Diabetic neuropathy is one of the most dangerous conditions associated with diabetes. Not everyone with diabetes will experience diabetic neuropathy, which is nerve damage associated with high blood sugar or glucose. If someone successfully manages their blood sugar levels they’ll reduce the risk of this condition even further.

However, anyone who suffers from diabetic neuropathy should watch out for the following associated symptoms. Early detection can reduce progression before any significant nerve damage occurs:

1. Increased sensitivity to touch
Think about how sensitive an area of your body is after an injury. You probably don’t want anything to touch your knee after you’ve bumped it against a sharp corner of your table. This sensitivity occurs because you’ve damaged the area. Likewise, diabetic neuropathy often makes areas of your body particularly sensitive to touch as it progresses in severity. This is due to the fact that you’re suffering far more damage to your nerves from neuropathy than you would from simply bumping against a sharp corner.

2. Sharp pain or cramping in the legs and feet
This signifies a subset of diabetic neuropathy called distal symmetric peripheral neuropathy. The main difference between the two conditions is that the latter definition specifies the concentration of symptoms in one’s extremities. As the name suggests, people first notice symptoms in their legs, hands and feet. Basically, areas with already poor blood flow are often the first to be hit by diabetic neuropathy. The legs and feet tend to be especially susceptible to this condition due to the amount of strain we place on them over the course of the day. Likewise, we’re often quick to assume that cramping and pain is simply due to a long day on our feet. But it’s important for diabetics to stay on top of abnormal pain or cramping in their legs and feet.

3. Foot pain and other issues
Foot pain (i.e., due to ulcers, infections, and joint pain) is a particularly dangerous symptom of diabetic neuropathy. The one saving grace is that it’s one of the relatively easily noticed symptoms. But the downside is that people often misattribute the pain to other causes. For example, foot pain is often written off as the result of a long walk or the condition of our shoes. What’s often happening is a combination of those or other factors with nerve death. It will then usually proceed to a full numbing of the area. Issues like ulcers and infection tend to proceed past that point. But we usually don’t notice them because of the numbing action. After that, the tissue often dies and even roots right on our feet. This is how many people with diabetes end up losing toes.

4. Numbness
People often mistake a numb sensation as a positive sign that they’re healing up from whatever was causing the burning or tingling sensations. But we need to remember what diabetic neuropathy really is. The condition describes gradual damage and then death of nerve cells. A numbing sensation often comes about after a significant amount of nerve cells have finally died off.

5. Tingling or burning sensations
Most symptoms of diabetic neuropathy are related to nerve damage. Improperly managed diabetes can result in conditions that lead to nerve damage. This damage will, in turn, start to actually kill off nerve cells. Our skin has complex mechanisms to alert us to damage. When we get a cut we’ll instantly feel sharp pain. But nerve damage usually starts out with more subtle signs of damage. This is typically a tingling sensation similar to when our extremities fall asleep. However, nerve damage related to diabetic neuropathy can also manifest as a burning sensation.