5 Common Foot Problems for Diabetics

If you’re a diabetic, you know how important it is to take care of your body. It may not seem like a big deal now to keep your feet healthy, but if you don’t, one or more of these foot problems could happen to you. Here they are, the…

5 Common Foot Problems for Diabetics

1. Blisters. These can be caused by your shoe continually rubbing in the same spot. This is most likely happening because your shoe either doesn’t fit correctly or you need to be wearing socks. Be careful – these nasty blisters can eventually turn into infections!
2. Ingrown toenails. These occur when the edge of your toenail grows into the skin, most likely because of the way you cut your nails or because your shoes are too tight. These can also become irritated and eventually turn into an infection.
3. Bunions. These form when your big toe slants toward the small toes and the area at the base of your big toe enlarges. This spot can get red, sore, and infected.  Pointed shoes may cause bunions, so you better watch out if you’re wearing your sexy stilettos.
4. Hammertoes. These form when your foot muscle gets weak from diabetic nerve damage leading to sores on the bottoms of your feet and on the tops of your toes, causing your feet to change their shape. Hammertoes can also cause problems with walking and finding shoes that fit well.
5. Athlete’s foot. This is a fungus that causes itchiness, redness, and cracking of the skin. The cracks between the toes let germs to get under your skin and eventually cause infection. If your blood sugar is high the infection worse. The infection can spread to the toenails causing them to turn thick, yellow, and hard to cut.

Related articles

• Ingrown Toenail: a Colossal Pain – Podiatry Talk
• Treating an Ingrown Toenail
• Common Foot Conditions Treated By A Texas Podiatrist

Getting Professional Treatment

It is always our express intent to recommend that you take no chances with diabetic foot pain, ankle or knee pain, or injuries. Professional treatment to relieve the pain is available from doctors such as Delray Beach’s Dr. Ian Goldbaum of Delray Beach Podiatry, who has provided us with this blog. If the pain continues, a podiatrist with Dr. Goldbaum’s experience should be consulted. You must get proper treatment to prevent permanent damage. Also consider having a walk analysis done.

Our Staff writers are freelance writers with higher education related to, or experience researching and writing for, medical blogs; with education or experience equal to under graduate and graduate degrees in the fields of medicine.