Diabetes affects more than 30 million Americans, and left untreated, it can cause serious complications and pain that severely harm a person’s quality of life.
The expert spine doctors at The Spine Care Center in Manassas routinely help patients with diabetes find relief from pain. Read on to discover some tips for preventing and treating diabetic neuropathy pain, and be sure to contact our expert physicians if you have any questions about treatments for back pain.
What Is Diabetic Neuropathy?
Suffering from high blood sugar for extended periods of time can damage nerves throughout your body. This nerve damage is called diabetic neuropathy. Your peripheral nerves (the nerves in your hands and feet) are likely to be injured first. When these nerves are damaged, you may experience numbness, tingling, a burning sensation, or pain.
How Can I Prevent Diabetic Neuropathy?
You can prevent neuropathy by working with your endocrinologist or primary care physician to carefully manage and control your blood sugar with medicines, diet, and exercise. Proper blood sugar control can prevent nerve damage as well as other complications of diabetes. If you smoke, you should also quit smoking as it can further damage blood vessels in your feet or hands.
Even if you are already experiencing neuropathy, it is still vital that you get your blood sugar under control. Neuropathy can get worse over time and begin to affect other nerves throughout the body. It can also put you at higher risk for amputation.
How Can I Treat Diabetic Neuropathy?
In addition to managing your blood sugar, you can seek other treatment to relieve diabetic neuropathy pain. The interventional pain management experts at The Spine Care Center use different treatments to help you find relief.
In cases of severe diabetic neuropathy that is not helped by medicines, our expert spine physicians might recommend a spinal cord stimulator. Spinal cord stimulators use electrical signals to break up nerve pain signals. If this treatment is recommended to you by our spine physicians, then you will be able to give it a trial to determine how effective it is at treating your pain. If you determine the trial to be successful, then our spine physicians can implant a permanent stimulator in your body to offer ongoing relief.
Our spine experts are here to help everyone live a higher quality, pain-free life. If you are experiencing diabetic neuropathy, then call The Spine Care Center in Manassas today at (703) 257-2266 or request an appointment online to learn how we can help you.
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