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What are links between diabetes and joint pain?

What are links between diabetes and joint pain? Diabetes is a very serious condition that damages the body. This condition is also called hyperglycemia, or high blood glucose. This life changing condition affects over 30 million people in the United States alone, and 15 million of these don’t even know it.

Diabetes is where the pancreas is failing to manufacture proper amounts of a serious hormone called insulin. Insulin is used by the body’s system as a sugar converter. In order for glucose, also called sugar, to be used it must bond with the insulin.

Without proper amounts of insulin to bond with the sugar the sugar goes unused. This makes the blood sugar levels rise to dangerous levels. At a glucose level around 140 mg/dl the body begins to suffer damage to some of its main systems.

The areas that are most commonly and severely damage are the heart, kidney, eyes, and nervous system. Also all damage that is done is permanent and cannot be reversed in any way. So this means controlling your blood sugar is a very serious matter that must be managed. So what are the links between diabetes and joint pain?

Diabetes and joint pain have no major links to each other. But the joint pain can be caused by diabetic neuropathy; this is where the body’s nerves have been damaged and thus send pain signals. Diabetics are also more prone to bone and joint problems. But many other problems happen such as damage to the cells of the heart, and eyes. These cells are extremely susceptible to high blood sugar levels. The kidneys can become damaged by having to clean the blood of excess sugar. So talk to your doctor about links between diabetes and joint pain and see what he says about it.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain

For a diabetic, many things can start occurring and often times more than others without warning. For instance in over half of diabetics at some time or another they will develop diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain due to diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

When a diabetic first learns that they have diabetes it can be very detrimental to them and their family because often times it is a disease that they will have to live with for the rest of their life. Diabetics go through so much such as edema in the feet, hands, fingers and toes, are more prone to infections because their immune system is compromised, peripheral vision impairment due to their muscles and tendons stopping from working like they should. Diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain can be very difficult to deal with because in so many it is as close to becoming blind as you can get without being declared a total blind which many if left untreated or diagnosed will end up being.

When a diabetic is diagnosed as having diabetes the body has to start working harder which causes all kinds of problems. The kidneys have to start working twice as hard to either absorb all of the insulin being produced in order to keep everything intact and smooth working order or they have to work harder in order to make insulin. The veins and arteries tend to get a strain placed on them in which they can stress and overwork causing strokes or heart attacks and many other features as well.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain occurs when the diabetic or person is having trouble seeing, using their muscles and limbs and is in just a great amount of pain from overworking them. The main thing to remember with all diabetics is how to properly maintain your diabetes in order to keep this condition managed and your health taken care of.

Medication for Peripheral Neuropathy

Peripheral neuropathy is a condition in which some form of damage is occurring to the nerves of the body that are located outside the brain and spinal column, medication for peripheral neuropathy can be any one of a large number of drugs that are commonly prescribed.

The disease most often afflicts those who suffer from diabetes, though it can be caused by other processes. Peripheral neuropathy may involve severe pain, numbness and loss of sensation, and even problems with motor control and even autonomic function. The disease can be divided into two subgroups, mononeuropathy when only a single nerve is affected, and polyneuropathy when many different nerves are affected.

Medication for peripheral neuropathy is often dependent on which symptoms the disease presents with in a particular individual. In cases where only minor nerve damage is present and the pain and associated symptoms are also minor, over the counter pain medications may be sufficient to alleviate the symptoms. In more severe cases narcotic pain relievers are sometimes prescribed, but these are usually frowned upon due to the risk of drug dependency.

Some anti seizure medications like gabapentin and phenytoin which are generally prescribed for epilepsy have shown to be very effective in the treatment of peripheral neuropathy. One of the newest types of medication for peripheral neuropathy is the tricyclic anti-depressant. Tricyclic anti-depressants are effective at treating peripheral neuropathy due to the fact that they interfere with the way the chemical pain signals are processed by the brain and spinal column.

Even though medication for peripheral neuropathy is available and can be highly effective, the best way to treat the disease is to avoid it in the first place. This is especially true for diabetics who can often head off the nerve damage before it happens of becomes too severe by keeping their blood glucose under control and following a regimen of diet and exercise.

Peripheral Neuropathy

Peripheral neuropathy is a general term that means nerve damage in the peripheral nervous system. This damage may occur due to some sort of trauma to the nerves or as a result of any of several disease processes. Peripheral neuropathy may occur in any one of several varieties, but the most common type, and the type most people think of when the name is mentioned is symmetric polyneuropathy which generally effects the feet and legs and is commonly seen in diabetic patients. The reason this type of peripheral neuropathy is so common is that while heart disease and hypertension rates are currently on the decline, the number of people who are diagnosed with diabetes each year continues to climb steadily each year.

Glucose Intolerance Test?

If you have a family history of diabetes chances are that at some point you will have to take a glucose intolerance test. If your doctor recommends a glucose intolerance test, don’t worry, it isn’t the kind of test you have to study for or really even the kind of test you can fail. A glucose intolerance test is designed to test the way your body metabolizes the glucose (sugars) that you ingest.

The most common type of glucose intolerance test is the oral glucose tolerance test. For this test you will usually be asked to fast for several hours before the test begins. Upon arriving for your test your blood sugar will be checked, then you will be given a glucose solution to drink. You blood will then are sampled at intervals after you have ingested the glucose solution so that the doctor can see how well your body manages the glucose.