The right diet for polyneuropathy can make all the difference.

However, this is easier said than done, because the diet must fit you personally and your polyneuropathy.

If the nerve damage is caused by diabetes, for example, a different diet is obviously required than if, for example, chemotherapy has triggered the polyneuropathy.

Not everything is the same for everyone.

However, there are also things that do not help, or only help under certain circumstances. This article is designed to help you choose the right diet and supplements for polyneuropathy.

It has long been known that omega-3 fatty acids help protect blood vessels in disease and thus maintain better blood flow.

This may also benefit diabetics suffering from polyneuropathy. This is because in many diabetics, the smallest blood vessels that supply the nerves are damaged, which can cause polyneuropathy.

Some small studies showed improvement in polyneuropathy symptoms with omega-3 fatty acid intake in diabetic patients. Here is an example study.

It is therefore quite probable that taking of omega-3 fatty acids at least slows down the progression of polyneuropathy.

Unfortunately, not all omega-3 fatty acids are created equal.

Unfortunately, the alpha-linolenic acid contained in many vegetable oils hardly helps against polyneuropathy. The docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid contained in oil from algea or fish oil, on the other hand, are more helpful. Therefore, I recommend algea oil oily deep-sea fish oil, especially in capsules or liquid.

Since you can't eat fish every day, but a daily intake of fish oils is necessary to slow down polyneuropathy, it simply makes the most sense to take algea or fish oil as capsules or luquid. Since, due to the studies available so far, it is not yet possible to make a reliable statement on dosage, I recommend that you follow the manufacturer's instructions for the respective products.

When choosing a product, please consider the environment, too. This is why I personally prefer algae products over fish.

However, it is not yet known what amount of omega-3 fatty acids is optimal for polyneuropathy.

The few studies on the subject have used different dosages and more research is needed to clarify this issue.

Until there is more reliable data on this, it is therefore recommended to stick to the manufacturer's specifications.

In many forms of polyneuropathy, inflammatory processes are involved in the damage to the nerves. This is particularly the case in Guillain-Barré syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, but inflammation also plays a role in other forms of polyneuropathy (e.g., diabetic polyneuropathy).

Diet can have an impact on how prone one is to inflammation and also on how intense the chronic inflammation gets. Therefore, it is believed that the severity of polyneuropathy depends to some degree on whether one's dietary choices promote or tend to inhibit inflammation. Foods that inhibit inflammation and therefore should be consumed frequently are:

• Nuts, fish, berries and vegetables, especially onions.
• Olive and flaxseed oil
• Spices such as lovage, turmeric, oregano and basil, among others.
• Tea from chamomile, sage or green tea. In particular chamomile tea has a pretty strong effect.

Foods that tend to promote inflammation and should therefore be avoided are:

• Beef and pork
• Sugar and white flour products such as white bread
• Sunflower oil
• Alcohol

Incidentally, a diet that is anti-inflammatory is beneficial to health apart from polyneuropathy and can be helpful for all other forms of inflammation. It can therefore be helpful for joint pain, for example, and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Vitamin D is the one vitamin that many people are deficient in and currently probably one of the most popular supplements. It helps make bones stronger, keeps blood vessels fit, and probably protects against autoimmune diseases and possibly even cancer.

That's why millions of people now take it as a pill or drops, which is generally a good idea because it's the vitamin that's most difficult to get from food. It is often mentioned as the only vitamin that everyone should take as a supplement. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 56% of people in Germany have too little vitamin D(RKI).

It also plays a role in nutrition in polyneuropathy: people with low levels of vitamin D are more likely to develop polyneuropathy, according to some studies. For example, those who suffer from diabetes and also have too little vitamin D are at increased risk of nerve damage and polyneuropathy.

It has already been tried whether polyneuropathy improves when an existing deficiency of vitamin D is compensated.

In a randomized controlled trial, patients suffering from polyneuropathy due to diabetes who had such a deficiency were injected with vitamin D. This brought the subjects to normal blood levels of vitamin D.

