8 Home Remedies for Numbness in Hands and Feet

Numbness in Hands and Feet: Causes, Treatment and Neuroplasticity

Written by Montoya Sigafoose, founder of Home Remedy Shop · Medically reviewed by Veronique Claes d’Erckenteel, D.C., chiropractor since 1991 · Last reviewed: 27 October 2026

If you have numbness in your hands and feet that keeps coming back, it’s important to go to a neurologist. The most common cause is peripheral neuropathy, damage to the nerves that run to your hands and feet, and if you have diabetes there’s also the chance you’ve developed diabetic neuropathy. Other causes are vitamin deficiencies (especially B12), pinched nerves in the neck, back or wrist, alcohol and poor circulation. While there’s no cure for damaged nerves, you can do a lot: go to the chiropractor for optimal nervous system function, take vitamin D to increase neuroplasticity, and do everyday tasks differently, like writing with your opposite hand, so your brain and nerves keep adapting. Call emergency services for sudden numbness on one side of the body.

Numbness can feel like pins and needles, tingling, burning, a “dead” or “asleep” feeling, or as if you’re wearing gloves or socks when you’re not. It can come and go or be there all the time. In this guide you’ll find what causes numbness in hands and feet, which vitamin deficiencies are behind it, why it’s often worse at night, when to see a neurologist, and a natural treatment plan including neuroplasticity exercises you can do at home. For more foot care, see our guide to home remedies for calluses, or browse all our natural home remedies.

Table of Contents

• What Causes Numbness in Hands and Feet?
• What Vitamin Deficiency Causes Numbness in Hands and Feet?
• Tingling and Numbness in Hands and Feet at Night
• Peripheral Neuropathy and Diabetic Neuropathy: See a Neurologist
• Treatment for Numbness in Hands and Feet
• Neuroplasticity Exercises: Do Everyday Tasks Differently
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Causes Numbness in Hands and Feet?

Numbness happens when the nerves that carry feeling from your hands and feet to your brain are pressed, irritated or damaged, or don’t get enough blood. The most common causes:

• Pressure on a nerve for a short time: sitting on your foot, crossing your legs, sleeping on your arm. Harmless, and it passes within minutes.
• Peripheral neuropathy: damage to the nerves of the hands and feet, usually starting in the toes and moving up, in both feet.
• Diabetes and prediabetes: high blood sugar slowly damages the small nerves; about half of people with diabetes eventually develop nerve damage.
• Vitamin deficiencies: B12, B1, B6, folate and vitamin D (see below).
• Pinched nerves: in the neck (numb hands and arms), the lower back (sciatica, numb legs and feet), the wrist (carpal tunnel syndrome) or the ankle (tarsal tunnel).
• Alcohol: damages nerves and drains B vitamins.
• Poor circulation: narrowed arteries, Raynaud’s (fingers and toes turning white or blue in the cold).
• Other conditions: underactive thyroid, kidney or liver disease, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune diseases, infections like Lyme disease and shingles.
• Medicines and treatments: some cancer treatments and other medicines can damage nerves; ask your doctor.
• Anxiety and fast breathing can cause tingling in the hands and around the mouth.

Burning rather than numbness? See our guide to burning feet.

What Vitamin Deficiency Causes Numbness in Hands and Feet?

• Vitamin B12: the most common vitamin cause. Low B12 damages the nerves and the protective myelin layer around them, causing numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, balance problems and fatigue. It’s common in vegans, people over 50 and people with stomach or gut problems (Stabler, 2013).
• Vitamin B1 (thiamine): often low with heavy drinking or a poor diet.
• Vitamin B6: both too little and too much cause nerve problems.
• Folate (B9): works together with B12.
• Vitamin D: low levels are linked to nerve damage, especially in diabetes, and vitamin D supports nerve repair.
• Vitamin E and copper: rare causes, mostly with gut absorption problems.

A simple blood test shows your levels. Ask for B12, folate and vitamin D if you have numbness in your hands and feet.

Tingling and Numbness in Hands and Feet at Night

Many people notice tingling and numbness in their hands and feet at night. The reasons:

• Carpal tunnel syndrome: you bend your wrists while you sleep, which squeezes the nerve in the wrist. Classic signs: numb thumb, index and middle fingers, waking up shaking your hands. A wrist splint at night keeps the wrist straight.
• Sleeping position: lying on your arm or with your arms above your head.
• Neuropathy: without the distractions of the day, you notice nerve symptoms more, and your feet warm up under the covers.
• Restless legs: an urge to move the legs with tingling or crawling feelings in the evening.

Before bed: shake out and stretch your hands, do ankle circles, sleep with your arms by your side and use a pillow to keep your wrists straight.

