Those who have diabetes are vulnerable to various foot infections caused by peripheral neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease, that causes tingling, numbness, burning and in some cases amputation.
Nevertheless the good news is that, diabetic foot infection can be cured by giving it a little more care and attention.
Diagnosis and Symptoms of Neuropathy
Nerve Conduction Velocity is the speed at which an electrochemical impulse travels down a nerve fiber. In diabetic neuropathy, the NCV is slowed and it gets worse along with high blood sugar levels, for a given age, height and level of consumption of alcohol.
Neuropathy is most commonly seen in people over 40 years of age, and among taller folks, mainly because they have longer nerve fibers to damage. Today you can test nerve functionality in many different ways, since various nerve fibers are generally responsible for many types of sensations, such as vibrations, temperature, and touch.
Testing For Temperature is done to inspect damage to small fibers by using something warm or cold. This method prevents you from hurting yourself by touching anything too hot or cold.
Vibration Testing is carried out with a device called Neurothesiometer. This shows out abnormalities of large nerve fibers and vibration sensitivity tolerance at any area on the body surface.
Light Touch Testing…This is the most critical test performed, it tests the large fibers that sense anything touching your skin.
Symptoms of Neuropathy:
The disorders of the nervous system are categorized into three areas: Loss of autonomic nerves, loss of sensation and loss of motor nerves.
Sensation Disorders is the most widespread and frustrating disorders of nerves in diabetes. Several different conditions occur, such as:
- Diabetic Amyotrophy is a combination of pain and lack of muscle strength in the upper leg area. This can cause a person being unable to straighten up the knee, as the pain goes down from the hip towards the thigh. In most cases this is short lived but can go on for years.
- Peripheral neuropathy is a disorder that result as the nerves that carry signals to the brain, and spinal-cord through the rest of the body are weakened. This is more common in the hands and feet, and most people felt an increase or decrease in sense of pain, touch, temperature or experienced prickling and burning.
Most of these symptoms are often more intense at night. The risk is when people can’t sense their feet properly, unless they look down, they won’t be able know if they have any injuries to their feet, such as stepping on a sharp object.
Loss Of Autonomic Nerves
Disorders of Autonomic Nerves impact the muscles, diaphragm, heart, intestines, stomach and oesophagus, which are continuously moving at all times. Based on the type of nerve, disorders of autonomic nerves include:
- Impotence among 50% of males and 30% of females associated with diabetes.
- Bladder irregularities, beginning with loss of sensation when bladder gets full.
- Numerous intestinal tract problems. The large intestine can cause diabetic diarrhoea, resulting as much as 10 or even more bowel motions in one day.
- Irregularities within the pupil of the eye.
- Cardiovascular problems due to loss of nerves to the heart.
- Excessive sweating, mainly in the feet.
Disorders of Movement
Some diabetic patients go through disorders of movement. When this happens, the muscles are affected, resulting in a sudden incapacity to move or use the muscles. For instance, if a nerve to the face is damaged, the smile may be flat on one side of the face or the eyelid may droop. The individual may have problems with vision or difficulties with hearing. This disorder could go away after a few months.
