Hypoaesthesia is the decrease in the sense of touch and physical sensitivity. This symptom appears naturally with age, or in diseases such as diabetes or following a stroke. 

What is hypoaesthesia?

Hypoaesthesia is the loss, or decrease, of the sense of touch. A benign example is, for example, when we have a “sleepy” leg, for a few seconds our sensitivity seems diminished. This symptom is linked to certain diseases, or simply appears with age. It affects several hundred thousand people in France. Not to be confused with anesthesia, which is the total suppression of a sense.

Hypoaesthesia can also refer to loss of sensitivity to hot and cold.

Spot the signs of this symptom

Paradoxically, medicine still lacks precision to properly study hypoaesthesia. No doubt because this symptom does not present an immediate risk for the patient and is not pain, on the contrary. It is therefore diagnosed simply by discussion, or with the help of tests using pointed needles inserted or threads deposited on the skin.

Old age, diabetes and certain neurodegenerative diseases are often symptomatic of hypoaesthesia. 

There are different causes of hypoaesthesia.

Old age, advanced age

The most common cause is simply old age. Over time, the sensors, of the mechanical receptor type, lose sensitivity and become less numerous. In addition, the skin itself relaxes over the whole body, which accentuates the loss of sensitivity of our sensors.

This loss due to age is quite natural, even if it handicaps daily life depending on its severity.

Stroke: stroke

During a stroke, cerebrovascular accident, the brain is directly affected. Even if the sensors always send the right information and work correctly, this time it is at the level of their reception that the bat hurts. The brain affected by a stroke may in some cases become less sensitive to certain pain in parts of the body.

Diabetes

As we have seen, when the skin relaxes, our sensory sensors lose efficiency. However, this is exactly what happens with a diabetes that is too high: the sugar present in the blood in a diabetic damages the sensors and makes the skin less sensitive.

Neurodegenerative diseases

One infamous example is multiple sclerosis. It gradually decreases the sensory receptors under the skin, and therefore our ability to feel the sense of touch.

Nervous incident, neuropathies

If during a physical accident some of the nerves responsible for the legions between the sensors and the brain are affected, there is a sudden drop in the patient’s sensory capacities. This happens in several mild examples, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, where the nerve in the wrist is affected and the feeling of touch in the fingers is reduced.

The same goes for neuropathies, diseases affecting the nerves and the nervous system in general. Paralysis, for example, can be accompanied by hypoaesthesia.

Other causes of hypoaesthesia are the alcohol,  HIV, the side effects of drugs or some you die. 

Hypoaesthesia is just a symptom of other illnesses. This symptom being a loss of sensitivity, one might think that it has no consequences. It is forgetting that the sense of touch is important in our daily life!

The absence of pain

It may seem paradoxical at first glance, but not feeling pain when touched is anything but a good thing! The pain is not pleasant to us but remains our sense of immediate danger. Not to feel the heat of a burning flame, or the edge of a knife blade, is to expose yourself to serious injury.

Hypoesthesia, by reducing the sensation of pain, therefore promotes domestic accidents and the injuries that accompany them.

Difficulty walking

The sense of touch is necessary to walk properly. Of course, with shoes our feet do not directly touch the ground, but it is the sense of touch that tells us what it looks like. Indeed our feet, our toes and heels, are constantly feeling the ground when we walk. The brain receives this information and adapts its position in real time to keep us as upright as possible. With hypoesthesia, when it affects the feet and legs, the information becomes blurry for the brain, which will have a harder time rebalancing our positioning. As a result, it is difficult to walk straight and stay in balance.

Treatment varies greatly with the cause.

Thus, old age cannot be cured and hypoaesthesia will persist. On the other hand, a diabetic will have an interest in monitoring his sugar level, while an alcoholic will have to go through weaning to regain all his sensitivity.