Like an intricate telecommunication system, our body is wired from the top of our head to the tips of our toes with an incredible network of nerves. Nerves carry signals that tell our muscles to lift, our eyes to blink, and even when it is time to pull off the highway to use the restroom. The body hums along, coordinating our movements and reactions, when suddenly something happens that causes damage and our nerves let us know that pronto with a loud signal called pain.

Virtually everyone experiences pain. Pain is a survival characteristic. Just as the firetruck siren is unpleasant and its noise invasive, pain alerts us to a dangerous situation. Pain is so unpleasant that it spurs us to take action. We don’t even have to think to withdraw our hand from the hotplate—our nerves do it for us in milliseconds.

If we did not have pain, we would not survive long. Our broken bones might go untended, our diseases undiagnosed, our skin injuries untreated. Therefore, we should grudgingly admit that pain is our friend, at least sometimes.

So, our nerves carry pain signals when we are ill or injured. But what happens when the nerve itself is inflamed, impinged, ill, or injured? That is a different flavor of pain entirely. Also, when the nerves are sick, they do not work correctly and often send severe pain signals when in fact there is not any serious physical distress. In fact, even if you have an amputated limb, your nerves may give you the sensation that you “feel” pain in the missing limb. They call this phantom pain, but it is very real.

There are lots of problems that have nerve health at the core, including sciatica, trigeminal neuralgia, and peripheral neuropathy, “peripheral” in this case meaning hands and feet.

Nerve damage can also be the result of an accidental injury or a chemotherapy side effect. Shingles is a combination of viral reactivation with nerve tract involvement.

Influence of Blood Sugar on Nerve Health

Probably the most common chronic nerve problem is peripheral neuropathy. It is often associated with diabetes, because the abnormal blood sugars are very damaging to the nerves. If not well managed, the majority of people with diabetes will develop nerve problems, especially peripheral neuropathies, over time. These are called diabetic neuropathies.

If your problems are related to abnormal blood sugars, the first step is toward healthy blood sugar. My favorite herbal protocol for Type 2 diabetes is a clinically studied herb called Hintonia latiflora, proven to reduce blood sugar levels, along with quality berberine and curcumin products. For more information on blood sugar balance, please see my blog on this website entitled “How to Balance Blood Sugar for a Longer and Better Life.”

Nerve Inflammation and Healing

Nerves are notoriously difficult to heal and repair. In most cases, you have to first reduce inflammation. Inflammation causes swelling, pressure, and improper nerve conduction. Inflammation of surrounding tissue causes impingement disorders. The two best herbal nerve inflammation mediators are curcumin and boswellia.

Scientific studies on curcumin have demonstrated its ability to protect nerves from damage in the first place, reduce inflammation in the nerve, and stimulate nerve regeneration. In an animal study of spinal cord damage, curcumin was found to facilitate nerve growth via its activity on inflammation and neurotrophic factors.

Since curcumin is difficult to absorb, it is more therapeutic to use enhanced absorption curcumin. There are a few methods used to boost absorption. The most clinically studied enhanced curcumin utilizes turmeric essential oil in a patented process called BCM-95.

Boswellia is not the inflammation powerhouse that is curcumin, but the type of inflammation it influences is hard to treat. Boswellia’s great strength is its ability to reduce 5-lipoxegenase (5-LOX) inflammation. There is no over-the-counter drug—no ibuprofen, acetaminophen, aspirin, or naproxen sodium—that touches 5-LOX inflammation.

Studies have shown that 5-LOX is a key enzyme in the creation of leukotrienes, and this has been implicated in inflammatory central nerve system disorders. Boswellia’s ability to downregulate 5-LOX inflammation is crucial to treatment and recovery.

One especially powerful compound in boswellia is called acetyl keto-11 beta boswellic acid, or AKBA. Unstandardized boswellia can have as little as 1% AKBA. For better effectiveness, a standardization of at least 10% AKBA is best.

B Vitamins Needed for Nerve Health

The family of B vitamins is intimately involved in many crucial processes by which nerves function. Suboptimal levels of B vitamins can be problematic with regards to nerve health.

