High Blood Sugars and Nerves

author avatar Dr. Eric Berg 08/31/2023

You know you’ve had high blood sugar for quite a while.

Your doctor’s been warning you that you’re right on the verge of developing full-on type 2 diabetes.

a white sign that says Blood Sugar Level in red letters


But lately you feel like you have other things to worry about. Occasionally your leg feels so weak you’re worried you might stumble and fall when you walk.

At night, you’re sometimes awakened by that tingly, aching feeling as though your arm’s fallen asleep. And you’ve noticed that one of your eyes is sagging, making you feel quite self-conscious.

So it only makes sense to put the high blood sugar concerns aside for now to look after these other puzzling symptoms, right?

Not so fast.

What you’re experiencing is very likely effects of chronic high blood glucose on your nerves.

In this article, I’ll cover:

Let’s take a look.

 

The 3 Types Of Nerves That Suffer The Effects Of High Blood Sugar

There are 3 types of nerves in your body that can be affected by high blood sugar

a diagram of the different types of nerves


#1 Motor Nerves

The first type is the motor nerves.

Motor nerves go to the muscles. When they’re damaged, you’re going to experience weakness or a loss of muscle function. Your muscles could atrophy, and you may even experience paralysis.

This is why your leg feels weak, as though you might stumble and fall while walking. Because your high blood sugar has damaged some of your motor nerves.

#2 Sensory Nerves

The second type is sensory nerves.

When sensory nerves are affected, you may have full use of your muscles; that is, you may not feel as though you’re going to fall. But you might not be able to feel anything. In other words, you have numbness in your arms and legs.

Or, you may experience a burning sensation, along with that pins and needles sensation similar to what we describe as “my leg is asleep”.

Sensory nerve damage from high blood sugars can also cause leg pain, especially at night.  Chronic high blood pressure tends to affect the peripheral nerves first; in other words, the nerves in the fingertips, toes, and the bottom of your feet.

You can have pain, numbness, weakness, and even cramping because of the loss of critical electrolytes.

#3 Autonomic Nerves

And finally, your autonomic nerves could be damaged.

Autonomic nerves control functions in your glands and organs. When autonomic nerves are damaged, you may experience:

  • Impotence (also known as erectile dysfunction)
  • Urinary retention, whereby you can’t completely empty your bladder
  • Ocular dysfunction; meaning, the muscles around your eye don’t function properly. Perhaps one eye droops but the other one doesn’t.
     
 

How High Blood Glucose Damages Your Nerves

Chronically high blood sugar will destroy the blood vessels that supply blood to your nerves by starving your body of oxygen. It can also damage the nerves themselves, along with the sheath surrounding the nerves, called the myelin, similar to what occurs with multiple sclerosis.

As you can see, there is a significant amount of damage that high blood sugar causes.

But there is something you can do about it.

I’ll explain.

 

What You Can Do To Heal The Damage

You probably know what I’m going to recommend to correct your high blood sugar and help heal the damage to your nerves.

#1 Get On A Ketogenic Diet

The first step is to get on the Healthy KetoTM diet. This is a low-carb, moderate protein, high-fat way of eating that will go a long way toward bringing down your chronically high blood sugar.

a diagram showing the amount of fat protein carbs on keto


#2 Do Intermittent Fasting

The second step is to do intermittent fasting. Fasting doesn’t mean starving yourself, so don’t worry! Instead, you choose a period of time when you eat, and a period of time when you don’t eat. It’s as simple as that.

These two steps together will help heal your high blood sugar and its correspondingly high Fat Storing Hormone.

#3 Take B Vitamins

Specifically, you need B1, B5, B6, and B12. It’s easy to get them - simply consume nutritional yeast.

High blood sugar will deplete your B vitamins over time. So, you can see that when you correct your high blood glucose, you’ll prevent more loss of B vitamins.

Then, if you take B vitamins you can actually protect your nerves because they need B vitamins to function correctly. You also need them to support that myelin sheath around the nerves, which allows electrical impulses to be quickly transmitted among your nerve cells.

B vitamins will also support and protect your blood vessels.

Get Your High Blood Sugar Corrected

These simple steps I’ve given you will get your firmly established on a path to lower your blood sugar, heal the damage to your nerves, and even protect them from any further damage.

If you let your high blood sugar continue, you know that you’ll suffer damage to your body that will seriously impair your health.

I know you don’t want that.

You want to feel strong, healthy, and vibrant.

I want that for you too.

Time to get started.

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Disclaimer: Our educational content is not meant or intended for medical advice or treatment.

Editor’s Note: This post has been updated for quality and relevancy.

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