Diabetic Neuropathy

Introduction

Diabetic neuropathy is a type of nerve damage that can occur if you have diabetes. High blood sugar can injure nerve fibres throughout your body, but diabetic neuropathy most often damages nerves in your legs and feet. Diabetic neuropathy is a common serious complication of diabetes. Yet you can often prevent diabetic neuropathy or slow its progress with tight blood sugar control and a healthy lifestyle.

Treatment

Good control of diabetes over time is the key to treating diabetic neuropathy. There is no cure for neuropathy, but keeping your blood sugar within a target range can reduce symptoms and prevent them from getting worse.To help control your diabetes, eat food that is good for you and exercise. Controlling diabetes means maintaining blood sugar levels (A1c) within the target range. This will do more than anything else to help prevent diabetic neuropathy from getting worse.

Statistics

4-7% of patients with diabetes suffer chronic, often distressing symptoms of severe pain, and irritating "pins and needles" in their feet.

Research

Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy can certainly be a crippling problem not only for the patients and their families, but with increasing numbers of T2DM, it takes a significant toll on the strained resources of the economy and already strained healthcare system. Comprehending the size of this problem and appreciating the utility of bedside techniques to assess this important complication, can go a long way in caring for a patient, as well as planning strategies to improve detection and management on a larger scale.