Dr. Fitz - Nerve Health

Dr. Fitz - Nerve Health Nerve pain or neuropathy?

Get answers from a peripheral nerve surgeon with 3,000+ procedures performed.

✓ FREE discovery call
✓ Virtual 1:1 consultations
✓ NeuroAxis® nerve supplement
✓ Free 104-page Nerve Health Guide

Tap website link to book.

05/11/2026

The A1C threshold is an administrative number — not a biological one.

In my surgical career, I performed 3,000+ peripheral nerve procedures. I saw the same pattern over and over: patients with A1Cs in the 5.8 to 6.3 range, told by every doctor that their numbers were "fine," sitting in front of me with measurable small fiber nerve damage.

The population data backs it up. Polyneuropathy shows up in 11 to 13% of prediabetic adults — well below the 6.5% diabetes cutoff. And standard EMG nerve tests miss it entirely because they only measure the large fibers. The small fibers go first.

Insulin resistance damages nerves directly, independent of glucose. By the time A1C reflects the problem, the nerves have often been losing density for years.

Full breakdown of the studies, the mechanism, and what test to ask for — link in the first comment below ↓

What was your last A1C?

—
Michael Fitzmaurice, M.D.
Peripheral Nerve Surgeon
drfitznutrition.com

05/08/2026

If you're dealing with nerve pain, numbness, or tingling, stick with me for the next minute. This matters.

I'm a peripheral nerve surgeon. I performed thousands of nerve procedures in my surgical career — but my training didn't start there. I came up through exercise physiology and nutrition, then medical school, then peripheral nerve surgery. That whole arc shapes how I think about nerve health.

Most nerve advice online focuses on one thing — a pill, a procedure, a vitamin. But nerves don't fail in isolation, and they don't recover in isolation.

So I look at nerve health through three components that have to work together — lifestyle, nutrition, and the right targeted supplementation. Pull one out and the whole system breaks down.

I'm doing free 10-minute calls right now to see if people can benefit from one-on-one guidance. We'll know in 10 minutes whether I can help.

Book here 👇 (link in first comment)

05/05/2026

If you're taking turmeric for nerve health or inflammation, this might be hard to hear: the ingredient is NOT the dose that reaches your nerves.

Most curcumin supplements produce near-undetectable blood levels. You're literally paying for compounds that never make it past your digestive system. As a peripheral nerve surgeon who works with neuropathy patients daily, I've seen this absorption problem destroy otherwise solid supplementation plans.

The solution? Curcumin formulated with BioPerine (black pepper extract) produces measurable systemic levels and reduces the inflammatory markers that drive nerve damage — CRP, TNF-alpha, and IL-6. An umbrella meta-analysis of 10 studies covering 6,000 participants confirmed these effects.

The bottom line: form matters more than dose when it comes to curcumin. Without proper bioavailability, even the best mechanisms never get a chance to work.

Link for more info in bio

05/04/2026

One nutrient. 51% reduction in stabbing pain, burning, numbness, and tingling — versus 32% in the placebo group.

That's the Sydney 2 trial: multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 181 diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy.

Here's what most people get wrong: they hear "supplement" and assume it's a soft, hopeful, unproven category. It isn't. The most extensively studied nutrient in peripheral neuropathy has trial data spanning over two decades.

If you've been told there's nothing you can do about your nerve damage — that you just have to manage the symptoms and slow down — the science tells a very different story.

It's not a perfect story. It's not a "take this and you'll be cured" story.

But it IS a story about real mechanisms, real trials, and real people whose neuropathy symptoms improved when they addressed what their nerves were actually missing.

The challenge isn't whether these nutrients matter. The challenge is dosing, form, combination, and your specific type of neuropathy.

Ready for a real conversation about your nerves? See exactly what the consultation involves and book a free 10-minute discovery call here: https://drfitznutrition.com/pages/nerve-health-consultation
Comment below if a doctor has ever told you "there's nothing more we can do."

04/30/2026

Most people have never heard of NAC — but the early human data on nerve protection is hard to ignore.

→ A 2024 double-blind trial: NAC produced pain relief comparable to pregabalin in diabetic neuropathy, and beat it on sleep improvement.

→ A 2020 trial of 75 breast cancer patients: high-dose NAC (2,400 mg/day) reduced grade 2 and 3 chemo-induced neuropathy from 100% in the control group to just 28.6%.

→ Two 2025 double-blind trials have replicated the direction.

NAC isn't a first-line intervention yet. But if you're dealing with oxidative stress-driven nerve damage — which describes most diabetic neuropathy — the mechanism and emerging human data are very compelling.

Want to talk through your situation? Free 10-minute discovery call linked in the first comment.

Most people taking ALC for nerve health don't know what it actually does inside the body. As a Fellowship-Trained Periph...
04/27/2026

Most people taking ALC for nerve health don't know what it actually does inside the body. As a Fellowship-Trained Peripheral Nerve Surgeon with 3,000+ nerve procedures — here is the honest breakdown.

What ALC actually is:
The acetylated form of L-carnitine that crosses the blood-brain barrier readily and delivers an immediately usable acetyl group — entering the TCA cycle, supporting membrane lipid synthesis, and contributing to acetylcholine production. Unlike plain L-carnitine, ALC provides direct neurobiological activity.

