Nerves on both sides of the body are affected. The most common symptoms are numbness or insensitivity to pain or temperature, tingling or burning, sharp pains or cramps, extreme sensitivity to touch, loss of balance, all of which become worse at night. Diffuse Autonomic Neuropathy can affect urination and sexual response. This is a common neuropathy and leads to the bladder being unable to completely empty, Control of the bladder may become a problem. Nerve damage can also lead to a gradual loss of sexual response.
Nerve damage can cause the stomach to empty too slowly a disorder called gastric stasis.
It can also affect the perception of pain from heart disease. Angina may not be able to warn of heart disease and it may also raise the risk of heart attack during general anesthesia. Hypoglycemia may be masked by the inability to sense low blood glucose levels. Sweating may be impaired and therefore it become difficult to control the body's temperature. Other times, the result of neuropathy may be profuse sweating at night or while eating.