There is a topic that I have always been particularly passionate about as a subject of study, and it has to do with the effects that Diabetes has on the human body, particularly the excess of glucose in the blood.
There are many long-standing consequences in patients with this underlying disease, but in this particular post I will explain what is the Diabetic Neuropathy, which is present in more than 50% of people with diabetes.
Then I will explain in a simple way to understand what exactly happens in a patient when he loses sensitivity in the legs, feet and other parts of the body, which leads him constantly to have injuries of various kinds that end up being complicated to a great extent.
To fully understand what causes this loss of sensitivity, let's first visualize the structure of the nerves, because that is where the problem lies.
Every nerve is made up of different neurons, which through electrical impulses allow the passage of the signal, either from the periphery of the body to the brain and also in the opposite direction.
Explained in more detail in the following posts:Understanding our nervous system - Part one , Understanding our nervous system - Part two, Understanding our nervous system - Part three.
But to make a summary, it is important to bear in mind that our body at the skin level has innumerable receptors that perceive large variations in temperature, and allow the brain to process this information and send the order to remove a foot if it is being injured, for example.
In a matter of milliseconds, this entire process of perception occurs, transmission of information through nerve pathways to the brain, the information is processed and the order is issued to quickly remove the part of the body that may be damaged, and all this is done by means of nerve pathways. What do you think happens if these nerve pathways have some type of alteration that does not allow this signal to pass through it?
In the figure above you can see that a neuron has a fundamental part that is what protects it from external damage, it is a coat formed by lipids (fat), this is called "myelin sheath", it is the one that It protects it and prevents it from being damaged and the signal from being able to travel through the neuron without any problem. Additionally, blood vessels also run between this protective barrier, which are the ones that provide the necessary nutrients to keep both the neuron and the myelin sheath intact.
The big problem with permanently high blood glucose is that it affects the myelin sheath, and at the same time the tiny blood vessels in it. In this way, the nerves progressively atrophy, losing the ability to transmit the nerve impulse, and this is the main reason why diabetic neuropathy occurs.
Based on what was explained above, I must assume that it is very easy to understand that when this occurs, an event that does not happen overnight, but is progressive when there are constantly high blood glucose levels, the nerve function, especially the that is responsible for avoiding harming us is compromised, and the damage is present.
The most common example:
A person who wears a type of footwear that causes a small damage, which implies a tiny injury that little by little gets bigger without noticing it. And you don't notice it specifically because your ability to feel the injury is diminished. With the passing of days, weeks, even sometimes months, this small injury has already been established, which causes a torment to begin that sometimes ends with the amputation of the affected limb.
But as I have said, it is not something that is generated in a few days, but rather it is an evil that is generated for years, and when we see the effects it is usually too late for there to be a reversal of the damage. The picture tends to get worse because the circulation is also affected, as well as the immune system, which means that the possibility of the tissues being restored is very slow, and sometimes it is not possible.
The blood vessels are the ones that provide the necessary nutrients for the affected tissues to recover, as well as allowing the cells responsible for the body's defense to reach the damaged tissues and fight infections. When the nerves are affected, also the blood vessels, which respond to them, are inevitably affected, and this is how this cascade of events usually triggers a very damaging event that is difficult to get out of.
I know that it is sometimes a complicated subject to understand, because there are many aspects involved. Added to this is that due to nerve damage, the stability of the person, at the level of balance, is also affected, for this reason, even when the footwear is adequate, it can happen that due to a bad posture of the person, they self-injure and not even be aware of it. And the result would finally be the same.
I hope that with this explanation you can have more clarity about what happens with what we call Diabetic Neuropathy, which is nothing more than a consequence of this disease that is increasingly present in human beings. Thank you for reading my post.
