Cold Feet

Sounds to me like peripheral nerve damage. Our circulations suffers when we get sick, toxins dont move out of our hands and feet so easily, the small capiliaries start to suffer and the myelin sheath protecting our nerve endings deteriorate.
Its common to lyme and you can get over it.
There are supplements like omega 3, b12, burdock root and liver detox herbs and more that help. You need something to rebuild the myelin sheath, clean your blood and make it healthier and support for the liver. Plus you need to find a way to get your circulation up. Think of those ads on TV you see with people sitting watching tele with their feet on a 'circulation boosters". If its too painful at first, and it often is you can get past this with acupuncture or massage technique that works the acupuncture points and stimulates some circulation around these areas to help clear the blockages and get you off to a good start. It takes time just as these conditions build up slowly you need to be patient and consistant to get them back on track. Its very doable.

I agree with ArtAngel. I have the same thing you're describing, more so in my left foot, near the toes, but they both get like ice in cooler weather, then burn like the dickens when I put socks, especially wool socks, on.

Do you notice any 'stuffed or rumpled sock' feeling under and between your toes? That's how mine started.

It's generally caused by a pinched or enlarged nerve, and called a neuroma. Ruling out diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, that leaves you with an autoimmune disorder.

But I believe our Lyme infections causes this from damaging the protective sheath that results in scar tissue. I am constantly checking my toes to make sure there isn't anything between them.

As for just having them ice cold, the Lyme crap damages our vascular system which creates problems for our circulation.

Never tried the burdock root how did that work? Thanks

ArtAngel said...
Sounds to me like peripheral nerve damage. Our circulations suffers when we get sick, toxins dont move out of our hands and feet so easily, the small capiliaries start to suffer and the myelin sheath protecting our nerve endings deteriorate.
Its common to lyme and you can get over it.
There are supplements like omega 3, b12, burdock root and liver detox herbs and more that help. You need something to rebuild the myelin sheath, clean your blood and make it healthier and support for the liver. Plus you need to find a way to get your circulation up. Think of those ads on TV you see with people sitting watching tele with their feet on a 'circulation boosters". If its too painful at first, and it often is you can get past this with acupuncture or massage technique that works the acupuncture points and stimulates some circulation around these areas to help clear the blockages and get you off to a good start. It takes time just as these conditions build up slowly you need to be patient and consistant to get them back on track. Its very doable.

First sign of illness before I even thought of a Lyme diagnosis....very cold feet and hands,people would say something to me and I shrugged it off.....it seems at the time my body was "handling" this on it's own.

r

Stetsonva
Burdock Root - I buy it as a herb and make it into a tea I include in my smoothies. Its a blood cleaner. A naturopath recommended it. The neuropathy is gone.

Mine are pure ice to the touch. They actually feel numb on the inside, they can even feel hot like they do right now with just aerated athletic shoes on (can't stand socks with this). But if I take my shoes off they will be very cold.

My Internist felt it practically to my knees before the skin felt the least bit warm to him. Mine is pretty bad.

That's a good gauge of what's going on Traveler!

Psilociraptor said...
CIDP is one of my primary symptoms. I've noticed with the changing weather my feet feel a bit cold at times disproportionally to the rest of my body. If you're worried about nerves make sure your neurologist checks for CIDP. I've had a few neurodummies miss it. For me it's physically painful though i suppose some variation in intensity is likely to exist. And as someone else said, painful soles is believed by some practitioners to be bartonella.

I had NCS and EMG done - and everything was normal, but I have nerve 'issues'.

Psilocraptor - even if we have a neuro diagnose it as such...what can be done? i read IVIG - but that's apparently outrageously expensive.
Is there even a reason to see a neuro for it?

Psilo - I didn't know there was a blood test for anti-neural antibodies...
I wonder if my GP could ask for those tests...is that all I would ask for? anti-neural antibodies?

No one prepared me for the EMG and NVS - and they DID hurt!

I had a real goof doing the test - a Physiatrist (I didn't know they existed...I guess they're Physiotherapists with a little more education?)

My reflexes were a little different - when comparing left with right. My left was more hyper (even though that would be the damaged side)

So vascular issues can cause nerve issues...is that because of lack of blood flow to innervate them?

Yes girlie ..i think circulation and nerves go foot in hand ....also bart infects the blood vessel lining and helps artersclerosis impeding circulatio . ..when i fo vasodialors like iv mag or glutithione it warms the extremeties .which have had extreme atrophy also ...

