Treating peripheral neuropathy

Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is a serious problem affecting more than 22 million people in the United States, according to The Pacific Chapter of the Neuropathy Association. One in 5 Americans will be diagnosed with this condition during their lifetime, including up to 60% of people with diabetes. Currently there is no cure for neuropathy. Treatment options are quite minimal, geared towards relieving symptoms with medications, but often no treatment of any kind is offered to patients. This study is a retrospective review of 48 charts of patients treated for PN from January 2008 through June 2010 at the Integrative Center for Healing in Cincinnati, Ohio. Treatment of neuropathy used high volt pulsed current (HVPC) electrical stimulation (MicroVas, MTI, Tulsa, OK), with a secondary therapy of stopping statin medication. Symptoms evaluated were pain, numbness, and condition of a wound, if present. With an average of 23 treatments, a statistically significant 83% of patients had improvement in at least 1 symptom. This warrants further study in treatment of neuropathy with HVPC electrical stimulation and/or stopping statin therapy. .