What is it?
Diabetes Mellitus refers to a disease that affects how your body used sugar. You get a few different types.
Type 1 – your immune system is attacking and destroying the insulin-producing cells in your pancreas. Your pancreas doesn’t make insulin or it doesn’t make enough. What is insulin? It helps the blood sugar enter the cells to use as energy. Without insulin the blood sugar can’t enter the cells and ends up in the bloodstream.
Type 2 – as with type one the body is unable to make enough insulin or the insulin it makes doesn’t work as it should. Leading to high blood sugar levels. But unlike type 1 it is not an autoimmune disease, it is life style related.
Prediabetes – potentially reversible but is the precursor of diabetes unless it is addressed. Being pre diabetic means your sugar levels in the blood is higher than what it should be but not high enough to be classified as being diabetic. In short – prediabetic is your warming call. Last chance saloon so to speak to make some life style changes.
Gestational – potentially reversible and occurs during pregnancy but could potentially resolve once baby is born.
The bottom line – high levels of sugar in the blood is bad. It caused damage to the vessels that supply blood to your organs. This can lead to heart disease, strokes, kidney disease, vision problems and nerve problems. This brings us to the next questions.
How does diabetes affect my feet?
High blood sugar levels can damage the sensation in your feet. It can also affect the circulation, leading to less blood supply to your feet. This in turn, leads to longer healing times when you have cuts and sores on your lower limbs and it could cause cramps and pain in your legs and feet. If cuts and sores are left untreated it leads to ulcers, infections and at the very end of the scale – amputation.
The good news – this can all be prevented with regular foot care.
During your first appointment with me, I will be doing a neurovascular assessment, looking at the sensation in your feet using a little instrument called a Monofilament, I will check your pulses and capillary refills times and do a thorough examination of your feet.
For more information about what you can do at home to care for your feet in between your routine foot care appointments, please click here
In the meantime, please email or WhatsApp me to book your foot care appointment.