Diabetes is a condition in which the body doesn’t produce enough insulin to manage blood sugar levels, leading to a range of painful side effects and conditions, including diabetic neuropathy. One of the areas commonly affected by this condition is the feet, where nerve endings are at risk of damage due to long-term high blood sugar levels. While proper diabetic foot care can help control discomfort, pain, or further complications, it’s important to understand how common symptoms of diabetes can affect the feet. 

What Are Common Signs of Diabetic Nerve Pain?

1. Numbness

As high blood sugar levels damage the nerve endings in your feet, your ability to sense temperatures, textures, and external stimuli can be reduced due to numbness. This can be as extreme as being unable to feel your feet while walking, or it can resemble the sensation of wearing a thick sock even while barefoot. Numbness may be accompanied by tingling or burning feelings.

2. Shooting Pains

Shooting pains or cramps are common warning signs of diabetic complications. These can feel like an electrical shock, tight pain in the extremities, stabbing pain, or pinching. These pains can range in severity from mildly uncomfortable to debilitating, distracting you from daily activities or even forcing you to drop objects and lose focus for minutes on end.

3. Extreme Sensations

Due to the disruption of normal nerve function, you may also experience heightened sensitivity to otherwise normal stimuli. Warm temperatures may feel unbearably hot, or you may experience cool substances as feeling painfully cold. Some people may find light or soft sensations, such as the weight of a bedsheet, extremely uncomfortable. Abnormal sensitivity like this requires prompt diabetic foot care to diagnose the cause and restore normal feeling to your extremities.

4. Loss of Balance

Loss of balance, wobbly walking, or weakness in the ankles are common signs of diabetes. As your body adapts to diabetes-related muscle weakness and nerve damage, you may have difficulty coordinating or controlling your movements, leaving you unable to walk steadily. Numbness in the feet can also limit the sensations needed to react to the ground under your feet while walking, thus interfering with your range of motion. Diabetic foot care treatments such as orthopedic shoes or physical therapy can help restore strength and regularity to your gait.

If you need diabetic foot care to counteract pain and weakness in your legs and feet, you can count on Choice Podiatry Associates for reliable diagnoses and treatment options. These podiatry specialists offer treatment at three convenient locations in Monfort Heights South, Kenwood, and Wyoming, OH. Each location is fully staffed by caring experts to provide comprehensive treatment for a wide range of diabetes-related foot problems. Call (513) 574-2424 to book an appointment, or learn more about their treatment options online.