Pilot ..nerves can grow back ...ala and msm seem to help flow ...i am going to try chanca piedra and other herbs ..

horse chestnut helped circulation as did dan shen ..burdock is a berberine containing herbs ..i may try barberry...

On days when i sting my blood is thinner and also thyroid has helped with cold feeling ...

Psilociraptor said...

Girlie said...
So, I googled.

Found this - Which (if any) of these tests would be the relevant ones? (If I was to pursuede my Dr. to test)

...or should I not bother at this point...since I have lyme and bart?
My muscle atrophy has improved quite a bit since treatment and physiotherapy...but I still have pain.


/www.eaneurology.org/fileadmin/user_upload/guidline_papers/EFNS_guideline_2011_Use_of_antibody_testing_in_nervous_system_disorders.pdf

Sorry to hijack - but this may be of interest to the OP, as well.

I don't think it's terribly important unless you're worried about the particular symptom. I only recommended it to OP because he/she was concerned about their cold feet and already scheduled with a neurologist. Didn't have a chance to read that whole link. I'm not sure what's standard in practice these days but we checked my anti-gangliosides specifically and my GM1 AB came back elevated and have been associated with demyelination of sensory nerves which is exactly what i was dealing with. So i said screw it to the EMG.

So, lyme and co's is the culprit for your demyelination?

Girlie said...

So, lyme and co's is the culprit for your demyelination?

Well like many here i can't say for absolute certain. I have never been CDC positive though i have turned a positive ELISA and positive for babesia/ehrlichia via IFA. And any sort of antimicrobial gives me herxes along the nerves with laser precision. Like i'll feel individual nerve fibers flare up. I'm in the middle of finals so i don't have time to read through this topic extensively or even this paper so i apologize if it contradicts anything i say, but based off the abstract and discussion it seems as if Borrelia has been implicated in autoimmune demyelination disorders particularly as the result of the formation of cross-reactive antibodies to gangliosides on the peripheral nerves. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC173580/ The process in specific is not well understood, but generally speaking one of the ways your body develops autoimmunity is that the infecting organism has evolved a type of biomimicry (like the praying mantis that looks like a stick, or the benign caterpillars that look poisonous) or the capacity to induce biomimicry in different tissue types that results in the immune system not being able to distinguish the infection from the cell its mimicking well. So for example it may cleave gangliosides from nerve cells and display it on its own cell wall so that the immune system thinks it's a nerve. And ultimately the antibodies that attack it end up attacking the nerves too. Of course this is not specific to lyme and coinfections nor is it the only way to induce autoimmunity. But in my opinion lyme is definitely a suspect for chronic demyelination disorders. CIDP is basically a low grade form of guillaine barre syndrome and we know that several different organisms can be implicated in that. It has more to do with their infectious strategies than the organism itself.

I honestly haven't had any luck with anything. I've tried b vits, lions mane, ALA. That was all before i knew it was autoimmune/lyme. I think a lot of it will naturally heal with the resolution of the infection. When i take antimicrobials they get a lot worse at first with the herx and then start getting better as it clears. You can try all that stuff and it may help, but for me i think the infection just found an equilibrium where it was causing damage but not progressing and so nothing could really heal them while they were still being actively destroyed. I did notice that diet helped tremendously. I had severe nerve damage for about 7 months that reduced to a low baseline after 2 weeks of paleo. Then i had a relapse from an environmental exposure and instead of taking 7 months to get back to baseline i was back in two weeks again. So i think the biggest thing is probably just going to come down to general health and treating the infection holistically. Buhner says knotweed is good for protecting nerves but i've never tried it. If your nerves are still damaged after treatment then Lions mane is said to stimulate new growth. But without treatment i had no luck.

Also, thought i'd throw this out there. But i got my neuropathy from a swimming pool after the onset of lyme. And i relapsed in that swimming pool 7 months later. I don't know if any of you all swim, but just be aware. Never got that problem from the ocean. I don't know if it's the stagnant water, or the treatment causing dysbiosis, or just the accumulation of endotoxins from dead microorganisms. But it's night and day. 30 minutes in that swimming pool and i've got severe neuropathy from my feet to my face. Normally its just in my lower legs and it's mild/moderate. It's my parents private pool too, so nothing weird going on. Needless to say i haven't had any interest in testing out another pool :P