There are over 100 causes of neuropathy. We are going to talk about a few of the more common causes. The most common is diabetic neuropathy. Approximately 50% of diabetic patients will develop neuropathy. Generally, it starts in the toes and feet, then spreads to the ankles, and eventually the calves. As the symptoms develop between the ankles and the calves, some patients may start to feel symptoms develop in their fingertips. It doesn’t affect all the fingertips at first, but as it progresses, all of the fingertips become affected with neuropathy. Then neuropathy migrates to the fingers, then the hand and eventually it reaches the arms. Another cause of neuropathy is from chemotherapy. The chemotherapy medication is generally used for cancer treatment and is designed to kill off the cancer cells, but it can also kill off the delicate nerve cells that cause neuropathy. Generally this type of neuropathy develops in the hands and feet at the same time, about one to two months after stopping the chemotherapy treatments. Another type of neuropathy is called “idiopathic” neuropathy or “unknown” causes of neuropathy. Approximately 30% of neuropathies are of the idiopathic type. Modern medicine just doesn’t know why you have idiopathic neuropathy. You can also develop neuropathy in the nerves that goes to your organs, which is called Autonomic neuropathy. This is usually a later stage of neuropathy, where the signals from the brain don’t all arrive at your internal organs and cause them not to function as well as they should. Left untreated and/or taking medication is not truly treating neuropathy, it just dulls the pain in the brain so you can function during the day or sleep better at night. Neuropathy generally gets worse as time goes on, even as symptoms diminish; which can be a sign that the nerves are dying off. Eventually, some patients are told they need to have their medication dosage increased and possible amputation because of neuropathy.