Chronic diseases like diabetes can wreak havoc on your health over time. From vision loss to nerve damage in your feet, the complications of diabetes affect your body from head to toe, which means you must stay alert.
Since November is National Diabetes Month, we will focus on the impact this disease can have on the health of your feet and ankles. In fact, of the more than 11% of the United States population with diabetes, about nearly half (47%) will develop diabetes-related peripheral neuropathy.
At Neuhaus Foot and Ankle, our team has decades of experience helping people protect their feet in the face of diabetes. As podiatrists, our primary concern is nerve damage in your lower limbs, so we’re going to outline some early warning signs that should serve as a wake-up call to take action.
Your peripheral nervous system includes all the nerves outside your central nervous system. Like other systems in your body, your peripheral nerves rely on a healthy blood supply to keep them functioning.
When you have diabetes, the glucose (sugar) levels in your blood are higher than they should be due to insulin resistance or lack of insulin (the hormone that regulates glucose). High blood sugar levels can damage blood vessels and compromise blood flow, especially in areas that are farthest from your heart — like your feet.
This blood flow issue can lead to damage in the nerves that serve your feet and ankles, which is why most people with diabetes-related peripheral neuropathy feel symptoms in their feet first.
Now, let’s get into the signs of peripheral neuropathy, which typically develop over time.
When nerve damage affects sensory nerves, you’re likely to feel the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy as pain. Our patients often describe this pain as shooting, stabbing, or burning. The pain can come and go, but as the nerve damage progresses, it can become more constant.
Pain isn’t the only sensation you can feel with nerve damage — numbness and tingling are also very common. Like the pain, these symptoms can come and go and become stronger and more constant over time. Eventually, you may develop a total loss of sensation in certain areas around your feet and ankles.
People with peripheral neuropathy can develop weakness in their feet and experience foot droop, meaning they might struggle to hold their foot up, and it can drag.
Another telltale sign of peripheral neuropathy is slow-healing wounds and ulcers on your feet, ankles, and lower legs due to compromised blood flow.
Clearly, the symptoms of diabetes-related nerve damage are hard to miss if you’re paying attention to your feet. And if you have diabetes, you should very much be paying close attention to your lower extremities.
The reason we want you to recognize the warning flags of peripheral neuropathy is so we can act quickly to contain the damage. Neuropathy is progressive, so we want to halt the nerve damage as soon as possible to preserve the health of your feet.
If you’re undecided about taking action when you start to experience strange symptoms in your feet, please know that advanced nerve damage can lead to limb-threatening infectious wounds.
With that warning in mind, please contact one of our 18 conveniently located foot and ankle clinics across Tennessee for expert diabetic foot care.
