Diabetes is known for its many impacts on the body. Unfortunately, your feet can take on a fairly significant set of problems when you develop this condition. For this reason, shoes are of the utmost importance when you develop diabetes, even if you are just barely starting to lose feeling. In this article, we will explain why it is so important to wear shoes and just how much protection they can offer you. By the end of it, we guarantee you will be lacing up your favorite pair of sneakers!
How Does Diabetes Impact My Feet?
The majority of problems with diabetes and the feet can be traced to nerve damage. Diabetes is known to cause damage to the nerves, leading many people to lose some or even all of the feeling in their feet. Unfortunately, feeling is how we assess a wide range of risks. Without this input, your feet are at a significantly higher risk. You might fail to notice something that is actually a very big problem.
How Do Shoes Help?
In general, wearing shoes can have significant benefits because it provides an added layer of protection for your feet. The right shoes do not only keep your feet safe from sharp corners, or even sharp objects on the floor. They can also help you to walk in a safer way. Well-shaped shoes can guarantee that you are using your feet correctly, even if you don’t have that necessary feedback to determine where you place your feet and how you move them. A good pair of shoes can offer a very high degree of protection, making it possible for you to keep your feet safe from injury and potential infection as well. With the right shoes, your feet will have a much-needed barrier.
Feet and Damage
In general, shoes offer a great deal of protection to the feet. This is true for everyone. Most of us would not walk down a city street barefoot, and with good reason. When you are diabetic, every kind of surface should be treated the same way. While most of us have the feedback to know when we are stepping on something sharp or hitting our feet into something hard, diabetics are often not offered that luxury.
The ground is covered with risks for your feet. You run the risk of stepping on something sharp that can penetrate the foot and lead to a dangerous infection. For example, stepping on something like a nail or glass. But, there are also smaller problems. You might step on something that just rubs your foot the wrong way or something blunt that would cause unpleasant damage to the foot. Shoes can keep your feet safe against a majority of these hazards, leading you to keep your feet safe and healthy instead of sustaining injuries that might impact the rest of your life.
Feet and Temperature
With a lack of feeling in your feet, temperature becomes a fairly big concern. While the average person might notice if the concrete next to a pool or the sand on a beach is too hot, a person with nerve damage might not. The result can be very real damage. Worse, the damage likely won’t be noticed until much later.
Wearing shoes can really protect against these dangerous temperature changes. It enables you to keep the skin on your feet safe from potential burns, whether they are from cold or from heat. While it might look a little silly to be able to stand in the snow and not feel the cold, the reality is that this is very dangerous. Heat and cold can pose a really severe risk. Whether you damage the skin of your feet, leading to an open wound, or actually cause the tissue to die, the risk of even more problems is significant.
Conclusion
When you are battling diabetes, you want to do the best job that you can to support your body. Though wearing shoes indoors might feel silly, the protection that it offers is significant. Consider shoes a part of your medication process. The right pair of shoes will help you walk better, keep your feet safe, and support you through an unpleasant transition. When in doubt, wearing shoes is always the right answer whether you are walking on the beach or just up the hall to the bathroom. A little precaution here just might save you a trip to the podiatrist down the line!
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