Sugar Damage Affects Feet
Your ability to feel pain is actually an advantage. No one enjoys pain, but it is very helpful for your body. It signals that something is wrong—you’ve stepped on a sharp nail, or touched a hot surface, or hurt yourself in some other way. Your body uses this information to help you take care of yourself. That’s why numb feet and nerve pain from diabetic neuropathy can cause such serious health problems.
How Diabetes Harms Feet
Diabetic neuropathy is the result of chronically elevated or fluctuating blood sugar levels. Uncontrolled blood sugars slowly damage your blood vessels, allowing them to leak fluid into surrounding tissues. There the sugar causes more damage, particularly to sensitive tissues like nerves.
As this problem goes untreated, your nerves slowly become more and more impaired, unable to accurately receive or send signals about what you are sensing. You end up with numb patches or nerves that misfire painfully—and sometimes and odd combination of both. Your feet are especially prone to this condition, and tend to suffer some of the worst neuropathy effects. Numb patches, burning sensations, ulcers, muscle weakness, and more are all common symptoms in the lower limbs with diabetic neuropathy.
The Effects of Neuropathy
If burning, tingling, pins-and-needles pain and numb patches weren’t enough, diabetic neuropathy opens your feet up to many additional complications. You may develop muscle weakness or pain that makes it harder for you to maintain your balance, limiting your mobility. Small injuries to the feet that go unnoticed can easily deteriorate into ulcers that can become infected. Numbness can also allow Charcot foot to develop, which is the slow breakdown and deformity of the bones in your lower limbs. If these issues aren’t treated quickly enough, they could even lead to limb amputations. On top of all of that, the nerve pain alone can discourage many people from living active, mobile lives.
Taking Care of Numb Feet
The best way to treat diabetic neuropathy is to manage the underlying problem: diabetes. By addressing the fluctuating blood sugars, you prevent them from further damaging your nervous tissue. Of course, once the neuropathy has set in, you do have to manage it. This can be more complicated. Our team at Absolute Foot Care Specialists will work closely with you to formulate a plan that works for your specific needs and your lifestyle.
This could include medication to alleviate pain. Some home remedies, like massages and topical creams, help with this as well. You may need to make dietary changes, too. Exercising and taking steps to manage circulation is another crucial step to easing neuropathy. You’ll also need to protect your lower limbs from harm by wearing appropriate shoes and checking them for changes every day. None of this reverses the nerve damage, but it does help control the problem and prevent future issues.
Introducing Combined Electrochemical Therapy (CECT) Therapy
As technology advances, new options for managing diabetic neuropathy and truly controlling—or even eliminating—pain arise. One of these new options is Combined Electrochemical Therapy (CECT). This technology uses electronic waves to stimulate natural healing in your tissues. These particular wavelengths discourage swelling and improve cell function. This helps the body prevent numbness, control pain, and even improve foot function in some cases.
Managing diabetic neuropathy is a vitally important part of living a healthy life with diabetes. You can’t afford to ignore the problem. Don’t wait for the symptoms to worsen to seek care. Let our team at Absolute Foot Care Specialists help you now. Make an appointment at one of our Las Vegas locations through our website. You can also call us directly at (702) 839-2010.