Managing Your Diabetic Nerve Pain
Now that your doctor has prescribed Cymbalta for your diabetic nerve pain, you may have questions such as: How quickly can I experience pain relief with Cymbalta? or What are the side effects? Learn more about what to expect from Cymbalta.
Diabetes tends to damage nerves in the feet and legs and, less often, the hands and arms. Damaged nerves can cause nonpainful symptoms (such as loss of feeling, numbness, or tingling) or painful symptoms (such as aching or burning).
What to expect from Cymbalta
The nervous system can become overly sensitive. Even very light touch or the slightest movement may trigger pain. Sometimes damaged nerves create pain messages with no cause at all. Diabetic nerve pain can affect people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. No one yet knows exactly what causes the pain of diabetic nerve pain. Having high blood sugar (glucose) levels over time is likely to be involved. Diabetic nerve pain is more common in older people and in people who have had diabetes for a long time.
Cymbalta is believed to work by increasing the action of 2 key substances—serotonin (ser-uh-TONE-in) and norepinephrine (nor-ep-i-NEF-rin)—in the brain and spinal cord. Although Cymbalta won't undo or stop nerve damage, it can help manage associated pain.
In people with diabetic nerve pain, the damaged nerves send out pain messages. These messages travel quickly up the spinal cord into the brain. Serotonin and norepinephrine are believed to work by turning down pain messages coming from the body.
