Husband's peripheral neuropathy caused by poisoning...
 

My husband (who has bi-polar disorder) attempted suicide 7 months ago through poisoning with sodium azide. He has been left with peripheral neuropathy which is severe from lower calf down and mild in his hands. He is taking 1200mg(x3) gabapentin and 25mg amatriptyline daily along with two B vitamins. He is persevering with regular exercise to try to stimulate the nerves. Recent conduction test showed no improvement since last test three months ago. Has anyone else had eperience of PN through any kind of poisoning? Can anyone recommend any other treatment/supplements/ excerise that has helped? Does anyone have a success story of recovery?

My Peripheral Neuropathy is almost gone. My doctor guides my supplement regime. I take MANY great supplements for my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that is doing great. I have had it 20 years.

Three years ago on my wedding anniversary, my autonomic nervous system stopped working correctly. A nightmare. An antibiotic started that. Autonomic Neuropathy Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Sydrome-POTS. So I have neuropathy problems for sure.

I have almost gotten rid of the PN. The Autonomic Neuropathy is a huge deal to try to heal, people improve but I have never heard of people never having problems with orthostatic problems again. Same with CFS...you can just get much better.

Anyway, hormone balancing, supplements for my iimmune system and supplements for healing my nerves like Alpha Lipoic Acid, Benfotiamine, fish oil or the myelin, vit D, l Carnitiine and others have been amazing. Also, exercise to increase the oxygen needed to feed the nerves is important. The last thing we found is that cutting sugar down to almost nothing and cutting all bad carbohydrates have made much faster progress. B12 is great and a small amount of b6, but you have to be careful with B6. Testing for B12 and Vit D is important.

I take a lot of antioxidents also food and supplements. They help oxidative stress. Vit E, Vit C, NAC, (I use liposomal glutathione also).

I don't eat fried foods. I eat to heal the nerves. Very good foods like Kale, sea veggies etc help also. I also do not eat gluten.

I have no issues with high blood sugar at all, but the sugar and carbs have been crutial.

Also, staying away from toxins like medicines and other toxins, eating a LOT of fruit and veggies, all organic is important. This is all important for the health of nerves.

Welcome to NeuroTalk:

This is a difficult question.

This is a link to explain the enzyme blocked by this poison:

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

The resultant damage is mitochondrial in nature.
Here is one thread here explaining mitochondria:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post657829-1.html

I searched around trying to find the location of the damage possible and this type of poison is just not common and I couldn't find out whether it attacks nerves in the Dorsal Root Ganglion or not.

There is a special MRI that will reveal damage there:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread147771.html

Has your husband had a skin punch biopsy yet? To show if neurons in the skin are damaged? I think that should be done too.

When the dorsal root ganglia (which are along the spinal column) are damaged, they may repair themselves...this involves certain proteins that the cells make. Certain people cannot repair either because of genetic inability or overwhelming toxin damage there.

Sodium Azide is toxic to the CNS as well, and that may be contributory.

The supplements used for mitochondrial support are
acetyl Carnitine
CoQ-10
R-lipoic acid (stabilized form)
Biotin (taken opposite to the lipoic --at a different time of day)

We have many posts about these on both the subforum and
regular forum here. You can do a search and find many posts.
This is one thread:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread121683.html

One treatment for acute azide poisoning is using a form of B12, called hydroxocobalamin. However, 7 months out, use of this is not mentioned in the medical papers I saw.

One would also need to watch for cellular damage leading to
diabetes, or damaged thyroid gland. So testing for these should be done too. This type of damage would be secondary to the poisoning, affecting other metabolic systems, which may not recover well. Both of these problems cause PN also. It is also possible to uncover a genetic Charcot Marie Tooth problem with the trigger of the poison. There is some evidence that asymptomatic people with this mutation can develop symptoms after a toxin is consumed. The most recent..is Levaquin that appeared in the papers. This link to this is in the "Drugs that may cause neuropathy" thread on the subforum.

I would also suggest using Omega-3 fatty acids, for their anti-inflammatory effects, and their healing actions. Fish oil, 3 a day or Krill oil 2 a day would be a good start.

Also a good magnesium supplement works with the Omega-3's to help nerves heal up.
This is our magnesium thread:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread1138.html
(do not choose magnesium oxide--as it is not absorbed from the GI tract).

This would be a start for him. It is important to read here, all about what we have collected for patients with PN. You may find other things on this board, that may be helpful too.

Sally - I'm glad to hear that your PN has improved, thank you for you tips.

Mrs D - thank you so much for the time you have taken to give a detailed reply, we will investigate everything you have mentioned. We are keen to try anything that might help as his PN is very disabling.