Why Diabetics should not ignore foot pain? - Dr. Anantharaman Ramakrishnan

If you have diabetes and if your feet hurt, don’t ignore it, it could means that you could have reduced blood flow to the leg. So when you get the hurt after you walk a distance, it could means that you have claudication. Claudication typically tends to affect those who are older and who have diabetes or it doesn’t mean that you need to have diabetes for a longer duration. If you have diabetes the process of blockage that are going to your legs becomes accelerated. So even I you get diabetes later in life and if you are 70 or 75 now, you get blockage of the lower limb vessels if you get diabetes concurrently if you get pain while walking and if you have to take rest to relieve the pain, it is because of claudication or peripheral vascular disease. So it usually tends to affect the aorta or the major blood vessels which supplies both the lower limbs, aorta and the iliac vessels. So this is one reason for foot pain in diabetes. Another cause for foot pain is actually diabetic neuropathy. Diabetes can affect the nerves and sometimes if you have uncontrolled diabetes going on for few months or a year or so, you can have a tonging sensation or a pins and tingling sensation in your leg, these are called as paraesthesia. So but on more severe cases, you can have a burning sensation or as if your feet have been set on fire or if you are having a sensation of a gnawing or a deep seated pain, like if somebody is ripping your muscles apart. So your pain can be in the muscles actually. These are the two kinds of pain that can affect the patients with diabetic neuropathy. Acute hyperglycaemia also tens to cause muscle pain or if the blood glucose e is uncontrolled say 400 or 500, very high values, then there tends to be dehydration, there tends to be low sodium, low potassium, electrolytes are lost in urine and that tends to give rise to muscle cramping and pain so these are causes for foot pain in those who have diabetes. If you have pain and if you have diabetes, make sure that you meet your endocrinologist.