Dehydration and Peripheral Neuropathy
 

How does dehydration affect nerve health in general and peripheral neuropathy in particular? What is the effect of a dry room in winter (e.g., below 30%)? Does dry skin make PN worse?

One site claims:

BBC:

Dehydration also makes the blood thicker.

For people with PN this is definitely not good. In fact some
PNers have increased proteins in the blood already making it thick to begin with. (MGUS etc)

Thick serum does not flow in the little end capillaries very well.
And there is increased risk of blood clotting.

So drinking lots of water is important for this reason.
Eating high fat diets also clog the blood up. This was demonstrated in normal volunteers in studies not to long ago.
Too low a fat diet will starve the nerve repair systems. So only consume moderate amounts of "good fats". Avoid things like ice cream binges...or huge meals of ribs, bacon, etc. Try to get that saturated fat intake down as much as possible.

Dehydration will raise BUN-- blood urea nitrogen... this is seen when people have long fasts, before blood work.

Does this happen from a diet that is too protein-rich? Or some other reason(s)?

Read this just now:

High fat and high triglycerides visibly thicken the blood.
Ask any phlebotomist who draws blood all day long, and they will tell you who is dehydrated and who has really high triglycerides.
I've been told that some triglycerides are so high the fat rises to the tops of the tubes!

Some young adults on Accutane can test out at over 1000!

I know there are some links on protein/blood viscosity, but I think they demonstrate less of an effect than fat content.

Amino acids do not clump together like the MGUS peptides. The more clumping and longer the chains, the more viscous the serum becomes.

It is really important to drink enough non-diuretic fluids therefore, both for the kidneys and for keeping the blood fluid.

Unless you ohave some medical reason not to it is always a good idea to keep well hydrated. PNers do tend to have very dry skin and mucus membranes. The extra water helps. As long as you have good kidney function is will help to rid your body of some of the toxins. If your urine is not very clear it can be a sign that you are slightly dehydrated. Also, dehydration can cause stomach cramps. Hope this helps. hopeful

You know about the myelin sheath around nerves?

I just read that myelin is about 40% water. (The dry mass of myelin is about 70 - 85% lipids and about 15 - 30% proteins.)

So perhaps the myelin sheath is affected by dehydration.

There's a paper on this:

"It is the purpose of this paper to present an evaluation of the myelin sheath damage produced by variations of fixation, dehydration, and embedding techniques ...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...08/pdf/429.pdf

"Myelin increases electrical resistance across the cell membrane by a factor of 5,000 and decreases capacitance by a factor of 50."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myelin

"Thus, myelination helps prevent the electrical current from leaving the axon. . . Damage to the myelin sheath and nerve fiber is often associated with increased functional insufficiency."

Myelin damage could explain nerve hyperexcitability. Can a person with burned-off myelin experience 5,000x the nerve jolt as those with perfectly healthy myelin?

"Hyperexcitability at sites of nerve injury depends on voltage-sensitive Na+ channels."

"Na+ channel blockers consistently quenched neuroma firing, and they did so by suppressing the process of impulse initiation."

(They used lidocaine as a sodium channel blocker.)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7965019

I've suspected for some time that I have sodium-channel issues. Ever since I watched an episode of Mystery Diagnosis where the baby would die when he mother touched her. (I also had questions about calcium.)

Myelin damage occurs in MS too. In fact there is a new theory circulating in the MS community that antioxidants may prevent that. Pycnogenols and grapeseed extract are good for this.
Some patients with RSD also use grapeseed extract, and I often do myself. This can really help prevent damage and encourage healing.

Any inflammatory process can damage myelin. However, there are systems to fix that. When damage exceeds repair, then there are problems. Statins for example... inhibit repair. This has been shown recently in studies.

As far as the water content goes, all our tissues have a substantial water content. It is one function of our skin to keep water inside us. Therefore poor fatty acid consumption...these are called ESSENTIAL for a reason.... leads to dry skin and water loss. Essential fats also help repair the myelin and cell membranes, and receptor sites. It is critical to consume Omega-3's (including flax) and Omega-6's (sunflower oil, soybean oil etc) in a ratio of 1:5 maximum in order for the protective and repair functions in our bodies will work properly.
We cannot LIVE without essential fatty acids, just like we cannot live without Vit C. Both of these nutrients have to be consumed with food. We do not make them in our own bodies.

edit to add:
There are also different forms of dehydration. Simple water replacement is the most common.

But people can become depleted of sodium (heat/sweating, some drugs), or potassium (diarrhea, some drugs, or poor diet), or both.
Low calcium is less common, because our bodies will borrow calcium from bone in a pinch. So rehydration may require use of electrolytes or not depending on the situation.

Half Measures
 

** I did not get any relief until I took Neurontin and Lyrica in high doses. Just a little friendly advice:)

I just started on the grapeseed. I'm taking as many antioxidants as I can find. I love R-Lipoic Acid. I like how it regenerates VitC and VitE. Ingenious! I thought CoQ10 was amazing but RLA is off the hook.

I think I must have had and still have serious chronic dehydration problems because:

1) My EFA intake has been very low (accidentally) for a long time, even though I've had a decent diet with organic food, no sugar, etc.

2) I hyperventilate all night while I sleep (fast breathing v. strained breathing), e.g., one breath/second.

3) My skin is like nuclear reactor rods that get hot and don't cool down. Even when my BP is 120/80 and HR is 65, my skin won't cool down. It's not red, itchy, or looking in any way inflamed; it's just hot like a forehead during a fever.