Peripheral Neuropathy and Diabetic Neuropathy: See a Neurologist

It’s important to go to a neurologist if you have this. Numbness that keeps coming back, spreads or is there all the time may be peripheral neuropathy, and if you have diabetes, there’s also the chance you’ve developed diabetic neuropathy. A neurologist can test your nerves (a nerve conduction study), find the cause and tell you how far the damage goes. The earlier you know, the more nerve function you can protect: controlling blood sugar, fixing a B12 deficiency or taking pressure off a pinched nerve can stop it getting worse, and nerves sometimes recover partly.

Treatment for Numbness in Hands and Feet

While there’s no cure for nerves that are already damaged, you can do a lot to manage the numbness and help your nervous system adapt. Treat the cause first, with your doctor, and add these natural treatments.

1. See a chiropractor for optimal nervous system function

Your spine protects the spinal cord and the nerve roots that run to your arms and legs. A misalignment, a stiff joint or tight muscles in the neck or lower back can press on those nerves and cause numbness and tingling in your hands or feet. A chiropractor works on the spine and joints to free up those nerve pathways, so your nervous system can function optimally.

• Especially helpful when numbness comes from the neck (hands and arms), the lower back (legs and feet) or carpal tunnel.
• Tell your chiropractor about diabetes, a diagnosed neuropathy and any medicines you take.
• Combine it with the exercises below for the best results.

What the research says: In people with carpal tunnel syndrome, manual therapy to the neck improved symptoms and nerve test results (Zarrin et al., 2024), and a review found manual therapy can be as effective as surgery for carpal tunnel relief in the medium term (Donati et al., 2024).

2. Take vitamin D to increase neuroplasticity

Vitamin D is much more than a bone vitamin: it acts on the nervous system, supports the protective myelin layer around nerves and helps the brain and nerves adapt and repair, which is neuroplasticity.

• Get 15 to 20 minutes of daylight on your skin when you can.
• Eat oily fish, eggs and mushrooms.
• Ask your doctor to test your vitamin D level and supplement to bring it into the healthy range; take it with a meal that contains fat.

What the research says: Vitamin D improved myelination and recovery after nerve injury in animal research (Chabas et al., 2013), and in people with type 2 diabetes and neuropathy, high-dose vitamin D for 24 weeks improved symptoms, circulation in the skin and inflammation markers (Karonova et al., 2020). Vitamin D also plays a role throughout the brain and central nervous system (Cui et al., 2022).

3. Do tasks differently for neuroplasticity

Your brain constantly rewires itself based on what you do. When you do everyday tasks in a new way, like writing with your opposite hand, you force your brain to build new connections and pay closer attention to the signals coming from your hands and feet. See the full list of exercises below.

• Pick 2 or 3 new ways of doing things each day.
• Start with simple tasks and make them harder over time.
• Practise 10 to 15 minutes a day: consistency matters more than time.

What the research says: Learning to use chopsticks with the non-dominant hand changed brain connectivity in a randomised trial (Takeda et al., 2023), and learning to juggle visibly changed the brain’s grey matter within 3 months (Draganski et al., 2004).

Free guide

Feed your nerves every day

Your nerves need B vitamins, vitamin D, magnesium and steady blood sugar to work and repair themselves. Our alkaline diet list is built around the whole, fresh foods that deliver exactly that, and keeps the sugar and alcohol that damage nerves to a minimum.

• Leafy greens, legumes, nuts and seeds for B vitamins and magnesium
• Swaps that keep your blood sugar steady
• Easy meals for every day
• A gentle start, no strict rules

Get the alkaline diet list

Free guide on Home Remedy Shop.

4. B vitamins

B1, B6, B12 and folate keep nerves healthy, and low levels are a common, fixable cause of numbness.

• Eat leafy greens, legumes, whole grains, eggs and fish.
• Vegans and people over 50 often need a B12 supplement.
• Get your levels tested before taking high doses: too much B6 can itself cause numbness.

What the research says: A meta-analysis found B vitamin supplements improved symptoms of diabetic nerve damage (Mandra et al., 2026).

5. Exercise and balance training

Movement brings blood and oxygen to your nerves, helps control blood sugar and trains your balance, which numb feet affect.

• Walk, cycle or swim for 30 minutes most days.
• Balance on one leg for 30 seconds while holding on to a counter.
• Heel-to-toe walking along a hallway.

What the research says: In people with diabetic neuropathy, exercise programmes improved nerve symptoms, balance and quality of life (Kluding et al., 2017).

6. Warm compresses and an Epsom salt foot bath

Warmth increases blood flow and relaxes tight muscles that press on nerves.

