Peripheral Neuropathy: What If Your Symptoms Have More Than One Cause?
Key insights: 60-second read
- A peripheral neuropathy diagnosis is real and valid - but it doesn't mean every symptom you feel in your feet has to be there, or has to be there to the same degree.
- Your lower back may be contributing to your foot symptoms - the nerves that supply the underside of your foot originate in your lower back. Stiffness and restriction there can influence how your feet feel.
- A simple ball release can help you test this - see if using a tennis ball or lacrosse ball on your mid-to-lower back changes your foot symptoms.
- The elephant walk improves neural mobility - this exercise helps the neural tissue slide and glide freely down your leg, which can reduce tingling and numbness.
- Your sitting habits may be the root cause - if freeing up your back helps, you need to address the postures that created the stiffness in the first place.
If you're dealing with the difficult symptoms of peripheral neuropathy - pins and needles, tingling, or numbness at the bottom of your foot - I want to show you two things you probably aren't doing that you should very much try.
Because although a peripheral neuropathy diagnosis is very real and very valid, we need to double-check that any lower leg or foot symptoms have to be there. Or at the very least to the degree they currently are.
Let's get into it.
On this page
A Different Perspective on Neuropathy
In medicine and healthcare, the labels we give people often stick. And they can stick so much that it's easy to assume that every symptom you experience is directly because of that label.
Take arthritis, for example. If you have arthritic hands and fingers that hurt or it's hard to make a fist, it's easy to blame arthritis. It seems obvious, right? But what if we take a step back and consider the impact of your neck? What if you are stiff or tight at the levels where the nerves come from that supply those arthritic hands and fingers? More importantly, what happens if we improve the function of these areas?
Clinically, I find that while the arthritis is still clearly there, it doesn't guarantee that your hands have to hurt.
"Peripheral neuropathy is very valid and is very real. We just need to double-check whether any tingling, numbness, or pins and needles have to be there."
It's the same with peripheral neuropathy. The diagnosis is real. But could there be a better version of your symptoms waiting for you if we take a step back and consider other factors - like the function of your lower back?
Test Your Symptoms First
Before we do anything, we need a baseline. We need to know how your symptoms feel right now so we can see if these exercises genuinely have any impact. If they do, they do. If they don't, they don't.
How to Test Your Symptoms
- Run your hands and fingers across your feet. Take note of how the sensation feels.
- Does it feel the same on both feet? Does one side feel less symptomatic than the other?
- If you need to stand up and walk around or do something else first, do that.
Then grab a tennis ball or lacrosse ball, do the exercises below, and immediately recheck to see if anything has changed.
Exercise 1: Lower Back Release
The nerves that supply the underside of your foot originate in your lower back. If that area is stiff, tight, or restricted, it can influence how your feet feel.
How to Do the Lower Back Release
- Setup: Take a tennis ball or lacrosse ball and find a wall with a little space. Place the ball at the base of your rib cage, right in the middle where the bump is, then let it roll off to one side onto the fleshy part.
- Find the spots: Relax into the wall. You're not necessarily looking for something that hurts - you're looking for stiffness, restrictions, and overloaded tissue. Feel for things that feel thick, restricted, or dense compared to the same spots on the other side.
- Hold: Once you find a restricted spot, let the ball sink in for a minute or so. Allow the soft tissue to give, and try to affect the joints underneath, which form the boundary where the nerves exit the spine.
- Systematic search: Move the ball up or down a fraction and look for other restrictions. It can be tender, but if it doesn't feel stiff, tight, and restricted compared to the other side, it's not necessarily where you need to treat.
- Retest: After working through the area, walk around and recheck your foot symptoms. Is there less tingling? Less numbness? Less discomfort than you'd normally expect?
Key Point: If your left side is stiff, it can affect the function of your right foot. You don't necessarily have to be on the same side. Work on the side that feels the most restricted, at the level that feels the most restricted.
Exercise 2: The Elephant Walk
This exercise improves the mobility of the neural tissue as it travels down the back of your legs. Your nervous system doesn't stretch like an elastic band - it's more like a steel cable that needs to slide and glide freely through the channels it passes through.
