Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
we know that one in four people with diabetes will develop foot complications.
These complications can be serious and can limit you and what you want to do with
your life
the Joslin clinical guidelines recommend that you have a
thorough foot exam by your physician at least once a year
one of the things that can cause foot problems:
in people with diabetes they result from two major problems. The first is neuropathy.
diabetes can affect the nerves over time
and as the nerves are affected
you may lose the sensation in your feet
this may not cause you any discomfort, your feet may feel fine,
but not being able to sense problems in your feet puts them at risk.
A second problem is circulation
diabetes can affect circulation in the head in the heart but also affects
circulation in your feet. With the circulation decreased, any problem that occurs in
your feet
will resolve more slowly; infections heal more slowly
and you are prone to more complications.
this combination of neuropathy
and circulation problems
are why your physician needs to carefully examine you feet at least once a year
when he or she examines your foot they're going to look at three different
things
they'll visually inspect your foot to see if there's any deformities,
they'll look carefully the skin to see if there's any
cuts, any sore spots, any lesions that should
need attention between your toes as well as the top of the bottom of your feet
the physician will also take a look at your circulation by feeling for pulses at
certain spots in your feet where we know the the pulses should be strong
and last, they'll check for signs of neuropathy
by using either tuning fork
or something called a ten gram fiber small wis
you should be able to sense and if you can't it means you're especially
high risk for problems with your diabetes
smoking is obviously a problem for
anyone's health
if you have diabetes smoking is especially damaging
so he can affect the circulation in particular the circulation to your feet
we know that the majority of our patients with diabetes
who have foot problems have had smoking in their past
so what can you do to keep your feet healthy?
we just talked about stopping smoking if you're doing that
if you have neuropathy or have had foot problems, examining your feet by
yourself everyday looking at the skin
is very important
keeping your A1c, your blood pressure, your cholesterol in control will also
decrease your chance of complications.
And remember,
every year be sure that your doctor looks at your feet very carefully