Nerve damage is not fun. It’s a painful experience, and many people are left wondering how long their nerve will take to heal. Unfortunately, the answer isn’t clear cut. In some cases, nerves heal over the course of many months or even years. In other cases, they never heal. According to this Mayo article, nerve cells can regenerate and grow back, but recovery is typically slow and incomplete. This is not said to crush your spirits but rather to help you develop realistic expectations for the recovery process.
Let’s learn more about the different types of nerve damage, the factors that influence nerve healing, typical recovery periods, and tips for supporting nerve repair.
Understanding Nerve Damage
Nerve damage, or neuropathy, can occur from various causes, such as injuries, surgical procedures, illnesses, or chronic conditions like diabetes. The severity of nerve damage can range from mild to severe, which can impact how quickly you heal and what your recovery process looks like. There are three main types of nerve damage:
- Neuropraxia. This is the mildest form of nerve damage and is typically caused from compression or slight stretching. Recovery is quick in most cases, usually taking a few days or weeks.
- Axonotmesis. A more severe injury, axonotmesis is when the nerve fibers are damaged but the surrounding tissues stay intact. This gives you a better chance at making a full recovery, though it does take some time, usually weeks to months.
- Neurotmesis. This is the most severe nerve injury, involving complete severance of the nerve. Surgical intervention is often required, and it can take months or years to heal, if at all.
What Causes Nerve Damage to Happen?
Neuropathy can result from a wide range of factors, and knowing them can help you better understand the recovery process. A common culprit of nerve damage is physical injury, such as trauma or repetitive stress like carpal tunnel syndrome. Certain toxins and medications can also cause damage to the nerves, including alcohol, medications, and environmental toxins.
Nutritional deficiencies, such as a thiamine deficiency, can also affect the nervous system, resulting in neuropathy. Even certain medical and genetic disorders can affect the nerves in your body, including kidney and liver disorders, tumors that press on the nerves, or disorders inherited at birth that make the nerves more vulnerable to damage.
However, the most common cause of neuropathy is diabetes, as high blood sugar levels can damage nerves in the hands and feet, causing diabetic neuropathy. Certain autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, Guillain-Barre syndrome and lupus can also attack the nerves, leading to a wide range of complications such as nerve damage, weakness, and paralysis.
Factors That Affect How Long it Takes for Nerves to Heal
Aside from the nerve damage itself, there are other factors that can influence the healing process. For instance, the location of the injury makes a difference in how well it heals. Nerves closer to the spinal cord tend to recover more slowly than those further away. Additionally, injuries to larger nerves may take longer to heal. How quickly you seek treatment and rehabilitation plays a role, too, as physical therapy can improve recovery outcomes.
Lastly, your age and overall health influence how well you heal. Generally speaking, younger individuals and those in good health experience faster recovery times. If you have an autoimmune condition or type 2 diabetes, your healing is likely to be slower. Unfortunately, peripheral neuropathy is likely to be permanent, as the damage often stems from the underlying condition itself.
Typical Recovery Times for Nerve Damage
Treating the underlying cause of nerve pain can reduce symptoms and improve outcomes, even if it doesn’t repair the nerve entirely. For example, if you have peripheral neuropathy due to diabetes, controlling your blood sugar levels can help manage symptoms and prevent further nerve damage. If you damaged your nerves in an accident, your nerve pain may go away once the injury is healed.
Typical recovery times for neuropathy are:
- Mild nerve damage. For mild nerve damage, recovery is usually quick. Most people see improvements within a few days to a few weeks. In these cases, the nerve remains intact, and symptoms like tingling, numbness, and weakness resolve on their own.
- Moderate nerve damage. Moderate nerve damage involves more significant injury to the nerve fibers so you can expect the recovery to take longer. The nerves regenerate, usually around 1 millimeter a day, for several weeks to several months.
- Severe nerve damage. Severe nerve damage is the most complex to heal. In this case, the nerve is severed, and surgical repair is often necessary. Recovery can take months or years, depending on the extent of the damage and how successful the surgical procedure is. Sometimes, the nerve doesn’t heal at all.
Tips for Supporting Nerve Healing
Much of nerve healing depends on your body’s natural processes, which are out of your control. However there are several strategies you can try that may support and even accelerate your recovery. After seeing your doctor and receiving a diagnosis, start by following their treatment plan, which usually includes medication to manage pain and inflammation, physical therapy, and surgery, if needed.
The goal of physical therapy is to maintain muscle strength, improve circulation, and promote nerve regeneration. Insurance often covers some PT appointments, but you can continue doing the exercises long after. Make sure to practice good self-care by eating a balanced diet, avoiding harmful substances like alcohol and tobacco, and avoiding overexertion. Effective pain management techniques like acupuncture and massage therapy may also help alleviate pain and speed up healing.
Your doctor may even prescribe medications to keep you more comfortable, or they may suggest taking an over-the-counter pain reliever. While these medications can be effective in reducing swelling and inflammation, they also carry risks and side effects, so you still want to use them in moderation. Tingling, burning, numbness, and pain associated with neuropathy can often be better managed with various supplements and creams, reducing your need for medication.
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