Diabetic Foot Care – How To Protect Your Feet If You Have Diabetes
If you’re suffering from diabetes, taking care of your sensitive feet is primordial. So protect yourself with these diabetic foot care tips.
Suffering from diabetes not only means high blood sugar levels, but it is also often followed by problems with your legs and feet.
Diabetes puts you at a higher risk of developing bunions, calluses, and blisters. These seemingly minor injuries can lead to disabling infections due to your high blood sugar levels that can cause nerve damage.
These damaged nerves, in turn, can make it harder to feel if you have cracked or sore feet. So even a small cut can produce big damages.
So you need to take better care of your feet to make sure that you don’t get any permanent wounds or infections that can even lead to amputation.
To avoid any serious problems that can occur to your feet and legs when suffering from diabetes, you can follow these diabetic foot care tips.
Diabetic Foot Care Tips And Guidelines
The easiest thing you can do to your cracked and dry feet and legs is to use lotion. But if you are opting for this method, make sure that you don’t put any cream or lotion between the toes.
Adding extra moisture to that tight space between the toes can promote fungus to grow.
On the other hand, don’t soak your feet when you have diabetes either. You can make your skin vulnerable and even more prone to infections by making your feet too dry or too soft.
There are more different ways in which you can take care of your sore aching and sensitive feet and legs.
Take a look at these 5 diabetic foot care tips that can help you deal with the problems that come with diabetes:
1. Never Bathe Your Feet In Hot Water
People with diabetes that have developed nerve damage will find it hard to tell if the water is too hot for them. So make sure you are checking the water temperature with your elbows and not your feet.
Washing your legs with hot water can produce burns and blisters that can lead to infections. Make sure you are keeping your feet clean by washing them daily with lukewarm water.
2. Check Your Legs Daily For Cracks, Sores, And Wounds
Damaged nerves will make it hard to feel if you have any crack in your feet. A great way to stay on top of the situation is to check your feet daily.
Look for any dry or cracked skin, changes in color, or sores. You can even use a mirror that you can place on the ground to make sure you are thoroughly checking every inch on your feet.
You can even ask a family member or a friend to help you see every part of your feet very clear.
3. Use Diabetic Friendly Socks And Footwear
Shopping for shoes when you are a diabetic may require a little bit more of your attention.
A good shoe for diabetes needs more toe space in the front, a good coverage on the top and bottom of the shoe, and it needs to be without any seams on the inside so you won’t have anything to rub against your feet.
The same goes for socks. Look for socks that don’t have seams, socks that are padded and made out of cotton or any other material that controls moisture.
4. Never Go Barefoot
Since you already have poor circulation in feet, you must protect your feet everywhere to avoid any potential injury.
You don’t just need socks and shoes when you are outside. Inside the house, when you are doing your chores without any socks or shoes on, you can risk cutting and scrapping your feet.
There can be some shattered glass, needles, and lots of other things that can damage your feet.
If the nerves are damaged, you may not even notice the injuries to your feet in time and this can lead to infection. The best thing to do in this case is to wear shoes and/or socks all the time.
5. Avoid Nerve Damage By Controlling Your Blood Sugar Levels
Blood sugar levels and damaged nerves have a direct link to each other. When the blood sugar levels become out of control, that will lead to nerve damage.
So the better are you at controlling your blood sugar levels, the healthier your foot is gonna be in the long term.
You need to know that if you already have an infection, high blood sugar will make it harder for the body to heal it and fight it.
Take proper care of your feet when you are diabetic so you don’t end up in desperate situations with bad infections and other life-threatening wounds.
Make sure you are controlling your blood sugar levels and staying healthy by eating the right foods.
