I always thought glucose intolerance was pre-diabetes, but it wasnt, it was "pre-pre-diabetes", it precedes diabetes or pre-diabetes by many years. im starting to think GI is related to my pn, because it fits in the symptom(type and presensation) alot.

Harvard's Joslin Diabetes Center says 20 million people in the U.S. have Impaired Glucose Tolerance, and 1% - 10% of them will be diagnosed with diabetes every year. I'm sure a good hunk of them don't know they have it, as was the case with me.

http://www.joslin.org/info/diagnosin...rance_IGT.html

I posted a link to this report before on another thread, but I think it's worth posting again because of what it says about neuropathy. The case studies referenced ring very familiar and are worth a read, but I'll copy and paste the most relevant and summarizing areas of the report.

Peripheral Neuropathy and “Borderline” Diabetes

http://www.jabfm.org/content/17/2/127.full

"There is increasing evidence that patients with milder degrees of abnormal glucose metabolism, including impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and impaired fasting glucose (formerly referred to as “borderline” diabetes), are also at risk for developing symptomatic polyneuropathy . We have personally observed patients for several years with “idiopathic” painful sensory neuropathy who subsequently develop overt diabetes; in retrospect, it seems likely that their symptoms were related to longstanding impaired glucose metabolism."

"DISCUSSION:

The cause of polyneuropathy remains unknown in more than 20% of cases despite extensive laboratory testing. The incidence of idiopathic cases is believed to be even higher among patients presenting with painful sensory neuropathy. However, some patients with “idiopathic” painful sensory neuropathy have ultimately developed overt diabetes mellitus after many years of follow-up, suggesting that occult impairment of glucose metabolism may have been the cause of their symptoms all along. There have been a number of recent series suggesting than more than 50% of the patients referred to neuromuscular clinics with a diagnosis of “idiopathic” painful sensory neuropathy have abnormal glucose metabolism when they are evaluated using the 2-hour glucose tolerance test (Table 3). Of these, more than 50% have impaired glucose tolerance, so the fasting glucose and glycohemoglobin are frequently normal despite an abnormal glucose tolerance test. These incidences of occult diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance are significantly higher than those reported for the general population, suggesting a causal relationship.

"CONCLUSION

Based on the data available in the current medical literature, we suggest that patients presenting with unexplained painful sensory neuropathy should be evaluated for impaired glucose metabolism with a 2-hour OGTT; if the results of the test are abnormal, they should be referred for lifestyle interventions and/or initiation of oral hypoglycemic agents in addition to management of neuropathy symptoms. Improved glycemic control can prevent the
development of overt diabetes mellitus and may have some impact on progression of neuropathy in these cases. The association between “idiopathic” painful sensory neuropathy and impaired glucose metabolism argues very strongly for prospective studies in larger populations looking at the cost effectiveness of this approach."


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I think i might have read that article, it said people with GI, might be the cause of idiopathic PN . Since diabetes, is the major cause of PN, it wouldnt hurt if there was more on pre-diabetes and glucose intolerance as well.

My doc just told me today that my last fasting glucose test was low (this was done over two months ago). Does low glucose cause sfn? I was eating very healthy at The time, very low carbs ( only what I got from a small handful of berries in the morning, and whatever was in my veggies at lunch and dinner). No other sugar, no gluten, only organic foods nothing that came out of a bag, box or can except a bit of tuna and some beans. Would this have impacted my reading? Does this mean I need carbs?

He ordered another glucose fasting test but I have been eating poorly for the last two weeks. Carbs and sugar too.

I am not sure what this means, please help

What was the value? "Low" could be mean a lot of things, like "normal."

As far as I know, there is no association between lower blood sugar readings and neuropathy.