Definition
When a burning sensation in the toes is felt, most patients experience a painful tingling in the toes, similar to the sensation of a foot falling asleep. In addition, the burning can manifest itself in the form of stabbing and pulling pain from the metatarsus to the tip of the toe. The big toe is often affected.
Causes
A common cause of burning toes is circulatory problems in the feet, which means that the tissues of the toes cannot be supplied with sufficient oxygen. Wrong footwear, which is too small or too tight, can also lead to burning toes, as in the long run the toes cannot withstand the excessive pressure of the non-natural load. Patients with diabetes can also have burning toes as a symptom.
A less frequent cause is the consumption of alcohol. This is because alcohol has a negative influence on the peripheral nervous system. A possible cause of toe pain is gout disease.
This is a metabolic disease in which the uric acid level in the blood is greatly increased. As a result, uric acid crystals are deposited mainly in joints, tendons, bursae and cartilage. Painful joint inflammations develop, which are recognizable by swelling and reddening of the skin.
The toe and finger joints are most severely affected, especially the metatarsophalangeal joint of the big toe. This pain can also be experienced as a burning sensation. Do you suffer from gout?
You can find out what other symptoms gout causes in our article: Gout – these are the symptoms! Another cause of burning in the toes is a lack of vitamins. Above all vitamin B5, the so-called pantothenic acid, plays a superordinate role in this.
Due to the food supply in our latitudes, a vitamin B5 deficiency hardly ever occurs due to low intake, but is a concomitant disease of abnormal eating habits, for example alcohol dependency or diabetes. A Vit-B5 deficiency can also lead to sensations of insensitivity or numbness. The term polyneuropathy is a collective term for diseases in which the peripheral nervous system is damaged.
In most cases, the symptoms are the result of another underlying disease. One cause can be diabetes, for example. Polyneuropathy also develops after massive alcohol abuse.
Both nerves for motor functions and nerves for feeling can be affected. Depending on what exactly is affected, the symptoms vary. If motor nerves are affected, the patient has problems moving limbs.
In case of damage to sensitive nerves, numbness or paresthesia may occur. A burning sensation in the toes may very well be caused by polyneuropathy. How you can tell if you suffer from a polyneuropathy is explained in our article: Symptoms of Polyneuropathy
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