Diabetic Foot Pain Treatment

The pain caused by diabetes can be absolutely excruciating thus it is very important to understand about diabetic foot pain treatment.  As the disease of diabetes progresses people are more and more likely to experience pain in their feet. legs and hands.  The cause of this is diabetic neuropathies.  This mean a malfunctioning of the nervous system caused by the symptoms of diabetes.  This nerve damage can be very painful and make it very difficult to walk.

Diabetic neuropathy usually starts with a tingling or numbness in the hands and feet and progresses to a painful state.  Eventually this nerve damage can result in a wasting away of the muscles in particularly the feet because the circulation is poorest there.

Most people with diabetes will experience some form of diabetic nerve pain over the course of living with the disease.  People can experience the onset of nerve damage at any time but the longer a person has diabetes the better the chance is that they will experience some of the symptoms of diabetic neuropathies.  About 60 - 70% of diabetic patients experience pain resulting from the affects of diabetes.  Age and the length of time a person has had diabetes has a direct affect on the amount of nerve damage with people who suffer from the disease for longer than 25 years generally experiencing some problems.

It is not only nerve damage in the extremities that needs to be of concern.  You can also experience nerve damage in any other organ systems including the heart, sex organs, and digestive tract.

There is no cure for diabetic foot pain that is caused by diabetic neuropahties but there are things you can do help lessen the affect.  The most important factor seems to be blood glucose levels.  Higher levels will cause more damage and thus bring on the symptoms that much sooner.  By controlling your blood glucose levels as instructed by your physician you can live a much more normal life without diabetic foot problems.

Diabetes tingling is also associated with this condition as is diabetes numbness.  Again both of these are a direct result of the blood glucose levels being out of the safe range and you must be always vigilant about using your medications that your doctor prescribes.

The first step to treating diabetes foot pain is to keep your blood glucose levels under control at all times.  Meal planning, consistent blood glucose monitoring, physical activity and proper diabetes medications including insulin can all go a long way toward relieving the pain associated with the nerve damage.  If you are suffering from this disease then your doctor should have given you information covering all of these areas.  Follow his or her directions or you may be faced one day with pain that you have no control over.

There are a lot of great resources on the web for people who have diabetes that will help to explain the disease and what you can do to treat it.  This information should never be used as a substitute for your doctor's advice.  But the more you know about diabetes pain relief the better you will be able to deal with the problems and also control your behaviors that may have an effect on how much pain you feel.

Make a commitment to yourself to find out all the information you can and to apply whatever directions your doctor gave you.  I would suggest spending several minutes each day researching the causes and treatments of diabetic pain.

Diabetic pain is usually treated with oral medications but there are also other treatments that have been used with good results sometimes.  Interestingly enough some anti-depressants seem to have diabetic pain relief as a good side effect.  Tricyclic anti-depressants seem to have the best effect although other ones such as Cymbalta, Wellbutrin, and Paxil also have shown some pain relief results.

Anti-convulsants also have shown some encouraging results for pain management needs caused by diabetic neuropathy.

Along with these drug treatments are other alternative medicine treatments that show relief in some people.  These include physical therapy, acupuncture, and biofeedback.  Like all alternative medicine techniques they should never be tried unless your doctor agrees that they may offer some relief for you.

Often times the pain is made much worse by pressure being applied to the feet.  There are several great products including diabetic socks and diabetic shoes that can be used to help relieve pain.  If you are experiencing foot discomfort you owe it to yourself to check out these products today.  Many people claim that by changing to special socks and shoes they are able to walk with much less pain.