I'm so frustrated. My dad has been complaining about the bottome of his feet burning &painful, especially at night. And he also complains about loss of feeling.

My dad is extremely scared of doctors (never goes & will never go), so his solution is to lay on the couch at night with his legs up in the air to try and get back circulation

My question is can this be diabetes, and what other syptoms should I look for on him

Hi India 22,
It's possible that your Dad has neuropathy...that can cause both pain and numbness and tingling. People who are diabetic are much more prone to get this, but people who don't have diabetes can get it too. It would be a good idea for your Dad to have a physical.

Thanks for responding

Do you know of any herbal/vitamin treatments to lessen the neuropathy?

My dad is a 60yr old man who WON'T go to the dr for any reason, but might try some vitamin or herbal remedies.(this is a man who says he'll die before he ever lets a dr touch him)

Any information or websites you can share would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Someone told me that LGlutamine can reduce the symptoms of neuropathy, but that person had neuropathy from chemotherapy...I'm not sure how well it would work for diabetic neuropathy, although I don't see why not. Don't know of any other herbals or supplements, but I'm not really up on that. You may want to post on the neuropathy board and ask that question.

I'm curious as to why your father is so much against doctors? Has he had a bad experience in the past?

Originally posted by SamQKitty:

I'm curious as to why your father is so much against doctors? Has he had a bad experience in the past?

For all my 26 years my father has never went to a doctor. He's 60yrs old and originally from the south, & in his family people would suffer rather than go to a dr. & I guess being around that mentality for so long and being a man has instilled this in him.

To him he saw the people in his famiy living long lives & even though some had suffered through conditions, but being able to survive w/o going to doctors. So in his warped mind he saw people who went to doctors usually got worse.

It's frustrating for me & my mom, but you can't force someone set in his ways

It's so bad that a few years ago, on his neck area a big "knot" appeared lasted for a couple of weeks, my mom said he should go get a biopsy & he refused, and self medicated it with who knows - eventually it went away, but I'm sure its not good

Hi India 22,
Well, if he absolutely won't go to a doctor, have him try the LGlutamine. You can get it at a health food store. I don't know how much you're supposed to take, but you may be able to get info over the internet. Try posting a question about LGlutamine on the Neuropathy board...maybe someone is using it and can tell you more.

Good luck with your Dad.

For neuropathy, supplement with Alpha Lipoic Acid and multiple B vitamins (esp B6 and B12).

Hi India 22 -
I almost forgot about this...some people with neuropathy are treated with capsaicin creams. Capsaicin is the ingredient in hot chili peppers that makes them hot. I'm not sure, but I think you can get some of these creams over the counter. You're supposed to rub it into the affected areas once or twice a day (check with the pharmacist), and eventually, in a few weeks or sooner, it somehow diminishes the burning/pain from the neuropathy.

I don't know all that much about it, but you can probably get more info from a pharmacist.

Hi India 22,
Actually, it sounds like neuropathy of the feet (death of nerve endings). Generally, it is a side effect of diabetes, although it may be related to a cardiovascular issue.

I have suffered greatly with this and I am a diabetic. I went for 6 months with no sleep at night because of my feet. One thing I found helped slightly was to use a low setting heating pad. Walking also helped

I was on pills for diabetes at the time, but it was uncontrolled. My blood sugar was "only" around 180, so you don't have to be a severe diabetic to experience problems.

Do you have a tester kit for blood sugar? Sometimes drug stores will give them free on a diabetes education day or maybe you could borrow one? You should check his blood sugar before and after meals to get a feel for his levels.

Common symptoms of diabetes include shaking and nausea and cold sweats when you need to eat, unexplained weight loss, having to pee all night long, extreme thirst, etc.

Now the good news. My doctor adjusted my diabetes medicine, then added two medicines to my list. One, Pletal is used to increase blood flow to small capillaries. The second, amytriptylene (sp?) is used to trick the brain into not recognizing pain and for depression. I still have dead spots and burning in my feet, but now I can sleep at night.

Please, encourage your dad to see his doctor. He needs it.

Amitriptyline in low doses and Neurontin are usually used for peripheral neuropathy. You better check your father blood sugar because, as it was already mentioned, feet burning and numbness can be a sign of diabetis. If blood sugar is OK, his symptoms can be related to peripheral arterial disease.

Have you considered checking around to see if any of the doctors in your area make house calls? This is something that some docs are trying to do again and it may worth your effort to call a couple of clinics to see if any of the docs do house calls. Another option that may or may not work is to see if he would consider seeing a Podiatrist. They generally do toe nails, bunions and hammer toes etc but would at least look at his feet and he may not think of this as a doc. Does your father work in a place that has a health nurse such as a factory. Perhaps you could talk to this nurse for work and she may be able to help or at least ofter some suggestions for getting your dad to see a doc. One last suggestion that comes to mind would be to have your mother ask him to accompny her when she needs to see the doc. Have her come up with some excuse as to why she wants/needs him there such as I want you to hear what the doc has to say about my test results or something. She could then very innocently slip into the conversation with the doc ....."oh by the way, my husband has been having buring, pain and some loss of feeling in his feet for quite some time at night. Do you have any idea what might be causing that?" With your dad sitting right there he certainly can't get out of at least telling the doctor about it. Hope this helps.