August 2022

Congratulations Gregory!

Dr. Gregory Maassen, FPN supporter and e-bike enthusiast, completed his 4,500 mile transcontinental e-bike tour across the Lincoln Highway on Tuesday, August 2, in San Francisco! We are deeply grateful to Gregory for helping raise awareness and much-needed funds for peripheral neuropathy.

Read about Gregory’s PN diagnosis and e-bike tour here.

If you would like to contribute to Gregory’s campaign, please click here.

Advocacy Update

On July 28, the Senate Committee on Appropriations released a “draft” version of the fiscal year 2023 Defense Appropriations Act. We are pleased to report that this draft legislation, if enacted, would renew peripheral neuropathy as an eligible condition for research from the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) at the Department of Defense. The draft bill would also appropriate $370 million for the PRMRP in fiscal year 2023.

We still have a long way to go in this process, but this is an important first step. Congressional leaders must first agree to overall spending levels for fiscal year 2023, and this will likely not happen until after the November elections. However, if an agreement is reached and a final appropriations bill is crafted for consideration, it will more than likely include the renewal of peripheral neuropathy as an eligible condition for the PRMRP. If enacted, this would be the third consecutive year that the condition has been included in the PRMRP. Stay tuned!

Learn more about this initiative.

Small Fiber Neuropathy: Q&A with Dr. Amro Stino

Small fiber neuropathy (SFN) is a common, yet underappreciated, subclass of peripheral neuropathy. While SFN shares many features with large fiber neuropathy, it has unique aspects in its evaluation and management that warrant particular attention.

For more answers to your questions, check out our Q&A with Dr. Stino.

Drugs That Can Cause PN

Many people, including many doctors and other clinicians, immediately associate peripheral neuropathy with diabetes. This is a reasonable association, since approximately 50% of people with diabetes will develop peripheral neuropathy.

One often-overlooked cause of peripheral neuropathy can be medications. Many drugs are reported to cause PN, and here is an article that shares more information about what you might want to check in your medicine cabinet.

Read more.

Click here for more information about drug-induced PN from FPN’s website.

Anti-MAG PN: Q&A with Dr. Richard Lewis

FPN recently welcomed Richard Lewis, MD, from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, to present on Anti-MAG peripheral neuropathy. During this 60-minute recorded program, Dr. Lewis provided a scientific overview of anti-MAG PN, from diagnosis to treatment and everything in between. 

Following the session, Lindsay Colbert, Executive Director of FPN, sat down with Dr. Lewis to ask some questions that were not addressed during the program.

Read more.

DPN & Speak for Your Feet Campaign

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is one of the most-known causes of neuropathy. Unfortunately, patients may not recognize symptoms or know when to have conversations with their healthcare providers about potential solutions. The Speak For Your Feet Campaign is aimed to raise awareness for DPN, empower patients to be their own advocates, engage patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers.

Learn more about the contest and submit a mnemonic today.

An Evaluation on Acupuncture Being Effective

To evaluate whether acupuncture may improve symptoms, the Acupuncture for Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathy study was conducted between 2012 and 2015 at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany. This prospective, controlled, randomized, 2-armed, cross-over study recruited 60 patients with CIPN. Patients received weekly acupuncture for 10 weeks before or after a 10-week waiting period. Patients were evaluated for change in sural sensory nerve action potential, sural sensory nerve conduction velocity, tibial motor nerve conduction velocity, tibial nerve distal motoric latency, and patient-reported outcome measures.

Learn more.

The Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy provides education and support today as we walk toward a cure for tomorrow.

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FPN is a non-profit organization that is solely funded by our readers.

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