Can a Western high-fat diet lead to painful neuropathy?

Neuropathy is a painful and potentially crippling disorder that is common in diabetic patients, but often affects individuals with obesity, yet the reason for this is not well understood. In this issue, Boyd et al. reveal that a diet enriched in ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) is sufficient for triggering peripheral neuropathy in mice, which can be reversed by enriching the diet with ω-3 PUFAs instead. These findings may help explain the high incidence of neuropathies in non-diabetic patients with diet-related obesity, while providing a potential target for the prevention and treatment of this metabolic and neurological disorder.