The serious and dangerous nature of diabetes can often lead to other equally serious problems, such as a diabetes related nerve disease called diabetic neuropathy. This disease develops as a result of having high blood glucose levels for 10 years or more.

The effect of this nerve damage is a slow down of a person's nerve conduction velocity (NCV). Nerve conduction velocity refers to the speed at which nervous impulses travel down a nerve fiber. Unfortunately, a person experiencing slow NCV can go a long time before showing any symptoms. The only way for a person to see if they are affected by this is to take a test that will show the speed of their NCV. This is the only way to diagnose neuropathy in diabetics who show no symptoms of nerve damage. Should the patient's test show a slowing of their NCV, medication can be provided that, in many cases, will help improve their nerve damage symptoms.

Who is most susceptible to diabetic neuropathy? This disease is prevalent in both men and women aged 40 and over. This illness also tends to affect people who are taller than average. In all probability, this is due to the fact that by being taller they have longer nerve fibers which can damage more easily.

Testing Your Nerve Functions

Your doctor will be able to test the function of your nerves to determine whether or not you have nerve damage as aresult of diabetic neuropathy. Different nerve fibers are believed to be responsible for different kinds of sensations. Your doctor can test, and create an analysis of the connections between the sensations and your nerves. The sensations are those of touch, temperature, vibration, and light.

1. Vibration Testing: This is a rather simple test that can be initiated with the use of a tuning fork. Doctors prefer to utilize vibration testing to bring out any abnormalities in the larger nerve fibers of the body.

2. Temperature Testing: Temperature testing is very important when determining the body's smaller nerve fiber status. Knowing the status of these smaller fibers is extremely important. Should the smaller fibers be damaged, it is then possible for the patient to lose their ability to feel extremely hot temperatures such as boiling water.

3. Light Touch Testing: Light touch methods allow doctors to determine which, if any, large fibers are damaged. The body's larger nerve fibers sense anything that touches the skin. They then send signals to our brain alerting us that we are experiencing a sensation. Someone with good health, without nerve damage can usually feel a filament tool that is tested with merely one gram of force.

By Carl DiNello

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