Complications of Diabetes

Degeneration in diabetics can be checked for a quality life

 

Diabetes may just mean elevated levels of glucose levels in our blood but they can be a source of various degenerative changes in the organs of the body if left uncontrolled. Our body suffers in silence even as the organs give away when we understand the deleterious effects of diabetes that can take years or even decades to develop. Therefore, it is imperative to keep the glucose levels under check.

One of the areas of concern, which can lead to a chronic, disturbing and debilitating effects, is on the joints. It is not uncommon to find diabetics having deformed toes that lead to uneven pressure on the sole and thereby making the person prone to injury apart from the numbness and tingling, experienced . The reason for this is neuropathy or nerve damage due to diabetes.

Diabetics are more prone to a condition where they find difficulty in holding objects, lifting weights and writing, as the skin of the forearms and wrists downwards becomes thick and waxy, as there is loss of muscle tissue. It is accentuated by the connective tissue loss underneath the skin leading to contraction of the fingers and limitation of flexibility.

Painful symptoms

Pain, swelling, stiffness and crackling of the weight-bearing joints of the body like hips, knees and ankles is common and more so in persons who are obese. There is a breakdown of the cartilage of the joints hastening osteoarthritis. Patients complain of pain on waking and beginning to move even as they feel weak and exhausted in the joints after walking a distance. Another contributory factor for the breakdown is the reduced blood supply, especially the hips.

Stiffness of the back, difficulty in turning the head due to tense muscles of the neck occur as diabetes has a sway on the tendons and ligaments limiting the flexibility. Similar change in the shoulder joint causes difficulty in lifting and turning at the shoulder joints.

Diabetics are also found to have low mineral density of the bones and the calcium depletion leads to early osteoporosis and thereby weaken the bones making one more prone to fractures and injuries.

Homoeopathy has good remedies to allay and slowdown the degenerative changes due to diabetes Acid phos, Natrum mur and Physostigma help in keeping the muscular tissue sound while Calc flour and Ruta help restrain the cartilage from further degeneration. Arnica, Ferrum met is good remedies for frozen shoulder and Calc phos is appropriate to tackle osteoporosis. Actea racemosa, Guiacum, Gaultheria is a front-runner to relieve the pain, swelling and stiffness.