, most neuros will say that means at least those nerves are still alive. Numb areas represent the death of fibers in that area. One can have both symptoms in the same area--some fibers damaged, some gone.)

A lot has been made in the media of diabetics with numbness, but many researchers, especially those who are working in the area of pre-diabetic, or impaired glucose tolerance, neuropathy, think that more people have pain symptoms first.

I have read both before,didn't hurt to read them again. I'm a diabectic,,
i have feet,calves,hands to elbow,across the back you can feel that
through the brest bone. Bob's article talks about Hysterical symptoms.
I think that what you get when you find out you have polyneuropathys.

I am having a good day so please feel free to ignore this,except i'm
really having a pain free day. wow Sue

Hey, I'm not burning today, nor am I freezing. I'm just fine and that's JUST FINE BY ME.

I shall contine to do my Methyl B-12 thing.

Thanks for all the information. I feel very blessed for knowing all of you.

Melody

"It's even more complicated than that....".Thanks, Glenn,
I knew you'd have more to say, I didn't have the background to go into it any further, but I wanted Mel to know about the barometric pressure.
That's the one that I get all the time. I can tell if a front is gonna move thru my area, one or two days in advance- my feet tell me so.

I did answer your question further yesterday but apparantly it didnt post. Bob and Glenn have covered it well.

Hi Bob, i found your post most interesting regarding Barometric pressure, i knew nothing of this affecting our nerve fibre's until i read your reply, so if you don't mind could you possibly elaborate a bit more to explain were the Barometric pressure is present at whatever certain heights in our atmosphere.
eg- As far as i know the earth's atmosphere is divided into several altitude regions, Troposphere-surface to 5 miles , Stratosphere-Tropopause to 31 miles, Mesosphere-Stratopause to 53 miles, Thermosphere -Mesopause to 420 miles, Exosphere- Thermopause to 6200 miles.

What i am trying to find out is, say a person was in extreme discomfort with terrible small nerve damage, if they were to board a plane and they turned up the inside tempature of the plane up to say 110 degrease F, but they were in flight and were above the Barometric pressure region would their PN symptoms dissapear all together ?

Something else i am confused with now, i can't work out is that when our nerve's are on fire and really hurting, applying cool temperatures to the affected area normally responds well or at least helps most times, but if its not the normal temperature but the barometric pressure that really affects our small nerves, then why do Pner's find relief by cooling down the area ?
With all that the scientific world can do these days, then wouldn't it be great for Pner's if they could come up with an apparatus that creates the opposite to what the Barometric pressure does, what a relief it would be for so many sufferers of this awfull disease.
appreciate any info on this,
thanks
Brian

I think they did come up with an apparatus. It's called a Hyperbaric Chamber.

But who can afford one??


Am I right? anyone?????


And if a person has small fiber neuropathy and is affected by temperature, change in temperature, like it gets worse before a thunderstorm, and then after the storm, you go AHHHH!!!! Where is the best place in the USA to live????

I think it's Arizona, or New Mexico

Any thoughts.


P.S. I'v saving up.

Melody

A nurse on the old board, years ago, was passionate about the hyperbaric chambers, wrote about sessions with it and brought other to using it.

I don't know enough to say one way or another.

rose