Diabetes is a condition that affects millions of Americans. About half of them may face nerve damage, also known as diabetic neuropathy.
This nerve damage can cause pain and other problems. There are some medicines that can help with the pain, but scientists want to understand why this nerve damage happens in the first place.
If they know the cause, they might be able to help people avoid getting it.
Lipids and Nerve Damage
A study at Michigan Medicine tried to find a connection between certain body fats (lipids) and nerve damage in diabetes. They looked at blood samples from 70 people with type 2 diabetes.
Ten years after taking these samples, they checked these people for nerve damage.
They found that people who had more nerve damage also had changes in their lipids. These changes showed that their body wasn’t using energy properly.
Dr. Eva L. Feldman, who was leading this study, said they could use these lipid changes to find out which diabetic patients are more likely to get nerve damage. This way, doctors can give special attention to those patients.
Why It’s Important
The research showed that certain fats in the blood can tell if a person might get nerve damage later on. These fats are part of a system in our body that turns fat into energy for nerves.
If this system doesn’t work well, the nerves don’t get enough energy, and they get damaged. This is what causes the nerve pain in diabetic patients.
Dr. Feldman says that understanding these fats can help in treating nerve damage. She suggests that eating healthy unsaturated fats, like those found in a Mediterranean diet, can give nerves the right kind of energy.
She also says that exercise can help the body use fats better, so it’s another way to prevent nerve damage.
In short, a combination of the right diet and regular exercise can help protect diabetic patients from painful nerve damage.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about Vitamin D and type 2 diabetes, and what you need to know about avocado and type 2 diabetes.
For more information about diabetes, please see recent studies about how to eat to prevent type 2 diabetes, and 5 vitamins that may prevent complication in diabetes.
The study was published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.
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