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Diabetes is a metabolic condition that can affect different areas of your body, even when your treatment is successful. One area that most people don’t think about is the foot. As a diabetic, taking care of your feet is paramount to your overall health and well-being.
Hard Working Feet
Let’s face it – the feet are the hardest working body parts you have. They hold up all the weight of your body. When we “tiptoe through the tulips,” our feet get stung, stepped on, stubbed, and even cut up by jagged stones and litter. Sometimes our feet take a real beating, but still endure.
Diabetes may affect the feet and go unnoticed. In diabetic patients, wounds take longer to heal. There is the potential for nerve and blood vessel damage in your feet as well as throughout the body. So, one small cut on the bottom of your foot could go undetected. That cut could turn into an unhealed sore that, left unattended, could lead to gangrene. For a diabetic patient, gangrene is the last word they ever want to hear.
Caring for Your Feet
Now, we turn to a more pleasant aspect of foot care: simple things to do to keep your feet healthy. Your feet work hard. Why shouldn’t they get special care?
Use the following tips to keep your feet healthy:
1. Examine your feet everyday – At the beginning of the day, perhaps after your morning shower, examine all sides of your feet and between your toes for any injuries or suspicious looking spots. Even a slight redness from irritation can turn into a serious concern if you don’t attend to it.
2. Wear cotton socks – Cotton is good for wicking moisture away from the feet. Too much moisture can provide a place for bacteria to grow and cause an infection. Damp feet are likely to chafe, and chafing causes irritation which can lead to sores.
3. Wear comfortable shoes – Neither the shoes or the socks you wear need be too tight. That can cut off circulation and lead to problems. If you have problems with arches wear gel supports in your shoes for better comfort. If you have shoes that don’t fit properly, get rid of them. It’s better to find one or two pair that fit well. Go to a good shoe store if you need help getting a comfortable fit.
4. Get medical attention for feet problems – It is tempting to self-diagnose and treat simple things like blisters on your feet, but don’t. Pricking a blister to drain it, or peeling off the skin, can introduce infection into your foot. You may end up with an open wound that will have a hard time healing properly. If you notice a blister or something else on your foot, get it taken care of by your health professional.
5. Eat sensibly – Keeping your blood sugar under control helps your feet. How? Preventing nerve damage is key to keeping your feet healthy. Many people don’t know that they have stepped on something and cut their foot until the injury becomes very serious. This complication, nerve damage, as well as others, can be prevented by keeping your diabetes under control with proper diet.
Foot care is important for everyone, but especially for diabetics. Take care of your feet daily in order to prevent serious problems later down the road.
The Diabetes Diet
Type 2 diabetes is often treated with diet, exercise, and medication. Type 1 diabetes incorporates insulin into the equation to control blood sugar. In both cases, your doctor may place you on a special diabetes diet to help keep your blood sugar stable.
A diabetic’s life can be tough on his diet. If a person has diabetes, it’s important that he or she is aware of the connection between carbohydrate consumption and diabetes management. Once carbohydrates are synthesized by the digestive system, they become sugars, and have a direct effect on blood glucose levels. A diabetic’s diet must maintain a delicate balance of essential nutrients and minerals. It’s important for diabetics to know what foods to eat, and which ones to avoid.
Choose High-Fiber Vegetables
Eating fiber-rich vegetables is good for diabetics, since fiber does not raise or affect blood sugar levels. The vegetables should be minimally processed, and ideally should be eaten raw. Among the fiber-rich veggies that are great for diabetics include cauliflower, celery, cucumber, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, artichokes, cabbage, eggplant, peppers, greens and spinach.
Suggested Fruit Variants for Diabetics
Fruits that have high fiber and fructose content are good for diabetics, since these do not affect blood sugar levels. Raw fruits are best for diabetics, since most dried and canned fruits contain high sugar levels. The suggested fruits include apricots, apples, blueberries, grape fruit, guava, Kiwi fruit, mango, pears and pomegranates.
Meat and Protein Substitutes
Getting adequate amounts of protein should be part of any diet, especially for diabetics. Protein helps regulate blood sugar levels and provides energy. While meat products are generally the best sources of protein, diabetics must limit their meat consumption, and instead consume more legumes and fish, which provide essential fatty acids and protein. The best meat substitutes for diabetics include veal, lamb, chicken or turkey, oily fish like mackerel and salmon, seafood, eggs, beans, lentils, soybeans, and moderate amounts of milk and dairy products.
Limit Consumption of Unhealthy Fats
Diabetics must also limit their consumption of unhealthy fats like trans fat and saturated fat, as well as reduce their intake of margarine, butter and shortening. Diabetics should instead go for monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which are found in canola, olive oil and nuts.
Whole Grains
Whole grains also serve as a tasty way for adding good carbohydrates to your diet. Choose whole-grain cereals and breads, bran, barley, buckwheat, millet and steel-cut oatmeal.
Just because you have diabetes doesn’t mean that you can’t have your fill of healthy and delicious food anymore. A healthy eating plan for diabetics should translate into consuming a wide array of foods, in moderate amounts. Diabetics also need to stick to regular meal times, and get a diet which emphasizes on vegetables, fruits, whole grains and other healthy meat substitutes. A diabetes diet should not be restrictive, but instead must offer you foods that are rich in nutrients, and low in fat and calories.
How Physiotherapy Fits in with Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment
Rheumatoid arthritis is not only a painful and debilitating disease. It is also a risk factor for other diseases such as heart disease and osteoporosis. Research shows that these diseases can be held off by exercise and other lifestyle changes.
