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Painful neuropathy & exercise.

LJRC

Member
Messages
17
Location
Northumberland
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
tea, miserable people, swallowing large pills :)
I have painful neuropathy in my feet, they get very hot, tingly, the skin is sore, I can't bear the red areas to be touched. The feet do get massaged carefully with Body Shop Peppermint foot rescue cream, nightly. Standing makes them swell, and go reddish purple, walking doesn't help much either, it's painful. Meds are Duloxetine, which gave me insomnia, for a while, my sleep pattern is now a mess. Working on that prob. Also have two fans to blow cold air over the feet, to keep them cool, one in the sitting room, one in the bedroom. I have a single duvet, goes across bed, feet stick out all night, enjoying the breeze from fan.
What I'm after is advice on exercise. Knitting & crochet may exercise the hands, but for losing weight a big fail. Swimming is out, I can't swim, afraid of deep water, not doing well here, am I? Ha ha!
Any ideas, much appreciated.
 
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I can empathise, I have had bouts of this, but thankfully not at the moment. I remember one night I just wanted to chop my feet off because they were burning so much! I haven't had it recently and I presume it is because I have improved my glucose/insulin levels. Sleep is a big factor in pain management so maybe this medication is not the best thing for you? Sorry I haven't answered your question about exercise, but what are you doing to manage your diabetes?
 
Low carbs, avoiding sugar, vit D, C, B, E, Chromium, Benfotiamine. Plus two fasting days a week. I drink water with real lime juice in, and herbal tea. Did have good control on the glucose levels, 5 - 5.6 fasting. Results are a bit spiky now, most likely stress related. I was on imipramine for the feet, but as the numbness has spread, over the top of my feet, I got sent to a specialist. He was happy with what I do to control the diabetes, and wondered if that wasn't the reason for the feet prob. He recommended the Duloxetine. Had other tests, circulation good etc., tests all OK.
Sleep is a problem, cat naps are good, and family let me sleep for hours, once I am asleep. It's not good though sleeping till 4pm, lol, like being on permanent night shift! Woke at 11am today, slept from about 4am, so that's an improvement. It's the body clock, thinks I live on the other side of the planet. I'm working on kicking it into submission.
 
I have had my feet and circulation tested and told that it is not diabetic neuropathy, and also I know of non-diabetics with this problem, so I wonder what it is. Sounds like you have good control too. I think sorting out sleep and stress will help. Mine is definitely worse when under stress. Good luck!
 

I have had the burning foot pain as well. I was diagnosed in early April. Had no symptoms at the time. Went LCHF and dropped my levels quickly. My pain started AFTER normalizing levels.
 

LJRC - I'm sorry you're struggling with this. Thankfully, it's not something I have experienced myself.

One thing you may like to have a read of is supplementing with R-ALA (must be R-ALA, not plain ALA). I know your pain has not been assessed as neuropathy, but several on here have founf it helpful to neuropathy and painful extremities,

A forum search could start off your research as there have been several threads.

When I, extremely uncharacteristically, went through a period of disrupted sleep, I sceptically tried applying Magnesium oil. It worked! I was very sensitive to it on my skin, so couldn't just build it into my routine, but I'd use it again for a few days if sleep became an issue again. Disrupted sleep is very unhelpful for almost everything.

Good luck with it all.
 
 
Thank you, what lovely people you are. . I'm managing the feet pain and numbness OK. Thing is, couch potato would be a good description of me, I'm getting fatter by the day, scary! All because I'm keeping off my feet, as this makes them happy.
What I need are ideas for getting exercise without putting pressure on my daft feet. Don't forget, swimming is out.
 
may be of help. I know it says for obesity, but its non weight bearing. I have ME/CFS and have found the exercises of benefit to me.
 
Caprock94 said:
I have had the burning foot pain as well. I was diagnosed in early April. Had no symptoms at the time. Went LCHF and dropped my levels quickly. My pain started AFTER normalizing levels.
Click to expand...
Mine did too,now the pain is much less than before,feeling much improved.Much better overall after 15 weeks.My feet were cold,now I wear my wool socks unless Im in bed.Feet now warm to touch,I take that as circulation is better.
 
Caprock94 said:
I have had the burning foot pain as well. I was diagnosed in early April. Had no symptoms at the time. Went LCHF and dropped my levels quickly. My pain started AFTER normalizing levels.
Click to expand...
Silly isn't it? My Dr said it was restless leg syndrome to start with. Once I had the diabetes diagnosis it became diabetic neuropathy. I've been through about 6 years or so of trying to nudge Dr's into getting it investigated properly. It was the practice nurse who, while doing my MOT, referred me to the Podiatrist, who in turn referred me to the specialist at the hospital. But, they all ignore me falling down stone steps, banging my feet, and having them turn a beautiful shade of deep purple. Before everything else started. To me, it's nerve damage caused by the fall. I deal with it most of the time. Stress and sleep deprivation do not help at all.
There are so many people with our problem, and not all of them are diabetic. The pain can be excruciating, you'd think that somebody, somewhere, would do some proper research, instead of blaming it entirely on diabetes.
 
1spuds said:
Mine did too,now the pain is much less than before,feeling much improved.Much better overall after 15 weeks.My feet were cold,now I wear my wool socks unless Im in bed.Feet now warm to touch,I take that as circulation is better.
Click to expand...

Good to hear! It has been a month for me now. Feet feel a little better lately, but I just took a walk and it seemed to fire them up again! ****.....I hope this subsides soon. My A1c is now down to 5.9%. Hoping to reach 5.5% within the next couple of months.
 
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