One crucial B-vitamin is B1 (thiamine). Vitamin B1 comes in two forms, water and fat soluble. The fat-soluble variety is called benfotiamine, and it can achieve 5 times greater concentration in the body than the water-soluble form. This is especially good for nerve protection and repair. Benfotiamine helps to protect the nerve cells from the toxicity created by excessive blood sugar levels. It has also been proven in human clinical studies to reduce both pain and complications of diabetic neuropathy.

The active form of vitamin B12, methylcobalamin, is another excellent intervention for nerve disorders. Vitamin B12 supports the nerve itself and nerve activity that sends signals throughout the body. These are some of the very structures that are threatened by inflammation and damage from toxic exposure. A great many people have suboptimal levels of B12, meaning not outright deficient, but not in the healthiest range, either. And according to the journal, Annual Review of Nutrition, up to 15 percent of individuals over 60 are actually B12 deficient.

Other B vitamins are important also, and they work especially well when used together. In a published human clinical study, the combination of vitamin B1, B2 (riboflavin), B6, B12 and folic acid significantly reduced diabetic neuropathy symptoms. The length of the study was four months.

There are other vitamins and minerals that are useful with nerve issues, including chelated magnesium, pantothenic acid, biotin, zinc, and chromium.

Alpha Lipoic Acid Is My Hero

I have my own success story with alpha lipoic acid (ALA). In a dental procedure gone awry, a nerve in my mouth was severely damaged. Not only was it excruciating in the moment, it left me with a tongue that was numb on one side, just as if I’d had a shot of Novocain. I could not taste nor detect heat and cold on one side, and it interfered with my ability to clearly pronounce words. This was problematic as I give many (many) educational lectures across the country, and also via webinars and radio interviews. I was very alarmed. “Panic” might be a better word.

I met with a specialist who told me there are five nerve microsurgery centers in the US that did a surgical procedure to repair my injured nerve, but that came with a risk for more even nerve damage. He suggested I wait to see how much healing would occur, and if my nerve function came back at least 75%, it would be better to be content with that rather than risk the surgery. I was to come back in 90 days.

Fingers crossed, I set about to heal myself as quickly as possible. I took all the supplements I have thus far mentioned, but the centerpiece to my regimen was alpha lipoic acid. I took 600 to 1,200 mg a day, every day for three months.

I looked at the published human clinical trials on ALA, and saw its effectiveness for diabetic neuropathy, chronic neck pain with nerve involvement, and carpal tunnel. I saw animal studies on nerve healing. Unfortunately, I saw nothing on nerve damage in the mouth, but decided—a nerve is a nerve, right? If it works in the neck and wrist and feet, why not my tongue?

At the end of three months I returned to the specialist and he was astounded—he told me he thought, given the damage to the nerve, that at this appointment, he was going to have to refer me to an out-of-state specialty surgical center. Instead, I had recovered 90% of my nerve function!

Alpha lipoic acid can be expensive and it is hard to work with in formulas because it sticks to manufacturing equipment. This results in many formulas skimping on their ALA content with low doses, sometimes as little as 20 mg. Remember that the minimum effective dose shown in human trials is 600 mg, with some studies dosing even higher.

Patience Pays Off

It is easy to become discouraged when dealing with nerve problems because nerves are slow to settle down and heal. Don’t be discouraged. People can continue to recover from nerve damage for months, even years. The way you feel now will not last forever. Products can be a powerful part of your healing and repair protocol, but give them at least three to four months to evaluate their effectiveness for you. Patience really pays off when you are working with nerve problems.

In my mid-30s, a food sensitivity hit me with the subtlety of a Mack truck. I noticed that after every latte, I’d almost double over in pain. I soon realized it wasn’t the coffee that was the problem, it was the cow’s milk. After that, I adjusted my diet and life became much better—even without ice cream.

But pinpointing problematic foods isn’t always so easy. What happens when it seems like almost everything you eat causes bloating, pain, or gas?

