How does diabetes affect your feet?

Having diabetes is a problem in itself, but did you know that having diabetes can actually put you at a higher risk of developing problems within your feet? Understanding what diabetes can do to the body, and your feet, can help you to avoid complications though.

When it comes to diabetes there’s already a lot to manage before you start taking your feet into account. Keeping an eye on your blood sugar levels, making sure you’re eating healthy food, finding the time to keep yourself active, taking all your necessary medicines and going to doctors appointments before even thinking of your feet. The good news is, with daily care you can tend to prevent any complications with your feet that are related to diabetes.

Diabetes can cause a lack of feeling in the feet

Approximately half of all people who have diabetes struggle with some form of nerve damage, which can affect any part of the body but it tends to affect the legs and feet most often. This damage to the nerves can cause you to lose feeling in your feet, but while some people will experience numbness, tingling or a loss of feeling completely, others can experience temperature changes or pain in the affected area.

While being able to live without feeling any pain in your feet does sound like a good thing to have, it does have it’s negatives as well. Pain is how the body tells you that there is something wrong so that you know you need to treat it, and if you can’t feel any pain then you may not notice that you have a cut, sore or other problem. These issues can be treated if they are noticed early, but if you don’t notice the issue then it can very quickly become a serious issue.

If I have diabetes, how can I protect my feet?

The best thing that you can do to protect your feet is to make sure that you are controlling your blood sugar levels on a daily basis. If you’re struggling with nerve damage already, then this can help to prevent the damage from worsening. Other than this, the next step is to maintain a good footcare routine and to keep your feet healthy. Good footcare for those who have diabetes includes;

• Routinely checking your feet on a daily basis for signs of damage like cuts, redness or any other changes that could cause a problem like spots that could rub. It’s important to check the bottom of your feet as well to make sure that these are blemish free.
• Get into the habit of putting your hands into your shoes to check for objects that shouldn’t be there – do this even when sensation is good to get into the habit so that should sensation diminish and something is in your footwear you can remove it so it doesn’t create a sore/ulcer/problems/issues.
• Washing your feet every day using warm soapy water is part of any good footcare routine, but it’s important to make sure that you don’t soak your feet as part of this process as it can dry out the skin. After drying your feet, using talcum powder to soak up any remaining moisture can help to reduce the risk of any infections.
• When you trim your toenails you should be cutting straight across with the clipper to avoid the risk of an ingrown toenail and the additional risks that this poses. If you struggle to do this, or you are prone to ingrown toenails, then it’s always best to ask a professional to cut your toenails for you.
• Ensuring that your feet are protected from the effects of weather and temperature is another part of a good footcare routine. Doing things like using sunscreen on any skin that is going to be exposed, or wearing thick woolly socks in winter instead of warming your feet on a heater, will help to protect them.
• Keeping your feet moving will help to keep the blood flowing in them and keeps good circulation. Wiggling your toes and circling your feet are good ways to keep them moving without doing any activities that are hard on the feet.
• Wearing shoes and socks that fit well are important for protecting your feet from a number of problems, not just from issues that arise because of diabetes. Walking barefoot is not advised, even if you’re indoors, as anything that could cause damage to the bare skin can be problematic.
• Wear socks inside out as the seam in the sock can rub on your toes and create sores/issue which won’t be felt if you have little or no sensation  – this could create a sore/ ulcerated skin.

Protect your feet from the sunlight

This all depends on the level of risk that you are at for certain concerns. If you’re at low risk of developing an ulcer, then it would probably be around once per year that your GP will take a look at your feet. If you’re at a higher risk of developing an ulcer then these checks may be much more frequent and carried out by a podiatrist instead.

These checks will include checking the blood supply to the feet to ensure there are no issues, which is performed by checking the colour of the skin to make sure that there are no anomalies, checking the pulse within the feet and also by asking a number of questions related to levels of pain in the feet and legs. The checks will also include checking for loss of sensation using specialized tools like a monofilament, a plastic probe that is designed to buckle under a specific level of pressure, which is a really good way to indicate whether there is any loss of feeling at any given area of the foot.

At The Nantwich Clinic, we offer a diabetic foot treatment and you can find out more about this treatment on our dedicated page. To book an appointment with a member of our podiatry team, call us on 01270 627118 and arrange you consultation today.