Diabetic Neuropathy

If you are a diabetic, then certainly your physician has told you about the complications of diabetes. Among the most common complications of diabetes is neuropathy. Unfortunately, even with your blood sugar in good control, neuropathy may occur. In fact, over time, this will occur in up to 50 percent of diabetics. Once diabetic neuropathy occurs, it almost always gets worse. Currently, there is no agreement on why it occurs, and there is no medical treatment to prevent it.

While there are several different types of neuropathy that may occur in diabetics, the most common one affects the feet first and then the hands. Usually, you will have begun to notice sensory changes, such as a numbness or tingling in your fingers or toes. At first, these symptoms will come and go, but then they will be constant.

Neuropathy is the leading cause of the ulcerations or holes that occur in the feet. Neuropathy is the leading cause of infections in the feet. Neuropathy is the leading cause of the loss of toes and, with advanced cases, amputation.

By having a yearly measurement made of the sensibility in your hands and feet, the earliest stages of neuropathy can be identified and appropriate changes in your diabetes management can be made. These sites of pressure on your nerves can be treated with surgery in order to restore sensation to your hands and feet.

The reason that a diabetic’s nerves are susceptible to compression is that the nerves in a diabetic are
swollen. Sugar from the blood enters into the nerve to give the nerve energy. This makes it attract water molecules so water is drawn into the nerve, causing the nerves in a diabetic to be swollen.