7 Things Your Nerves Need to Heal: What the Research Shows
Many people are told that once nerve damage is done, all they can do is manage symptoms. But peripheral nerves have their own repair machinery, and fibers can regrow at roughly a millimeter a day, about an inch a month, when the conditions around them allow it. Drawing on more than 20 years and over 3,000 procedures as a peripheral nerve surgeon, Dr. Fitz explains that surgery could take pressure off a nerve, but the nerve did the healing, and how well it healed depended on the body it lived in. He walks through seven factors that shape that environment, from blood sugar swings and exercise to specific nutrient forms and sleep, with an honest look at what the research shows and where it is still uncertain.
What you'll learn in this video
- Why a normal A1C can miss the blood sugar swings your nerves are exposed to
- What skin biopsy and walking studies found about exercise and nerve fibers, and their limits
- The alpha-lipoic acid dose used in the Sydney 2 trial, and why many bottles fall short of it
- Why benfotiamine reaches cells better than the plain thiamine in most multivitamins
- Why a normal B12 result may not reflect what your nerves can use, and which test gets closer
- How poor sleep and nerve symptoms can feed each other
- What a 2026 meta-analysis suggested about combination B vitamin regimens versus single vitamins
- Why about 90 days is a fair window before judging any plan