The carnitine shuttle mechanism:
Carnitine palmitoyltransferase uses ALC to transfer long-chain fatty acyl-CoAs across the inner mitochondrial membrane for beta-oxidation. Without this shuttle, fatty acids accumulate as toxic acyl-CoAs — impairing nerve cell energy production and increasing oxidative damage. ALC buffers acetyl-CoA and CoA pools, regulating metabolic flexibility in nerve tissue.

Why ALC is nerve-specific:
→ Upregulates nerve growth factor and its receptor — addressing NGF deficiency driving sensory neuron loss
→ Provides acetyl groups incorporated into myelin membrane lipids — supporting structural integrity
→ Modulates neuroinflammation and central sensitization in chronic pain pathways

The clinical evidence:
Two 52-week randomized placebo-controlled trials in over 1,200 diabetic neuropathy patients evaluated ALC at 1,500–3,000mg/day. A 2015 PLOS One meta-analysis confirmed a 24.6% reduction in pain scores versus placebo in diabetic neuropathy patients. Actual structural nerve fiber changes on biopsy.

Why NeuroAxis contains 600mg — not 1,500–3,000mg:
NeuroAxis layers ALC alongside R-ALA, benfotiamine, methylcobalamin, and B6 — each targeting a different biological node simultaneously. A moderate 600mg dose contributes meaningfully to mitochondrial fatty-acid transport and acetyl-group availability without reaching the gram-level exposures used in isolated neuropathy monotherapy studies.

Every NeuroAxis order includes the free 104-page Nerve Health Guide. Free 13-page Nerve Optimization Guide at drfitznutrition.com

👉 https://drfitznutrition.com/products/neuroaxis

— Dr. Michael Fitzmaurice, MD · Fellowship-Trained Peripheral Nerve Surgeon & Exercise Physiologist

Not all nerve supplement ingredients are created equal. Here is the honest evidence breakdown — ingredient by ingredient...
04/23/2026

Not all nerve supplement ingredients are created equal. Here is the honest evidence breakdown — ingredient by ingredient.

As a Fellowship-Trained Peripheral Nerve Surgeon with 3,000+ nerve procedures, I reviewed the clinical trials behind every major nerve supplement ingredient using a modified AAN evidence classification framework.

TIER 1 — STRONGEST EVIDENCE (Level B, Multiple RCTs)

Alpha-Lipoic Acid — 600mg/day
Best evidence base in the category for symptomatic diabetic neuropathy. SYDNEY 2 trial showed 51% symptom reduction at 600mg/day. Most supplements contain 50–100mg. The dose is the difference.

Methylcobalamin — 1,500mcg/day
Meaningful evidence in combination formulations. Form matters — methylcobalamin not cyanocobalamin. A 2020 meta-analysis of 15 RCTs in 1,707 patients confirmed improvements in nerve conduction velocity.

TIER 2 — SOLID SHORT-TERM EVIDENCE

Benfotiamine — 300–600mg/day
Reproducible short-term symptom benefit. Fat-soluble B1 with dramatically higher tissue levels than standard thiamine. Long-term disease modification not yet established.

Acetyl-L-Carnitine — 1,500–3,000mg/day
Level B evidence for pain and nerve fiber regeneration in diabetic neuropathy. Important safety note for patients on taxane chemotherapy — discuss with your oncologist.

TIER 3 — MECHANISTICALLY STRONG

NAC — emerging CIPN prevention signal across three RCTs. DPN evidence conflicting but promising.

Curcumin with BioPerine — standard curcumin without piperine is essentially inactive systemically. BioPerine produces a documented 20-fold bioavailability increase.

Vitamin D — Level B evidence in confirmed-deficiency diabetic neuropathy. Check your levels first.

This is the analytical framework I used to build NeuroAxis — evidence-informed doses, active nutrient forms, full transparency.

Every order includes the free 104-page Nerve Health Guide. Free 13-page Nerve Optimization Guide at drfitznutrition.com

👉 https://drfitznutrition.com/products/neuroaxis

— Dr. Michael Fitzmaurice, MD · Fellowship-Trained Peripheral Nerve Surgeon & Exercise Physiologist

04/22/2026

Most nerve supplements are built by marketers.
This one was built by a peripheral nerve surgeon with 3,000+ nerve procedures and peer-reviewed research behind the formula.
If you're dealing with tingling, burning, or numbness — you've probably been told to just take a B-vitamin or grabbed whatever nerve support bottle was cheapest online.
But after performing thousands of nerve procedures, Dr. Michael Fitzmaurice kept seeing the same pattern. The patients who recovered best weren't just good surgical candidates. They had better blood sugar stability, lower inflammation, and fewer micronutrient gaps.
So he built a formula that targets the entire nerve environment — not just generic B-vitamins.
Download the free 13-page Nerve Health Blueprint at https://drfitznutrition.com/pages/nerve-health-blueprint — it walks through exactly what your nerves need and where a supplement actually fits in.
Have you ever tried a nerve supplement and felt like it wasn't doing anything? Drop a comment below 👇
— Michael Fitzmaurice, M.D. · Peripheral Nerve Surgeon

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1646 Constable Street
Prescott, AZ
86301

Website

https://drfitznutrition.com/pages/nerve-health-blueprint

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