What is Diabetic Neuropathy?

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Diabetic neuropathy could be a sort of nerve damage that may occur if you’ve got diabetes. Diabetic neuropathy could be a sort of nerve damage that will occur if you’ve got diabetes.  Also, high blood glucose levels can injure nerves throughout your body. The nerves that get damaged often happen in your legs and feet.

Sometimes the symptoms of this disease may feel almost like restless leg syndrome. Always check with your doctor.
Diabetic neuropathy may be a serious complication of type 1 and sort 2 diabetes. It’s a kind of nerve damage caused by long-term high blood glucose levels. The condition usually develops slowly, sometimes over the course of several decades.

Depending on the affected nerves, diabetic neuropathy symptoms can range from pain and numbness in your legs and feet. In some cases, it causes problems together with your stomach and digestive system, damage to blood vessels, and the heart. The symptoms can range from mild to painful and sometimes disabling.

Diabetic neuropathy may be a serious diabetes complication that will affect as many as 50% of individuals with diabetes. Blood glucose management and a healthy lifestyle are essential to prevent diabetic neuropathy.

There are Four Types of Diabetic Neuropathy.

Peripheral Neuropathy: Usually affects the feet and legs.

Symptoms include:
Tingling
Numbness (which may become permanent)
Burning (especially in the evening)
Pain

What you should do:

Check your feet and legs daily.
Use lotion on your feet if they’re dry.
Take care of your toenails. Ask your doctor if you ought to attend a podiatrist.
Wear shoes that fit well. Wear all of them all the time, so your feet aren’t getting injured.

Autonomic Neuropathy: This usually affects your stomach and digestive system.

It also can affect the blood vessels, urogenital system, and sex organs.

In your digestive system:

Symptoms include:

Bloating
Diarrhea
Constipation
Heartburn
Nausea
Vomiting
Feeling full after small meals

What you should do:
You may get to eat smaller meals and take medication to treat it.

In blood vessels:

Symptoms include:

Blacking out when you stand up quickly.
Faster heartbeat
Dizziness
Low blood pressure
Nausea
Vomiting
Feeling full sooner than normal

If you have it:

Avoid standing up too quickly. You may also need to wear special stockings, socks, and footwear.

In Men:

Symptoms include:

Problems getting or maintaining an erection. Also reduced ejaculations.

What you should do:
See your doctor, because there are other possible causes than diabetes.

Treatment includes:
Counseling
Penile implants or injections
Vacuum erection device
Medication

In Women:

Symptoms include:

Can include less vaginal lubrication and fewer or no orgasms.

What you should do: See your doctor. Treatments include:

Vaginal estrogen creams, suppositories, and rings
Medications to help sex not feel painful.
Lubricants

In the Urinary System:

Symptoms include:

Trouble emptying your bladder.
Bloating
Incontinence (leaking urine)
More bathroom trips at night

What you should do: Tell your doctor. Treatments may include:

Medication
Inserting a device called a catheter into the bladder to release urine.
Surgery
Nerve damage to the legs and arms. Pain (usually on one side) within the thighs, hips, or buttocks. It also can cause weakness within the legs.

Most people with this condition need treatment, like medication and physiotherapy, for their weakness or pain.

Focal Neuropathy

This type can appear suddenly and affect specific nerves, most frequently within the head, torso, or leg. It causes muscle weakness or pain.

Symptoms include:

Double vision
Eye pain
Paralysis on one side of the face
Severe pain during a certain area, like the lower back or leg(s)
Chest or belly pain that is sometimes mistaken for an additional condition.

What you should do:

Tell your doctor about your symptoms. Focal neuropathy is painful and unpredictable. But it tends to get better by itself over weeks or months. It usually doesn’t cause long-term damage. You need to maintain proper blood sugar levels. This condition may sometimes feel like you have pins and needles in your feet.

Common signs and symptoms of the various sorts of diabetic neuropathy include:

sensitivity to touch
loss of sense of touch
difficulty with coordination when walking
numbness or pain in your hands or feet
burning sensation in feet, especially at night
muscle weakness or wasting
bloating or fullness
nausea, indigestion, or vomiting.
diarrhea or constipation
dizziness when you stand up.
excessive or decreased sweating
bladder problems, such as incomplete bladder emptying.
vaginal dryness
erectile dysfunction
inability to sense low blood glucose.
vision trouble, such as double vision
increased heart rate

Causes of Diabetic Neuropathy

Diabetic neuropathy is caused by high blood glucose levels sustained over an extended period of time.

