Do you feel dizzy or faint when you stand? A study shows that you are at risk of developing diabetes in the future.
Hungarian researchers claim they have discovered that patients at risk of type 2 diabetes are up to six times more likely to suffer nerve damage affecting the heart from a condition.
Signs of this damage, called neuropathy, include feelings of faintness and dizziness, and can be noticed “several years” before diabetes is diagnosed, the experts claim.
Neuropathy is a medical term meaning nerve damage and is already a known complication of diabetes.
However, the researchers from Semmelweis University say that patients show subtle signs of this damage even before their diabetes has fully developed.
Do you feel dizzy or faint when you stand? Research shows you’re at risk of developing diabetes (stock image)
They claim their findings could be used to detect signs of neuropathy in patients at risk for diabetes and then slow or prevent nerve damage.
Neuropathy is a common complication of diabetes because of the way high blood sugar levels damage the small blood vessels that supply the nerves.
In the long term, this can lead to nerve damage and lead to different symptoms depending on which nerves are affected.
It usually results in what is called peripheral neuropathy, which causes numbness, tingling, burning sensations, pain, cramps and weakness in the feet and hands, which can eventually spread to the entire limb.
Other types of neuropathy that diabetics may experience include problems with their senses, the signal their organs receive, and the ability to control their hands.
In their research, published in the journal Frontiers in endocrinologyResearchers found that people at risk for diabetes were 5.9 times more likely to have a type called parasympathetic neuropathy, compared to healthy people.
Parasympathetic neuropathy is a type of damage to the nerves that control how our bodies rest, for example by sending signals to lower our heart rate.
Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN), a type of nerve damage related to the heart, was specifically highlighted in the study as being more common in the group at risk for diabetes, again 5.9 times.
CAN symptoms include the inability to exercise for more than a very short period of time and low blood pressure which can make you feel dizzy or faint when you stand up, according to the NHS.
Researchers said they also found a higher incidence of sensory neuropathy in the high-risk group, but added that this was observed among patients in the study.
Study author Anna Körei, assistant professor of medicine and oncology at Semmelweis, said: ‘We were looking for signs of neuropathy in patients with normal blood glucose levels but at a higher risk of developing diabetes.
‘We have taken a step back in time and looked at an earlier stage, where risk factors may be present, but there is no clear indication of (pre-)diabetes.’
They compared the health test results of 44 people at high risk of developing diabetes and 28 healthy control subjects.
The participants had their heart rates measured, as well as tests to see how their bodies responded to sensations such as aching and burning pain and numbness.
Concluding their research, the authors said their findings warrant further research.
The authors acknowledge that their study had several limitations, the most important of which was the small number of participants.
Another factor was that although participants were asked to stop taking medications that could affect the results, the authors could not guarantee that they had followed this instruction.
Around five million people in Britain live with diabetes, with an estimated 850,000 people not knowing they have the condition.
A recent report from Diabetes UK shows there has been a staggering 39 per cent rise in type 2 diabetes in people under the age of 40, a trend attributed to rising obesity rates.
There is no cure for diabetes-related neuropathy, but medications are available to combat the symptoms it causes.
Problems with nerves that help detect pain in the feet is one of the reasons diabetics are advised to check their feet regularly as they may not feel wounds that could become dangerously infected.