There are a few things that make docs simply stop and attribute ALL problems to what they perceive to be the cause....Those are, smoking, drinking booze, obesity, diabetes. If you are experiencing any problem, I agree with Bob, even a bunion....it will be attributed to the above issues. It is a cheap solution.

I think people with the above issues will not get as rapid of a response in general to non-emergency issues as those who do not have these issues. It is discriminatory.

That said, we live in a world of shrinking resources. Health care will become more and more scarce as baby boomer age. It will become very much, a do it yourself adventure.

We all know that smoking, drinking booze and obesity are not especially good things for us....

On the other hand I have seen the opposite, over exercising, undereating, etc.

Heck, I can tell you don't let a truck hit you at 50mph...head on...oh, by the way, that is NO problem, (until 20 years later)....the docs will tell you that you will be fine, (until after your litigation settles-and then all your problems are due to this crash)...All litigants of any kind, are 'sick or in pain' until after their litigation....no kidding, this is a mantra of doctors....'they will be fine after their case settles'. GARBAAAGGGE. They also experience discrimination. What the doc does not find, he does not have to 'testify' to.

The peripheral nervous system seems to be the ground zero for a lot of conditions. Some have been known for many years to cause PN. Others are yet unknown.

Some folks are born with neuropathies....

Some folks have good genes and manage to survive just about whatever they do to their body.

I think money is best spent on untangling the mystery of the pathogenesis of both demyelinating and axonal PN at the molecular level, and hopefully coming up with a medication to stop both kinds. So far, it appears that IVIG and steroids can intercept or stall the demyelinating kind, axonal needs some work yet.

i admire the incredible intelligence of these molecular scientists who work on this tedious endeavor. I respect any physician who looks beyond the obvious.

Another 1 packet a day smoker here, been smoking for about 40 years, i think most of us long term smokers who still smoke these days probably wish they had never started, they are extremely addictive and a very expensive habit.

Our goverment has the cheek to run horrific advertisements on TV telling us how bad they are for us, but still lawfully allow the cigarette companies to keep making them , wouldn't be all the money they get from cigarette taxes , the answer is simple, if we couldn't buy them we couldn't smoke, well that's my excuse & i am sticking to it anyway

I lived in the city most of my life, but for the past 7 years have lived in the country besides the sea, when i have to drive in to the city these days the fumes from cars, trucks, industry really makes me feel really sick, i can't wait to get out of the stinking joint, those toxic fumes can't possibly be any good for anyones health either.

I would be one of the first people to tell the younger ones not to smoke, so no lectures please, especially off reformed smokers they can be a real pain in the a....,
take care all,
Brian

Nide, Cyclelops and Brian,

I am going to have to agree with you guys as much as I hate to admit it...but I am a smoker too.

I just wanted to say I never noticed a difference either; one way or another. But I am certain it doesn't help matters. I just feel this way...if smoking caused PN then just about everyone would be coming down with it. And every one of my smoking friends do NOT have PN. Mine didn't come on until AFTER surgery so I have a whole different theory on how my own came about. Anyway, what I DID notice is that about 3 weeks ago I came down with a gastro bug of some sort and had to stop caffeine totally. The burning in my feet is gone! So, I am just staying away from it...not that I ever drank that much anyway.

My Dad I shoud say had a kidney that shot his blood pressure up.
So First massive heart attack. My Mama was told he would live
mybe 5 more years ,and that's how long he lived..

She said she wished she had let him smoke...No lectures but
all that throwing up was a bit much..My 33 yr. old nephew
started drinking very young,after being dig. with PN.,he
didn't stop drinking,he claimed it helped the pain.. We
all have our thing,those Dark rooms and furiture stripping,
who knows...Not a lot of the Drs.,some of them walk like
a Duck to,and all nurses go through a million parts of shoes
before they complain..

We have a smoke free so to speak town,at the hospitals can't smoke
outside anymore,perhaps that's why people are so nervous..I
have a Deck with fans,smokers are welcome.Ha Hugs to all. Sue

Let me make myself clear....I never, ever smoked. I suggest to folks that, they don't need me to tell them to stop....and they don't.

I feel like I am saying, "I never inhaled".... Again I will say some things are best not said.

I don't drink as it makes me very sick. I can ocassionally tolerate a glass of wine, but seldom choose to. Now back in college, I had a few rip snorters, but hardly what I would consider the cause of neuropathy. Booze never agreed with me.

I have never been overweight, actually I was an endurance athlete, in general, cycling, so not a sport where I beat my body too badly.

