The Wall-Melzack pathway model explains another instance of allodynia, as seen in severe cases of both types of diabetes. As we saw in chapter 4, elevated levels of glucose in the bloodstream can increase the risk of atherosclerotic plaques, clogging up blood vessels. As a result, insufficient energy gets through those vessels, potentially damaging nerves that depend on that energy. In general it is the fast fibers, which take more energy to operate than the lower-maintenance slow fibers, that are damaged. Thus, the person loses the ability to shut down the Y interneuron in that pathway, and
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