How to Do the Elephant Walk
- Setup: Find a bench or table that's high enough for you to lean down onto comfortably. Straighten both legs as far as you feel comfortable. You may need to sit back a little to wind up the neural tissue.
- Find the tension: You're looking for some tension behind the back of your knee, through your hamstring, and down through your calf.
- Alternate: Bend one leg, then the other, alternating back and forth. You can lift your heel up a little if you want. The goal is to press back into those corners as you straighten each leg.
- Repeat: Aim for 10 to 15 repetitions. As you go, you might find you need to get deeper and deeper into the stretch. Keep going and take up more slack as needed.
- Retest: After a few sets, immediately recheck your symptoms. Does it feel any less tender? Any more alive? Less numbness? Less tingling?
"Your nervous system, your neural tissue, it doesn't stretch. It's like a steel cable or a wire that passes through tissue. There's enough length and slack in that system to allow you to get into whatever position you need to without running into the end of that slack."
The Root Cause: Your Sitting Habits
If freeing up your back or doing the elephant walks genuinely makes a difference to your symptoms, then you owe it to yourself to take a long, hard look at how you sit.
Everything has to happen for a reason. If that part of your back has become stiff, tight, and restricted, there's a reason. And based purely on what I find to be true clinically, it's often caused by our day-to-day sitting habits.
Where to Look
- How do you sit on the couch?
- How do you sit in the car?
- How do you sit at a computer, using a phone, an iPad, or a laptop?
- Do you do arts and crafts?
- Do you recline back into a chair?
For most people, how you position your back when you sit helps explain why specific parts of the back become stiff over time. For others, it can be standing and leaning forward. But whatever it is for you, there has to be something. Otherwise, it shouldn't be there.
Are you up nice and tall, or do you tend to get a little slouchy? Try to be a little taller. Grab a cushion or a thick towel and jam it into your lower back to support a better spinal position. Investing in better postures and shapes is always worth your time, but it may be even more so if you find your back is negatively influencing your peripheral neuropathy symptoms.
A peripheral neuropathy diagnosis is very real and very valid. But that doesn't mean every symptom you have has to be there, or has to be there to the same degree.
By checking your lower back and mobility of the neural tissue as it travels down your legs, you may find a missing piece of the puzzle that you never thought to look for.
If you do find that freeing up your back makes a genuine difference, take a long, hard look at how you sit. That's where the problem may have started - and that's where the long-term solution lies.
- Grant
Frequently Asked Questions
Can peripheral neuropathy symptoms be caused by something other than nerve damage?
Yes. While peripheral neuropathy involves nerve dysfunction, the symptoms you feel - tingling, numbness, pins and needles - can be influenced by other factors as well, including stiffness and restriction in your lower back. The nerves that supply your feet originate in your lower back, so dysfunction there can contribute to your symptoms. The point is, we can't be definitively sure until we check a few other things as well.
How do I know if my lower back is contributing to my foot symptoms?
Test and retest. Note how your feet feel, do the lower back release and elephant walk, then recheck. If your symptoms change - less tingling, less numbness - then your lower back is likely a contributing factor.
How often should I do these exercises?
You can do the lower back release daily or as needed. The elephant walk can be done daily as well - aim for a few sets of 10 to 15 repetitions. The key is consistency over time.
What if these exercises don't help my symptoms?
If you don't notice any change, your lower back may not be a significant contributor to your symptoms. However, it's still worth addressing your sitting habits and overall posture for general spinal health. If symptoms persist, consult with a healthcare professional.
One key insight from this video
"Just because you have a peripheral neuropathy, it's very valid. It's very real. We just need to double-check if one of the consequences of that has to be tingling, numbness, pins and needles. Could there be a better version of that waiting for you if we just take a step back and consider other things?"
Need personalised guidance for your neuropathy symptoms?
If you would like help making sense of your peripheral neuropathy symptoms, lower back dysfunction, or any musculoskeletal issue, you can book with Grant either in Port Macquarie or via an online telehealth consultation.
