Diabetic Neuropathy: Can It Be Reversed?

If you’re among the more than 38 million Americans who have diabetes, you’re in the line of fire for some potentially serious health complications. Topping this list is diabetic neuropathy, or nerve damage, which affects up to half of people with diabetes.

Here at Johnston Pain Management, our team routinely helps people navigate the world of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. In the following, we dive into why diabetes causes nerve damage and why acting quickly to contain the problem is important.

How diabetes can lead to peripheral nerve damage

As you likely know, at the core of diabetes are higher-than-normal glucose levels in your blood due to a lack of insulin and insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone your pancreas produces that delivers sugar in your blood to your cells for energy. When you don’t have enough insulin or develop insulin resistance, glucose isn’t being removed from your blood.

As a result, this extra blood sugar can damage blood vessels and nerves, especially in areas far from your heart, such as your lower legs. While diabetic peripheral neuropathy can affect any area of your body, it most often develops in your lower legs and less often in your arms and hands.

Symptoms of diabetic peripheral neuropathy

Your peripheral nervous system includes three different types of nerves:

1. Sensory nerves that are in charge of what you feel
2. Motor nerves that help you move
3. Autonomic nerves that function automatically, like your bladder

Diabetic neuropathy can affect any of these nerves, but you’ll notice sensory nerve damage quite easily for obvious reasons. People with peripheral neuropathy often report:

• Burning pain
• Shock-like sensations 
• Pins and needles
• Tingling and numbness

You might also experience weakness in the area if motor nerves are affected.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is progressive

The title of our blog asks whether diabetic peripheral neuropathy is reversible, and the answer is maybe, but only in the beginning. This condition is progressive, and if you take action at the earliest signs of a problem — perhaps you have some minor numbness and tingling in your feet — you might be able to reverse this nerve damage.

If you continue to have uncontrolled glucose levels in your blood, the nerve damage can progress and become irreversible. And this irreversible nerve damage can lead to much larger problems like diabetic foot ulcers. 

Once a foot ulcer develops, the existing nerve and blood vessel damage in your lower limbs makes it hard for these wounds to heal, which is why more than half of these ulcers become infected and about 20% of moderate to severe infections lead to lower extremity amputations.

Fighting back against diabetic peripheral neuropathy

The most important step you can take to address neuropathy is to get your blood sugar levels under control.

From our end, we can help to manage any discomfort that stems from the nerve damage, which we can accomplish through:

• Medications
• Nerve stimulation therapies
• Nerve blocks
• Combined electrochemical treatment

We might also recommend complementary therapies, such as physical therapy and acupuncture.

The bottom line is that, unless the neuropathy is in its early stage, the condition is largely irreversible. That said, because neuropathy is progressive, there are ways to halt the condition, contain the damage, and keep you more comfortable.

To figure out a good treatment plan for your diabetic peripheral neuropathy with one of our specialists, we invite you to schedule a consultation at one of our three conveniently located clinics in Jacksonville, Hampstead, and New Bern, North Carolina.