4 Must-Know Labs for Neuropathy

In my time as a functional medicine doctor I have helped hundreds of people recover from their neuropathy. Neuropathy almost always requires a polytherapy approach, meaning several solutions are needed to solve your problems.

While I often recommend getting a wide range of labs done to see exactly what may be causing your symptoms, when it comes to neuropathy these are the first four labs I always recommend my patients check out.

If you are suffering from neuropathy, reach out to me. Together we can come up with a treatment plan that will eliminate your neuropathy and get you back to playing with your kids, golfing, or whatever other activities your neuropathy is preventing you from enjoying.

Lab 1: Mold

Many people suffering from a chronic neuropathy condition have a mold infection in their system. These infections can come from contact to mold as many as ten years prior.

Mold in your system causes chronic inflammation. Inflammation restricts your nerves from receiving proper nutrition, and prevents them from working properly. This in turn causes neuropathic symptoms.

I have had patients with extremely high mold levels. Working with me, the patient was able to get their mold infection eradicated, and saw their symptoms disappear in the process. When doing this lab work, levels should be as close to zero as possible, but anything under 200 is ideal.

Lab 2: Fasting Insulin

High levels of insulin cause nerves to degenerate. Insulin is essentially like glass shards flowing through your blood. As you can imagine, this causes a lot of inflammation. As described above, inflammation can cause your nerves to degenerate and malfunction. Neuropathy happens because your nerves are not working properly.

Since insulin is so closely tied to overall levels of inflammation in your body, it is a key marker to test for in lab work. Look for fasting insulin levels between 5 and 6.

Lab 3: C-Reactive Protein

C-Reactive protein is a marker that signals levels of inflammation throughout the body. Ideal levels of this protein are less than 1. I have had patients with levels as high as 13 or more. By treating their problems which raised this protein, we were able to lower their markers and neuropathy symptoms.

Lab 4: Homocysteine

Homocysteine is a marker which will damage your blood vessels and capillaries. This reduces your body’s ability to provide nutrients and maintenance to your nerves, causing them to degenerate.

High homocysteine can be a genetic problem, in addition to lifestyle causes. Normal levels of homocysteine in your body should be between 5 and 6. High levels of this marker can signal damage being done to your circulatory system, and should be treated quickly.