What Are The Best Remedies For Nerve Pain?

Nerve pain, also known as neuropathic pain or neuralgia, is a chronic nerve damage condition. Medical studies show that nearly 10 percent of the US population experiences nerve pain or related issues. It is a progressive disease of the nerves that can become extremely painful and intolerable at later stages if left untreated. Commonly, it occurs due to an infection or injury. Struggling with neuropathic nerve disease, you might experience sudden flares of pain and chronic discomfort accompanying painful symptoms.

While acute nerve pain also occurs, generally, you may not have a pain-inducing incident or event. Nerve pain is standard; for instance, you may drop a heavy book or hammer on your foot and experience instant pain. Once a heavy object hits you, your nervous system perceives the stimuli and sends pain signals to the brain. Experts call this non-neuropathic or nociceptive pain. Conversely, when it comes to neuropathic pain, the exact cause of pain isn't visible or perceivable. This is because your body sends pain signals to the brain promptly without any actual reason. 

There are various discomforting symptoms that you can experience in this condition. Therefore, our focus in this article will be on the best remedies and solutions you can seek for nerve pain relief. Keep reading below as we share vital information regarding the condition before discussing the best treatments.

Understanding Nerve Pain (Neuropathic Pain) – What is it?

Before searching for the best treatment and remedial solutions for solving the pain symptoms of this progressive nerve disease, you should consider learning more about the condition itself. It will give you an idea of how the process of pain and discomfort in this condition begins. Usually, the pain events and distressing sensations in neuropathic pain occur spontaneously. Though, they can also occur due to specific triggers. Often these triggers include certain acute medical conditions, certain foods, or heavy intake of a particular nutrient, etc.

The condition results from damage to the nervous system, which causes unusual and sudden pain sensations in different parts, including the brain, peripheral nerves, and spinal cord. Once damaged, the nerve fibers across your nervous system can become a prevalent cause of sending unnecessary and cause-less pain signals to the brain. Although many diseases can damage and deteriorate the nerves, diabetes is a predominant cause.

Symptoms of Nerve Pain

How do you know that you have nerve pain? This will give you an idea of this condition. Sometimes, the pain can be sporadic and without any cause. Further, the pain can be similar to stabbing, burning, or shooting. In short, you may feel like you stepped on thumb pins without even moving. Such responses can cause sensitivities to cold and hot touches.

Overall, specific encounters and contact trigger stimuli that send wrong pain signals to the nervous system. The most important fact about this condition that compels people to find practical solutions is that it can occur anytime and anywhere.

Causes of Nerve Pain

Here, we will go through a few common causes that lead to nerve pain (neuropathic pain), including health conditions, other diseases, and infections. 

• Spine Injury
• Brain Injury
• Alcoholism (damages nerves)
• Diabetes
• Multiple Strokes
• Infections (shingles and HIV)
• Cancer
• Poor Blood Circulation
• Mineral Deficiency (Vitamins)
• Fibromyalgia
• Sciatica
• Peripheral Neuropathy

Common Treatments for Nerve Pain

While prompt treatments and effective care can heal and cure certain neuropathic conditions, it isn't always the case. People can experience a reduction in the frequency of sensations and pain/discomfort.

You can start with painkillers at first for relief with the medication dosage that may increase in the future if the disease progresses further. They help to relax the body and reduce the movement of pain signals throughout the body. There are multiple non-medicine and medicine strategies available.

Non-Medicine/ Alternative Treatment Strategies 

Generally, most people adopt a multidisciplinary approach to treating neuropathic pain alongside their medications. Moreover, there are pain management plans and strategies that help relieve your nerve pain. You can work with your doctor to find the best non-medicine treatment.

Medicine Treatment Strategies

Medicine treatments primarily reduce the pain symptoms and sensations. These can include available paracetamol, painkillers, and various other NSAIDs. Your doctor may also suggest you intake safe opioids, which are more substantial in effect. However, if you take up medication on your own, it is best to consult your doctor to ensure there are no side effects or contradictions with your pre-existing medical conditions. 

What are the Best Remedies for Nerve Pain?

Should You Incorporate Lifestyle Changes?

There are many things that you can do to make your life with neuropathic pain better. The most relevant and highly regarded suggestion from other patients, doctors, and experts are lifestyle changes. You don't have to experience any sudden significant changes in your life. These changes meet your needs for pain relief while ensuring that you experience a smooth transition. Here are some changes that experts in the medical industry and neuropathic pain specialists suggest you incorporate into your daily life.

Regular Exercise: This is a no-brainer. People with neuropathic pain and even healthy people should practice a regular exercise regimen to maintain their health and fitness. Regular workouts ensure proper blood circulation, muscle strength, and more health benefits.

Avoid Smoking: This is a simple solution because everyone is aware of the side effects of smoking on a person's life and physical health. It can affect the blood circulation and quality, which can cause damage to nerves leading to neuropathic pain disease. You might have to quit smoking if you have this condition.

Healthy Diet Formulation: You should remember no particular eating plan/diet for nerve pain. Therefore, the real emphasis is on the intake of a well-balanced and nutritious diet. You should avoid unhealthy foods and add fruits, whole grains, and veggies. Quitting alcohol along with junk food is another way of approaching this method.

What Non-Prescription Treatments You Can Benefit From?

Here, we will look at more non-prescription treatment options that have shown effective results from time to time in the treatment of neuropathic pain. Be aware that you should inform and consult your primary healthcare provider or specialist to treat your condition before actually taking up a treatment option from those below.

Relaxation/Talk Therapies

Relaxation therapies include meditation, deep breathing exercises, and yoga. These stress management techniques allow you to take deep breaths, focus, concentrate, and clear your mind of any anxiety, depression, or stress effectively. On the other hand, in talk therapies, you discuss your life as openly as you deem necessary with your therapist. The common topics of discussion will relate to your existing nerve pain condition and its severe implications on your life, if any. Moreover, you will talk and discuss the level of pain and discomfort that you may experience in this chronic disease. It is more of a social therapy if you want to presume it like that. Altogether, there are speculations that these therapies can help treat the pain itself.

Assistive Device Application

These devices include splints, canes, etc. You can wear them at home, at work, or when relaxing outdoors on holiday. These can reduce nerve pain by allowing you to move freely and more conveniently. Make sure that you choose the most ergonomic design.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese tradition. It is a holistic approach of, as many experts believe, treating and possibly curing some of the most prevalent health conditions in the world. Using fine needles, an acupuncture specialist inserts them into your nerve points that they believe have different forms of healing energy. You can discuss the viability and potential success of this approach for treating your nerve pain condition.

Physical Therapy/Massage

Nevertheless, since the nerve pain affects the entire body and causes muscle weakness most of the time, you must go for physical therapies and massages. Your physical therapist might help you regain your movement by relaxing and controlling your muscles most efficiently. Further, if the chronic pain doesn't tend to go away after some time, you can opt for massages to deal with muscle stiffness and weakness but only after discussing with your doctor.

Conclusion

Neuropathic pain is a progressive nerve disease that can have severe and negative implications on your life. It can cause depression, anxiety symptoms, fearfulness, and, more importantly, it can interfere with your day-to-day routine. To get back to your everyday life and reduce the impact of neuropathic pain on your wellness, you should seek the best remedies that are available out there. You can discuss the scope of the pills in the above section with your doctor about your condition and severity. Furthermore, you can explore additional non-prescription treatments and solutions to combine with other medications and treatments to cure your neuropathic pain.