Enlightened approach to diabetic neuropathy

New Diabetic Neuropathy Treatment Options

There has been a good bit of advertisement for a number of ‘new products’ for the treatment of diabetic neruopathy. Some of these products are very impressive, some, well, not so much.

I have been having some pretty good results using a combination of nutritional intervention with a recently introduced anti-convulsant “Lyrica.”

The trick to using Lyrica is using it principally at bed time, using a dosage sufficient to introduce deep sleep.  Generally, if the patient awakens feeling a little groggy, the dosage is close to being enough.  Introducing a good night’s rest is important for general health, but in the treatment of diabetic neuropathy it is a major blessing. Starting dosage is 50-75 mg at bed time, although the higher dosage seems to work better.  Increase to 150 mg and then 225 mg on 2-3 week intervals.

In addition to the Lyrica, and equally important, is the use of alpha lipoic acid (ALA).  The dosage to introduce is 250 mg three times daily.   After a few weeks, the dosage can be doubled, if the symptoms have not gotten significantly better (which they usually do.)

The combination is quite effective, about 80% of the time.