Can One Night of Drinks Cause Irreversible Damage to PN??
 

I have been searching this forum for months and have posted a couple of times about my increasingly worsening peripheral neuropathy. Like many of you, my doctors told me this was NOT alcoholic neuropathy. After reading everything the users have expressed on this site, I decided to quit gluten, simple sugars, alcohol, etc. since they seem to all make the symptoms worsen for you all. And I have been on a vitamin regime of B-complex, sublingual B12, Vitamin C, Alpha Lipoic Acid/L-Carnitine, and Benfotiamine.

Last Friday, I was out with friends and family who were all imbibing as usual. I decided to join in and had 3 vodka sodas (which is a lot for someone who has not been drinking and is fairly small). Needless to say, I was pretty buzzed and feeling good.

The next day I felt tired and a bit hungover but my neuropathy did not seem to be any different. Now it is 4 days later and I am a train wreck! The pain in my feet is just awful to the point it hurts to stand too long. My hands are sore and my legs feel like they are falling asleep half the time.

I am sure now that the alcohol combined with my excessive dieting has caused all of my problems. There is no other explanation as to why all of a sudden it has become so much worse right? Btw that is a rhetorical question!

What I want to know is could this one night have caused irreversible damage or could the nerves just be irritated??? I made an appointment with my doctor but it is not for several weeks and I am really scared :(.

No, I don't think drinking one night caused permanent damage.

It did probably irritate it, cause it to flare that can last a few days. I certainly have had a melt down with eating carbs/sugar and paid the price for days afterwards with bad flares.

It could also simply be a flare and not caused by anything other than that is how pn is sometimes. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to flares, things I think will cause it sometimes does not then other times it flares and I have no idea why.

No.

Hugs, Elaine

How excessive was this dieting? If you had done the awful "low fat" type diets, you would have low levels of essential fatty acids...and these are used to maintain and repair the nervous system. This is why we don't hear about "low fat" diets much anymore. You need a certain amount of good fats daily to maintain yourself. (Omega-3's).

I don't know where you are from but the weather this morning on CNN was significant. Several LOW pressure centers are going to sweep thru the US all week, one right after the other. LOWs are significant for flares. Anyone with chronic pain, is going to feel pretty crumby this week, I expect.:rolleyes:

Hopefully you do have it as its one of the few that are reversible. In any case its a toxin thats really going to irritate damaged nerves.

I have it and my PN stopped spreading exactly the day I stopped drinking but even one glass of beer and I light up like a Christmas tree :(

Thank you for the response and for pointing out the weather change. The dieting has been an ongoing lifestyle for me probably for the past 25 years. I just watch every calorie, but I definitely eat fats. It is more carbs and sugars that I avoid and I eat a lot less than your average person. But I eat seafood every evening pretty much, especially salmon, so I would think omega-3s would not be an issue. My morning smoothie also contains protein powder with omegas. I do happen to use stevia almost everyday and sometimes sucralose as well. I wonder if this contributes to neuropathy? I have googled it and found people who swear it does but then again you could probably google organic spinach and find someone who says it caused their medical problems!

My feet, hands and legs are still the worst they have ever been this morning. I hope you all are right since it seems hard to believe that even if this is alcoholic neuropathy, that one night of drinking could cause this much damage...but I am encouraged (if that is the right word for it) that many of you have flares and cannot find the root source or in Stacy2012's reply bad eating. That indicates that this may pass...oh but I am taking 125 mg Tramadol a day and it barely touches it and have not had to take it in a while :(

Thank you everyone for your replies. It is difficult to find real life experiences with this pain anywhere else, and nobody in my life understands what is going on because I "look" okay.

I'm getting the feeling that once the nerves are damaged—regardless of the original cause/reason—then anything that has a deliterious effect on nerves might best be avoided. OTOH, ya gotta live, and the occasional flare—if not permanent—may be worth paying the piper for once in a great while.

Just my personal opinion/observation—I could be wrong.

Doc

WELL SAID! Every once in awhile it is nice to feel normal again and live it up :)

I agree every once in awhile it is nice to feel normal again. Cat I'm curious to know if you were possibly dancing that night. I have tried that and pay dearly the next day.

I have flare and my son but it this way last week, "there seems to be no rhythm or reason for these flare ups mom. They just happen."

Hang in there. I hope your feeling better today!

