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Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffAnyone who has diabetes can develop neuropathy, but these factors make you more susceptible to nerve damage:
- Poor blood sugar control. This is the greatest risk factor for every complication of diabetes, including nerve damage. Keeping blood sugar consistently within your target range is the best way to protect the health of your nerves and blood vessels.
- Length of time you have diabetes. Your risk of diabetic neuropathy increases the longer you have diabetes, especially if your blood sugar isn't well controlled. Autonomic neuropathy, which can affect digestion and bladder and sexual functioning, occurs mainly in people who have had poorly-controlled diabetes for two decades or more. And the highest rates of peripheral neuropathy occur in people who have had diabetes for at least 25 years.
- Age. The older you are, the greater your chance of developing diabetic neuropathy.
- Your sex. Men are more likely to have diabetic neuropathy than women are.
- High cholesterol. A high level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol) damages the small blood vessels that nourish your nerves.
- Smoking. Smoking narrows and hardens your arteries, reducing blood flow to your legs and feet. This makes it more difficult for wounds to heal and damages the integrity of the peripheral nerves.