Introducing FODMAPs

Many foods contain carbohydrates called FODMAPs that can cause problems for people. The FODMAP acronym stands for “fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols.” In some people, these short-chain carbs— small sugars and sugarlike compounds— aren’t absorbed well by the small intestine. When they get to the large intestine, gut bacteria ferment them and use them as fuel. The fermentation causes GI issues of all stripes.

What to do

If you suspect FODMAPs may be contributing to your symptoms, talk with your healthcare provider. Meanwhile, keep a food diary for a week or two and record what you ate and how it made you feel afterward. Note bloating, pain, gas, bowel movements, and changes in stool. Record other information that may offer clues, such as whether you were highly stressed. The goal is to look for patterns and distinguish possible food triggers from other causes of digestive distress.

Pay attention to how these high-FODMAP foods make you feel:

■ onions and garlic

■ fruits such as apples, pears, mango, and watermelon

■ beans and legumes

■ wheat- and rye-based foods

■ some dairy products

■ honey

■ products containing sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol. These are often found in sugarfree products as well as some protein and snack bars.

A three-step experiment

A low-FODMAP eating approach is not intended to be a permanent elimination diet. The goal is to identify which FODMAPs—and what amounts—you can tolerate, with the goal of eating the least restrictive diet possible without symptoms. Many people find going through this process easier if they work with a registered dietitian or other professional.

The process follows three steps:

1 For about 2–6 weeks, high-FODMAP foods are replaced with lower-FODMAP alternatives. For example, instead of peaches, try kiwi or strawberries.

2 If symptoms improve, individual FODMAP groups are systematically reintroduced to determine which types and quantities you tolerate.

3 Foods you tolerate are returned to your diet in amounts that work for you.

Supplements to consider for FODMAP issues

When you’re dealing with digestive issues, it’s tempting to throw everything you can at it, including probiotics. But it may make sense to hold off at first. Some probiotics contain prebiotics such as inulin, FOS or GOS—fermentable carbohydrates that can increase gas or bloating.

Digestive enzymes offer a more targeted approach once a specific food-related problem has been identified. For example, alpha-galactosidase helps break down carbohydrates in beans and veggies that can cause gas.

Be patient. Finding your personal triggers may take time, but it can lead to a much more comfortable way of eating.

Your feet have a lot to tell you about your overall health.

How many times do you say, “I need to get off my aching feet” and then forget about them? It’s so important to pay attention to common foot problems and have a firm foundation underneath you. 

Look down at your feet. Those small appendages are supporting the weight of your entire body. That’s no easy task, and the right footwear is essential for good foot mechanics.

According to the American Podiatric Medical Association, 80 percent of Americans report suffering from foot pain and other common foot problems. It’s not hard to imagine that when your feet aren’t happy, it radiates up to your knees, hips and even your back. It’s also not hard to believe that diseases affecting the rest of your body also show up in your feet.

What Common Foot Problems Say About Your Health

Cold Feet

Do your feet ice your partner right out of bed? Common causes of cold feet include poor blood circulation (often as a side effect of smoking), high blood pressure, heart disease, hypothyroid, and anemia. Sympathetic dominance and adrenal fatigue cause increased blood flow to vital organs and less blood flow to extremities, making feet cold. While warm socks may take the chill off, increasing circulation by addressing the root cause is the best long-term solution.

Swollen Feet

Gravity isn’t always your friend. Blood and lymph flow are easy going down to the feet, but the veins have to carry it back. Instead of a pump system, veins have valves that open and close to work blood back up to the heart. This means swollen feet are a common foot problem – usually temporary, often caused by standing or sitting for long periods, especially during travel or pregnancy. 

If your feet are swollen on a regular basis, this can be caused by poor circulation, kidney issues, hypothyroid, impaired lymphatic drainage, or a blood clot.

Burning Feet

If you feel a burning sensation in your feet, check first for a fungal infection. Signs of athlete’s foot can range from tightness and burning sensations in the skin to rashes, cracks, and fissures in the skin, and more. 

If no infection is present, then check for B vitamin deficiencies, poor circulation from peripheral artery disease, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease. If a podiatrist finds blockages in the arteries of your feet, this is a sign you likely have arterial blockages elsewhere in your body.

