Pay Special Attention to Your Feet as a Diabetic
Pay Special Attention to Your Feet as a Diabetic
Diabetics experience a wide range of problems associated with the disease all over their body, but some parts of the body are more severely affected than others. Namely, the feet are a major source of danger for almost all diabetics, both type 1 and 2.
One of the more common foot-based afflictions associated with diabetes is what’s known as neuropathy. Neuropathy is the damaging of the nerves, and while this happens all over your body, it seems to affect the feet of diabetics worse than it does other parts of the body.
When your feet and legs are hit with neuropathy, a wide variety of problems arise. First, you might lose feeling in your feet. This might not sound all that serious at first, apart from being an inconvenience, but it’s very serious.
If you sustain any injuries to your feet and aren’t able to feel it, they can get infected and become very hard to treat if you don’t notice it. Due to this potential nerve damage, it’s important that diabetics check on their feet frequently to make sure there are no unnoticed cuts, scrapes, or punctures, because these can all lead to nasty wounds when infected.
Even if these wounds are noticed, another danger lurks with diabetes, which is significantly slower wound healing. Due to the high levels of sugar in the blood, your body doesn’t have the same kind of blood flow that it would in a non-diabetic, which makes wounds heal slower.
This means that even if you catch a cut in time, you have to keep it clean and make sure it doesn’t get infected, because it will take some time for that cut to go away. You should also keep track of anything like blisters, sores, or anything that can cause the inside of your foot to be exposed.
Make sure you take good care of your feet by cleaning them regularly, to avoid any chance of infection. Also be sure to get a good, comfortable pair of shoes. Poorly fitted shoes or shoes that are in bad condition can easily lead to blisters, and if you wear the same shoes a lot, be sure to wash them every now and then so they’re not cultivating bacteria.
If at any point you get a severe cut or one that isn’t healing properly, immediately contact your doctor so they can help you out. They have experience helping wounds heal faster and in a more sanitary environment.
