You may have heard that people with diabetes often develop foot problems that can, if worse comes to worst, end in amputation. While this is a common problem between people with diabetes it is important to note that this is not standard, and that it can be avoided with proper care.
Having diabetes can cause a number of problems and regular visits to the doctor. It is extremely important that you monitor your feet and get them properly check out during these visits. If you see any irregularities or sores on your feet you should have them checked as soon as possible to avoid complications. This shouldn’t be a huge problem if you have a decent medical aid scheme to help cover the costs.
Diabetes affects your feet because of the amount of glucose, or sugar, in your blood can cause nerve damage and poor blood flow.
Nerve damage: damaged nerves send slow signals, send signals at the wrong time, and can even stop sending signals to the rest of the body. This means that you may not feel pain, heat, or cold in your feet. You could develop a cut or blister or other foot injury without noticing. This nerve damage can also cause changes in the muscle, bone, and shape of your feet causing foot deformation.
Poor blood flow: this means that not enough blood flows to your feet and legs which makes it difficult for sores and infections to heal.
Sores that are not noticed and treated immediately can become a problem because they can become infected and develop into gangrene which kills skin tissue causing the affected are to turn black and smelly. It is gangrene that often leads to people having their feet amputated.
This is especially dangerous for people with diabetes because high blood glucose, or high blood sugar, often feeds the infection causing it to get worse quicker.
To prevent such problems people with diabetes should learn how to examine their feet, and practice this daily. They should learn how to recognize irregularities in their feet and have them checked by a doctor as soon as possible. People with diabetes should always be on the lookout for signs of diabetic foot and know when the problem is serious enough to seek emergency attention.
While many diabetics have lost a foot or leg and continued to live a normal life with the help of a prosthetic leg or prosthetic foot, prevention is always better than cure.