It’s called Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy and it really hurts. Ouch!

Many type 2 diabetic patients experience persistent pain in their legs and feet. Later the pain can come from the arms and hands. The pain can come out of nowhere or come from a bump or bruise. It’s often described as burning, pins and needles, shooting, aching, jabbing, sharp, cramping, tingling, or cold.

It’s very hard to treat. No single drug exists to prevent or reverse neuropathic changes or to provide total pain relief. Partial pain relief is often the best that can be hoped for. Sometimes, the pain is so severe that opiates are needed, but they carry the risk of addiction.

Now for the good news. It turns out that a vegan diet, also known as a plant-based diet, can really help.

For instance in one study, a vegan diet resulted in complete abatement of pain from Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy in only one month. Even after being followed for four years, 71% of patients continued to be pain free. In another study, a vegan diet also resulted in very significant pain relief. It would be hard to overstate the value this brings diabetics who often suffer terribly. It’s also a safe and affordable treatment.

Of course this disease can be prevented from ever happening in the first place. It turns out that a vegan diet reduces the risk of ever getting Type 2 diabetes in the first place. You can reduce your risk of getting diabetes by just taking the following medicines: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans and nuts. The more you take, the more protection you can get. For instance, researchers found that those following semi-vegetarian diets, pesco vegetarian, lacto ovo-vegetarian, and vegan diets, reduced their risk of diabetes by 28%, 51%, 61% and 72% respectively. The pattern here is clear: the more plant foods you eat, the more protection you get.

If you already have T2 Diabetes, plant foods are powerful medicine. In one study, conducted at George Washington University, 46% of diabetics were able to stop or significantly reduce their medications in only 6 months after starting on a plant-based diet. Even more impressive is how the powerful plant-based diet reduced blood sugar by about 25% more than the usual treatment – the drug metformin combined with the standard American Diabetes Association diet.

See professional level information on Preventing and Treating Type 2 Diabetes with a Plant-Based Diet,

and on Preventing and Treating Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy with a plant-based diet.