The Houston International Festival is coming up, spotlighting Australia with music, dance, activities for children, and great international food and crafts. The last thing you want is to be bothered by painful tingling in your feet, which can ruin your experience at the festival.  You may not know it, but peripheral neuropathy doesn’t just affect those with diabetes. There are other contributing factors that can cause loss of sensation in the limbs.

Since diabetes is the most common cause of this nerve damage, certain other factors are often overlooked. Some of these causes include excessive consumption of alcohol, hypothyroidism, amyloidosis (abnormal protein being made in the body), vitamin deficiencies, HIV, and undergoing chemotherapy.

To treat neuropathy, the underlying cause needs to be fixed. If you have diabetes or hypothyroidism you need to make sure you are carefully managing your disease with medication and regular visits to your doctor. If alcohol abuse is the reason, you should abstain from drinking. Make sure you are getting all the vitamins you need, especially B1, B12, and folate. If all else fails, there are certain medications that can help with the treatment of the pain.

Remember: if you suffer from peripheral neuropathy, you may not feel it when some sort of outside trauma occurs, especially to your feet. Checking your feet daily to make sure there is nothing out of the ordinary is crucial to maintaining your overall health.

Call Dr. Robert Parker at 281-497-2850 to schedule an appointment at Parker Foot and Ankle located in Houston. Our job is to keep your feet healthy, so that you can go on living your life and not worry about missing out on things because of pain.