Diabetic Neuropathy
Diabetic neuropathy treatment, diabetic neuropathy pdf, diabetic nephropathy
Diabetic neuropathy is common cause of neuropathy
in the US, also one of the most common occurrences for diabetic people;
about more than sixty percent people suffering from diabetes are having
diabetic neuropathy. Although there are people in America who have constant
high sugar level but not diabetic are also prone to diabetic neuropathy.
First of all it is essential to recognize and diagnose the symptoms. Some
of the symptoms are described as below;
---Sensory related disabilities such as numbness, pain or electric touch
like feeling are one of the major symptoms to diabetic neuropathy; also
hyper sensitivity is one of the symptoms.
---Motor skills being affected count as symptoms as well, these include
impaired co-ordination or difficulty in performing simple actions, and
frequent tripping is also one of the signs of foot weakness. Hard to stand
up or sit down is also one of the symptoms.
---Autonomic functions are not proper, such as you have sweating without
any reason, or even the lack of it, sensitivity to certain bright spots,
fainting, erectile dysfunction, not being able to reach the climax in
sex for women and men is also one of the symptom.
It can be evaluated and found out using certain tests, some of them are
described in short as follows, make sure you follow them step wise, no
need to directly jump to the last treatment, as all are algorithmically
based,
Get a clinical exam about neuropathy, it is diagnosed on basis of symptoms
and signs here and even the neurologist will evaluate the proper functioning
of your body and your reflexes.
Blood test or Urine test are very good options of getting a complete body
check up. You can get detailed reports about the blood counts, electrolytes,
liver functions, etc. Based on this you can be diagnosed about diabetic neuropathy. Based on your medical history and the current test reports
some other exams are also possible.
Electro diagnostic Test, There are 2 sub categories here. Nerve conduction
studies are the tests which evaluate how the nerves are working and if
the electric impulses are being transmitted properly or not. Electromyography
sees the electrical activity of the muscles. Here these techniques are
general but they can not detect Small fiber neuropathy as they measure
only large fibers.
Skin biopsy is also an option. Neuropathy for smaller regions can not
be measured by the general techniques and require much more accurate procedure,
this procedure can detect the loss of epidermal nerve fibers faster than
the other test.
Autonomic tests are one of the last resort tests, and can be done only
when required. The full name of this test is Quantitative Sudomotor Axon
Reflex Test or QSART in short. It measures the nerve fibers that are responsible
for sweating and blood pressure. It can detect the changes in your blood
pressure when you are standing or lying down, all these processes are
automatically controlled in the body and this test can check these processes.
Nerve Biopsy is the one of the time consuming test to detect and tell
about the diabetic neuropathy. A full nerve biopsy provides tissue samples
for pathological examination. It can show any abnormalities that were
not detected by the previous tests such as inflammation of blood vessels.
This is done when all the other tests fail and if the neuropathy is a
progressive one.
To treat the diabetic neuropathy,
mainly two areas are focused upon first is to slow down the progression
of the diabetic neuropathy, using techniques for very high control of
the blood sugar. And the second area is to relieve pain; it is quite a
challenging task. Many medications are prescribed to relieve the pain
also the effectiveness of these may vary from person to person, so make
sure to ask about the right medications and report any side effects immediately.
There also exist some complications in the diabetic neuropathy, these
are as follows:
---Urinal problems such as loss of bladder control.
---Digestion problems such as diarrhea, constipation, nausea, etc are
also present.
---Change in blood pressure on standing or sitting down suddenly.
---Sexual dysfunction is also one of the major complications arising in
diabetic neuropathy and same medications are required to slow them down.
To prevent diabetic neuropathy make sure you do the following things
1 Control blood sugar
2 Take proper body care
3 Be as active as possible
4 Go and get your self regular check ups from time to time.
