Could that foot pain be neuropathy? Chronic pain, tingling, or numbness in your hands or feet could signal nerve damage from prediabetes or diabetes.(diabetic neuropathy)

Publication: Women's Health Advisor

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If you have persistent shooting, tingling, or stabbing pain in your hands or feet that tends to get worse at night, or numbness in your feet, you could have a condition called peripheral neuropathy. The problem stems from nerve damage that causes nerves to become overexcited, firing off too many pain signals to the brain. When the damage becomes severe, the peripheral nerves lose the ability to respond to sensation, so people do not feel pain or injuries.

But clinical trials of investigational treatments now being conducted at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center may provide ways to prevent or even reverse some of the damage.

Damaged nerves

There are many causes for neuropathy, but the most common cause is diabetes, explains Thomas Brannagan, MD, director of the Diabetic Neuropathy Research Center and associate professor of clinical neurology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. The condition, also known as diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy (DSP), is most common in diabetics with poorly controlled blood sugar and those who have had diabetes for...

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