Originally Posted by glenntaj

--an important point that bears repeating (and I'm not even talking about the point about eating more healthily even if one is not metabolically dyfunctional, as it wouldn't hurt to be even healthier).

Approximately one-third of peripheral neuropathies, give or take, can be traced to diabetes or glucose dysregulation. Of course, diabetes has a lot of other bad consequences, too. Many of these stem from the breakdown in circulatory efficiency caused by the overly high levels of serum glucose--specifically, the damage to blood vessel walls and their loss of resiliency. This is often referred to as an 'ischemic' effect, and it underlies many of the problems diabetics have with kidney function, heart function, and the like. As high blood glucose also damages connective tissue, almost any part of the body that involves transporting fluids through tubes--and, of course, that's most of the body (think digestion, elimination, etc.) can be affected.

In the case of diabetes, much of the damage to nerve seems to stem not from attack on the nerve tissue itself, but as the consequence of problems with the tiny blood vessels that nourish them, bring them food and oxygen, and take away waste products. Without getting into the complex chemistry involved too much (nitrous oxide pathways and all), it makes sense that if tissues can't get nourishment and/or if waste products build up in them, they don't function well.

Now, there are a number of other causes of neuropathy that seem to stem from this kind of 'ischemic' attack. In particular, a number of toxic and, especially, autoimmune causes of neuropathy--especially those that involve the anti-nuclear antibody autoimmunities that are characteristic of blood vessel and connective tissue disorders (a wide range of syndromes from lupus to polyarteritis nodosa to Bechet's to Churg-Strauss to scleroderma)--are known causes of neuropathy.

So, it seems that in people who are not diabetic, but whose neuropathy acts as if it is, it may be because the mechanism that underlies the neuropathy is similar--breakdown in circulatory sufficiency leading to 'starving' and 'poisoning' of nerve tissue. It follows that those steps that are useful in helping diabetic neuropathy by increasing circulatory efficiency and promoting healing of damage--which would include exercise, certain supplements, and a non-inflammatory and healthier diet--would also help other neuropathies in this 'family'.