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Diabetic neuropathy

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Dannyb22

Newbie
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3
Hi. I've had pre diabetes for over a year now.last week I was told my blood test come back 48 and cholesterol of 6.9. I'm due a repeat test tommorow to diagnose. I have been suffering from prickly feeling in feet after sitting and now I have very aching lower legs when walking. I have the odd mild pain in tip of toe. Please advise does anyone get very achy calf's ? Thankyou you in advance ps I'm 42 year old male
 
Hi Dannyb22

Welcome to the forums. Your A1c is right on the edge of a formal diabetes diagnosis. I would suggest it's a good idea to avoid getting diagnosed - it has implications for life insurance and all sorts of other things - once diagnosed as "diabetic" you're always "diabetic" officially, even if your blood glucose has been normal for years. Low carb eating works very well (in the experiences of many of us on this forum) to drop blood glucose levels quickly.


One of the rules of this forum is that we can't give medical advice nor can we diagnose. I can tell you my experiences, though. I started getting tingles/prickles in my feet around 2014, when my BG was about 45 (but no-one had told me). This fairly quickly - within a year or so - had moved on to a burning pain in both feet which either stopped me sleeping or woke me up. Got bad at night and became worse when I took the weight off my feet - standing controlled the pain a bit but didn't do much for sleep.

I didn't have achy calves, but my lower legs did go very red and I developed oedema. Naproxen helped a bit, but made my oedema worse.

Roll forward a couple of years: I was (finally) formally diagnosed with T2 diabetes in 2019 and started keto at 20g carbs/day. My BG dropped immediately and the symptoms largely went as well. I do still have a peristent warm tingle in my feet mainly when sitting or lying - it's not pain and it doesn't stop me sleeping , but it does seem to be permanent damage from five or six years of neuropathy.

I'm not going to comment on cholesterol as that isn't diabetes related and I don't think it means much anyway. The only thing I'll mention is that after cutting carbs and increasing my intake of meats, fats and dairy, my total (as calculated) cholesterol has fallen a couple of points - eight something down to six something.
 
As Kenny says we cannot diagnose, but my experience, is similar to kennys, but i suffered from terrible calf aches and cramps. on a bad day i couldn't walk 100 metres before having to stop and massage them. 2 minutes later i could go on. my problem on top of Peripheral neuropathy, was Intermittant claudication, poor blood flow to the legs. If this sounds like your problem, then do see your doctor, it is important, but don't fret about it. Once you know either way, you'll know what to do.
 
Thanks for sharing this. This is exactly what I hope/fear I am suffering from. My Arms and oftenhamstrings and calfs ache ( don't cramp) but ache especially when laying down and sometimes restless legs but this has reduced since I have removed all Carbs and lost weight . My BG was as high as 96 and have come down to 71 in around 10 weeks and then to 64, But I get tingles in my heel, like a vibrating mobile phone. The pain comes and goes in waves. I have an appointment with the Endocrinologist later this month to review but think I have neuropathy as I have been type 2 D for around 7 tears but only prescribed Metformin 4 months ago. Could this feeling be permanent? As I have read that it could be?
 
I also get a lot of muscle ache but that comes directly from exercise.

One of the rules on this forum quite rightly stops us from diagnosing or attempting to diagnose. Your BGs have come down amazingly already, but as you know high blood glucose can do damage to nerves and capillaries, and the damage can be permanent.

In my case I've not had an A1c reading above 38 for three years now, so I think the mild tingle I still have in both feet is probably here for the duration. At it's worst it's a bit like your feet warming up after being cold? Not sure if that gives you the right picture. I'd no longer describe it as pain, because it really isn't.

The "burning feet" pain I used to get has gone, and went very quickly once my BG level fell. BTW naproxen helped a bit when it was bad but it made my oedema worse (a known naproxen side effect).

I put the absence of pain down to reduction in BG, simple as that. However, we're all built differently and other people have had no or reduced symptoms at much higher BG levels. My recommendation would be to keep on what you're doing, it seems to be working for you.
 
I can add that I was diagnosed at 12.5 A1c in August of 2022. After a quick reduction to 8.2 in 1.5 months, the pain was overnight onset. Burning soles of feet unlike anything I’ve ever felt mainly as soon as took weight of them. I had cold feeling and pins and needles. I’m ant 5.6 now. After 8 months, seems to have got better. Nerves re-generate so it takes time.
 
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