If you have diabetes then your feet and legs have significant risks that you must be aware of to effectively maintain your lower limb heath. There are two ways that diabetes affects your feet.
When combined, these two effects mean that you have a higher risk of developing infections and ulcerations – which is why it’s so important to pay special attention to your feet.
As your circulation and sensation will progressively worsen over time, the way that you care for your feet and the advice we give you needs to be specific to the symptoms you’re experiencing at the time. This is why we perform annual diabetic foot assessments, so you stay fully informed of how your feet are being affected and the steps you should be taking to look after your feet.
Diabetes can cause damage to the nerves in your feet and legs. Your nerves are responsible for your ability to feel, so nerve damage means that your ability to feel may worsen, become altered, and may eventually be lost altogether. This is called peripheral neuropathy. Altered sensations usually start in the feet. You may notice:
As time goes on, you may completely lose sensation in the feet. Unlike the blanket-like feeling of numbness, this is the complete absence of any sensation in certain areas of the feet. The danger here is that it renders you vulnerable to being sustaining a cut or wound and being unable to feel it, hence not responding and treating it. The injury could be something small like a pin, nail, or splinter. Any wound that results will be susceptible to infection, and the area may ulcerate, if it’s not detected and treated.