Other factors can cause nerve damage, such as:

Damage to the blood vessels is caused by high cholesterol levels.
Mechanical injury, like injuries caused by carpal tunnel syndrome.
Lifestyle factors, such as smoking or alcohol use.
Low levels of vitamin B-12 also can cause neuropathy.

The exact explanation for each sort of neuropathy is unknown. Researchers think that over time, uncontrolled high blood glucose damages nerves and interferes with their ability to send signals, resulting in diabetic neuropathy. High blood glucose also weakens the walls of the tiny blood vessels that provide the nerves with oxygen and nutrients.

Risk factors

Anyone who has diabetes can develop neuropathy. But these risk factors cause you to be more likely to cause nerve damage:

Poor blood sugar control.

Uncontrolled blood glucose puts you in danger of each diabetes complication, including nerve damage.
Diabetes history. Your risk of diabetic neuropathy increases the longer you’ve got diabetes, especially if your blood glucose isn’t well controlled.

Kidney disease.

Diabetes can damage the kidneys. Kidney damage sends toxins into the blood, which may cause nerve damage.

Being overweight.

Having a body mass index of 25 or more may increase your risk of diabetic neuropathy. Calculating your body mass index.

Smoking.

Smoking narrows and hardens your arteries, reducing blood flow to your legs and feet. This makes it harder for wounds to heal and damages the peripheral nerves.

Diagnosis

A doctor will determine whether or not you’ve got neuropathy, by asking about your symptoms and medical record. You’ll also have a physical examination. They’ll check your level of sensitivity to temperature and touch, your pulse, vital signs, and muscular tone.

Your doctor may do a filament test to check the sensitivity in your feet. For this, they’ll use nylon fiber to see your limbs for any loss of sensation. An implement could also be wont to test your vibration threshold. Your doctor may also test your ankle reflexes. A doctor can usually diagnose diabetic neuropathy by performing a physical exam and reviewing your symptoms and medical history.

Lifestyle and Home Remedies

These measures can assist you to feel better overall and reduce your risk of diabetic neuropathy:

Keep your blood pressure under control. Try to keep your glucose levels and blood pressure as recommended by your doctor.

Make healthy food choices. Eat a diet that has a spread of healthy foods — especially vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Limit portion sizes to assist in achieving or maintaining a healthy weight. Be active every day.

Exercise helps lower blood glucose, improves blood flow, and keeps your heart healthy. The American Diabetes Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every week for many adults with diabetes.

Talk together with your doctor or physiotherapist before you begin exercising. If you’ve got a decreased feeling in your legs, some sorts of exercise, like walking, could also be safer than others. If you’ve got a foot injury or sore, persist with exercise that does not require putting weight on your injured foot.
Stop smoking. Using tobacco in any form causes you to be more likely to develop poor circulation in your feet.

Alternative medicine

There also are many various therapies that will help with pain relief on their own or together with medications. But ask your doctor before using any alternative therapy or dietary supplement to avoid any potential interactions.

People with high blood glucose levels are more vulnerable to disorders, eye problems, kidney damage, or other complications, like nerve damage. The high blood glucose level is basically toxic to your own nerves. When the nerve is broken, you’ll feel pins and needles, tingling, sharp, stabbing pain, or burning. Maintaining blood glucose stable during a healthy range is among the foremost crucial things to stop damage to your blood vessels, nerves, skin, eyes, and other body parts before complications develop.

Have A Healthy Diet Plan

The diet plan you’re following features a direct influence on your blood sugar levels. Hence, to manage your neuropathy pain, you would like to switch your diet in a way that’s healthy for your blood sugar levels.

Some tips you ought to apply to possess a healthy diet plan are:

Choosing unprocessed, whole foods. Reducing or limiting the consumption of refined carbs, sugary drinks, and added sugars. Drinking more water or herbal tea instead of soda, as well as other sweetened beverages. Consuming many healthy fats and lean proteins over refined carbs. Use less packaged foods and check labels for added sugars and ingredients when buying. Managing your weight by cooking at home.

When cooking, use techniques like steaming, baking, roasting, and broiling or frying. In terms of choosing unprocessed, whole foods, you had better eat high-fiber foods that are packed with nutrients but low in artificial/sugar ingredients.

Veggies and whole fruits: all kinds because they’re rich in antioxidants, vitamins, fiber, and essential electrolytes like potassium and minerals.
Wild-caught fish: This is often important because wild-caught fish contain omega-3 fatty acids which may lower triglycerides (a type of fat found in your body).

