Peripheral neuropathy sciatica is usually a pseudo-sciatica expression which can mimic traditional sciatic nerve pain.
While true sciatica describes a structural or systemic process affecting the spinal nerve root sources of the sciatic nerve, peripheral neuropathy conditions occur in the smaller nerves which branch out throughout the body, and in this case, the lower limbs.
There is a huge network of peripheral nerves which branch off the main sciatic structure. These nerves fulfill the motor and sensory needs of the lower limbs right down to the cellular level.
This article will define peripheral neuropathy in the lower body and will explore the various reasons why it may occur.
This essay should be of great help to patients who have not been able to achieve a valid diagnosis of widespread lower body nerve pain.
Peripheral neuropathy is a general term for nerve pain which affects a specific nerve or set of nerves in a regional area. These nerves are part of the peripheral nervous system.
Peripheral nerves may be large or tiny, so the symptoms and effects of peripheral neuropathy can also be incredibly diverse. There are innumerable known causes for peripheral neuropathy, as well as many which remain a mystery.
In some instances, the sciatic nerve may also be involved in the symptomatic expression through a related or unrelated process.
However, the term peripheral denotes symptoms which affect the smaller nerves which directly serve particular anatomical regions, not the main sciatic structure itself.
Peripheral neuropathy can be sourced due to a wide range of causations. Some of the most common include:
Disease processes, such as diabetes, lupus, Friedreich's ataxia, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Sjögren's syndrome, Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome, shingles and others
Regional oxygen deprivation due to anatomical or psychosomatic cause
Traumatic injury to the affected area
Alcoholism or drug abuse
Poisoning through environmental contaminants, radiation, chemicals or even an overabundance of natural substances, such as vitamin B6
Nutritional deficiency, especially of vitamins A, E, B1, B12
Immune deficiency, such as HIV/AIDS
Peripheral neuropathy is a huge category of disorders. It acts as an umbrella diagnosis for patients who defy typical diagnostic parameters, as well as those who have confirmed sources of neurological dysfunction.
I have corresponded with many patients whose obvious emotionally-driven ischemia was misdiagnosed as coming from some structural or disease process enacted neuropathy. These patients endured countless risky drug therapies without relief, while knowledge therapy could have possibly cured them much sooner if they only had achieved a correct diagnosis.
Be careful of neuropathy diagnoses, especially when the exact source is unknown or speculative. Do not be a guinea pig for some new pharmaceutical product and wind up in worse shape, or dead, when the product turns out to be poisonous to your body.
Remember that nerve pain is the most difficult to accurately diagnose and even when the exact symptomology can be ascertained, the underlying causation is often never discovered.
Luckily, in cases of some specific forms of neuropathy, particularly those enacted by known disease processes, effective treatments are often available.
Always be sure to provide your neurologist with a complete health history in order to arm them with all the information they will need to better your chances for enjoying an accurate and correct diagnosis.