DIABETES, FAILURE TO WATCH YOUR DIET CAN LEAD TO PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY
My father in law is a diabetic. He has been one for a while and when I first met him and learned about his condition, I asked my husband "What is diabetes?" I know it sounds a little bit silly because you actually hear about the disease a lot. I knew that it had something to do with people who couldn't have sugar and might need to take insulin shots, but my husband had actually researched a lot about it when his father was first diagnosed, and he wanted to make sure that his mother really understood the nature of his illness. This is when he found out that diabetes has to do with the body's inability to produce enough insulin to effectively digest and use carbohydrates and sugars appropriately. Apparently, it is not just sugar but any carbs like cake, bread, potatoes, and so forth. The only way to treat it is to closely monitor the blood sugar and to take insulin injections to help the body process out these foods. Diet must be used in conjunction with the insulin, because the insulin does not cure the condition and over doing it with the carbs can still result in peripheral neuropathy and other forms of neuropathy, if you are not careful, so therefore my father in law must watch carefully everything that he eats.
Now whenever we go to visit him or he comes to visit us, I make sure that I keep plenty of sweet sugar free products around, so that he can enjoy a good snack, just like anyone else. Watching the carb content of foods is actually a lot more difficult than you think and understanding it is even more complicated than that. I am glad that they have all the artificial sweetening products today, to help satisfy his sweet tooth, without taking him too far off his diet. This way he can enjoy a little without risking his health to do it. The kids even like to eat sugar free fudge bars with their grandfather, so they enjoy when he comes as well.
Posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 @ 9:28 AM by Brian