Healthy fats:

Found in coconut milk/oil, nuts, olive oil, avocado, and seeds.
Lean protein foods
Use no-calorie sweeteners over table sugar.
Alpha Lipoic Acid

This is an honest carboxylic acid produced by the body cells. It can be found in organ parts such as the kidney, liver, and heart. The primary function of alpha-lipoic acid is converting glucose into energy which the body cells use because of the main fuel. Also, it’s a crucial antioxidant that helps repel harmful free radicals.
You can find alpha-lipoic acid in foods like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, peas, rice bran, and potatoes.

Essential Oils

For thousands of years, essential oils have been known for their powerful healing properties. They can soothe the body and mind to treat a variety of conditions. Due to this, they’re seen as natural alternatives to medication and also as effective remedies for neuropathy that you simply can do the reception.

Neuropathy, or nerve damage, could lead to pain and numbness within the impacted area. Essential oils are claimed to assist in relieving these symptoms. There are a number of the simplest essential oils for neuropathy.

Evening Primrose Oil

Evening primrose oil may be a wildflower growing throughout the US. This oil is high in essential carboxylic acid gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), omega-6s, and omega-3s which are used as building blocks for a few molecules within the body. The physical body needs a balance of omega-3 and -6 fatty acids permanently in natural health. You can use herb oil to treat neuropathy by taking it internally.

For more information: “The Entire Natural Medicine Guide to the 50 Commonest Medicinal Herbs”.

Cautions:

Although herb oil is safe when utilized in recommended dosages, there are some reported side effects that are mild and rare, like stomach pain, nausea, and headache.
Do not use omega-6 supplements, including herbs if you’ve got epilepsy and other seizure disorders, blood disorders, or bleeding problems.

Pregnant alongside breastfeeding women should ask doctors before using herb oil.

Castor Oil

Castor oil is a recommended home treatment for neuropathy pain, according to Karta Purkh Singh, the author of “The Way of Ayurvedic Herbs: The Most Complete Guide to Natural Healing and Health with Traditional Ayurvedic Herbalism.”

Eucalyptus Essential Oil

This is great for neuropathy thanks to its analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Therefore, this oil is effective in reducing pain, swelling, and inflammation.

Lavender Essential Oil

Lavender oil is legendary for its ability to alleviate pain. It has a soothing and soothing scent alongside anti-inflammatory properties. Also, it’s good for decreasing depression and stress.

Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

This little-known oil may strengthen and nourish the systema nervosum. Also, it’s a sedative, thereby helping to scale back and release stress.

Rosewood Essential Oil

This oil isn’t a nerve tonic with analgesic properties but it’s going to reduce stress and provide relaxation effects.

Brahmi Oil

Brahmi oil is an herb infusion of the Brahmi herb in any type of base oil. Brahmi oil has long been used in ancient times to increase hair growth. Also, it’s a nerve tonic for the human brain because the systema nervosum once you massage it onto the scalp.

Brahmi oil has therapeutic, anti-inflammatory, and healing properties that make this oil a strong solution for several problems like eliminating bacteria and viruses, promoting the expulsion of gas in the body, alleviating pain, tightening skin, etc.

You can apply Brahmi oil to your body to reduce pain and inflammation. Massage the affected area with numbness and pain a day, twice per day. In no time, you will see positive results.

Eat More Nuts

Nuts are high in various nutrients, like biotin. Also referred to as biotin, biotin may improve the symptoms of neuropathy pain in those with diabetes. This food provides essential nutrition as well as fiber to keep the blood sugar levels in check and stop damage to our nerves. It is recommended to eat from 4 to five nuts like pecans, walnuts, and almonds each morning to take advantage of them for neuropathy.

Manage Stress

Peripheral neuropathy gets involved in the nerve transporting information from the periphery to our central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). The nerves might be impacted by different causes including viruses, diabetes, metabolic problems, and autoimmune diseases.

Regardless of the cause of peripheral neuropathy on any sufferer, stress and anxiety have a significant negative effect on all sufferers. Therefore, it is important to control stress in managing neuropathy symptoms.

To combat stress and anxiety, you ought to breathe better by following this technique: taking as long as 5 seconds to inhale, holding for two seconds, and exhalation for 7 seconds. This technique is very useful in controlling anxiety.

Also, you ought to learn to distract your mind from concentrating too heavily on your own body, as just by doing so, your body’s movements will feel more natural again.
Practicing healing prayer, spending more time doing hobbies, and staying around family and friends are good stress relievers. Furthermore, acupuncture is another treatment for stress and pain caused by neuropathy.

