Why Simple Cuts in Your Feet Are Dangerous If You Have Diabetes

You step on a piece of glass at the beach or perhaps you have a blister from breaking in a new pair of shoes. Under normal circumstances, these foot wounds are hardly the end of the world, maybe just some minor discomfort.

If, however, you’re among the more than 38 million Americans who have diabetes, that same small foot wound can turn the corner into a highly problematic infection that can threaten your entire foot. The reality here is a stark one — about 80% of lower leg amputations are due to diabetes — and most start out as a small foot wound.

Since November is National Diabetes Month, Dr. Thomas Rambacher, who is a double board-certified wound care specialist, and the team at Foot Ankle Leg Wound Care Orange County want to review why there's so much concern surrounding foot wounds and people with diabetes.

Diabetes, nerve damage, and circulation issues

When you have Type 2 diabetes, you can have dangerously high levels of glucose (blood sugar) in your bloodstream. Normally, your pancreas produces a hormone called insulin whose job it is to move glucose from your blood and into your cells, where the sugar is used as energy. With diabetes, this action is compromised thanks to two things:

The cells in your body have become resistant to insulin over time
Your pancreas isn’t able to create enough insulin to overcome the resistance

As a result, your levels of glucose have become higher than they should be, which can affect your health in many ways.

First, and most important to this conversation, high levels of blood sugar can lead to peripheral neuropathy, which develops in half of people with diabetes. This nerve damage tends to strike your extremities, including your lower legs and feet.

As a result of this nerve damage, you can lose sensation in your feet, which means you might not notice when you have an open wound on your feet.

The next hurdle is that people with diabetes often have compromised blood flow. Diabetics are more than twice as likely to have peripheral artery disease (PAD), which can disrupt the blood flow down into your feet.

Now let’s play this out all the way to the end. With compromised blood flow, healing resources aren’t able to readily access the wound, which leaves it more vulnerable to infection. And, these infections are tough to fight thanks to poor circulation, which is why gangrene and amputation are such threats.

Managing foot wounds when you have diabetes

Now let’s guide this discussion into more productive territory. Our practice is set up to avoid that final, and frightening, outcome we’ve been referencing: amputation.

While we offer comprehensive and expert diabetic foot care, you can do your part by seeing us at the first signs of trouble, which can exponentially improve your outcome.

So, any small cut, even a popped blister, should never be ignored. In fact, we urge you to err on the side of caution and come see us for any foot wound, no matter how small. Especially if the foot wound is showing signs of delay in healing.

For expert care of diabetes-related foot and lower leg wounds, we invite you to call our office in Mission Viejo, California, at 949-832-6018 or request an appointment online today.