I had to eat pretty well, or I could not do well in races, so I usually weighed my ideal weight...and took vitamins. I was a vegetarian for a while, but that didn't last too long.

I can't figure out what I did wrong, other than be born with 'bad genes'...yes, i will blame it on others.

I have worked in the medical system, so I see folks who smoke, drink or are overweight, and their problems are immediately attributed to their 'habits'. I once remember we had a 'drug addict' come into the clinic. I recognized she was not a addict, and her 'tracks' were actually from cutting...she was a person who cut herself....of course others blew her off calling her a "prostitute who used her money to buy drugs"....I was appalled at their reactions and explained that often cutters were abused as kids, and her scars were not needle tracks.......her complaints however, were valid and she had a mass, likely a cancer...how easy it would have been had the physician, whom I respect greatly, to blow her off....he told the staff, 'I don't care what she is she deserves care.' thanks to him she got it.

A thoughtful practitioner, sees beyond the fact that some one smokes, or drinks or has unmanaged diabetes, past the 'blame' and to the core of the issue. Things are not often that easy to sort out.

People can drink booze to treat pain. It happened in my family...I saw my dad and his brothers do just that.

Most smokers wish they had not started, and need a lot of support to quit.

Most diabetics wish they had done better with blood sugar control....and most people wish they had been able to maintain an ideal weight.....

Could these things cause or aggravate PN? You bet. Is it the only thing that could be causing the PN? NOPE...but if the patient wants help, and asks to stop unhealthy habits, they need support.

Again I have had none of these issues and still have PN....

perhaps I should light up a pack, down a fifth, eat a wedding cake all while jumping out of a perfectly good plane.

I think we should do what we can NOW to help our health. We all have to live with consequences of choices we make. I have ocassionally downed a half of a pan of brownies...'It was the need of the moment'.

That said, it is still wise for doctors to look beyond the obvious in all cases. Things are not always what they seem....and we as patients need to do what we can to improve our chances at health, and not expect miracles from medicine.

When my kids get mad at me for me telling them motherly advice, I tell them, 'Sorry that is my job as a mother'. As a health care provider, 'Sorry, that is my job, to tell folks to have healthy lifestyles'....oh and wear your seat belt too...that has nothing to do with PN, but, in I can tell you from personal experience, they save lives.

Worked the night shift in ER,liked it,so I could go home get some sleep,
And be there when my kids got home...I was waiting for the day shift,
to pass on what happened that night. My good friiend of a lot of years
worked the day shift..A call came in a 1 car accident,we should be prepared.
That was bad,they came in and i didn't even know her at first..I started cutting clothes oh shoot no seat belt marks..I looked up and the ER Dr.
told me to leave..

She was a good nurse,but she would not wear her seat belt,she lived
in the country,always took a back road ,had her side window down..
She went right out of that side window into a farmers field..A farmer
was driving down the road ,stopped when he saw a empty car still running.
He looked around and had to go home and call 911..They found her
in that flield,and it took awhile..

She lived for only a short time,just never wear that seatbelt.. She was a good friend and a good nurse,a wife and the Mother of 3..It was awfull.

She didn't smoke,or drink,I don't think I ever saw her take any meds,
some in that feild did,but she said the seat beat messed up her scrubs.
Please where those belts be a good example..Thanks C very good Sue

Stories like that are always so sad. I know a seat belt saved my life and my two children's lives. I have had 21 additional years on this March 2nd....my little Dodge colt was hit head on by a 3/4 ton GMC with propane tanks in the cargo bay. We hit so hard, we would have been thrown across the county line. I had a comminuted sternoclavicular joint fracture-dislocation-(posterior) (among other things). I should not be here. I packed a lot of living into that 21 years---hopefully, I will pack some more living in.

It had to be traumatic responding to a call for some one you know. For a while I did rescue work and that was my worst fear. Good thing the doc told you to leave.

Maybe my nervous system is so screwed up, because of that darn pager going off and that adrenaline surge it caused....never knowing what you would find. I guess that was my way of resolving my own accident, and crummy care. No CT scan done....once again, some one made a bad call, judging a book by the cover. I give you credit for working in the ER for all those years. I know you get sort of used to it, but it takes nerves of steel.

On things that cause neuropathy.....I read that amitriptyline causes it....hmm...isnt that one of the cure alls for pain???

On things that cause neuropathy.....I read that amitriptyline causes it....hmm...isnt that one of the cure alls for pain??

I have read so many posts on these boards (and others) that
they (docs) Rx this at nite before bed.
I've also read that neuropathy is one odf the possible s/e.
Why take the chance?
I went off statins and demanded a non-statin for cholesterol control.
Diet and exercise probably would have been just as effective, but I have
trouble with both. But I don't want to take the chance that statins
will exacerbate my PN.

