Acupuncture Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment

Peripheral Neuropathy:

When Medications Aren’t the Whole Answer

Many people living with peripheral neuropathy are told that medication is the primary option for managing symptoms. Pain may ease somewhat, but the expectation is often set early: the nerves themselves are unlikely to improve. Over time, people adapt. They work around numbness, burning, or altered sensation. Side effects like fatigue, foggy thinking, or balance changes become part of daily life.

What often goes unspoken is that symptom control is not the same as treatment that addresses nerve function or repair. There are options beyond pills alone, including therapies shown to promote nerve repair and functional recovery.

What peripheral neuropathy actually means

Peripheral neuropathy refers to injury or dysfunction of the peripheral nerves: the nerves that carry signals between the brain, spinal cord, and the rest of the body.

When these nerves are damaged, signals may become distorted, delayed, or weakened. This is why neuropathy can cause symptoms such as pain, numbness, altered sensation, weakness, or coordination problems.

Neuropathy often develops after chemotherapy, years of diabetes, autoimmune or inflammatory illness, infection, nutritional deficiency, toxic exposure, physical injury, or a combination of factors. In some cases, no single cause is identified.

How neuropathy shows up in daily life

Neuropathy in the hands and feet can quietly interfere with daily life. Tasks that once felt automatic, such as buttoning a shirt, holding a pen, preparing food, typing, gripping a mug, or tolerating cold, may suddenly require more effort and attention.

For some people, walking confidently, driving safely, or sleeping soundly becomes more difficult. Over time, these disruptions often extend beyond daily necessities into activities that bring meaning and joy: hiking, skiing, playing an instrument, knitting, painting, fly fishing, or riding horses.

For many people, this is the point where symptom control alone no longer feels like enough.

Where medications help, and where they don’t

Many people with peripheral neuropathy try several medications before seeking other forms of care. These medications can reduce pain for some people, particularly in the short term, and they have an important role in symptom management. But they also have limits that are not always discussed clearly.

Medications like duloxetine (Cymbalta), tricyclic antidepressants, and gabapentin work by altering how pain signals are processed. While this can reduce discomfort, side effects such as sedation, foggy thinking, balance issues, digestive symptoms, rebound pain with missed or delayed doses, emotional flattening, or sexual challenges often limit their long-term use. For chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, some of these medications have shown little benefit in clinical trials.

Long-term use of some centrally acting medications has raised concerns about memory/cognitive effects over time, particularly in older adults. Physical dependence may also occur, reinforcing the importance of regularly reassessing whether these treatments are still serving a person’s overall health.

Topical treatments may offer temporary relief to small areas, and opioids are rarely effective for nerve pain and may increase sensitivity to pain over time.

What these approaches share is this: they alter how pain is perceived, but they are not designed to repair damaged peripheral nerves or improve nerve conduction. For many people, this is why medication alone does not feel like a complete or lasting answer.

A different way of addressing nerve injury

Peripheral neuropathy is complex and often slow to change. But the nervous system is not static. Under the right conditions, peripheral nerves retain the capacity to adapt, remodel, and recover function.

At Zelena Medicine, care focuses on engaging physiologic processes involved in nerve repair, rather than simply suppressing symptoms. Treatment plans are individualized and may include acupuncture, gentle manual therapy, and bioelectric therapies, selected based on symptoms, underlying contributors, and personal goals.

Treatment engages mechanisms associated with peripheral nerve repair that may:

• improve microcirculation to injured nerves

• modulate inflammatory processes that interfere with nerve signaling

• promote growth-factor signaling that supports nerve repair and survival

• contribute to measurable improvements in nerve conduction

• support restoration of functional movement and sensation

Research suggests that acupuncture can activate biologic pathways associated with peripheral nerve repair, with studies demonstrating measurable improvements in nerve conduction alongside functional changes such as improved sensation, balance, dexterity, and sleep.

In diabetic and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, acupuncture studies have shown statistically significant improvement, of injured peripheral nerves.

Acupuncture does not promise complete reversal or immediate results. But it offers something most medications do not: treatment that engages mechanisms associated with nerve repair and functional recovery over time.

Where acupuncture fits in your care

Acupuncture does not replace conventional medical care. It works best alongside it, including:

• cancer treatment or survivorship care

• diabetes management

• physical or occupational therapy

• nutrition and lifestyle interventions

• thoughtful use of medications when appropriate

What makes acupuncture distinct is its focus on restoring communication within the nervous system and facilitating repair, rather than simply dampening pain signals.

For people living with peripheral neuropathy, the shift, from managing symptoms to addressing nerve injury itself, can meaningfully change how they move, create, and participate in their lives.

A next step

If you’re living with peripheral neuropathy and have been told that medication is the only option, you deserve a fuller conversation.

A consultation at Zelena Medicine is an opportunity to review your history, understand what may be contributing to your symptoms, and explore whether treatments such as acupuncture and related therapies could be appropriate for you.

You don’t need to stop your current care to ask better questions.
You just need the space to consider what else may be possible.