Patients showed significant improvements in pain over the following weeks and were also better able to maintain balance.
(You can read the whole study here).

Another promising dietary supplement is alpha lipoic acid.

It also seems to protect the nerves somewhat, and in some patients it even leads to a significant improvement in the symptoms of polyneuropathy.

In scientific studies, however, this has only been investigated in diabetic polyneuropathy. In those studies, a strong effect was found only when the alpha lipoic acid was given as an infusion. However, I think it is quite likely that alpha lipoic acid in capsules also has some effect when taken over a longer period of time.

For a detailed assessment from the Journal of the American Family Physician, click here.

Do not overdose alpha lipoic acid!

Alpha lipoic acid is also helpful only if you don't overdo it.

Taking too much alpha lipoic acid causes dizziness, nausea and vomiting.

Per day you can usually take 600 mg in capsules.

However, if want to take alpha lipoic acid as a capsule, you should talk to a doctor first.

This is because it may interact with some medications. This is especially true in the case of chemotherapy.

B vitamins only help when there is actually a deficiency!

Those suffering from vitamin B deficiency can develop polyneuropathy as a result. In such cases, it is of course essential to compensate for this deficiency in order to stop the disease.

It is therefore useful to check for symptoms of polyneuropathy to see if such a deficiency is present.

Copper, as a trace element, participates in the normal functioning of our body. Normally, people have enough of it with a normal diet and do not have to worry about it. Reasons for a lack of copper can be surgery on the gastrointestinal tract. Gastric bypass surgery, in particular, can result in insufficient copper absorption and the development of long-term polyneuropathy. Copper deficiency may also occur in some diseases of the digestive system. For example, in celiac disease.

Also, a large intake of zinc may result in insufficient copper being absorbed. Because when large amounts of zinc are in the digestive system, they prevent copper absorption. So, as with all other nutrients, one should not overdo the additional intake of zinc in the form of pills.

If you suffer from a chronic disease of the digestive system, or have consumed large amounts of zinc over a long period of time, it is therefore useful to have your copper levels checked.

Creatine has long been used as a dietary supplement for athletes. It also has positive effects in some nerve diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Therefore, it was suspected that it could also help with polyneuropathy.

However, studies comparing creatine with placebos showed no positive effect. In these studies, patients with polyneuropathy performed strength training and ingested either creatine or the placebo. The training did result in increased muscle strength, but creatine did not provide any additional benefit. (You can read two of the studies here: Chetlin et al. 2004; Doherty et al. 2001).

At least these studies show, however, that with the right training you can build strength despite polyneuropathy.

What to avoid with polyneuropathy

Anyone suffering from polyneuropathy should avoid alcohol as much as possible - at least in larger quantities.
Alcohol not only damages the nerve cells directly, it can also lead to a deficiency of B vitamins, which can aggravate or trigger polyneuropathy.

If, on the other hand, you like to drink beer, it may make sense to drink non-alcoholic Weißbier. It contains B vitamins, so the beer can contribute to a healthy supply of them. However, as I said it is not beneficial to take it in large quantities. Normal quantities that cover the normal needs are enough.

Avoid extreme nutrition!

Vegan nutrition is in fashion right now and some people claim it is the cure for anything. It is sometimes also recommended for polyneuropathy. However, I do not advise this.

The vegan diet is relatively often deficient in B vitamins. This is, of course, absolutely to be avoided in polyneuropathy and can lead to a significant worsening of symptoms.

With a normal, non-vegan diet, on the other hand, you automatically consume enough B vitamins. If you still want to eat a vegan diet, you should therefore plan this carefully and be sure to consult with a nutritionist or doctor.

