They can suffer from polyneuropathy – here are the risk groups

Polyneuropathy is a disease where several nerves in the body are affected.
It mainly affects the elderly – but younger people who abuse nitrous oxide are also in the danger zone.
– You risk getting a polyneuropathy that progresses quite quickly, says Dr. Marcus Olausson.

If you explain the name of the disease, polyneuropathy, you get the explanation “disease of several nerves” and that is exactly what it is about.

– What the word indicates is that we get several nerves that become sick. It is simply what the disease does, says Dr. Marcus Olausson.

Mainly affects the elderly

There are many causes of polyneuropathy. The absolute most common are diabetes, various drugs or alcohol. But as often as in a quarter of cases, no direct cause is found.

The disease is uncommon before the age of 60, but among those over 60, five to six percent are affected. The large group are older diabetics, says Dr. Marcus in Nyhetsmorgon.

– If we look at the younger people, we are seeing the nitrous oxide bubble right now, meaning that young people are abusing nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide destroys vitamin B12. Then you run the risk of getting this kind of polyneuropathy, which progresses quite quickly – and then you can also get damage to more central nerves.

This is what the symptoms look like

Which symptoms you get depends on which type of nerve is affected. If it is a sensory nerve, i.e. one that touches feeling, you get tingling and numbness. You may also experience pain. If it hits a motor nerve, you become weak instead.

The problems often occur in the feet, lower legs and hands.

– The most common is that it is the longest nerves that cause symptoms. Most often you get symptoms from the feet, as they are furthest from the spinal cord, says Dr. Marcus.

He says that you should contact your healthcare center if you experience, for example, numbness that does not go away. Unfortunately, there is no treatment that repairs the nerve, but the problems can be slowed down.