For diabetes is characterized by a tendency to pustular skin diseases, dry skin, when the disease progresses, small vessels in the tissues of the entire body and primarily in the eyes are affected. With insufficient or incorrect treatment, the disease progresses, accompanied by the appearance of pain in the limbs due to damage to the peripheral nerves.
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease, but if you follow certain recommendations, the sick person can remain able to work and lead an active lifestyle. Since the disease affects the vessels, you need to pay enough attention to prevention, in particular, foot care.
In the care of your feet with diabetes, you must adhere to certain, rather strict rules. At the same time, these rules are simple and intuitively understandable.
Regularly inspect the legs. You should try to identify damage to the skin, possible changes in skin color, the appearance of calluses, ingrown nails, fungus. Visual inspection is important because diabetics lose their senses and the person can no longer rely on the discomfort that should occur with leg injuries. To examine stops and interdigital spaces is best in natural light.
In principle, foot care for diabetes mellitus does not differ from usual, but the procedures need to be more carefully and regularly. Wash your feet every day, hardened leg areas are treated with pumice or filings. Wiping your feet, do not forget to get wet between your fingers.
Prevent the appearance of cracks and fight the dryness of the skin on your legs, if you lubricate your feet with cream. Do not forget about the soles, the cream absorbs into them worse, but it helps against the appearance of calluses. When sweating feet, use talcum powder.
If the calluses still appeared, you can try to carefully treat them with pumice stone, but in any case, do not cut and do not use a corn plaster.
Wounds on the legs should be treated with substances such as chlorhexidine, furacilin or dioxin, hydrogen peroxide. Do not use drugs that have a tanning effect on the skin. These are the usual iodine, alcohol, potassium permanganate and zelenka. In the case of a diabetic foot, these drugs slow the healing of wounds. In addition, they stain the skin, so they can hide the possible pathological processes, manifested in the change in the color of the tissues. The damaged skin area should be covered with a sterile bandage. If the wound does not heal more than 12-14 days, or if there are corns that can not be removed by yourself, you need to go to the hospital.
In order not to hurt yourself during the care of the nails, they must always be ground with a saw blade, and not cut with scissors. Thickened nails also need to be ground with a saw to a thickness of 1-2 mm. If you do not do this, the nail when walking will cling to the shoes and press on the finger. Constant finger injury leads to ulcers. In the event that the nails showed the occurrence of fungal infections, nails, interdigital spaces and soles of the feet are treated with an antifungal solution.
If you want to warm your feet, you need to do this carefully to avoid burns. The temperature of the objects with which the legs will touch is checked first by hand. It is not recommended to use heaters or electrical appliances. It is better to keep your feet in relative heat all the time, wearing woolen socks or warm slippers.
Do not walk barefoot, this increases the risk of injury to the skin of the legs. Shoes should be comfortable, spacious, but not too big. The emergence of calluses and abrasions is facilitated by both narrow and oversized footwear. It is not recommended to wear slippers or slippers without backs. When wearing such shoes, the load on the heel increases. To reduce the load, you can put a soft insole in shoes. Street shoes should not be worn on a bare foot. Before you wear any shoes, you need to visually, and it is better to feel by hand to check if there are any foreign objects inside the folds.
Stockings and socks need to be changed every day. When choosing socks, you should pay attention to the rubber was not too tight, and did not pinch the skin on your legs. Too loose stockings or socks form folds, which, as already mentioned, can injure the skin of the legs. If possible, choose socks made of cotton or wool, and not synthetic.
Adhering to such rules of foot care for diabetes, you can be sure that you will avoid unpleasant surprises. Care of the feet is preventive: all of the above tips are easy enough for execution and following them will help to stay in good shape for a long time.