Peripheral Neuropathy No Match for Tim O’Melia: A Success Story of Renewed Life

JORDAN PYSZ / iFoundMyDoctor.com
Tim is more of a three-wheel man nowadays, but he’s ramblin’ again (with his wife) and has his life back thanks to Renewed Life Wellness Center’s comprehensive protocol to treat peripheral neuropathy.

When Tim O’Melia bought the 2004 Harley-Davidson motorcycle that he affectionately nicknamed “Black Betty,” it had 22,000 miles on it. In short order, during a whirlwind tour of Florida, Tim tacked another 56,000 miles onto that hog. “We went as far north and west as Destin and as far south as Key West,” says Tim, whose wife rode pillion on the trip. “It was a great time, and we saw a lot of what this state has to offer.” Tim’s great times with Black Betty ended rather abruptly about two years later due to difficulties he had controlling the bike. Tim eventually learned those difficulties were caused by peripheral neuropathy. A condition that results when the nerves away from the spinal cord become damaged, peripheral neuropathy can cause numbness, tingling and stiffness as well as weakness, burning and pain in the feet, hands and arms. The condition can be triggered by an injury, regular exposure to statin drugs and chemotherapy, but is most often caused by diabetes. To this day, Tim, a 64-year-old nondiabetic, has no idea how it came to affect him. “For a while I thought it might have been because of a back surgery I had a few years ago, but an MRI showed there was nothing there that could have been causing it,” Tim says. “All I know is that the pain and burning was just killing me.” That pain and burning was a natural extension of some more mild symptoms that Tim first experienced a couple of years ago while on vacation in Panama. At the time, he thought the problem might have been a result of sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. “I had a little bit of numbness on the tips of the big toe and second toe on my left foot,” Tim explains. “Again, I didn’t think much of it at the time, but three months later, I started to get those same feelings on the same toes on my right foot. “It was about a month and a half later that my feet first started to burn and that I started to get a tingling feeling in them. Pretty soon after that, my feet were hurting and burning so bad that I literally could not walk anywhere. “I was able to sleep at night, which was good, but as soon as I woke up each morning, I was in so much agony that it was all I could do to get from the bedroom to the couch in the living room, where I could put my feet up.” Elevating his feet didn’t alleviate the pain, it only made it tolerable. And it did nothing for the pain and burning in his hands. Concerned that he might have to live with the discomfort forever, Tim finally sought medical help for the problem. The first doctor he visited diagnosed the peripheral neuropathy and prescribed gabapentin, which did nothing to alleviate Tim’s discomfort. A second physician recommended another medication, which also had little effect. “Then one day, I saw an ad on Facebook for a $47 consultation to reverse neuropathy,” Tim remembers. “So, I filled out the form, and the very next day I got a call back from the doctor’s office that ran the ad. That was Dr. Carle’s office.”

Take the Stage

Kenneth D. Carle, DC, is the founder of Renewed Life Wellness Center. The practice is committed to offering the best in chiropractic care, medical weight loss, regenerative medicine therapy and treatment for peripheral neuropathy, which has four stages. Patients in Stages 1, 2 and 3 have various amounts of pain, numbness and burning. As those symptoms grow in severity, many patients can lose their balance, which can lead to a loss of independence and the need for walking assistance with a cane, walker or motorized chair. “In Stage 4, patients are too far gone, and some cannot be treated,” Dr. Carle explains. “That’s the stage where people need to have toes amputated and are totally reliant on others to take care of them. Thankfully, Tim was not at that stage.” Dr. Carle’s evaluation revealed that Tim was in Stage 2. “That was the bad news,” Tim relates. “The good news, Dr. Carle told me, was that Stage 2 peripheral neuropathy can be treated. He said, You came in at just the right time because this can be reversed.” Dr. Carle has about a dozen tools he uses to reduce peripheral neuropathy and restore damaged nerves. The severity of each patient’s condition determines which tools, but one he uses with almost every patient is the ReBuilder, an FDA-approved device that uses neuroelectrical therapy to repair and regenerate damaged nerves. Dr. Carle also uses red-light therapy, which produces waves of infrared light that is known to stimulate the growth of damaged blood vessels (angiogenesis). The growth improves the overall function of the vessels, allowing for greater blood and oxygen flow in the affected area. The improved flow promotes healing, which leads to a decrease in pain and an increase in function. Those devices and another that Dr. Carle recommends called a vibration plate can be used at home. In addition, Dr. Carle recommends nutritional supplements that are designed to further advance the healing of the damaged nerves. “One of the supplements is a pill,” Dr. Carle says. “The other is a powder you mix with water. Both are vasodilators that increase the production of nitric oxide, which increases the diameter of the blood vessels and helps with blood flow. “And when combined with the other treatments, they work. One hundred percent of our patients experience some level of improvement in their symptoms. We don’t get 100 percent improvement in 100 percent of our patients, but most improve between 30 and 75 percent.”

Heaven Sent

Dr. Carle used all the medical devices in his tool kit in treating Tim, who says he religiously followed all of the doctor’s recommendations. A year later, Tim says he is amazed at the effectiveness of Dr. Carle’s treatment protocol. “When I first went to see Dr. Carle, I was waking up every morning feeling as if someone had lit a match and set my feet and hands on fire,” Tim says. “Now, I wake up singing because it’s like somebody came along and put the fire out. “And that someone is Dr. Carle. He gave me my life back. I recently returned from a vacation to Virginia and Washington, DC, and I walked all over every day. I would not have been able to do that two years ago. “The only thing I’m not doing anymore is riding that Harley. I had to give that up because I couldn’t control it with the neuropathy. But after I sold it, I bought a trike that I ride, and it’s great because all I have to do is shift gears and go.” Tim nicknamed his trike “Ramblin’ Rose,” and he’s happy to say he’s once again a ramblin’ man thanks to Dr. Carle’s protocol. “Dr. Carle’s a great guy, and I cannot thank him enough for all he’s done for me,” Tim raves. “I honestly believe that God sent me to Dr. Carle, and I would gladly recommend him to others, without hesitation.”