[송대욱 박사의 당뇨엔 진심 (15)] What is the cause of severe “digestive upset” after diabetes?

[뉴스투데이=송대욱 전문기자] There are people who suffer from digestive problems after diabetes. It’s easy to think that there must be some other reason rather than diabetes making digestive problems worse. Gastrointestinal disturbances are the most common complication of neuropathy caused by diabetes, particularly autonomic neuropathy.

When you have diabetes, the blood sugar in your body rises. When blood sugar rises in the body, sugar toxins are created, called glycation end products, and when sugar toxins accumulate in our body, tissues and organs are degenerated. Glycated hemoglobin, which is used as an indicator of diabetes, tells us that red blood cells have degenerated from the accumulation of glycotoxins. Diabetes complications occur when these toxins build up in your blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, and nerves.

One of the most common complications of diabetes is diabetic neuropathy. It occurs mainly in the peripheral nerves. At first, the senses become hypersensitive, complaining of numbness, tingling or pins and needles. Pain caused by abnormal sensations is more severe at night, and the hallmark of pain caused by blood clots is nocturnal pain as well. Diabetic peripheral neuropathy progresses to numbness, and even though the foot is injured, it feels no pain, then it becomes diabetic foot, and the bone and muscle rot and amputate.

It is the most used content to scare people with diabetes and prevent diabetes. You don’t have to worry so much if you keep your feet soft and dry while detoxifying sugar toxins and purifying your blood. If your feet go numb, it can be prevented by paying more attention than usual, cleaning your feet for 5 to 10 minutes, gently drying them, applying moisteners, and examining them closely.

The complications of diabetes are thought to be caused by the contamination of blood, body fluids, tissues and organs by glucose toxins. In diabetic neuropathy, glucose toxin invades nerve endings and nerve cells lose their function. Nerves damaged by sugar toxin are not limited to peripheral nerves, but extend to the autonomic nerves.

The autonomic nerve is a nerve that regulates signals so that the organs in our body can function automatically. It is a nerve that allows the body to move and control itself without being aware of it, such as breathing or heart rate. After chewing food with our mouths and passing it down our throats, our autonomic nerves, hormones, and stomach take care of the rest.

The first disease that can be considered an autonomic neurological disorder is autonomic dysreflexia. Symptoms such as hot flashes, heart palpitations, chest tightness, wheezing, indigestion, overactive bladder, and irritable bowel syndrome occur when the sympathetic nervous system is overactive due to stress and negative emotions. This is a phenomenon that occurs when the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves of the autonomic nervous system is disrupted. Diabetic autonomic neuropathy is different.

The function of the nerve cells at the end of the autonomic nerve is impaired, causing the stomach to become immobilized and paralysed. A typical symptom is gastroparesis. Sometimes food doesn’t get out of the stomach and stays there. Gastroparesis presents with symptoms such as anorexia, nausea, vomiting, early satiety, and bloating. If the esophageal dysfunction is accompanied by this, the symptoms of difficulty swallowing food will be added. It is seen as a symptom of indigestion or reflux oesophagitis and attempts are made to treat it, but it is difficult to see the desired effect. Therefore, it is classified as a complication of diabetes.

Another diabetic neuropathy is dysuria and sexual dysfunction appearing in the genitourinary system. The sensation of the bladder is reduced, so even when the bladder is full, the urge to urinate is not felt, and even after urinating, the symptoms are not completely eliminated. Since the bladder cannot contract, the amount remaining after excretion increases, so the urine does not come out well, you urinate less, and you often experience symptoms of urinary incontinence or urinary tract infection. Erectile dysfunction in men or decreased libido and dyspareunia in women can also manifest as diabetes and autonomic neurosis.

The problem is that it takes a long time to recognize that diabetes is due to symptoms appearing in the gastrointestinal and genitourinary systems. If you have indigestion and indigestion, rather than trying to cure diabetes, try to solve it by eating digestive medicines, gastrointestinal motility promoters and gastrointestinal motility regulators that are believed to be due to a disease.

It would be nice if chemical drugs were just beneficial and harmless, but looking at the background of drug development, we don’t think much about causing problems in other organs to relieve symptoms. So it has more side effects than effectiveness. It’s a problem for both doctors and patients who think they need to increase the amount of medicine they take every time a new symptom arises.

Medicines used for diabetes are not a cure for diabetes. It’s just a blood sugar regulator used for hyperglycemia. It works to remove sugar from the blood. So, the most dangerous case is to increase the dose of blood sugar regulator while following a high sugar diet. Presumably, this could be why diabetic complications occur more rapidly and severely. If blood sugar raised by food is controlled with medication, glucose toxins accumulate more rapidly in tissues and organs.

If you have diabetes and are accompanied by indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome or urinary disorders, you should first think about managing your diabetes. It’s time to live a life that reduces sugar toxins and purifies the blood. Not all blood sugars should be kept below 100 mg/dL on an empty stomach. It is believed that each person has a different sensitivity to blood sugar and the degree of damage is different, just like a person with diabetes develops symptoms of low blood sugar when their blood sugar is higher than normal. Depending on the constitution, the goal of blood sugar control should be different and there may be a difference in healthy living that needs to be followed. It’s largely the same, but the details are different, so constitutional life medicine will be needed.

◀Song Dae-wook profile▶ Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee Korean Medicine Graduate School / Director, Deoksu Oriental Medicine Clinic / Director, Clinical Research Institute / MBTI Instructor / Developer of SnCi Sasang Constitutional Test Strip / Regular Member of Sasang Medical Association / Regular Member of Korean Fermentation Detox Society / Executive Director of Seongjeong Sasang Medical Association