Diabetic Neuropathy - Three Tests You Can Have

Many secondary diseases can develop from diabetes. One example is nerve disease or damage. This can be caused by a persons maintaining high blood sugar levels for ten years or more. Nerve damage can cause pain and feelings like electric shocks in the toes, and less commonly in the fingers. Another sign of nerve disease is loss of sensation in the toes and the soles of the feet. If nerve disease is determined to have its root in diabetes, it is called diabetic neuropathy.

One way that a nerve disorder can be diagnosed is to test a persons nerve conduction velocity (NCV). Nerve conduction velocity refers to the speed at which nervous impulses travel along a nerve fiber. If this speed is severely slowed, it means that a nerve disorder exists. Even though a persons body is experiencing slow NCV, the person may not experience any symptoms at all, for a long time. It is therefore useful to test the NCV of diabetics; neuropathy may be diagnosed in individuals who are not yet showing any signs of nerve damage. There are a few medications available to treat neuropathy, and with early diagnosis, patients can be treated so that the nerve symptoms improve.

Diabetic neuropathy occurs most frequently in persons older than 40. In addition, people who are taller than average suffer from this condition much more often than shorter people. This may be because those who are taller have longer nerve fibers, with more opportunity for damage. One more warning: if you drink alcohol, be advised that even a small amount, of any type at all, can increase and worsen the symptoms of your neuropathy.

Testing Your Nerve Function

Your doctor can test your nerve function to discover whether you have diabetic neuropathy. In the body, different nerve fibers are responsible for varying kinds of sensation (temperature, touch, light, and vibration). A doctor can test the connections between your nerves and those sensations, and then analyze his findings.

1. Testing by Vibration: A tuning fork is used in vibration testing. Doctors like to use vibration testing to discover any abnormalities of larger nerve fibers in the body.

2. Testing by Temperature: The importance of temperature testing is that it can determine whether the body's smaller nerve fibers are intact. It is vital to know the status of the small fibers, because if these are damaged, you may lose your ability to feel sensations of extremely hot temperatures (e.g., boiling water).

3. Testing by Light Touch: Doctors use a filament tool to touch the skin very lightly. Large nerve fibers in the body can sense anything touching the skin, and send signals to the brain that we're having a sensation. The filament tool can determine if any large fibers are damaged, and if so, which. Someone without any nerve damage who is in good health can feel a filament tool with only one gram of force used.

Learn the facts about Diabetes Neuropathy. Looking for Diabetic Recipes?

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

EMG Diabetic Neuropathy Tests Can Determine Your Treatment

If you are a diabetic, then you may need to be ready for certain complications that have an uncanny reputation of creeping up with little notice. Even though a healthy lifestyle is mandatory for keeping blood sugar levels as normal as possible, emg diabetic neuropathy tests are equally important to catch any incoming complication before it can set up base in your body.

Diabetes causes nerve damage and inadequate blood supply which in turn affects the functioning of vital organs in your body. This can cause the related organs to malfunction eventually leading to a complete breakdown which then affects the rest of the body. These complications come in the form of different diabetic neuropathies. Hence while focal diabetic neuropathy is a result of a malfunction in your facial muscles, eyes, or abdomen, proximal diabetic neuropathy is a result of the thighs, hips and buttocks getting affected by poor blood supply and dying nerves. Autonomic diabetic neuropathy can affect your bowel, bladder, digestive tract, eyes, lungs, heart and even your sex organs while peripheral diabetic neuropathy can attack your legs, hands, toes and fingers.

While a healthy diet along with ample exercise and a strict monitoring and insulin delivery system will help you keep your blood sugar levels under control, regular checkups are necessary to catch any incoming complication in its nascent stage. This will make it easier for your doctor to start treatment and most probably save the affected organ. Among other tests, your doctor would also conduct an emg or electromyography test to check the condition of your nerves. In this test, doctors insert extremely thin needles into various muscles of your body and also tape electrodes to your body and even on the tips of your fingers. An extremely mild electric shock is then administered to different muscle groups and the readings are recorded through an oscilloscope. Theses shocks are at the most a little annoying and might cause a little discomfort although they are easily bearable.

The manner in which your muscles react to those mild electrical shocks will inform your doctor about the condition of your nerves. If any particular organ is shown to have been affected, then your doctor can immediately start your treatment. While some organs such as your eyes can be treated with surgery and even compressed nerves can be freed by various surgeries, peripheral diabetic neuropathy, which causes a lot of pain and even numbness, might require an extensive course of medicines to slow down the affects of the neuropathy. Alternative medicines such as alpha lipoic acid have shown positive results in the treatment of humans and certain pets except cats by reducing the pain related to diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Your doctor might also suggest that you start physical therapy or pt and occupational therapy or ot if your external organs such as your hands or legs have been affected.

Hence, an emg test is a critical indicator to test if damaged nerves coupled with poor blood supply are affecting your vital organs. Your doctor can start your treatment based on these reports, among others. Your emg diabetic neuropathy test results can determine the line of treatment and can save your organs before it is too late. Therefore, it is important that you go in for such tests on a regular basis.

Drink lots of water because it is calorie free and helps to flush away the toxins. Did you know that flavored carbonated water has no calories, sugar, body, sweetener, color or preservatives?

Do you want to read more? Check out tutorials.carbonatedseltzerwater.com/

This article is submitted by Ola Martinsson, who just recently got the diagnosis diabetes. Trying to read and understand as much as possible about diabetes. Found an interesting site at http://adviceondiabetes.com with a free ebook including more than 500 diabetes recipes.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.