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If you were recently diagnosed with diabetes,
it's important to take special care to your feet to prevent
injuries. Why is this so?
Foot care is an important aspect of good diabetes
self-management. Diabetes can cause damage to the nerves, especially
those supplying sensation to the hands and feet – this is called
peripheral neuropathy. Circulation to the feet can also be
compromised if patients have a narrowing of the arteries supplying
blood to the extremities.
As such, physicians have to assess patients' feet
to determine sensation and ability to feet. Although if you were
recently diagnosed with diabetes, you may already have nerve damage
and poor sensation in the feet as you may have undetected diabetes
for several years.
In a well-known diabetes study in the UK, up to
50% of patients already had complications of diabetes when they were
first told they had the disease.
The problem with feet that have poor sensation is
that patients do not protect them well because of the lack of pain.
They can have injuries without realizing it. The injuries may not
heal because they continue to walk despite the wounds, and this may
cause even more injuries. Wound may also become infected because of
weak immunity when blood glucose is high.
My advice to diabetics is to look at your FEET as
often as you look at your FACE.
Diabetic gangrene and abscess is the single most
common cause of limb amputation. This can be prevented if patients
care for their feet and prevent them from injury.
Tips to remember:
-
Use footwear at all times, even when you are in
the house.
-
Footwear should be comfortable – not too
tight-fitting
-
Inspect your foot daily – check cuts, sores,
bruises, changes to toe nails, etc. If an injury occurs, get a
doctor to assess and treat it aggressively to prevent infection.
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