Type 2 diabetes, or diabetes mellitus, has become one of the most prevalent chronic illnesses across the globe, affecting nearly 600 million people. Part of the reason it’s so dangerous is that symptoms don’t always show in the early stages, leaving room for damage in many parts of the body. One in nine people living with this illness is entirely unaware of it.
That can lead to widespread problems in the nerves, veins, tissues, and organs throughout your body, and, if not managed properly, can be dangerous to your feet. This makes foot care vital for people with diabetes. To better understand why, let’s look at how this illness affects feet over time, the complications it can lead to, and how we can manage these issues.
Drs. Ashkan Soleymani, Michael Salih, Arash Jalil, Saman Tabari, and their experienced team at Cedars Foot and Ankle Center assist residents of Tarzana and Inglewood, California, with many foot conditions, including diabetic foot care.
Several conditions can cause poor circulation in your feet, such as heart disease, obesity, various foot conditions, and kidney disease. Diabetes leads to high levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar) in your veins, and the damage to your feet creates lower circulation that can also lead to ulcerations, or sores appearing on your feet that do not heal properly.
This also causes nerve damage, or neuropathy, that affects the sensation in your feet, and if neuropathy gets bad enough, numbness becomes more widespread.
These ulcers come in different colors (yellow, pink, red, gray, or black) and can start as small as a centimeter. The more severe the ulcers become, the greater the risk of tissue death, known as necrosis, or gangrene. The Wagner Ulcer Classification System determines the severity of the damage to your feet:
Several factors can increase the risk of diabetic foot ulcers, including ill-fitting shoes, poor hygiene, heart disease, kidney disease, tobacco use, alcohol abuse, and improper toenail trimming.
Managing your blood glucose levels and reducing the other factors that worsen diabetes is a great way to lower the risk of dangerous complications to your feet. To help with the present issues of your condition, these are the solutions we offer:
Treating the ulcers is vital to preventing them from worsening, and to manage these problems, we use hyperbaric oxygen therapy, vacuum-assisted wound closure, and ultrasound therapy, also known as the MIST therapy system. If the dead tissue has formed, we can remove it to help the living tissue heal (debridement).
To address numbness, tingling, and other nerve issues associated with diabetic foot problems, MicroVas is a high-voltage pulsed current (HVPC) electrical stimulation device that delivers ionic pulses to enhance blood flow and support healing.
Diabetic foot problems can become severe, but they don’t have to get to that point, and we can help you manage the complications of this illness. Make an appointment with Drs. Soleymani, Salih, Jalil, Tabari, and the Cedars Foot and Ankle Center team today to find the solution for managing your diabetic foot issues.
