What is Diabetes? 

Diabetes is a chronic disease that impacts the way your body turns food into energy, diabetes is long-lasting and those who suffer must remain educated to best take care of themselves. Basically, diabetes happens when the individual does not make enough insulin.  Therefore, too much sugar stays in their blood stream. Increase sugar in the body can lead to a condition called neuropathy, a nerve condition which prevents feeling in the feet. This can lead to wounds and amputations.  

Why is Diabetic awareness important?

About one in five American’s have diabetes and don’t even know it, this is why it is essential to everyone’s well-being to be educated about diabetes. A lot of Americans are pre-diabetic without realizing it, there are ways to prevent diabetes when you are at this stage. However, if you have been diagnosed with diabetes, there are simple ways you can learn to manage it!  

It is important to think about the health of your feet when opening the discussion of diabetes, many do not realize that diabetes can impact your feet.  If you are worried you may have diabetes, your first step is to get tested so that you can know for sure.  

Symptoms of Diabetes

There are symptoms you may experience that can be signs that you are diabetic. Some symptoms of diabetes are feeling thirstier than usual, urinating frequently, and unexplained hunger.  There are two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. Usually both types of diabetes are when your pancreas doesn’t make insulin, makes too little insulin, or your body just rejects the insulin.  Without the insulin, your body can’t turn the sugar into energy. One of the differences between Types 1 and 2 diabetes is that Type 1 shows up early in life and Type 2 is associated with poor diet. 

Diabetes and Your feet's Health

If you find yourself diagnosed with diabetes, you should be aware of how this affects your feet. Diabetics are more prone to amputations, but with proper diabetic care – you can beat those chances! The reason that diabetics are more likely to suffer such a fatal consequence is because of diabetic neuropathy. When you are diabetic, you may cause nerve damage and this nerve damage is known as diabetic neuropathy; this causes pain and tingling. That can eventually cause you to lose feeling in your feet. If that were to happen then you will not be able to feel cuts, scratches, or anything that happens in your feet. This is what can lead to infected cuts or wounds.  And because of the lack of blood flow to the feet, it makes wounds/cuts even harder to heal. Once infected this can lead to foot ulcers, the foot ulcers can cause amputations.  

Therefore, taking care of yourself when you suffer from diabetes is essential to your health. Your feet’s health is equally as important because we use our feet every day! Don’t take them for granted and make sure you book an appointment with one of our podiatrists if you have diabetes.  

Give us a call at 888-777-1430 to find out which of our locations are best for you!