Itchy Feet

Skin that is itching and scaling is most commonly caused by the athlete’s foot fungal infection, but can also be a sign of psoriasis, an autoimmune condition. 

In the case of psoriasis, the skin is thicker and may have a red, raised rash in the areas of the peeling skin. 

You can also have an allergic reaction to skin care products or a reaction to chemicals your feet are exposed to. This is known as contact dermatitis, and usually goes away on its own once the source of irritation is removed. Borage oil taken internally is a great ally to soothe irritated skin.

Toenail Issues

Your toenails can tell you a lot about your health.

White Toenails

White toenails that separate from the nail bed can be caused by injury, nail infection, or psoriasis. Systemic illnesses like liver or kidney disease, or congestive heart failure can also cause white toenails, but these nails don’t lift up from the nail bed or appear inflamed.

Yellow Toenails

Thick, yellow toenails can be caused by fungal infection, lymphatic drainage issues, lung disease, psoriasis, or rheumatoid arthritis. Spoon-shaped toenails that curve up at the end are a sign of frequent exposure to petroleum products and solvents or a sign of anemia and iron deficiency.

Rounded or Sloping Toenails

If you notice your toenails becoming more rounded and sloping downward, this is clubbing and can be a sign of lung disease and problems with oxygen absorption. Less commonly this can be caused by heart disease, liver disease, digestive disorders, infections, or even heredity.

Change in the Color of Your Toes

Raynaud’s disease can cause toes to first turn white, then red, and sometimes even blue in response to change in temperature or stress. Raynaud’s is often related to autoimmune thyroid diseases, Sjogren’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis, so if you have red, white or blue toes, it’s time to get this evaluated.

Losing the Spring in Your Step

If you notice you’re starting to trip more easily or your feet are dragging, you may be losing sensation in your feet, which is caused by nerve damage from diabetes, nutrient deficiency (B vitamins), infection or alcoholism. 

If your gait is widening or you notice a foot drop, where your feet seem to almost slap the ground as you walk, these are signs of spinal cord issues (most commonly low back), neurologic diseases and muscle disorders. It’s time to seek professional help if your gait has changed.

Foot Sores That Don’t Heal

If you have a sore on your foot that’s taking a long time to heal, this is a red flag for diabetes. Both diabetes and peripheral artery disease impair circulation and sensation in the feet, making sores prone to slow healing and infection. In both these cases regular foot checks are essential.

Dark Spots on Your Feet

A dark spot anywhere on the feet or even underneath the nails isn’t likely to be an infection, but could be a melanoma skin cancer, which pops up even in areas that aren’t regularly exposed to the sun. Make sure you get any dark spots checked out by a dermatologist – you want to catch this deadly cancer as quickly as possible.

The Many Causes of Foot Pain

Start with Your Shoes

The most common cause of foot pain by far comes from ill-fitting shoes. The most stylish shoes are the biggest culprits in foot distress, but you may be surprised to find they aren’t the only villains. There are 4 main types of shoes to stay away from:

1. Tapering Toe Boxes

   The natural shape of the foot is widest at the toes and tapers in toward the heel. However, most shoes for women and men – from athletic shoes and casual shoes to dress shoes – taper in at the toe. High-heeled shoes are the most notorious culprit – often tapering to a sharp point. Toes can’t conform to this shape, so the result is everything from toe deformities, bunions, and osteoarthritis, to pain disorders that extend all the way up into the knee, hip, and low back.

2. Raised Heels of Any Size

   There is no heel height that’s sensible – not even cowboy boots. Any heel elevation shortens the tendons and muscles in the back of the leg as well as impairing the natural blood flow. There are women who have worn heeled shoes for so long that the posterior tendons and muscles have shortened to the point they can’t walk barefoot or in flat shoes without pain and deformity. Wearing shoes with an elevated heel also changes your normal gait and eliminates your natural arch support. Wearing heels changes the alignment of the body from the ball of your foot all the way up to your pelvis, which has to tilt back to accommodate the change in the pull of gravity forward. This not only impacts the back but also the pelvic organs.

