Treating the pain of peripheral neuropathy
Peripheral Neuropathy
Peripheral neuropathy is a condition that can cause a wide variety of symptoms, including muscle weakness, cramps, uncontrollable twitching of the muscles under the skin, muscle shrinking, loss of feeling, lack of coordination, pain with no obvious cause, heat intolerance and excess sweating. It’s caused by damage to the nerves.
Some chemo drugs can cause it in about 30-40% of patients and it can continue long after treatment is finished. Radiotherapy can also trigger it, sometimes months or years later.
If a patient develops it during treatment, the treatment is very often halted, at least temporarily, to prevent further damage. And doctors don’t have many answers for reversing it.
Luckily, there are some natural treatments that can help. One of them is Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALC). ALC is an amino acid, one of the building blocks of proteins, and it’s produced naturally in the body but it’s also available as a nutritional supplement.
It’s used by the body for many things:
· It helps improve energy levels, both physical and mental
· It supports heart health and healthy cholesterol levels
· It’s an antioxidant
· It can help memory and brain function in the elderly
· It’s important for men’s sexual health
· It helps us produce neurotransmitters, which affect nerve function
· It helps to support the nervous system.
A random, double blind, placebo-controlled trial of 239 subjects suffering from peripheral neuropathy, caused by vinblastine, paclitaxel or cisplatin, tested ALC on half of them. They had been treated for a variety of different cancers and their treatment was complete. The test group was given one gram of ALC 3 times a day for 8 weeks. They were tested after 8 weeks and again after 12 weeks. Their improvement was slow but steady and after 8 weeks, 51.6% of the test group had a significant improvement. The improvement was still there after 12 weeks, so it was maintained in the 4 weeks after treatment ended, although the researchers thought that longer treatment would result in more improvement (1). They also found that the level of fatigue in those who received ALC was lower (1).
It’s important to note that in the trial above the patients had completed their chemo. In 3 other trials, ALC was used alongside various different chemo drugs. In all of them, ALC actually caused more neuropathy than the placebo group experienced, and one showed that the neuropathy persisted for 2 years (2), (3), (4). That means that you shouldn’t use ALC during chemo, but that it can be helpful afterwards.
ALC is safe to take orally in doses of 1 gram 3 times daily for extended periods. It has few side effects but these can include restlessness, loss of appetite, headache, dry mouth and insomnia. In a few people it can cause digestive upsets, and some people also experience fishy smelling sweat, breath and urine (5).
ALC can theoretically increase the effects of some anticoagulant drugs, some antidepressants (SSRIs), and reduce the effectiveness of thyroid hormone replacement therapy (5). If you’re taking any of these, check with a pharmacist before using ALC.
ALC isn’t the only natural treatment available for neuropathy. You’ll find more suggestions in my book, which you can see at https://www.naturallysupportingcancertreatment.com.au/book.
References
(1) Sun Y, Shu Y, Liu B et al. A prospective study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral acetyl-L-carnitine for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Exp Ther Med. 2016;12(6):4017-4024. doi:10.3892/etm.2016.3871
(2) Hershman D, Unger J, Crew K et al. Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial of Acetyl-L-Carnitine for the Prevention of Taxane-Induced Neuropathy in Women Undergoing Adjuvant Breast Cancer Therapy. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2013;31(20):2627-2633. doi:10.1200/jco.2012.44.8738
(3) Callander N, Markovina S, Eickhoff J et al. Acetyl-l-carnitine (ALCAR) for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma treated with bortezomib, doxorubicin and low-dose dexamethasone: a study from the Wisconsin Oncology Network. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 2014;74(4):875-882. doi:10.1007/s00280-014-2550-5
(4) Hershman D, Unger J, Crew K et al. Two-Year Trends of Taxane-Induced Neuropathy in Women Enrolled in a Randomized Trial of Acetyl-L-Carnitine (SWOG S0715). JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2018;110(6):669-676. doi:10.1093/jnci/djx259
(5) Natural Medicines Database. Natural Medicines - Login. Natural Medicines Database. https://naturalmedicines.therapeuticresearch.com/databases/food,-herbs-supplements/professional.aspx?productid=960#interactionsWithDrugs. Published 2021. Accessed December 19, 2021.
