A quick answer to “What causes burning feet in diabetes?”

Are your feet on fire?

If you are suffering from diabetes, your blood sugar can get very much out of control. You can have plenty of highs and lows, and hopefully lots of target blood sugars. The more highs you have, the greater the risk of developing burning feet (neuropathy).

The challenge is that high glucose levels are actually toxic to your nerve cells, and over time can cause damage to the nerves. This will lead to peripheral neuropathy (also called polyneuropathy, or diabetic neuropathy). As it begins, the symptoms can be very mild. A bit of tingling, some numbness, usually worse at night [link to “why are my burning feet worse at night].

For most type 2 diabetics, you already have a bit of a head start on burning feet. Type 2 diabetes is at the far end of a spectrum. Therefore by the time you get to the point where you are diagnosed with it you have been traveling down that path for some time. You see it starts because of our high carbohydrate, low-fat diet. We pile on the carbs to replace the fat calories that we have been told are clogging our arteries (they aren’t – there is a lot of science and even books on it). This high carbohydrate diet is converted to heaps of sugar in your blood. Insulin, among its other jobs, tells your cells to open up and allow sugar in so they can burn it.

What causes burning feet in diabetes?

The problem comes when we have constant high sugar consumption, and constant high insulin levels. This causes the cells to become resistant to insulin. That requires more insulin, and so your body produces higher and higher levels of insulin to deal with the excess glucose. Fat cells are slower to develop this resistance, causing the classic “insulin roll” around the midsection. (No, it’s not a beer belly, it’s an insulin roll) Eventually, the beta cells in the pancreas can’t keep up, and fail. This is where you move from insulin resistance, into full-fledged type 2 diabetes.

Through all this time, your blood sugar levels are rising and being toxic to your nerve cells. Therefore now by the time you are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, you have a good head start on developing neuropathy.

Burning feet is just part of the problem of peripheral neuropathy. There is also the numbness, tingling, shocking, shooting pains, and the cold feet as well. It is pretty common to have it spread to the hands too.

Once it has developed you have nerve damage. There are drugs that can help you deal with the pain, for a time. But unless you get excellent control over your blood sugar your neuropathy will continue to get worse. There’s no cure. But there is hope.

You can help your body heal. Naturally. There are some well-researched methods of improving blood flow, and helping your small fiber nerves heal. Want some free help? Download your own copy of 3 Neuropathy Tips and learn the quick relief methods my patients use when their feet are at their worst. Grab your copy today. I’ve even recorded a free video to accompany it, and can help you get back on the path to happy feet.