Numb hands and feet

[aquamarine1]

Hi, does anyone have any experience of permanent numbness in hands an feet without a diagnosis? I have had this for 5 years and it is getting slowly worse. I have had neck MRI, brain scan, spinal MRI but nothing showing up apparently. I have had vitamin deficiency checks too and all fine. No idea where to go with this - I feel it may be something in my neck but I could be completely wrong.

Do you know what your B12 levels actually are?
You can experience symptoms even at the low end of normal & many Drs see ‘normal’ range and discount any treatment.

You have tingling in your hands and feet.
An ongoing vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to nerve damage, which can sometimes cause a pins-and-needles feeling in your hands or feet. “Vitamin B12 is needed to help neurons function,” explains Dr. Sarah Baker, an internist with CHI Memorial Chattanooga Internal Medicine Group. “When B12 levels are too low, neurons can’t effectively function, which leads to symptoms like numbness or tingling in the hands and feet.” This numbness or tingling is called paresthesia, and it can become permanent if left untreated.

Nerve damage caused by an insufficient amount of the vitamin can also affect your balance and ability to walk. This too can become permanent if not treated, so it’s important to mention to your doctor if the issue arises.

Degeneration in my neck discs was my diagnosis. I have some permanent numbness in my left side, it was escalating really quickly until I started physio and exercising and working on my posture. It's just mild now not got worse since but would have probably been much worse without intervention.

I was worried about MS when it first came around. Can you get referred to a neurologist?

That's really helpful, thanks so much. I will check the actual B12 results. I really feel like the doctors are just completely baffled and try to ignore me now. My consultant gets in touch once a year to do an MRI or something and then nothing ever comes of it.

Thanks @seventyminutes, glad to hear you're doing well. I'm with a neurologist, he's ruled out MS but can't get the root cause. Did your issue show up in an MRI can I ask?

@seventyminutes do you have any neck pain, or is it just the numbness? Thanks.

Yeah I have back and neck pain from it.

It showed up on an mri but I had to change it up with them for them to actually tell me my discs were degrading. There was a massive case about it I had to raise a complaint lol. I had a feeling of I hadn't have chased it they would have just dismissed it. He showed me the scan and the patches that appeared on my neck and showed me what to look for but it was pretty evident.

It's natural causes as well apparently it's just the way my body is and there isn't too much I can do about it. I was 25 at the time he said I had a neck like I was in my 50s!

If your B vitamins look normal in your blood tests and you are still showing signs of B12 deficiency it could be due to MTHFR gene mutations which mean you are unable to methylate these vitamins. You could look at using Methylcobalamin and methyl folate rather than the unmethylated versions of these vitamins.