In your body, your peripheral nerves send information back and forth to your brain. For example, if your hand touches something hot, your sensory nerves send the message to your brain and your motor nerves relay the message to move your hand. Several conditions can cause nerve damage, affecting how well your nerves can send and receive these messages. If you do not have a well-rounded diet, one that is missing some nutrients or has too much of a certain vitamin, you may develop nerve damage.
Poor Diet
Several vitamins that exist naturally in food play important roles in the maintenance of your nerves. If you do not get enough of those vitamins and develop a deficiency, nerve damage may occur. For example, a deficiency in vitamin B12 can cause damage to the nerves' myelin sheath, notes the Linus Pauling Institute. The myelin sheath, which is made out of a special group of cells called glial cells, wraps around the nerve. When the myelin sheath becomes damaged, signals are not sent as efficiently as before. Another vitamin deficiency linked to nerve damage is a deficiency in vitamin B1, or thiamine. Besides from a poor diet, a vitamin B1 deficiency can occur with alcoholism, as the excessive amount of alcohol consumed prevents your body from absorbing the vitamin effectively.
If you have diabetes, not watching your blood sugar levels may result in nerve damage. MedlinePlus notes that about 50 percent of diabetes patients develop nerve damage, which results from high blood sugar and a decrease in blood flow.
Excessive Vitamins
As too little of a vitamin can cause damage to your nerves, so can taking too much of a vitamin. Vitamin B6 is involved different neurological functions, such as in the formation of the neurotransmitter serotonin. While the vitamin is water-soluble, meaning you urinate out extra in your body, taking high amounts of the vitamin on a regular basis can damage your nerves. The Linus Pauling Institute notes that 1,000 mg of vitamin B6 a day or more can cause damage to your sensory nerves.
Effects
Whether the damage results from inadequate vitamins or too much vitamin B6 or blood sugar, you can experience problems with movement, sensation and involuntary functions, depending on which nerves become damaged. You have three types of peripheral nerves that nutritional problems can affect: motor nerves, autonomic nerves and sensory nerves. If your motor nerves become damaged, you may have trouble moving a limb, lose muscle tissue or experience muscle cramping. The autonomic nerves control your organs, so damage to these nerves may cause urinary incontinence, diarrhea, blurred vision, dizziness from a drop in blood pressure or decreased sweating. With sensory nerve damage, you may have pain, tingling, numbness or a burning sensation.
Testing
Diagnosing nerve damage due to nutritional problems involves two main steps: testing for nerve damage and discovering the cause of the damage. Your doctor may start the testing by doing a neurological examination. Your doctor may run several tests that checks the functions of your nerves. For example, she may perform an electromyogram, which records the electrical signals in your muscles, or a nerve conduction velocity test, which records how fast signals move down your nerves, according to MedlinePlus. You may have a nerve biopsy done, in which your doctor takes a sample of a nerve and examines it with a microscope. To test for nutritional problems, your doctor will take a blood sample and the appropriate test, such as vitamin B12 test, will assess the levels of the vitamin in your blood. To test blood sugar levels, your doctor will do a glucose test, which also involves drawing blood.
Treatment
Once your doctor has determined which nutritional problem led to the nerve damage, he can recommend the appropriate treatment, which can include dietary changes. If vitamin B6 toxicity is the cause, your doctor will recommend that you reduce your intake. The recommended dietary allowance of vitamin B6 for both men and women between the ages of 19 and 50 years is 1.3 mg a day, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. If the nerve damage resulted from a deficiency, your doctor may recommend a dietary supplement. For nerve damage that results from high blood sugar, you will need to control your blood sugar, such as with diet. Depending on your symptoms, you may take medications, such as gabapentin or duloxetine, to control your pain.
References
- MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: Peripheral Neuropathy
- MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: Diabetic Neuropathy
- Washington University in St. Louis: Vitamin and Nutrition Related Syndromes
- Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine: Nutritional CNS Disorders
- Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University: Vitamin B12
- Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University: Vitamin B6
