Lymphedema and Diabetes

NeeNee87 said:

Hopefully this is the right section for this question but here it goes. Does anybody here have lymphedema and diabetes? I have had had swelling issues in my legs since my late 20s which have gotten worse over time.

I was wondering if there was a connection with diabetes and if anybody had any tips on managing the swelling? I currently use compression socks and try to elevate my legs when I can but open to ideas on what has worked for others especially if it can help both conditions. Thanks!

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Hi, yes, it was my first diabetic symptom in 2010-11. At first I thought my feet were growing.


I had severe swelling in feet/lower legs, blistering, and eventually I had fluid leaking through my skin. There was generally a lot of swelling elsewhere - hands, face (around my eyes particularly).

Elevating legs worked in the short term but the swelling would be back within 20 minutes of standing up. I was also on tablets (furosemide and bumetanide and another slower acting one I've forgotten) to make me pee, because that had almost stopped. I did pee more often, but it didn't really have much impact on the swelling.

What did work was low carb. Most of the swelling went very quickly when my BG went down. My kidneys sterted to work properly again too. I suspect that my body was retaining water to try to dilute the glucose, so once the extra glucose went the water retention went. No evidence, just my hypothesis.

NeeNee87 said:

Thanks Ken. I am hoping you are correct that lowering my sugar will help with the swelling. It can be quite uncomfortable at times.

Thankfully I only have swelling in my legs and to a lesser degree my arms. I do hate the diuretics that seem to make me pee every 30 minutes.

Thanks again for the response!

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It worked for me - but we're all different. Hope it works for you too.