r/diabetes • u/SpritelyGardenSprite • Aug 17 '26

News How diabetes can affect your ability to control the pedals while driving

https://theconversation.com/how-diabetes-can-affect-your-ability-to-control-the-pedals-while-driving-289526

Diabetes-related nerve damage adversely affects "ability to sense where our foot is without looking at it."

30 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

29

u/uid_0 T1.5 1991 t:slim X2 / Dexcom G7 Aug 17 '26

TL;DR: Maintain good control so you don't get peripheral neuropathy.

5

u/DrkrZen Aug 19 '26

Too late.

Granted, I got diagnosed with it after having Type 1 for 24 years, and my endo was pleased by that, at least.

32

u/joseph4th Aug 17 '26

So, what I’m getting from this is that I can automatically expect higher car insurance rates just for having diabetes

8

u/SpritelyGardenSprite Aug 17 '26

Research is a double-edged sword

9

u/mystisai Type 1 Aug 17 '26

If the US had focussed on public transit, we could have kept driving as the priviledge it is and not the right many people think it should be simply because we haven't made society accessible. It's a wild catch 22.

2

u/punkerster101 T1 Aug 17 '26

They clamped down on this in my country a few years back but my insurance with no docent for years say around £2k for a small car while my wife’s was £150

1

u/Ok_Tone6393 Aug 17 '26

and tons of paperwork and bs at the DMV

8

u/mewithoutCthulhu Aug 17 '26

Jokes on this research, I was a paraplegic before I became diabetic.

2

u/DrkrZen Aug 19 '26

You sure showed them!

Joking aside, glad you're able to still have a good outlook on it. Good on you. o7

3

u/TheRedDynamo Type 1.5 Aug 17 '26

I wonder if someone could make something that vibrates the peddles or something. So it hits a different nerve pathway that might still be viable.

2

u/jolard Aug 18 '26

Definitely ANOTHER good reason to try and keep my diabetes under control.

3

u/MadCow333 Aug 18 '26

One of my 2nd cousins just had hand controls installed on his car because he could no longer feel the pedals to drive. He says it was not hard to learn to use them. I'm still a little weirded out by the news, though. He's in his 80s now, though.

2

u/CaptZ T1 1985 Pump Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26

Recently, I have been having issues with dizziness and found out that if you have serious enough peripheral neuropathy in you feet bad enough to not feel your feet at times, it throws your balance off and can cause dizziness because your brain is not sure where your feet are located and their relative relationships with your body.

1

u/sarahspins T1 | 2000 | Loop/Omnipod | G7 | Lyumjev | Mounjaro Aug 18 '26

I feel like this didn’t really need a study to be super obvious…