A normal blister or cut can be dangerous for a person with diabetes. Due to nerve damage, the injury can go unnoticed, and its healing can be delayed.
Diabetic foot: symptoms that cannot be ignored / © Credits.
The usual rubbing from shoes or a small cut on the leg for a person with diabetes can have much more serious consequences. If the disease has already affected the nerves, the trauma sometimes remains almost imperceptible. At the same time, impaired blood supply prevents tissues from recovering normally, which can cause damage to increase and become infected.
We are not talking about a separate disease, but about a number of complications of diabetes associated primarily with nerve damage and deterioration of blood circulation.
If blood sugar levels remain high for a long time, nerves may be adversely affected. Its common form — peripheral neuropathy — most often initially manifests itself in the legs and feet.
At the same time, high sugar levels can damage small vessels on which nerve nutrition depends.
In addition, pain usually causes less stress on the injured part of the body. When there is no such signal, the person continues to walk, and the damaged area is subjected to pressure again and again. Because of this, a small wound may gradually become larger.