Coenzyme Q10 helps diabetic nerve pain

Diabetic polyneuropathy is a type of nerve damage that can occur if you have diabetes. The elevated blood sugar can injure nerve fibers throughout your body but most often damages nerves in your legs and feet. Symptoms of diabetic related neuropathy can range from pain and numbness in your hands and feet to problems with your digestive system, and even to your urinary tract, blood vessels and heart. For some people, these symptoms are mild, but for many others, diabetic nerve damage can be painful causing disability and even death.

Diabetic neuropathy is a common serious complication of diabetes but you can often prevent diabetic neuropathy or slow its onset and course with a good diet, tight blood sugar control, and exercise.

In diabetes related peripheral neuropathy, the most common form, your feet and legs are often affected first, followed by your hands and arms. Signs and symptoms include:

• Reduced ability to feel pain or changes in temperature, especially in your feet and toes
• A tingling or burning feeling
• Sharp, jabbing pain that may be worse at night
• Difficulty when walking and even pain when walking
• Muscle weakness
• Numbness
• Extreme sensitivity to the lightest touch and for some people, even the weight of a sheet can be agonizing
• Serious foot problems, such as ulcers, infections, deformities, and bone and joint pain

Experts claim that sixty-percent of patients with diabetes suffer from diabetic neuropathy.

In a recent study forty-nine patients with diabetic polyneuropathy were supplemented with 400mg of Coenzyme Q10 or placebo (sham supplementation) for twelve-weeks. Neuropathy symptoms such as pain and tingling improved and in fact were cut in half (or better) on CoQ10 and the nerves were healing with an improved speed for conducting impulses. CoQ10 also worked as an antioxidant and was totally nontoxic and without side effects. The study is published in the July 2012 issue of the Journal of Diabetes Complications.