Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
Avatar universal

please offer suggestions- in lots of pain

I have had 10 weeks of  intermittent right arm parathesia and burning in the right hand and right leg sciatica-type symptoms and burning and pins and needles in the right foot. Have had neuro exam, brain and cervical MRI, nerve conduction studies, EMG. The only finding was a pre-existing osteophyte/bone spur at the C 5-6 level. All else was normal. Neurologist can't find a diagnosis, except ? maybe? a pinched nerve at the cervical level and piriformis syndrome. Also, performed maybe over-icing of raw ice directly on the medial elbow  to try to heal right elbow tendonitis, right before symptoms began. Someone suggested that that trauma to the sympathetic system of all that freezing ice to the elbow, (when the weather was also freezing) may have set up a flare to my nervous system Also, discovered that I was taking about 200 mg of B6 in various supplements, starting about a few months before the symptoms appeared. Could it be B6 neurotoxicity? Any thoughts on what I could have? Thank you very much.
2 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
Avatar universal
I didn't realize how long-winded I had gotten, but we cannot go in and edit stuff, so my apologies.  Smile.  But hope it helps.  
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Keep in mind I am not an expert, I just know a few things from having a bad back from a car accident and I know a little bit about the way vitamins work.  Several things I can tell you that might explain all this to you.  The tendonitis that you had in your elbow, where you felt you should ice it up, it is likely that whatever made that flare up is how come your right upper extremity is bothering you.  And anytime a person gets wierd nerve feelings in the leg and foot, this is almost always from an injury where swelling takes place, which cuts off the sensation to that leg, as in sciatica or lumbar spine injury.

If you will think back on the days immediately surrounding your icing your elbow, visualize whatever activities you were doing, there may have been a moment where you overdid it on the right side, and even just stretching or straining the heck out of yourself on that side can cause injury, doesn't even have to be dramatic, just a twinge might be all you recall.

Now, the role B6 may have played is fairly easy to eliminate on account of you wouldn't just feel numbness and tingling on one side; both sides would have those symptoms.  Also, while 200 mg of B6 for a few months isn't necessary, the amount is probably not going to be excessive, on account of some literature says 200 mg is okay.  But in an abundance of caution, if you are younger than, say 50 years old, and you eat lots of good food of all varieties (B6 is in meat, whole grains, vegies, nuts and bananas), there is no need to take a supplement for it.  There are some medicines that will deplete it, like birth control pills and some asthma medicines, in which case you could have bloodwork done periodically to check if your vits and mins are within normal limits.  I mean, it's okay to take a multivitamin maybe once or twice a week when you're young or middle aged, but any more than that, unless bloodwork says different, is truly unnecessary, altho I personally think Vitamin C and an occasional Vitamin A is okay, with the Bs helping weakness after illness...but that's just from my own endless reading on the subject years ago and some out of habit today, so please keep in mind my memory is subject to error.

But let us say that you notice after you stopped taking B6, the symptoms went away, while you could make a case for that vitamin doing this to you, you could equally say that whatever injury you sustained on the right side of your body has rested and healed up by now.  In either case, don't take that vitamin anymore and if you feel pain now you need to rest for a few days.  And let us say that you cannot remember a single even slight injury on the right side of your body, that there was no sensation of pain, no less than full range of motion, absolutely no other symptoms or memory of injury on the right side other than this tingling thing, then could be the injury was slight but the swelling was enough to cut off normal nerve sensations on that side of the body, or perhaps you are overusing that side of your body without precisely realizing it, like carrying a very heavy backpack on that side and picking it up and putting it on a shelf, for example.

If you are having problems on that side of the body right now, then I can make three suggestions to hopefully make it feel better fairly quickly, which all necessitate you resting for a few days:  One, lay on the floor flat of your back and put your legs up in a chair, let your arms fall out to the side, this takes all the weight off the back, you may hear your cervical spine crack a little, you may feel a tug in back muscles, but pretty soon you should feel real relaxed, and in five minutes, roll to your side and get up slowly, see if that helps to do that couple times a day for a few days.  If it does, and if you ever feel discomfort on one side or in your spine, have someone do an X-ray of your back to make sure you don't have some kind of disk bulge.  

Two, you can start at zero and begin a very slow but building stretching routine for five minutes daily where you carefully work both sides of your body with side stretches, pulling arms forward and wrapping around your chest, then backward, carefully lifting leg straight behind you and then leaning forward in a slight knee bend, that sort of thing, see if that helps after a few days.  Three, visit a chiropractor and let him perform some range of motion processes with your body and he will be able to tell if you've got weakness in certain areas, and if it turns up you've got it on the right side, then you probably did injure it and he can do a few sessions with you to loosen you up.  Also, if you have been extremely active nonstop thru all this and you're feeling pain, for gosh sakes stop and rest for a few days!  

I might add that if you really do have toxic levels of B6 in your body, it CAN cause permanent damage, and you will be able to tell if this is so by how well you walk from point A to point B.  If it's smooth,coordinated, balanced and you feel no ill-effects, then you were fortunate and did not wind up with permanent toxic damage.  Some people get wierd feelings around their mouths, numbness, maybe even cracking of skin, that won't go away.  But if you have any concerns about permanent damage, a neurologist can determine if it's permanent, and also bloodwork might can help him come to a conclusion on that issue.  You can also visit a sports injury doc and they are extremely good at figuring out what injuries you may have in your body and they can best treat them, too.
Helpful - 0
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the Neurology Community

Top Neurology Answerers
620923 tn?1452915648
Allentown, PA
5265383 tn?1669040108
ON
1756321 tn?1547095325
Queensland, Australia
1780921 tn?1499301793
Queen Creek, AZ
Learn About Top Answerers
Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
Find out how beta-blocker eye drops show promising results for acute migraine relief.
In this special Missouri Medicine report, doctors examine advances in diagnosis and treatment of this devastating and costly neurodegenerative disease.
Here are 12 simple – and fun! – ways to boost your brainpower.
Discover some of the causes of dizziness and how to treat it.
Discover the common causes of headaches and how to treat headache pain.
Two of the largest studies on Alzheimer’s have yielded new clues about the disease