can excess B vitamins burn damaged nerves?
 

I was wondering if one of the B's could cause burning in peripheral neuropathy. I was given large quantities of B to treat my peripheral nerve damage. It felt like it was exacerbating the problem so I stopped.

Each B vitamin is different. Japanese physicians inject 36 mg./day of methylcobalamine B-12 (that's 36,000 mcg!) to heal PN damaged nerves. It works with people and experimental animals. It's hard to imagine any amount of B-12 that you could afford that would cause damage.

On the other hand, some of the other B vitamins can be harmful to excess. A safe supplement limit would be either one B-100 formulation or two B-50 formulation tablets or capsules a day.

You can get info. on recommended amounts, therapeutic amounts, and recommended upper limits of the entire range of supplements, vitamins, and minerals at http://healthlibrary.epnet.com/GetCo...chunkiid=33802 .

Many B's are like Vit C...
 

in that whatever amount your body doesn't need/use simply goes thru your system.
The only one I recall and have and bad experience with is too much B6. That can build up and be detrimental. It had turned out the the multi-vite, b-complex and other supplements included waay too much B-6 So I switched brands and all is ok.

Don't be too distressed at the burning, it could be signals of healing. The majority of the B vitamins are key building blocks in helping that healing. - j

To add to dahlek's reply--
 

--it's quite common for nerves that ae "waking up" again, after long periods of damage or disuse, to recapitualte the same symptoms they produced in the process of getting damage. This has been noticed by people with peripheral neuropathy, spinal cord injury, radiculopathies . . .apparently, many of these strange sensory symptoms come from a brain trying to make sense of new and unusual input. When nerves start to re-grow and attempt to reconnect to their targets, the brain, at least for a while, has trouble interpreting the new sensory data and may well interpret the info as painful, electrical, or any other weird sensation one might feel when nerve damage is ongoing. It does tend to recede after a while as the brain gets used to the new input, but it can be nerve-wracking (pun intended) while one is experiencing it and one does not know whether one is healing or experiencing new damage. It only becomes apparent which in long-term retrospect (months to years).

Thanks for clarifying that Glenntaj. :)

It took two years for the PN to disapear in my hands. I had a cervical fusion in 2004; PN came on 6 months after that. Had another cervical fusion in Sept. 2006; PN completely went away in hands. The nerve damage or pain was radiculopathy NOT PN prior to the first fusion. I believe once the nerves were freed up, it is as you say, the brain did not know how to interpet the new signals and I may have had "windup" and the peripheral nerves were on fire due to the decompression of the spinal nerves. But in any case, it did heal and stop. So, yes, a sign of more burning CAN also be a sign of healing and not worsening.

I am just glad you made the distinction between radiculopathy and peripheral neuropathy. They are two different processes; both causing neuropathic pain.

nerve regeneration pain
 

I didn't realize the nerves would burn again when they are coming back to life, but I can see that it make sense. I had so much PN that I've been a burning mess, but I know there are lots of others out there going through the same thing. At least there is hope that they can be healed. I do think that the one capsule had too much B6 and it aggravated the problem. I guess I just have to be patient and ride this out. Thanks.

I should add one more thing which is really strange.

I had a total hysterectomy in 2000. All this time I have been on HRT (Vivelle dot., .05 mg transdermal patch). These past 7 years I have never lowered the dose as I believed I was fine and per my ob/gyn I was. But I did ask her on occasion if estrogen could cause burning or sensory disturbances and she said yes. So, I experimented because we both thought I needed more.

Just recently I have had to change and go to another ob/gyn because the other one is downtown and it is very hard for me to drive there anymore with spinal problems.

To make a long story short, I am now 50 and my requirements over the last 7 years have changed. So, the new ob/gyn said I could lower it to .025 and hopefully I can come off of this in another year and take Fosomax or something similar along with Calcium and D. So, I switched and for 3 weeks now have been at a lower dose.

Anyway, I could NOT believe it! The cramps, pain, burning in my lower legs, ankles and feet have also stopped! I do have lumbar issues and still have radiculopathy but it is so much easier to tell now what is what. Instead of wondering what was causing what. I KNOW what radiculopathy feels like and this wasn't it and I mean the burning sensations. Or it could be that my lower half has finally caught up to the second fusion I had in my neck. I really don''t know.

So, there you go. You just NEVER know especially with an idiopathic diagnosis.

And I hate to say this but I never really did take the B vitamins. And it was only because I was tested and was never deficient in it. I am just saying you have to look at sooooooo many different things. I just never knew that some of the sensory disturbances were being caused by the little ole estrogen patch or rather too much estrogen.

Could be...
 

... it's due to the treatment beginning to work? After all, the treatment is supposed to regenerate nerve function or the nerves themselves right? It would seem that the discomfort might be a sign of the nerves beginning to get better.

What does your doc say it might be?

Barbara