As many of you know...I have removed sugar from my diet. Not all sugar, I am sure...but all sodas, all sweets, etc....and I actually spent 17 or 18 days absolutely pain free except for one brief couple of hour period. Reduced my neurontin by half...and needed nothing to help me sleep at night (PM meds nor ibuprofen).

On Friday, I had the blow up from Hades with my boss...screaming, crying, etc...and by that afternoon the pain was unbelievable and by nightfall I was crying with the pain, daughter in law was at a loss and her friend was totally in disbelief at the pain I was in. It was as if I had never had a pain free day it returned so suddenly. Carried over into Saturday with a little less intensity. My sister finally insisted I increase my neurontin just a little (I so did not want to go back up with the meds) in order to get some immediate relief...so I did and Sunday was fine again with relatively no pain.

The pain was so bad that in the middle of it I thought about just giving up...having Dr. Pepper and a whole bag of cookies ....but decided I would just persevere and hope it was just a flare up due to the absolute stress of Friday!

Im thinking it stands to reason that if stress can cause your blood sugar levels to increase...it could easily bring on the pain just like if you were eating foods that cause the blood sugars to increase.

Any thoughts?

Stress is certainly implicated in increases in nerve pain.

It can be from any source--another illness, a sudden incident (accident, fright) or the type of situation you found yourself in--but it seems to produce inflammatoty reactions across a wide range of body tissues, along with increased levels of hormones that can play havoc with the nerves.

There's a lot of individual variation in this--starting, likely, with what one's "preferred fight-or-flight reactivity" is (Type A vs. Type B). Some people can handle stress better from a physiological standpoint, and for longer periods. (Some of these people handle stress by displacing it onto others--a pre-emptive strike. )

David (Wings) has written a lot about trying to avoid as much stress as possible when you have neuropathy, because you'll pay for it with increased symptoms.

factor..That you have been able to 'contain' sugar intake, well I really gotta commend you! It takes more than a LOT of discipline, it takes HEAPS!!!

One thing I'd read a long time ago, well before I had to deal with all of this was a 'reward' system for doing the good stuff and not feeling guilt. For example...IF I'd gone thru a seriously stressful day...'reward' was a mini=pak of 'M's'....no more no less. or a bubble bath, or something equally cheap, easy and immediately REWARDING!

The stress thing? You have to sort of 'remove' yourself from that type of situation either mentally or physically! Ideally both? Before things get really bad. Go web up 'Toxic relationships' and how to deal with them...
HOW you deal with them is and HAS got to be your decision...doing it tactfully is even harder... but once over and/or being dealt with in some form you will find YOUR own internal stress levels decreasing a lot. This is all we can hop for at times....dealing with it. I prefer to try to channel all that stress into more proactive positive methods to help me help myself...understand what all is happening to me, and what all my options are...then learn even more about how to put what energy I still HAVE to good/best use.

Glenn is right as well, it depends on what kind of situation you are in! Sometimes tho? It can and does feel really GOOD to cry and wail at the walls. I have done it, and wind up truly exhausted afterwards...if that is the case? Get it out! Get it over! Get on! Hugs! - j

It for sure is for me and anxiety as well. I really like biofeedback cause it helps train your mind to calm down and relax your body. It seems like if you tense the muscles it could aggrevate the nerves. I agree about not being in toxic relationships but to some extent with a job or others you can't help it so learning how to respond in a better way. Its easier said the done but self talk.

There was a comment about "tensing" up the muscles and making it worse. I HAVE DEFINITELY found that if i try relaxation techniques (slow deep breaths while remaining relaxed through those really intense, lengthy pains) it is much easier on me.

As for giving up the sugar...it really has not been that difficult (well, maybe for the people around me .......but like with anything else, I really have to make this a lifetime change, not just one of those temporary things where once the pain is better for a long period of time I think I can go back to the way things were. That is what I have done all my life, and I do recognize that this is not the same and I can never go back to that.

Has anyone heard ANYTHING about the effects of artificial sweeteners on PN....am really curious about that.