Cinnamon

Using Cinnamon is one of the foremost effective home remedies for neuropathy because it lowers the glucose level which triggers neuropathy symptoms. It is helpful to require 1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon in your daily meals or try using cinnamon oil for neuropathy relief. Or you’ll use cassia cinnamon supplements as an alternative.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 is an essential dietary nutrient. A lack of this vitamin may cause a variety of conditions including neuropathy. There are some causes of B12 deficiency. A strict vegetarian diet might increase a B12 deficiency as animal-based foods like dairy products, red meat, fish, eggs, and poultry are the sole confirmed source of B12.

To increase vitamin B12 intake, you’ll eat more meat, dairy, and seafood; take one B12 supplement a day providing a minimum of 10 micrograms; eat fortified foods 2-3 times per day to urge a minimum of 3 micrograms of B12 per day. Also, take safety measures so as to catch up on the loss of sensation.

Protect Your Feet and Skin

You need to carefully search for any signs of nerve damage to your feet, legs, hands, and skin. Check for new signs of injuries, like sores, blisters, and ulcers. Skincare and foot care are crucial in treating and preventing the method of neuropathy.

Make sure to wash your skin, feet, and toenails daily, particularly in skin folds where moisture and bacteria could build up and cause infections.

Avoid Drinking and Smoking

Smoking and drinking alcohol could end in severe damage to the nerves and should worsen the neuropathy. They also make your body deficient in some nutrients and hence should be completely avoided.

Exercise Regularly

Research has shown that exercising can improve muscle strength in people with neuropathy. Furthermore, it’s going to help with peripheral neuropathy, if done regularly, might decrease neuropathic pain and help in controlling blood sugar levels.

You can include physical activities in your daily life through aerobic exercise, flexibility exercises, strength training exercises, and balance exercises. Consult a physical or occupational therapist or a healthcare provider about the exercise program that is suitable for you.

Kava Kava

In the South Seas, kava is consumed as a beverage, like tea in England and occasionally in America. Kava has effects on the systema nervosum and therefore the brain in a way that’s just like narcotics. This plant has been used to treat anxiety-related disorders also. Having antispasmodic and analgesic properties, Kava Kava might be wont to ease muscle tension, pain, and cramping.

If you chew on the kava root, it’ll numb your tongue. It is because kava features a potent topical analgesic and two pain-relieving chemicals. These chemicals are as efficient as aspirin. This plant might be applied to wounds or just chewed to ease the pain related to neuropathy.

Vitamin B9

Vitamin B9 could increase the assembly of red blood cells, support cell regeneration, aid in DNA synthesis, and reduce sciatic nerve pain within the limbs and back. It is needed to improve muscle coordination, thereby protecting your nerves.

Thus, it’s important to consume foods high in vitamin B9 like beans, peas, asparagus, lima beans, mushrooms, corn, broccoli, liver, fruit juice, green turnip, and avocado.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C could be used to strengthen the immune system and protect the sciatic nerve. You can use vitamin C to reduce your sciatic nerve pain and repair nerve damage while improving the function of the nervous system and reducing nerve inflammation.

Therefore, don’t forget to consume foods rich in vitamin C which are grapefruits, oranges, tomatoes, spinach, pineapple, mustard, cherries, strawberries, and cabbage.

Hot Pepper

Hot pepper is rich in capsaicin, which has both analgesic and irritant properties which will alleviate neuropathy symptoms. Hot peppers also called cayenne peppers or chili peppers, are utilized in traditional Chinese medicine, folk medicine, and Ayurveda medicine to alleviate muscle pain, sinus congestion, and headache.

The antioxidants in hot peppers like vitamins A and C also are available in hot peppers. Capsaicin has pain-relieving and antioxidant properties, so it is effective in chronic pain like that of peripheral neuropathy, rather than acute and short-term pain.

Cautions:

Do not let capsaicin contact wounds, cuts, eyes, and mucous membranes.

Massage

A massage is a good option that can be done at home to treat neuropathy. It is often helpful for alleviating low-back pain and improving the range of motion, lessening anxiety and depression, enhancing immunity, increasing joint flexibility, reducing cramping and spasms, and relieving migraine pain.
However, confirm that you simply choose a professional massage therapist and ask a doctor before using any sort of massage for neuropathy.

Cautions:

Most people can benefit from massage for neuropathy. Nonetheless, some types of massage can leave you feeling sore the subsequent day. Most serious problems come from an excessive amount of pressure during massage or allergy to massage oil or sensitivity.

Massage shouldn’t be wiped out of the world with blood clots, healing or open wounds, fractures, skin infections, and weakened bones.

Pregnant women should consult their doctors before using any sort of massage therapy.

Always consult with your doctor before taking any herbal or alternative remedies.

Thank you for reading.

Michael

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