Hello. My father asked me to look at his symptoms online. He s painting and within 5 minutes his arm starts to burn near his bicep and then they go numb. If he rests his arms, they start to throb uncomfortably, including his joints - shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingers. Do you have an idea of what would be causing this? He is mostly concerned about diabetes (my paternal grandfather has diabetes) but was wondering if it was something else as well.
It could be diabetes but less likely as diabetes if present will have many other symptoms also.as he is a painter it could be his posture which is most likely compressing nerves of arm(brachial plexus) in shoulder region. This could be a part of thoracic outlet syn Chat Doctor. Go for postural change and physiotherapy exercises and if symptoms doesn't improve get a CT/MR done to help further diagnosis.