Just wanted to chime in. Not preach, just to chime in. Having been addicted to food most of my life, well it's indeed very hard to give up a process that is harmful. I never listened to anyone while I was growing up. And I grew up surrounded by Liliputians. My grandmother was 4 foot 11. She had 10 children. No one was over 5'4. My mom was 5 feet tall. Where the heck I came from is ANYONE's guess. Guess I took after my dad's side but he was 5 feet 10. His mother was about 5 feet 6. So genes are a major player (this is only my opinion).

We all pick our poisons. Our guilty pleasures. Unfortunately, when your addiction is food, well that's the one item we can't live without, now can we??

We don't have to drink, smoke, gamble, or do drugs. But we do have to eat.

So, in my case, I had to still do the thing that was killing me, but i had to LEARN how to do it. Took me most of my adult life, but it clicked. On, I still will indulge and have a brownie with my coffee, but that's the ONLY indulgence. I mean, I am human, and I enjoy a brownie with a cup of coffee after my dinner.

I have read all the postings from the smokers and the non smokers.

Smokers will agree with smokers, and non-smokers will never understand the brain of a smoker because SMOKING HAS NEVER BEEN THEIR ADDICTION.

Actually only a former smoker will ultimately understand how hard it is to stop smoking. My husband Alan stopped smoking at the age of 31. Now why did he stop smoking?? Ah, that's the big clue here.

My husband used to be an insurance investigator. He had to look at files of deceased people, look into the cause of death and make the determination about insurance policies.

He did this for a few years. He came to the conclusion,(after reading file after file), that all of these people who had died from lung cancer and emphasema and whatever, WELL ALL OF THEM SMOKED!!! (Now this is what he determined from the files), This has nothing to do with people like my landlord who puff all day long and they DON'T DIE!!! That's genetics if you ask me.

But for the other ones, the ones in the files, well, Alan said to himself. "Holy Mother of God, all these people smoked, what am I nuts??" and he stopped. That was HIS lightbulb moment. Sometimes no one gets their lightbulb moment. It's just the way it is.

I have a cousin whose father died of lung cancer at age 38. My cousin smokes and no one can talk to him. That's his business. His mother wrings her hands and says "but he knows his father smoked and died of lung cancer at 38 years old". I said "but his brain doesn't know this'. It's an addiction.

So people who smoke, well they will smoke. They will NOT SMOKE IN MY HOUSE,", and I will not go in their house. I do my darndest to not be around people who smoke." I don't want to breathe in second hand smoke. My doctor told me so.

But I completely understand how hard it must be to stop doing this behavior. All the endorphins kicking in and the seratonin that's going all over the place, well it makes you feel good.

So you just do what you have to do until you feel you no longer want to do it.

No blame, no judgement, just a friendly hug and understanding.

My mother smoked 5 packs a day. She couldn't quit.

I think the Tobacco companies should be put out of business. But it's a money game.

Hugs to you all.

Melody

as I do smoke - TO A DEGREE. I consider it the only 'vice' I have left. Given all the meds and all. That all said...I respect both sides in their opinions, BUT, I do resent the current attempts at 'regulating' my life and rights to smoke or not in my car, house or out in the open air.
It smacks of 'Big-Brother-ness' that government either local, state or federal is telling me WHAT I CAN OR CANNOT DO! They are already trying to legislate what to eat or not wherever we purchase foods, next could it be HOW we decide which doctors to go to? That might be the case under a universal health care plan - BUT there will be [hopefully] rules on how to decide what can and cannot be done. Taken steps further, how one transports them selves [either via personal vehicles or hired or public transportation] could be next. Then, legislation as to how warm or cool one keeps ones' environment for energy savings [whether wanted or not!].
Having this heavy-duty neuropathy, I certainly would hate that people who have NO concept of the pain I deal with [nor that of others] could legislate what I and my medical professionals choose to treat me with pharmacopically [is that a word?-think so] to help me cope/adapt/deal with that pain.
Seatbelts or not? Different issue. I've known folks to live or not because or because they did not wear seatbelts.... I wear it diligently, as a very close friend lived w/only 'spinal' damage due to wearing that belt.
Back to home? Is smoking a disease/condition or issue? IS PN a disease/condition or issue/symptom? Some 'addictions' are considered 'diseases', in my readings, they seem more like 'conditions/symptoms/issues' of other things going on. I'll leave it at that. Heck! The medical community can't even decide what 'pain' is! - j