The Link Between Diabetes and Neuropathy

Neuropathyrefers to any type of injury or disease that causes a problem with your nerves. This condition can develop due to any number of reasons, including pinched nerves, medications, and other health conditions such as kidney disease or viral infections.

High on the list of causes of neuropathy is diabetes, which accounts for about 30% of all neuropathy cases.

At Texas Mind Science, with offices in Richardson and Flower Mount, Texas, we specialize in treating neuropathy caused by diabetes. Here’s what you need to know about the link between diabetes and neuropathy.

What is Neuropathy?

When a patient is diagnosed with neuropathy, some type of damage has occurred to their nerves. With diabetic neuropathy, that damage most often occurs in the feet and legs. 

The symptoms you display will depend on exactly which of your nerves are damaged. Symptoms can include pain and numbness in your feet and legs or problems with your digestive system, urinary tract, heart, or blood vessels. For some people, symptoms are mild; for others, they are so painful as to be debilitating.

How Does Diabetes Cause Neuropathy?

Neuropathy can affect up to half of the people with diabetes. We don’t know exactly how diabetes causes neuropathy, but somehow, over time, uncontrolled levels of blood sugar cause damage to the nerves. Large amounts of blood sugar also reduce the ability of the nerves to send signals and communicate, which can cause more damage.

High blood sugar levels can also cause weakness in the walls of the small blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to the nerves, which means those blood vessels can’t function properly, further impeding the ability of the nerves to work.

Neuropathy can strike anyone who has diabetes, but several risk factors make it more likely, including the amount of time you’ve had diabetes, kidney disease, being overweight, and smoking.

How Do You Treat It?

The best way to delay or even prevent neuropathy is by good blood sugar management. Stay on top of your levels, and make whatever adjustments are necessary if they begin to creep too high.

Medications and nerve blocks can help relieve the pain associated with neuropathy, but if these methods don’t improve your condition, Texas Mind Science offers a treatment called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) that can relieve general neuropathic pain, providing significant relief.

TMS sends magnetic pulses into the areas of your brain controlling the pain. As the stimulation affects your neurotransmitters and improves nerve cell communication, you will feel relief from the pain.

To learn more about diabetic neuropathy and how TMS may be able to improve your life, call Texas Mind Science or request an appointment on our website. Contacting us may just change your life for good.