Diabetic Neuropathy - Exactly What is it and What Can You Do About It?

Diabetic neuropathy is nerve damage. There are actually three types of diabetic neuropathy.

The first is peripheral neuropathy. Peripheral reduces capability to sense pain temperature, touch and vibration in distinct areas of your body, most likely in the lower parts of your legs and in your feet. Potential problems include ulcers or wounds that won't heal on your legs and feet, bone and joint defects and infection, including gangrene.

If you have had diabetes for an extended period of time it is likely that you will develop peripheral neuropathy as your sugar lowering diabetic medication does little to stop this or any other complication of diabetes.

Tingling, numbness, pins and needles feelings in your limbs will be one of the first symptoms of this form of neuropathy. If you have these symptoms, see your doctor immediately as peripheral neuropathy can lead to amputation of the extremities.

Autonomic neuropathy affects the involuntary workings of your body. These include breathing, heartbeat, sweating, digestion, urination and sexual functions.

Consequences of autonomic neuropathy may include blindness, severe digestion problems, including diarrhea, bloating and abdominal pain. You may also be ill with sexual problems, dizziness, weakness and urinary incontinence and loss of bowel control.

If these are your issues then there may be damage to the nerves that control those tasks and you must see a doctor immediately. Autonomic neuropathy is also very common.

Focal neuropathy affects a single nerve. Usually it is in the foot, thigh or wrist. The single nerve may also affect your eyesight if it is one of the nerves that control eyesight.

What causes diabetic neuropathy?

There are several theories. As a diabetic, you urinate frequently as your body tries to rid itself of the excess sugar in the blood, but it also eliminates large amounts of nutrients and vitamins, including Vitamin B 12. This vitamin is vital to maintain the health of the nerves of your nervous system. Shortages of B12 can lead to neuropathy.

Diabetes drugs themselves, especially Metformin, have been implicated in nerve damage.

These are all consequences of being diabetic. The real cause of diabetes is not sugar, it is too much acid in the blood, (low blood Ph) If the body cannot rid itself of the excess acid in the blood, the acid damages the organs of the body, such as the pancreas, the producer of insulin as well as the insulin receptors on the cells. When these receptors are damaged, the cells of the body do not allow sugar from the blood stream to enter and the person is said to have diabetes.

Another defense the body uses against excess acidity is to store it in fat tissue, adding to your weight. This is more than just a cosmetic issue. Fatty acids secreted by fat tissue or converted from glucose in the liver can also damage the nervous system.

Free radicals are also a by product of fat tissue issuing signals to the immune system.

Free radicals are dangerous, damaged molecules resulting from certain chemical reactions in the body and in the surrounding environment that damage normal molecules, including the insulin receptors of normal cells, making the cells insulin resistant.

How does the body become over acidic?

The Standard American Diet of tons of refined carbohydrates; sugars, (yes, including high fructose corn syrup!), meat, fish and dairy, is extraordinarily acidic. Beverages such as alcohol, sodas and even bottled water are also acidic, with soda being the most acidic beverage you can drink.

Overtime, the body's own anti acid mechanisms are overwhelmed. Acidosis, as the condition of excess acidity is called, is the basis of most illnesses and malfunctions of the body's systems, including the sugar metabolizing system, which gives rise to the disease called diabetes.

As Hippocrates said, "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food!"

Just as food caused the problem, food and drink, actually nutrition is the cure.

Eating a diet of 70-80% vegetables and fruits, which are mainly alkaline; along with drinking alkaline water, helps rid the body of the excess acid. Once that happens, the body's natural defenses are enough to defeat diabetic neuropathy and most other chronic diseases!

Copyright 2009 Bill Young. Bill is a Nutritional Therapy Coach. Discover how Bill was able to beat diabetes himself with alkaline nutrition! http://I-Beat-Diabetes.Com If you would like a free, personal consultation on the use of an Alkaline diet to solve your diabetic or other health problems, do not hesitate to contact Bill. 646-961-3818 or NutritionTherapyCoach@gmail.com

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What Is Diabetic Neuropathy Exactly?

Diabetic Neuropathy is a common complication of Diabetes Mellitus. It usually includes micro vascular injury to the small blood vessels leading to your nerves. Other side effects of Diabetic Neuropathy are not as uncommon.

One of the greatest complications of diabetic neuropathy concerns morbidity and mortality in the diabetic. This neuropathy has a rate of 20% in traumatic and 50-75% non-traumatic amputations. The greatest risk for diabetes mellitus patients is glycemic control. In most patients who controlled their glycogen levels, the risk of diabetes neuropathy was smaller. Those who did not control their insulin levels were at a higher risk. Other risk factors include: smoking, high blood pressure, age, and obesity.

Micro vascular disease is the term used to explain the constriction of blood vessels from diabetes mellitus. This causes the blood vessels to slow down the amount of blood passing through the veins. Basically, less blood flows to the nerves which cause problems with circulation leading to amputation of a limb.

Keeping glucose in its metabolized state is what helps keep diabetes neuropathy from occurring. When glucose levels are too high it will cause a chemical reaction in the body that uses up compounds that may be needed to inhibit diabetes neuropathy. Medications are available which may help this.

There are several reasons the eyes, kidneys, and nerves are damaged by diabetes neuropathy. When blood does not process glucose properly, it may turn into a form of glucose that is unusable to these organs. It actually stresses the organs and does not allow the energy producing glucose to pass the cell wall barrier. This is what causes nerve, eye or kidney damage among diabetics.

Some of the effects of diabetic neuropathy are: a loss of feeling in a part of the body, numbness or tingling, bowel upset, impotence, loss of bladder control, drooping facial parts, dizziness, vision changes, speech impairment, even trouble swallowing and or muscle contraction. These difficulties are all related to the nerve damage done by diabetes neuropathy.

The reasons for these afflictions in the diabetic neuropathy patient are poorly understood at this time. Treatment may be available for some of the associated difficulties of diabetes neuropathy but for the most part there is no cure and the disease is progressive. Often amputation of limbs or soft tissue that has received a loss of blood supply and can no longer heal or fight infection is necessary. Diabetes neuropathy is being studied on a continual basis so hope for relief is available.

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