Make Pain a Thing of the Past – diabetes and leg pain – Physician Partners of America

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What is the Cause of Your Diabetic Leg Pain?

What is the Cause of Your Diabetic Leg Pain?

Do you ever experience a pins-and-needles sensation in your legs? How about numbness or weakness? If you’ve answered yes to either of these questions and you’re also suffering from diabetes, the culprit may be diabetic neuropathy. Diabetic neuropathy, also known as diabetic nerve pain, happens when nerves are damaged because of diabetic complications. With one in five diabetic individuals experiencing diabetic neuropathy, it is important to be tested for this complication.

What are Symptoms of Diabetic Leg Pain?

Depending on the nerves affected, the symptoms for diabetic nerve pain can vary. Typically, discomfort starts with tingling or numbness, but the sensation can escalate to throbbing, shooting, or burning pain. Though these sensations often begin in the legs and feet, they can spread to the hands and arms, often worsening at night.

Other symptoms of diabetic neuropathy can include:

  • Cramps
  • Increased sensitivity to touch
  • Muscle weakness
  • Decreased balance and coordination
  • Loss of reflexes, especially in the ankle

In more serious cases, diabetic neuropathy can lead to issues with your digestion, urinary tract, and cardiovascular health. Because of this, it is important to talk to your doctor or pain specialist as soon as you start experiencing symptoms.

Is Diabetic Leg Pain Treatable?

Though there is no known cure for diabetic neuropathy, slowing diabetes and associated neuropathy symptoms start with healthy eating, exercising regularly, and maintaining optimal blood sugar levels. Smoking and alcohol abuse can also contribute to the condition, so it’s important to stop those habits. Additionally, there is a number of alternative nerve pain management treatment options available that focus on slowing the progression of the disease, managing complications, and relieving the pain associated with nerve damage.

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Stop Suffering From Neck Pain

Millions of people suffer from mild, moderate or severe neck pain every year. Many of them are enduring chronic, lasting pain and try in vain to combat it with run-of-the-mill OTC medicine like aspirin or ibuprofen. Needless to say, the relief is fleeting, if anything at all. That’s not how to treat neck pain.

Let’s back up and talk about what neck pain is. When the neck muscles are strained from poor posture from leaning over your computer, hunching over your desk at work, sleeping in awkward positions, a car accident, a sports injury or anything that caused stiffness and discomfort – that’s neck pain. Next, let’s take a look at some symptoms up close.

Neck Pain Symptoms

You know you have neck pain when you experience any of the following symptoms:

  • Muscle tightness and spasms in your neck
  • Decreased head range of motion
  • A headache that extends into the neck

Now, these symptoms may be a one-time thing and perhaps an ice pack or heating pad will take care of it. However, if you’re finding that this pain keeps coming back it may be chronic, and in that case, you need to move on to more advanced medical treatments.

Neck Pain Treatment

  • Physical therapy. Posture correction, neck-strengthening exercises, and alignment techniques can help ease your discomfort and potentially stop future pain.
  • Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). This technique employs the use of electric currents produced by a device to stimulate the nerves for therapeutic purposes.
  • Steroid injections. A procedure where steroids are injected into the nerves of the neck to stop their ability to send pain signals to the brain. This is an effective way to gain immediate pain relief through minimally invasive means.

Get Neck Pain Relief Today

Don’t wait another painful day. Contact Physician Partners of America now or schedule an appointment to be connected with a pain expert who can help manage your condition and get you back to living a full, active life.

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