Type 2 Does anyone else get tingling/numbness only a few hours after consuming carbohydrate?

[jm164441]

Me: 25, 169lb, normal fasting sugars (~80), elevated postprandial sugars, I often see them go up to 160-170 after a high-carb (~100g) meal. I test before and after meals. Latest A1C was 5.5%. All bloodwork/B12/vitamins are normal. Not on any medications, not formally diagnosed with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, although I'm certain that I've been prediabetic for ~2 years.

So on the face of it, my numbers don't look so bad, but I have this scary symptom (~1 yr duration) where I get numbness and tingling in my extremities (and lips), most frequently my toes and fingertips, a few hours after eating if I've eaten enough carbohydrate for my blood sugar to go above ~135.

Frequently the sensation fades within a few days to a couple weeks, but recently, it hasn't been fading, and I've been getting new burning sensations on my toes.

I've lost 30 pounds since October, and this seems to have had no effect on my glucose metabolism or this symptom. I've searched this forum and Google many times, but I've never seen anyone who has what I'm describing. Can anyone help me?

 

[Indy51]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

This sounds like the beginning of neuropathy to me, though I can't diagnose you of course. I'd take it as warning sign to cut your carbs further. The following article makes a very strong scientific case for trying to keep your BG excursions below 7.8 mmol (140 mg/dl):

https://www.bloodsugar101.com/organ-damage-and-blood-sugar-level

Tingling in my toes is usually a red flag to me that I've miscalculated my carbs and gone above the 30g or so that I can tolerate in one meal.

 

[jm164441]

30g is also the maximum I can tolerate in one meal without going into numbness territory (135mg/dl+), so maybe we're similar in that regard.

I've cut down my carbs drastically since October, I allow myself ~25g every 3 hours or so, longer if my last meal was fatty and blood sugar rise seems sustained.

I've read a few articles that also say 140mg/dl is where damage starts. I'm just confused as to why I would be getting neuropathy already when my diabetes is of short duration (~2 years) and my A1C of 12 months ago, when I was eating anything I wanted, was 5.5, but I suppose it's just bad luck.

Do you know if this is a common presentation of diabetic neuropathy? I had thought it only occurred in people who had had diabetes for 10+ years, and was slowly progressive, rather than appearing almost instantly (and then fading over a couple days to weeks) after eating too many carbs, like what's happening with me.

 

[Indy51]

The problem is that even prediabetes can be "silent" until you finally lose the ability to control your fasting BG - you could have been spiking with high carb meals for many years prior to diagnosis. I'm pretty sure that's what happened with me as I had a normal fasting BG up to a year prior to being diagnosed, but had quite severe numbness in my feet by then.

 

[Indy51]

Just adding - by keeping my BG in the normal range, I've gradually regained most of the feeling in my feet. I just occasionally get the tingling/burning with high BG. Think that's a hangover from the prior nerve damage, but I've never had that confirmed medically.