3. Shoes with Toe Spring

   Most common in athletic shoes, any shoe that turns up at the toes overstretches the tissues on the bottom of the foot and can lead to plantar fasciitis, neuromas in the ball of the foot, and even shin splints. If your shoes are flexible and lightweight, you can minimize toe spring by folding the shoes in half with the sole of the toes touching the sole of the heels and placing it under a heavy object to hold it in this shape for up to 48 hours.

4. Inflexible Soles

   Shoes with a heavy, inflexible sole – including arch supports – prevent the necessary flattening of the arch during walking. They also reduce the sensitivity to the terrain you’re walking on and you’re more likely to misstep, causing injury and balance issues. A rigid sole limits the range of motion of the foot much like a cast does, and can cause atrophy of the foot muscles, making them dependent on orthotics or extra cushioning to be able to function.

Stealth Pain

Another common cause of foot pain is stress fracture, from intense exercise, like distance running or basketball. Weakened bones from osteopenia or osteoporosis increase this risk. If you have intense or nagging foot pain that persists no matter what you do, get an x-ray to make sure you don’t have a stress fracture.

Heel Pain

If you feel heel pain first thing in the morning when you hop out of bed, chances are you’re suffering from plantar fasciitis, a common inflammation of this long ligament that attaches to the heel bone. Stretching exercises, ice (fill a 12-20 ounce plastic bottle with water, freeze, then roll under the arch of the foot), therapeutic ultrasound, and kinesiotape work wonders with plantar fasciitis. A good physical therapist can’t be beat when it comes to this common painful problem.

Other causes of heel pain include bone spurs, tendonitis, arthritis, fracture, tumor, or infection. Excessive exercise or wearing one of the 4 types of shoes that cause foot pain are also common causes.

Foot Spasms

There’s nothing worse than having a muscle spasm in your foot while wearing laced up shoes or boots. Rubbing or massaging the spasm out is the quickest way to relief. Long-term relief comes from testing for nutrient deficiencies, like Vitamin D (a blood test), or mineral imbalances, like calcium, potassium, and magnesium.

Make sure you’re not dehydrated or overworking tired foot muscles, and check your circulation as well as the fit of your shoes. If you are pregnant or have a thyroid disorder, this can also cause frequent muscle spasms in the feet.

Toe Pain

Big Toe Pain

Sudden pain, heat, swelling and redness at the base of the big toe are the hallmarks of gout, an inflammatory condition which causes an increase in uric acid and a painful, swollen joint. If the pain is worse in the morning, the joint is stiff, and there’s no heat or redness, then osteoarthritis is the likely culprit. If it’s difficult to bend the joint you may have developed a bone spur as a complication of the arthritis. If the pain comes on suddenly as a result of an injury, you may have turf toe, a common ailment of athletes who play on hard surfaces.

Pain in Other Toes

If you have burning pain in the ball of your foot that radiates to your middle toes, or feel like you’re walking on a marble, then you may have a Morton’s neuroma, which is the thickening of tissues around a nerve, caused by injury or pressure on the toes from ill-fitting shoes or high heels. Not surprisingly, this foot issue is 10 times more common in women than it is in men.

Toe Deformities

Toes that bend upward then curve down at the end, resembling a claw are called claw toes. Claw toes can be caused by shoes that are too tight or by diseases that damage nerves, like diabetes, neurologic disorders, or alcoholism.

If the joint on one of your toes is pointing upward rather than lying flat, you may have a hammertoe or mallet toe. These happen when the muscles in the toes and ball of foot aren’t working together correctly, usually caused by wearing high-heeled shoes. Caught early, all of these deformities can be helped by stretching and toe exercises, but prescribed shoes and even surgery may be necessary.

Find Relief by Returning Your Feet to Their Most Natural State

Returning your feet to their most natural state is the best answer to most pain-related foot problems, as well as the musculoskeletal problems that are an extension of these issues. Wear shoes that support the natural alignment of your feet and allow them to move and stretch freely, working all the small muscles that support and give the feet strength in all directions. Stretch and strengthen your feet, and consider reflexology, massage, and physical therapy when dealing with pain, deformities, or transitioning from any of the 4 types of shoes that cause foot issues.