Burning, Numb, or Tingling Feet: What Your Symptoms Are Telling You

Feet that burn at night. Toes that have gone numb. Tingling that comes and goes. The sense that your socks are bunched when they are not.

Because these symptoms are common, most people assume they are a normal part of getting older and wait. They are not normal, and they are considerably more responsive early than late.

What they usually mean

Together these point to peripheral neuropathy, damage to the nerves running between your spinal cord and your extremities. The feet go first because those nerves are the longest in the body and the furthest from their blood supply.

Diabetes is the most common cause by a wide margin. Chemotherapy, certain medications, autoimmune conditions, B vitamin deficiencies, thyroid disease, and compression of nerves in the lower spine all produce the same picture. Identifying which applies to you is part of the evaluation.

The signs worth acting on now

Balance that has changed. If you have started reaching for walls in the dark, or you feel less sure on uneven ground, the large fibers that carry position sense are involved. This is the presentation most tied to falls, and it is one of the areas where treatment tends to produce the most noticeable difference.

Numbness that is spreading upward. Neuropathy characteristically advances from the toes toward the ankle. If the numb area is larger than it was a year ago, you are watching it progress in real time.

Cuts or blisters you did not feel happen. Loss of protective sensation means injuries go unnoticed, which matters a great deal for anyone with diabetes.

Symptoms that have reached your hands, or weakness rather than just changed sensation, mean the process is further along and worth addressing promptly.

Why early makes such a difference

Nerve damage progresses on its own. It does not spontaneously improve, and the range of what treatment can accomplish is tied directly to how much nerve function remains.

Someone who comes in during the early stages has substantially more to work with than someone who waited five years hoping it would settle. That is the whole argument for getting evaluated now rather than at some future point when it has become impossible to ignore.

The evaluation itself is straightforward and takes one visit. You leave with a written report showing exactly what we found, and you decide what to do from there.

We evaluate neuropathy at all three RejuveN8 offices, in Henderson, southwest Las Vegas, and North Las Vegas. Call the location nearest you to get scheduled.