Q: My wife has tingling sensation starting from the foot till the lower half of the body with lot of tiredness. She also has loss of memory intermittently and is unable to talk properly. Are these the symptoms of diabetes? She has been facing this problem for the last 3-4 months. Lots of investigations were done and she was diagnosed as a diabetic with all other reports under control. Her sugar levels in morning were 127 and after two hours of dinner were 237. We have taken opinion from 4-5 doctors, who all say that these symptoms could or could not be due to diabetes. Please advise.

A:There could be a number of reasons for symptoms like this including: nerve injury; lack of blood supply to the area; pressure on the spinal nerves; certain diseases like diabetes, multiple sclerosis, hypothyroidism; metabolic abnormalities like abnormal levels of calcium, potassium, or sodium; vitamin B12 deficiency; transient ischaemic attack; side effect of some medicines, etc. The possibility of a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) needs to be excluded. It is an acute episode of temporary disturbance of blood supply to an area of the brain, resulting in a sudden, brief decrease in brain function. There is a focal loss of cerebral function (of the part of brain affected) with duration of usually less than 1 hour. It is rapid in onset and symptoms reach their maximal manifestation in fewer than 5 minutes (usually <1 minute). Manifestations are of variable duration and typically last 2-15 minutes (rarely as long as 24 hours). It is not possible to give advice via mail, and she needs to be thoroughly examined and appropriately investigated before treatment can be instituted. Please do consult a neurologist.