That is funny! No dancing...I did not have that much to drink :winky:

I am not feeling better at all-still pretty bad pain in feet and legs feel like they are falling asleep all the time. Plus I am FREEZING! Usually my flares do not last an entire week or at least they seem to begin to abate after 4-5 days. This is just very strange and I ended up taking 125mg of tramadol over the course of the day yesterday...not good :(.

I have chemo induced peripheral neuropathy going on 6 years. I have worked hard to ease the symptoms - nutrition, supplements, good sleep, therapy (to learn how to better handle stress), rehabilitative yoga, etc. I am feeling much better in the last few months. I finally found a huge flare up trigger for me - wine. I knew that the other alcohols - gin, vodka, etc., really bothered me so gave them up years ago. If I have even one glass of wine, I am in flare up for weeks. Since I cannot stand to be in flare up, I have given it up. It all depends on what you are willing to tolerate. And I no longer wish to tolerate the onslaught of a flare up with the extra pain, muscle weakness, stiffness, exhaustion, etc. I have found I can enjoy myself without drinking.

Okay so this cannot be a coincidence! I saw a new neurologist on Thursday who said an occasional glass of wine should not cause any problems. So, that night at dinner with friends I had one glass-and did not even finish it.

The next day I did not really feel any different except for gas and constipation, and a bloated stomach. By dinnertime, I was able to eat no problems. At the time I chalked it up to bad sushi. Today I feel like I have the flu and have not gotten out of bed. My feet and legs are tingling and I feel very nauseous. Not to mention my face is a severely bloated and I must be retaining fluids as my weight has gone up 5 lbs overnight.

Has anyone else experienced this? I am also on lizness and had to take a full dose yesterday to get rid of the constipation. This resulted in watery diarrhea. But I have had that happen in the past and not felt this awful!

Sorry to belabor the point again. I obviously cannot tolerate alcohol anymore. But what I want to know is if anyone else gets sick like this two days after having any kind of alcohol and what does it mean? My liver tests have always come back normal....same with all my vitamin levels...

Thanks again!

Just a thought. It seems that it still could all be from the bad sushi and not the wine.

I wish that was the case, but the other ladies with me feel fine. Two of them had some indigestion the next morning but then no problems. It just seems like too much of a coincidence.

Just wish someone could tell me that they experienced the same thing after only one serving of alcohol...and if they are better now? I keep asking hoping there is someone out there who can relate and explain it. Other times I have a bad flare and like the other posters say, there is no rational explanation. It would seem to me that it would have to be more than a little alcohol to make one this sick, but if the damage has already been done and this is alcoholic neuropathy, then would any alcohol at all make one this sick 2-3 days after ingestion?

My previous posts are obsessed with this question instead of just abstaining. After 7 months of no alcohol, however, I thought I would be in a better state. Since this was not happening, I thought what the hell why not?!

It is getting to the point where nothing seems enjoyable any more and that is a bad place to be. It is not so much a "mental" state of depression as just a feeling of what is there to look forward to that does not wear me out or make me obsess about what I am no longer comfortable doing? I cannot have a social drink, my exercise habits are becoming more and more limited, my appetite is decreasing steadily as the constipation becomes worse, and I am just so cold and tired all the time. Social events revolve around activities like sports (i.e. tennis, gym, etc.), running, eating out, happy hours and the like. I am sure my husband, family and circle of friends do not want to hear my complaints so I am turning to this forum not for sympathy but just to hear I am not alone and there is hope for a somewhat more normal and happy life :cool:

I have read Mrs. D post's on eating, vitamins and exercise and will be more vigilant about her suggestions. It sounds like some of you have had luck there.

To be honest I had the same initial reaction. As much as I know that alcohol consumption can seriously hurt when you have PN, and that it's probably best for most of us to be very careful with it, I tend to think that in this case it wasn't the culprit. Or not the sole one.

That said, it could be that you have become really allergic to either the alcohol or to one of the elements in wine.

I am so sorry to hear of your battle. Thank you so much for your reply. So, it does sound like a small amount of alcohol can be enough of a trigger to activate a long term flare. So frustrating but you are right-so not worth it!!

Anything else you have found really sets you off? I still do not know what caused my neuropathy but it is helpful to hear what to avoid even if it is different in each case...

I don't drink but on a special occasion but I can tell you since I now have PN I can not drink at all.

My mom and I had a drink while she came to visit one night, before the drink was finished ohmylanta was my feet in a horrid flare. So to prove myself right, I had another drink a week later, less strong, a strawberry daquiri, and again bad flare.

I can't and wont drink alcohol now.