Diabetic Neuropathy: Some diseases do not present symptoms, so leading a healthy life and having constant check-ups with the doctor is very important
Permanently elevated blood sugar levels in diabetes mellitus can cause peripheral nerve damage. The symptoms range from discomfort and numbness in the legs to pain and organ damage.
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What is Diabetic Neuropathy?
Nowadays, diabetic neuropathy is one of the severe and common complications, which is divided into two types: type 1 and type 2 diabetes. It is nerve damage caused by maintaining high blood sugar levels for a long time. This condition usually develops slowly, sometimes over several decades.
If someone with diabetes notices numbness, tingling, pain, or weakness in the hands or feet, they should visit a doctor. These are early symptoms of peripheral neuropathy. It is often dangerous when they cannot feel the pain and a foot ulcer develops.
The diabetes patient may be vulnerable to injury or infection in severe or prolonged peripheral neuropathy. In extreme cases, poor healing or disease can cause amputation.
Several types of diabetic neuropathy can affect different areas of your body, causing various symptoms. If you have diabetes, it is essential to check your blood sugar levels regularly and contact your doctor if you have any symptoms of neuropathy.
Good diabetes management, like Chicago Pain Control, can prevent the disease from progressing and relieve existing symptoms.
What are the symptoms of Diabetic Neuropathy?
Common symptoms and signs of neuropathy appear gradually. The first type of nerve damage involves the nerves in the feet in many cases. It can cause sometimes painful symptoms such as shooting and stinging in the feet. Symptoms vary depending on the affected areas.
Signs and symptoms of different types of diabetic neuropathy include as follows:
- Touch sensitivity
- Loss of sense of touch
- Numbness or pain in the hands or feet
- Burning sensation in the feet, especially at night
- Diarrhea or constipation
- Difficulties with coordination when walking
- Distension or feeling of fullness
- Nausea, indigestion, or vomiting
- Muscle weakness or wasting
- Dizziness when standing up
- Decreased or excess sweating
- Bladder problems, such as not emptying the bladder completely
- Vaginal dryness
- Erectile dysfunction
- Inability to detect low blood glucose levels
- Vision problems, such as double vision
- Increase in heart rate
What causes Diabetic Neuropathy?
Poor blood glucose control: Uncontrolled blood glucose increases the risk of complications with diabetes, including nerve damage.
History of diabetes: A person’s risk of developing diabetic neuropathy increases the longer they have diabetes, especially if their blood glucose level is not well controlled.
Kidney disease: Diabetes can damage the kidneys. Damage to the kidneys sends toxins into the blood, which can cause nerve damage.
Overweight: A weight of body mass index of 25 or higher may increase the risk of diabetic neuropathy.
Smoking: Smoking causes narrowing and hardening of the arteries and causes reduced blood flow to the legs and feet. It delays wound healing and damages peripheral nerves—poor blood glucose control. Uncontrolled blood glucose increases the risk of complications with diabetes, including nerve damage.
Diabetes Neuropathy and Muscle Pain (tendinopathy)
Much is said about how diabetes neuropathy affects the endocrine and nervous system. Still, we forget to value the consequences and how diabetes directly influences the wear and tear and weakening of soft tissues such as tendons, causing tendinopathies.
Clinical and experimental studies show that diabetes is associated with tendon degeneration: tendon deterioration influences muscles, tendons, and joints. One of the many consequences that diabetes brings is musculoskeletal complications.
Diabetes causes damage at many levels of the body, and physical therapy helps keep us at bay. Diabetes is a common complication that affects not only the tendons but also the neuropathic level. That is, diabetes can affect the nerves, and it would be called diabetic neuropathy.
