In addition, it’s in your best interests to book a diabetic foot assessment once a year or more. Look for warning signs such as skin discolouration, changes in foot shape, weakness, hair loss, hot, cold or numb areas, wounds, and pus. Tests to Identify Problems with Blood Vessels and Nervesīecause of the link between diabetes and foot problems, it’s important to examine your feet daily. You’ll also find it difficult to tell when something is wrong, as your nerves will struggle to alert you to foot pain. Sadly, if your circulation and feeling is impaired, you’re likely to find infections worsen rapidly and your feet are slow to heal after injuries. Why? Because feet are further away from the heart than other parts of the body – it’s harder to pump blood to and from them and therefore ensure enough oxygen, nutrients and protective cells from the immune system reach them. As a result, you could well develop poor circulation and nerve damage (also called diabetic neuropathy).ĭiabetics’ feet tend to be disproportionately badly affected by those two problems. Unfortunately, the unabsorbed glucose can damage your blood vessels, including those responsible for supplying your nerves with essential nutrients. In a nutshell, whether you have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, you’ll experience high blood sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes sufferers may need insulin treatment, though eating a healthier diet, exercising more and losing weight are also helpful ways to tackle the condition. So their cells too are deprived of glucose. However, they make too little of it or are resistant to its effects. By contrast, people with Type 2 diabetes, which is associated with being overweight, can produce insulin.This is a significant problem insulin treatment is essential. Without insulin’s assistance, their cells can’t absorb energy-rich glucose from the bloodstream. People with Type 1 diabetes, which is often diagnosed during childhood, lack insulin, because their immune system has mistakenly stopped the production of this vital hormone in the pancreas.The connection isn’t obvious, so let’s explore the issue in detail, starting with the main forms of diabetes. You may be wondering how diabetes – which occurs when your body is unable to regulate blood sugar levels – could contribute to diabetic foot problems. That’s why it’s essential to attend diabetic foot assessments, during which a podiatrist will perform important tests to check for diabetes-related foot issues, as we’ll explain. If you’ve been diagnosed with the condition, your doctor has probably made you aware that it increases your risk of developing diabetic foot problems ranging from ulcers to Charcot Foot (characterised by weakness and deformity). has received honoraria from Small Bones Innovation, Diabetic Global Foot Conference, and New Horizons in Cardiovascular Medicine.Diabetes affects a staggering one in 15 people, according to the charity Diabetes UK. is on the scientific advisory boards of Advanced Biohealing and Greystone a consultant for Calretex, Cardiun, Heal Or, Taisho, and Hypermed a speaker for Fox Hollow, Bristol- Meyers Squibb, sanofi-aventis, Merck, and Organogenesis and has received research grants from Tissue Repair Company, Baxter, and PamLab. is a stockholder and on the board of directors of Diabetica Solutions and Pathways Disease Management a stockholder of XL Health on the scientific advisory board and speakers’ bureau of and has received research support from KCI and a stockholder and on the scientific advisory boards of Cytomedics and Pegasus. has served on the speakers’ bureaus of KCI, Oculus, Pfizer, and Organogenesis and has received research support from Regenesis Biomedical and Derma Sciences. has received honoraria/consulting fees from Pfizer and Eli Lilly. and D.G.A.), with other panel members representing primary care, orthopedic and vascular surgery, physical therapy, podiatric medicine and surgery, and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. The committee was cochaired by the immediate past and current chairs of the ADA Foot Care Interest Group (A.J.M.B. A task force was therefore assembled by the ADA to address and concisely summarize recent literature in this area and then recommend what should be included in the comprehensive foot exam for adult patients with diabetes. Many studies have been published proposing a range of tests that might usefully identify patients at risk of foot ulceration, creating confusion among practitioners as to which screening tests should be adopted in clinical practice. It is now 10 years since the last technical review on preventative foot care was published ( 1), which was followed by an American Diabetes Association (ADA) position statement on preventive foot care in diabetes ( 2).
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