• A warm compress on the neck, wrist or lower back for 15 minutes.
• Half a cup of Epsom salt in a lukewarm foot bath for 15 minutes.
• Always test the water with your elbow: numb skin can burn without you feeling it.

7. Massage

A massage brings fresh blood to numb hands and feet and stimulates the nerve endings in the skin.

• Massage your hands and feet with a little oil for 10 minutes a day.
• Use firm strokes towards your heart.

8. Turmeric and magnesium

Turmeric is anti-inflammatory, and magnesium calms over-excited nerves and muscles.

• Cook with turmeric daily, with black pepper and a little oil.
• Eat magnesium-rich foods: leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, almonds, dark chocolate.

9. Cut back on alcohol and sugar

Alcohol damages nerves directly, and high blood sugar slowly damages the small nerves in your hands and feet.

• Limit alcohol, or stop if you have numbness.
• Cut sweets, sodas and white bread; eat protein and vegetables at every meal.

What the research says: Alcohol harms nerves both directly and through the vitamin deficiencies it causes (Chopra and Tiwari, 2012).

Our medical reviewer, Veronique Claes d’Erckenteel, has worked as a chiropractor since 1991. For other foot problems, see swollen feet and sore feet.

Neuroplasticity Exercises: Do Everyday Tasks Differently

Neuroplasticity is your brain and nervous system’s ability to rewire and form new connections, at any age. When the signals from your hands and feet get weaker, training your brain to pay attention to them, and to do things in new ways, helps you keep function, feeling and balance. Learning tactile skills, like reading Braille by touch, changes the brain within months, even in sighted adults (Matuszewski et al., 2021).

Try these every day:

• Write with your opposite hand: your name, a shopping list or a few lines from a book every day.
• Brush your teeth with your other hand, and comb or brush your hair with it too.
• Eat with chopsticks in your non-dominant hand, or simply hold your fork in the other hand.
• Use your computer mouse with the other hand for an hour a day.
• Get dressed with your eyes closed: button a shirt, tie your shoelaces, put on a watch.
• Find objects by touch: put coins, keys, a spoon and a button in a bag and identify them without looking. Then try it with your toes.
• Sort by touch: pick out rice, lentils and beans from a bowl with your eyes closed.
• Walk barefoot on different textures: grass, sand, a towel, pebbles or a textured mat, safely and only if your feet have no wounds.
• Pick up small objects with your toes, like marbles or a towel.
• Learn something new with your hands: knitting, a musical instrument, drawing, juggling or a new dance step.
• Change your routines: take a different route to work, rearrange your kitchen drawers, open jars and doors with the other hand.

Frequently Asked Questions

What causes numbness in hands and feet?

Most often peripheral neuropathy, diabetes, vitamin B12 deficiency, pinched nerves in the neck, back or wrist, alcohol and poor circulation. Short-term numbness from pressure, like sitting on your foot, is harmless.

What vitamin deficiency causes numbness in hands and feet?

Mainly vitamin B12, and also B1, B6, folate and vitamin D. A blood test shows which ones are low.

Why do my hands and feet go numb at night?

Often carpal tunnel syndrome from bending your wrists while you sleep, sleeping on your arm, or neuropathy that you notice more at rest. A wrist splint and a better sleeping position help.

What is the best treatment for numbness in hands and feet?

Treat the cause with your doctor, then support your nerves: a chiropractor for optimal nervous system function, vitamin D and B vitamins, neuroplasticity exercises, regular exercise and less alcohol and sugar.

When should I see a neurologist for numbness?

When numbness keeps coming back, lasts more than a few days, spreads, comes with weakness, or if you have diabetes. Sudden one-sided numbness is an emergency.

Is numbness in my feet diabetic neuropathy?

It can be, especially if you have diabetes or high blood sugar and the numbness starts in both feet. A neurologist or doctor can test your nerves and blood sugar.

Does vitamin D help nerve damage?

Vitamin D supports nerve repair and neuroplasticity, and in people with diabetic neuropathy high-dose vitamin D improved symptoms. Get your level tested and supplement with your doctor.

Can a chiropractor help numbness in hands and feet?

Yes, especially when numbness comes from pinched nerves in the neck, back or wrist. A chiropractor works on the spine and joints for optimal nervous system function.

What are neuroplasticity exercises?

Doing everyday tasks differently: writing or brushing your teeth with your opposite hand, eating with chopsticks, finding objects by touch, walking barefoot on different textures and learning new hand skills.

Recommended

• Home Remedies for Calluses
• Natural Remedies for Burning Feet
• The Alkaline Diet List
• More natural home remedies

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montoya sigafoose

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