There are now 30 million people with diabetes in the US. There are furthermore 80 million people with prediabetes and metabolic syndrome. About half the people with diabetes develop nerve damage or neuropathy which is the most common complication of diabetes. Prediabetes does not escape its attention and about 1 in 6 people will also suffer neuropathy. Half the people will have pain and the remainder will have loss of strength, impaired vibration and touch or temperature sensation and reflexes and are prone to foot ulcers, amputations and falls and fractures with traumatic brain injury. More recently it has become apparent that impairment of touch, pressure perception and loss of heart rate variability (HRV) are strong predictors of heart attack and death. Unfortunately little has been shown to prevent or reverse neuropathy and relieve the afflicted individuals of their suffering and discomfort.
There is however some hope on the horizon. Recent studies have demonstrated in animals and man that certain nutraceuticals may have beneficial effects on the different components of neuropathy. Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) is a powerful antioxidant which the Toronto Neuropathy convention concluded was “the only agent that has shown the capability of reversing certain components of neuropathy”. In a post-hoc analysis of the NATHAN 1 trial, a 4-year randomized study including 460 diabetic patients with mild-to-moderate polyneuropathy treatment with using ALA 600 mg daily or placebo. Amongst others, efficacy measures were the Neuropathy Impairment Score of the lower limbs (NIS-LL) and HRV during deep breathing. The striking results showed improvement and prevention of progression of NIS-LL with ALA vs. placebo after 4 years. More importantly the improvement was predicted by higher age, lower BMI, male sex, normal blood pressure, history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and insulin treatment, longer duration of diabetes and neuropathy, and higher neuropathy stage. In other words the worse you are the better you responded to treatment with ALA. There is still hope for the wicked. Of further interest it is almost a sine qua non to treat people with diabetes with ACE inhibitors for hypertension and renal disease and the combination with ALA showed a better outcome in HRV. Better outcome was predicted by higher burden due to CVD, diabetes, and neuropathy, while improvement in cardiac autonomic function was predicted by ACE inhibitor treatment.
In small studies in animals and man Vitamin B1 (Benfotiamine) has been shown to improve disturbances of sensory perception, Vitamin B12 to improve gait and balance and gamma linolenic acid derived from borage oil to enhance thermal perception. There also is accruing evidence that vitamin D may have salutary effects on nerve function. Patients who have taken Nutrinerve which is a compound comprising these ingredients have readily testified to the relief of pain and others to the improvement of sensory perception and reduction in instability and the propensity to falling. Of interest patients have spoken about the improvement in their skin, hair and brittleness of their nails. Others who have been on the product and stopped or changed the brand volunteer a recurrence of their symptoms! It seems that there is light at the end of this tunnel of gloom that has surrounded diabetic neuropathy all these years.
About Dr. Aaron Vinik, MD, PhD FCP, MACP, FACE
Dr. Aaron Vinik has dedicated much of his practice to understanding both the underlying causes of diabetes-related neuropathic pain and its crippling effects on his patients. His life’s work is to refine medical understanding of how peripheral neuropathy treatment can be revolutionized by moving the focus from treating symptoms to combating the basic imbalances that cause it.
When Dr. Vinik did his fellowship in Capetown he noticed that neuropathy was a huge problem for his diabetic patients, and that virtually no effective treatments were available for it. That was when he discovered his goal of finding a way to help those suffering from this disease.
He began to review studies on the effects of ALA, B-1 and GLA and was impressed with the results others have had treating nerve damage caused by oxidative and nitritive stress. Nonetheless, all of the studies failed to show any real breakthrough treatments.
That was when Dr. Vinik noticed the one thing all of these studies had in common: they were all one agent treatments. None of the individual chemicals tested could address all of the causes of the stress the patients’ bodies were under so no one treatment could truly heal them. Clearly, a multi factor compound was needed to treat neuropathy symptoms, one that combined all of the positive results seen with individual treatments, yet balanced so that the ingredients worked properly together.
Dr. Vinik started working on what would become NutriNerve in the early 2000’s and began recommending his patients try the individual ingredients to treat their neuropathic complaints. They had such positive results that an early version of NutriNerve went on the market in 2006.
Of course, work didn’t stop there and Dr. Vinik’s improving success with his patients has led to a new and improved NutriNerve formula. The new formula, adding Vitamins D and B-12, addresses a common deficiency in diabetic patients which undermines their ability to heal. The new NutriNerve compound is designed to be even more effective at relieving neuropathy symptoms by reducing and reversing the underlining disease, allowing nerve function to regenerate naturally.
Doctor Vinik has since been internationally recognized for his work with diabetic and neuropathic patients, sharing the 2012 international award for his contributions to endocrinology.
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