This condition is a complication of diabetes. Diabetes can damage the nerves and cause a complication called neuropathy. This generally begins as loss of sensation in the toes, and possibly fingers.

Eventually, the neuropathy can move up the person's legs or arms. The central nervous system comprises the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system includes all peripheral nerves. In people with diabetes, the body's nerves can be damaged by decreased blood flow and a high blood sugar glucose level.

This condition is more likely when the blood sugar level is not well controlled over time. About one half of people with diabetes develop nerve damage. Symptoms often do not begin until many years after diabetes has been diagnosed. Some people who have diabetes that develops slowly already have nerve damage when they are first diagnosed.

People with diabetes are also at higher risk for other nerve problems not caused by their diabetes. These other nerve problems won't have the same symptoms and will progress in a different manner than nerve damage caused by diabetes. Diabetes is on the rise worldwide, and is a serious, lifelong disease that can lead to heart disease, stroke, and lasting nerve, eye and foot problems.

Let's talk about diabetes and the difference between the three types of diabetes. So, what exactly is diabetes and where does it come from? An organ in your body called the pancreas produces insulin, a hormone that controls the levels of your blood sugar.

When you have too little insulin in your body, or when insulin doesn't work right in your body, you can have diabetes, the condition where you have abnormally high glucose or sugar levels in your blood. Normally when you eat food, glucose enters your bloodstream. Glucose is your body's source of fuel.

Your pancreas makes insulin to move glucose from your bloodstream into muscle, fat, and liver cells, where your body turns it into energy. People with diabetes have too much blood sugar because their body cannot move glucose into fat, liver, and muscle cells to be changed into and stored for energy.

There are three major types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes happens when the body makes little or no insulin. It usually is diagnosed in children, teens, or young adults.

This disease often occurs in middle adulthood, but young adults, teens, and now even children are now being diagnosed with it linked to high obesity rates. In Type 2 diabetes, your fat, liver, and muscle cells do not respond to insulin appropriately. Another type of diabetes is called gestational diabetes.

It's when high blood sugar develops during pregnancy in a woman who had not had diabetes beforehand. Gestational diabetes usually goes away after the baby is born.

But, still pay attention. These women are at a higher risk of type 2 diabetes over the next 5 years without a change in lifestyle. If you doctor suspects you have diabetes, you will probably have a hemoglobin A1c test.

This is an average of your blood sugar levels over 3 months. Different types of nerve damage cause different symptoms. Symptoms can range from pain and numbness in your feet to problems with the functions of your internal organs, such as your heart and bladder.

Diabetic neuropathy is nerve damage that is caused by diabetes. Over time, high blood glucose levels, also called blood sugar, and high levels of fats, such as triglycerides, in the blood from diabetes can damage your nerves. Symptoms depend on which type of diabetic neuropathy you have.

Peripheral neuropathy is a type of nerve damage that typically affects the feet and legs and sometimes affects the hands and arms. This type of neuropathy is very common. About one-third to one-half of people with diabetes have peripheral neuropathy.

Autonomic neuropathy is damage to nerves that control your internal organs, leading to problems with your heart rate and blood pressure, digestive system, bladder, sex organs, sweat glands, and eyes. The damage can also lead to hypoglycemia unawareness. Focal neuropathies are conditions in which you typically have damage to single nerves, most often in your hand, head, torso, or leg.

Diabetic retinopathy is treatable and is the most common cause of blindness. It is also prudent to examine the feet for wounds that the patient might not appreciate due to loss of sensation as a part of diabetic neuropathy. Assessment of kidney function and some studies of the heart and vascular system may also be called for.

By the way, there are other causes of peripheral neuropathy. Not uncommon are amyloidosis, which is a disease in which excess protein is deposited in nerve tissue, and vasculitic neuropathy, a rheumatologic disease in which the patient has inflammation near the nerve.

Also we must consider alcoholic neuropathy in someone with an extreme drinking history and even lead poisoning as a possible cause. Patients who have been treated with chemotherapy for cancer and some rheumatologic diseases can also get some painful neuropathies.

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