Take Care of Your Feet

Chapter 38 · Vihang Rahul Vasa

This chapter is about your feet themselves: a part of your body that diabetes can quietly damage. What you put on them is the next chapter (see Chapter 39). This may sound surprising, but your feet deserve special attention now. Diabetes can gradually reduce sensation in your feet, which means you might not notice a small cut, blister, or crack right away. Left unattended, even minor foot problems can become serious.

Illustration: Illustration comparing a healthy sole with a foot affected by diabetes, showing ulcers

What daily care prevents: a healthy sole (left) beside a foot with pressure damage and ulcers (right).

Illustration: A nine-panel illustration of daily foot care habits in diabetes

Daily foot care in diabetes: the small habits that protect you.

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• Get into the habit of inspecting your feet daily: top, bottom, and between the toes. It only takes a minute.

• Always wear comfortable, well-fitting footwear. Avoid walking barefoot, even at home, to prevent accidental cuts or injuries.

• Keep your feet clean and dry, especially between the toes. Moisturise them gently, but do not apply moisturiser or any ordinary cream between the toes: trapped moisture there invites fungus. Use only what your doctor prescribes in that area.

• Trim your toenails carefully and straight across, and afterwards clean the area with an antiseptic: iodine or a skin sanitiser. If you have any difficulty, visit a podiatrist: there is no shame in seeking help for something this important.

• If you notice any sore, blister, redness, or swelling on your feet, consult your doctor promptly rather than waiting to see if it heals on its own. Early attention is always better.

Beyond your own daily inspection, make one rule absolute: once a year, a qualified doctor, preferably a diabetologist, should examine your feet formally. This clinical foot examination checks for loss of sensation (sensory neuropathy), skin changes, coarse touch, ulcers, callosities, and loss of vibration sense. These are early nerve changes that you cannot feel or see at home: it is a clinical examination, not a self-check. The full list of what the doctor examines is in the tests chapter (see Chapter 10).

Illustration: Chapter 38 illustrated summary. Reduced sensation can hide foot injuries.

Chapter 38 Reduced sensation can hide foot injuries. Daily inspection includes soles and between toes; care includes cleaning and drying between toes, moisturiser away from toe spaces, nails cut straight across, clinical foot examination and early review of sores.

Chapter at a glance: an AI-generated illustration to be read with the chapter, not instead of it. The people shown are not real.