Diabetic Foot Care
Description
Diabetes can be very dangerous for your feet. With prolonged diabetes, complications can lead to neuropathy, which takes away the feelings to your feet. Diabetes can also lead to vascular damage, and therefore less blood flow to the feet. This makes is harder for the body to heal. Due to these two combination, diabetics might not feel when they have something in their shoe, and then continue stepping on it. This will lead to blister or breaks in the skin, which can get infected and lead to a non healing wound. Also with neuropathy, it can also be very difficult to access if you have cut your toenails too short, which can lead to infection as well.
Symptoms
Symptoms include numbness, pain, tingling burning sensation in your feet. This is especially true in the evenings when going to sleep.
Treatment Options
Prevention is the first line of treatment when it comes to diabetic foot care. Checking fasting blood glucose regularly and maintaining normal levels will aid in the prevention of and decrease progression of neuropathy. It it vital to make sure that you do not cut yourself during cutting your own nails. Also it is important to check your feet daily for any cuts and to seek treatment immediately if any signs appear. It is very important to have your podiatrist do routine foot examination to make sure you are in optimal health for your feet.
Frequently asked questions
Why does neuropathy occur more at night?
It's best to think neuropathy it as a candle burning in a room.
If the candle is burning in a well lit room in the afternoon, it will not noticed, but that same candle will look to be very bright in the middle of the night. During the daytime we are distracted. Work, family chores, TV, all these sights and sounds and thoughts keeps us too busy to notice the neuropathy. When trying to fall asleep, all of these distracting are now gone, and therefore the neuropathy now feels to be greater.
What treatment is there for neuropathy?
Unfortunately, neuropathy is irreversible. Both Oral and topical medications can be taken to decrease the sensations associated with neuropathy. While these medications are effective, they treat the symptoms and not the underlying cause.
Is this what I have?
This is just a one of the thousands of possible issues our feet can have. Unfortunately many of the symptoms are similar for many pathologies, numbness being one the more common symptoms of all. Therefore it is imperative to see a professional as soon as possible for an accurate diagnosis and the proper treatment.