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The importance of good foot care can’t be stressed enough. It’s essential to good diabetes management. Why? Because diabetes makes your feet particularly prone to neuropathy, or nerve damage, which makes your feet turn numb.
If they’re not properly looked after at this point, small wounds can become infected, and this can lead to all sorts of problems.
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Foot amputation is a problem that can occur from poor foot care. Statistics are a worrying read: over 6,000 leg, toe, or foot amputations are performed in England every year. The importance of proper foot care really can’t be overstated.
Foot problems can quickly become serious so it’s important to check your feet daily for signs of damage or change in addition to attending foot examinations.
The general rule for people with diabetes is to notify your doctor if you notice any change in feeling or appearance in your feet.
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Amputations usually occur because of foot ulcers. Over time, prolonged exposure to high blood glucose levels can lead to nerve damage. And nerve damage leads to numbness. Small wounds on the foot, therefore, can easily go unnoticed in people with neuropathy.
To make matters worse, high blood glucose levels can also cause impaired healing, making minor injuries more likely to get infected. The result is foot ulcers; small patches of skin that get damaged but don’t heal.
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Here’s what you can do avoid any foot-related diabetes issues: look after your skin and make sure you check your feet.
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The symptoms of neuropathy-related foot damage are many and varied. Look no further for a comprehensive guide to foot damage and diabetes:
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Over on the Diabetes Forum, Shecat has a question about numbness in the feet:
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Swelling can be common, too. Swollen ankles and legs will often be brought on, or aggravated, by long periods of standing.
Edema (or oedema in the UK where real English is spoken) is a build up of fluid in the body (water retention) which causes swelling. Edema commonly affects the legs, ankles, feet and wrist. |
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