How Diabetes Affects Your Feet

Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects how your body produces or uses the chemical insulin, often resulting in problems with your blood sugar levels over time. While the source of insulin, your pancreas, is located in your abdomen, diabetes can become an issue for your whole-body health, including negatively affecting your feet and extremities.

Leonard Greenwald, DPM, provides expert podiatry care and foot and ankle surgery to new and existing patients in the San Jose, California, area. If you have type 2 diabetes, get in touch with Dr. Greenwald to benefit from knowledgeable, compassionate diabetic foot care from his state-of-the-art offices.

With the right professional and at-home diabetic foot care, you can protect your feet, and your mobility, from the worst negative effects of diabetes for years to come. Here’s what you need to know about the importance of diabetic foot care.

How can diabetes affect your feet?

When you have diabetes, your body isn’t benefiting enough from the help of insulin to use the glucose (blood sugar) energy you take in from food. Instead, your blood sugar can build up to unhealthily high levels. If your blood sugar levels stay elevated too high for too long, you can start to experience complications like nerve damage.

Nerve damage related to diabetes is also known as diabetic neuropathy. This type of neuropathy is especially likely to affect your feet and ankles, known as peripheral diabetic neuropathy. About half of all people with diabetes are affected by this condition.

If you’re experiencing diabetic neuropathy, you don’t feel the full range of sensations from the conditions that your feet could encounter. You might not notice a cut or scrape until it becomes badly infected, or you could burn or freeze your feet without noticing due to nerve insensitivity. Diabetic foot ulcers can also be an issue for some people living with diabetes.

Protecting your feet with diabetic foot care

Without the right care and attention regularly being focused on your feet, diabetic neuropathy can result in complications including amputation, seriously restricting your future mobility. With Dr. Greenwald’s care, you can prevent diabetes from harming your feet, and preserve your mobility and independence for years to come.

Dr. Greenwald shows you how to properly clean, check, cover, and protect your feet. You need to watch out for podiatry issues like corns, calluses, fungal infections, plantar warts, blisters, and even dry skin if you have diabetes, as the smallest problems can worsen into serious ones due to the effect of diabetes on your foot health and immune system.

If you’re living with diabetes and have concerns about your foot health, get in touch with Dr. Greenwald now for top-quality diabetic foot care and support. Schedule your appointment online or over the phone today.