Today Dr. Christian Milioto, from the WNY Pain Reliefand Integrative Wellness Center addresses neuropathy. He sees a lot of people with neuropathy and says he uses that term lightly. Neuropathy is the diagnosis of nerve pain or symptoms in arms, legs, and feet. Many people are diabetics. For those who aren’t diabetics why do you still get the diagnosis of neuropathy? He says because you have the nerve pain in the extremities, but they call that idiopathic neuropathy which medically means there isn’t a known diagnosis. He says for those individuals who come into his office, more likely, than not we prove that there is an underlying condition through a clinical assessment and objective findings, and we find that there is generally a condition associated with the back even though the person does not have back pain. He says they do improve those symptoms very quickly in those patients and says that’s why he says that it could potentially be a misdiagnosis. He says they are getting diagnosed with the nerve pain but it’s coming from an underlying condition that has not been looked at yet.
With neuropathy in general, they do generally tell people that you are going to get worse over time, you have to live with it, we will medically manage it through, pain management, medication and some rehabilitative things says Dr. Milioto. Most people are on medications that are either treatments for the nerve pain itself or for the pain the individual is feeling. That could be in the back or the radiating symptoms in the leg. He says most of his patients will tell him it helps them to sleep a little bit, but they usually find it does not improve their pain. They will ask him why and he says the truth is that the medications themselves is not necessarily designed for neuropathy.
When asked about a success story, Dr. Milioto says he does have an individual that he will speak about and the individual will gladly tell you his story. He was wheelchair bound for a very long time. They have been working with him for a little over nine weeks now. He is now walking and driving himself to the office. He uses a walker, and he doesn’t have his wheelchair anymore. They have reduced the neuropathy symptoms in his legs and feet, and they are rehabbing him now. Truthfully, Dr. Milioto says he is about 70% stronger to this point than when they first met him.
If you are wondering if Dr. Milioto is able to treat you, he says the first thing he would say is to start off by giving them a phone call. He says a lot of times he will talk to people over the phone, but he is very honest with them. The conditions that they treat, these patients have been dealing with pain for a long time. Come in for a consultation and meet him in person and let him get the whole story, then he says, they customize your treatment to you. If you aren’t ready for that step, you can give the office a call. Dr. Milioto does seminars once a month. The seminars are on neck and back pain, stenosis, sciatica, nerve pain whether it is diabetic or otherwise. They also talk about what the patients are taking, why they are taking them, why they may or not be getting better and then what they can do to help themselves actually heal and reduce these symptoms.
For more information call WNY Pain Relief at 716-650-PAIN (7246) or go to their website buffalopainrelief.com