Gluten-free diets are also becoming increasingly popular. Gluten can actually cause polyneuropathy in people with gluten intolerance. These patients must then, of course, adhere strictly to a gluten-free diet. However, if you do not suffer from celiac disease or medically diagnosed gluten hypersensitivity, you should avoid this type of diet. Gluten is then no problem for you and does not cause problems for the nerves. If this is the case, a gluten-free diet will only make it morre difficult for you to eat healthy, without gaining any benefit from it. There are also cases where the gluten-free diet resulted in vitamin B deficiency, which then caused polyneuropathy. So if you tolerate gluten, stick to your normal diet.

In many places, it is recommended to eat a low-salt diet. This often actually doses make sense. In polyneuropathy, however, there is a risk of harming yourself with it. At least in animal studies, a high-salt diet even showed protection against polyneuropathy (Here's the study). The same was shown in an epidemiological study(here the link) of the association of dietary habits and Chronic Axonal Polyneuropathy. Those who consumed less than 6 grams of salt a day had an increased risk of developing this form of polyneuropathy.

This is not enough evidence to apply extra salt in your diet. However, it is an indication that salt should not be avoided either. So here too, just eat normally.

If you have type 2 diabetes, therapeutic fasting is a way to regulate your blood sugar levels and lose weight, which helps reduce blood sugar in the long run. This can lead to slowing down or even stopping the progression of polyneuropathy by significantly improving diabetes.

It is important to do strength training while you are fasting. If one do not train, your body uses the proteins from the muscles to produce energy. So you lose muscle mass and strength, which later makes diabetes worse.

Therefore, therapeutic fasting in polyneuropathy should definitely be supervised by professionals who, in particular, also provide the right exercise recommendations.

It is a common claim that patients with polyneruopathy should give up coffee.
However, there is no reliable evidence to support this claim. On the contrary, coffee is actually healthy in moderate quantities. If polyneuropathy is caused by diabetes, coffee can even help lower blood sugar levels. So, in this case, coffee can even slow down the worsening of nerve damage.

If you like to drink coffee, you can continue to do so.

If you want to know more about coffee and polyneuropathy, you can find a complete article on coffee and polyneuropathy here.

Not all polyneuropathies are the same, and not all chemotherapy is the same. In order to prevent polyneuropathy during chemotherapy, what you should do depends on what chemotherapy exactly you are getting.

Positive effects have been observed for acetyl-L-carnitine during certain chemotherapies. However, this seems to be the case only for chemotherapies with active ingredients from platinum derivatives (e.g., cisplatin or carboplatin). No beneficial effect was observed with other chemotherapies, e.g. taxanes (e.g. paclitaxel or docetaxel). So you see that nutritional supplements during chemotherapy are a very complex thing to discuss with your doctor. A scientific review of acetyl-L-carnitine can be found at the following link: Dinicola (2018)

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as "the diet for polyneuropathy." However, there definitely are thinds to be avoided. For most things, it's a good idea to consult with experts.

Especially for people suffering from polyneuropathy due to diabetes or vitamin deficiensies, the right diet has great potential for improving or at least putting the brakes on polyneuropathy.

For everyone else, the key is to avoid dietary errors as a polyneuropathy patient rather than to eat a particular food in large quantities.

In a nutshell: The dos and don'ts of nutrition in polyneuropathy

Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil

Vitamin D (ideally, after your levels have been measured).

Alpha Lipoic Acid

Provided that a deficiency has been detected:

Copper and vitamin B

Alcohol should never be consumed in large quantities if you have nerve damage.

If your polyneuropathy is due to diabetes, you should of course avoid sugar and carbohydrates.

All extreme diets are risky and should be avoided.

This applies in particular to:

Extremely low salt diet

Vegan diet

Gluten-free diet (Unless there is a medical reason to do so).

Therapeutic fasting may be useful for polyneuropathy in some circumstances, especially if diabetes is the cause of the nerve damage. However, it should be discussed with professionals first. Especially if your polyneuropathy is due to chemotherapy, it is necessary to consult with a doctor first.

By the way, you can safely continue to drink coffee.