How can Diabetes Affect your Feet? Diabetic Foot Care Tips
If you have diabetes, your feet are likely one of the first areas of your body to show symptoms of this disease. Diabetes can cause nerve damage, which means that your feet are more susceptible to injury, infections, and problems with your circulation. The good news is that there are steps you can take to help you avoid or minimize these issues so that you can remain on your feet as much as possible! Read on to learn more about how diabetes affects the feet and what you can do about it.
For people with diabetes, foot problems can be a fact of life.
If not treated quickly, a foot ulcer or blister on a person with diabetes can become infected and sometimes necessitates the amputation of a toe, foot, or other parts of the leg.
What are diabetes-related foot conditions feet?
Feet checks and monitoring blood glucose still may not prevent foot ulcers from developing in some patients with diabetes.
It all depends on various factors such as:
1. How quickly the wound was found.
2. It includes if there’s an infection present and how quickly it is spreading.
3. Levels of treatment effectiveness.
4. Should the infection grow unchecked and begin to invade distant parts of the body, it may be necessary to remove the appendage(s) entirely.
What are other causes of foot pain in diabetics?
Common in those with diabetes, you might be afraid you’ll lose a toe, foot, or leg to diabetes, or know someone who has, but you can lower your chances of diabetes-related foot problems by taking care of your feet every day. Lowering your blood glucose levels can also make your feet healthier.
Diabetes foot symptoms differ from person to person and depend on what issues that person is currently experiencing.
However, symptoms might include:
– An impaired sense of feeling a sensation of numbness or tingling blisters or other wounds without pain.
– Skin discoloration and temperature changes
– Red streaks
– Wounds with or without drainage
– Painful tingling
– Staining on socks
People who develop an infection might also experience the following symptoms:
– Fever
– Feeling very sick
– Chills
– Uncontrollable blood sugar
– Shaking
– Shock
– Redness
Any person with diabetes who experiences symptoms of an infection, especially on the feet, should seek emergency treatment.
What do you do if you have a foot ulcer from diabetes?
Foot pain caused by diabetes may require you to see a foot doctor called a podiatrist.
Treatment may include:
1. Treating the wound.
2. Remove any fluids or pus from the ulcer.
3. It can include removing or cutting away infected or dead tissue (a process called debridement). Apply dressings to protect and seal the wound and accelerate the healing process.
4. Provide a wheelchair or crutches in order to relieve pressure on the ailing foot.
5. Give oral or IV antibiotics to destroy the infection. Sometimes it is necessary to hospitalize a patient depending on the severity of the infection. Sometimes amputation is necessary to prevent infection from spreading to other parts of the body.
What can I do to keep my feet healthy?
In addition to dietary adjustments, also work with your health care team to establish a diabetes self-care plan, which will consist of steps for managing the disease, including taking care of your feet. A foot doctor, podiatrist, and other health professionals may be part of your health care team.
Include these steps in your foot care plan:
Step 1: Perform daily foot checks.
Step 2: Wash your feet each day.
Step 3: Soften the painful hardness of calluses and corns with regular softening treatment.
Step 4: Cut your toenails so that they’re straight across.
Step 5: Always wear shoes and socks, especially outside of the house.
Step 6: Insulate your feet from heat and cold.
Step 7: To avoid losing blood flow to your feet, walk every now and then.
Step 8: It’s important to get a foot check at every visit to the doctor.
Diabetic foot care tips
It is important for people with diabetes to prevent foot problems and they need to maintain a healthy level of foot hygiene. If an individual were to take the following steps:
1. Gently check the feet every day or ask someone to help with foot assessment to make sure the injured foot is healing.
2. Wash the feet daily in order to keep them clean and keep any infections at bay.
3. Wear socks and supportive shoes to protect the feet at all times. A podiatrist may recommend special shoes to keep your feet healthy. Do not wear socks too tightly or else you may end up damaging your circulation.
4. Make sure to raise your feet when you’re sitting, wiggle your toes occasionally, and take your workouts seriously. To stay healthy, it’s necessary to improve blood flow to the feet.
5. Cautiously trim fingernails straight across and keep them trimmed short. Rounded nails can grow inward, increasing the risk of infection.
6. Take care of corns and bunions. Don’t ever shave corns, because doing so can make you more susceptible to infection.
7. Diabetes sufferers can keep their feet healthy by making sure they are properly shielded from cold or heat.
8. Make sure to get regular examinations of your feet: without this, there are greater risks of infection, amputation, and significant deformities.
9. To control blood sugar, it is essential to maintain appropriate insulin levels.
10. Stay away from smoking: it compromises blood flow to the tissues, worsening the chances of diabetic foot disease.
