DIABETIC NEUROPATHY
Report #7239
One third of diabetics suffer severe nerve damage characterized by loss of vision, hearing, feeling, impotence, pain, tingling, burning or so forth. The best prevention and treatment is to keep blood sugar levels from rising too high after meals (1,2)
High blood sugar levels after meals causes sugar to stick to the surface of nerve cells and be converted to a poison called sorbitol that prevents nerves from sending messages throughout your body. Doctors try to control the symptoms of diabetic nerve damage with a pepper cream called capsaicin and tranquilizers, but the only effective treatment for diabetic nerve damage is dietary management/ and drugs to control high blood sugar levels. One recent study showed that 800 mg per day of the antioxidant pills, alpha lipoic acid, helps to control symptoms of diabetic nerve damage (3).
All diabetics should get monthly blood tests for hemoglobin A1C that measures how much sugar is attached to cells. The goal is to keep hemoglobin A1C at normal levels below 6.5. This is done by restricting sugar and flour and eating fruit only with meals. Diabetics are often treated with Glucophage and Actos or Avandia, the only available drugs that lower blood sugar levels without raising hunger body fat. If these drugs cannot keep blood sugar levels from rising too high, the patient may need insulin or other drugs, but doctors often try to give the lowest doses of these drugs that control blood sugar levels. See reports #D222 and #G145.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
1) Fedele, D.; Giugliano, D. Peripheral diabetic neuropathy: Current recommendations and
future prospects for its prevention and management. Drugs. SEP 1997;54(3):414-421. 2) Orchard, T.J.; Forrest, K.Y.Z.; Ellis, D.; Becker, D.J. Cumulative glycemic exposure
and microvascular complications in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus: The glycemic
threshold revisited. Archives of Internal Medicine. SEP 8 1997;157(1):1851-1856. TJ
Orchard/Rangos Res Ctr/5TH Floor/3460 5TH Ave/Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA. Our data suggest
that for most microvascular complications to develop, it would take, on average, 83 years
with an HbA(1) unit at 1% above normal, 42 years at 2% above normal, 28 years at 3% above
normal, 21 years at 4% above normal, and 18 years at 5% above normal." 3) Ziegler, D.; Gries, F.A.","alpha-lipoic acid in the treatment of diabetic
peripheral and cardiac autonomic neuropathy","Diabetes","SEP
1997","46"," Suppl. 2","S62-S66","D Ziegler/Univ
Dusseldorf/Diabet Res Inst/Hennekamp 65/D-40225 Dusseldorf, Germany.
Checked 9/5/05