The Diabetes Lifestyle - Maintaining the Quality of Life
Diabetic neuropathy is a serious complication resulting from inadequate blood glucose control in diabetes
Diabetes is primarily a disease of the blood and Diabetic neuropathy like other complications arises from it. Diabetic neuropathy involves damage to the nerve fibres due to excessively high blood suger levels over a long period of time.
There are 3 types of neuropathy - Sensory, Motor and Autonomic. In diabetics sensory neuropathy is the most common - it involves impairment of the nerves transporting the information concerning sensation in the fingers and feet into the brain. Motor neuropathy is similar but relates to messages going from the brain to the peripheral muscles and involves damage to these nerves. Autonomic nerve damage involves involuntary functions such as perspiration.
The complication affects both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics pretty well equally. The progression of neuropathy is greatly dependent on the degree of blood sugar control in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes and can be slowed quite significantly by good control.
The most common symptoms of neuropathy are in the feet where there is a big loss of sensation consequent on the nerve damage. This makes the feet very vulnerable to injuries which tend to go unnoticed and can develop into ulcers or lesions which then become infected and can result in amputation in extreme cases.
It is not limited to the feet and hands and fingers can suffer from neuropathy although this is less common. The symptoms do not always involve loss of sensation but sometimes result in incorrect signals triggering "pins and needles" or pain which is sometimes severe.
The very best treatment is gaining control of blood sugar levels as continuing nerve damage is stopped in its tracks and the symptoms start to recover. Whilst improvement will occur complete recovery is unlikely and some loss of sensation is likely to remain. The other treatment used is painkillers to treat symptoms where the nerve damage is producing pain or "pins and needles".
Any such symptoms must be taken seriously and early medical consultation is essential.