For the sufferer of rheumatoid arthritis, life is a constant learning experience. Each time a new movement is done, one finds out if it makes the condition feel worse or better. Rheumatoid arthritis patients may feel fatigue. They will likely have a great amount of pain and stiffness in their joints.
Physiotherapy is one way to combat the effects of rheumatoid arthritis. This will be an ongoing therapy that will require dedication over the rest of the patient’s life. However, it is common that the exercises and other therapies help the rheumatoid arthritis so much that the patient will have incentive to keep doing them.
A physiotherapist understands how all the parts of one’s body work together to create movement. Bones, muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons: the physiotherapist knows how they all fit to make one walk or stand. With this knowledge, the physiotherapist can devise methods to help one keep moving. This is the most important part of rheumatoid arthritis treatment.
Early in one’s treatment, the plan will take shape. It will include ways to prevent rheumatoid arthritis from disabling one. As time goes by, the focus will shift to a more here and now sort of treatment. Exercises will be geared more towards current problems.
Water exercises can be used for people with rheumatoid arthritis. These exercises allow the person to get much needed strengthening and stretching exercises done. At the same time, there is little or no pressure on the joints or spine. Physiotherapists use water exercises as an important part of the treatment plan.
Strengthening exercises help the muscles provide more support to the joints of people with rheumatoid arthritis. If there is not enough muscle tone, the patient will have more trouble walking or doing other normal movements. The rheumatoid arthritis will dominate the movements instead of the muscles dominating them.
Heat therapy can be used in conjunction with ice therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. A physiotherapist can tell the patient when and how long to leave on heat packs or ice packs. Other heat therapy is done by ultrasound.
People with rheumatoid arthritis can benefit from manual procedures, such as massage. A person with the stiffness that accompanies rheumatoid arthritis can be very limited in how far he can move his joints. Massage improves movement and increases this range dramatically.
One of the most important functions a physiotherapist serves for patients with rheumatoid arthritis is as a motivational coach. The physiotherapist should be trained in the psychology of chronic disorders and pain management. She will be there to encourage you to keep trying, keeping moving, and never giving up.
Physiotherapy is only a part of the treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. Diet and medications are also used, for example. Yet, without physiotherapy, many people who suffer from this disease would be in much worse pain.
Is it Possible to Get Artificial Nail Fungus From Nail Shops
Artificial nails have come to stay. It is rare to find a woman who doesn’t wear it these days. This naturally follows that they are used in covering their natural toes and to make them more beautiful. However, women have been known to use artificial nails to cover up nail fungus infection hence resulting in a coined word “artificial nail fungus”. Unfortunately, this doesn’t cure nor solve the problem. Instead, it worsens it.
Let me explain. Nail fungus grows in a favorable environment in which there is a lot of moisture and it is dark. Now when you apply artificial nails to the already infected toe nails, it creates an environment that is both dark and has a lot of moisture. Since these fungi grow only in areas that are airless and on feet that are both damp and warm, the artificial nail thus inhibits the easy flow of air around the toenail.
Fungal nail infections are more common among the toe nails than among the finger nails. But please note that any finger nail that isn’t natural but attached to the real finger nail is a huge contributor to the spread of the fungal infection.
It is understandable that when the nails look yellowed as a result of the infection, the natural inclination is to want to put it out of sight and hide because of the stares you get on the fingers or toenails. But know that when you hide the nails under artificial nails, you are creating a more enabling environment that will foster the faster growth and spread of the fungus.
So, while it is covered, no one else of course sees the nails while it keeps getting destroyed and the condition worsens. If this gets to the extreme, you may not even be able to hide it any longer as the nail becomes so bad that it is virtually impossible to even apply the artificial nails.
This is the reason it is better for you to nip the “monster” in the bud.The spread of the fungus nail infection is even more common among the women than men because of the flourishing beauty industry. It is common fact that women these days visit nail shops where professional nail experts help apply the artificial nails they want.
Now, it very easy for women to get their pedicures and manicures done for them at these shops and because of this, nail spas are very rampant and well patronized by women and even some men. However, these same shops which are a source of satisfaction to women can also be a source of sadness as they beautiful nails they go to sculpt their nails, can become infected by the nail fungus infection. This is possible because certain women who also visit these shops may have the nail fungus growing in their fingernails.
Diabetes is a disease that can have a lot of complications. This chronic lifestyle disease can increase the risk of heart diseases, kidney disorders, blindness, circulatory problems, and it can even cause foot ulcers that can end up requiring amputation of the lower limbs.
Foot ulcers are very common among diabetics. It is important that you should know how to prevent this from happening to you as this is the most common cause of non-traumatic amputation of the lower limbs. Any person with diabetes can have foot ulcers. However, there are several factors that significantly increase the risk. By learning about the factors that increase the risk of foot ulcers, you will be able to know how to effectively prevent it.
Poor blood glucose control is one major factor that increases the risk of developing foot ulcers. Other factors that significantly increase the risk of developing foot ulcers in diabetic patients are sensory neuropathy, poor circulation, poor foot healthcare, inappropriate or ill fitting footwear, foot deformity, and history of previous ulceration.
If you are suffering from diabetes and that you have neuropathy and reduced or poor circulation, then you are very likely to get foot ulcers. This is a classic example of the causes of foot ulcer. If you decide to go on a long walk with new shoes and that you have neuropathy and poor circulation, then it is very likely that you will develop foot ulcers. The new pair of shoes and the duration of the walk can cause chaffing in the feet, which you will not feel as you have loss of feeling in the feet or because of sensory neuropathy. The chaffing will then develop in to a blister, which you will not notice for the same reason.
As a result of poor circulation of blood, the blister will not be able to heal, which can turn in to an ulcer.
This is one scenario that can possibly cause foot ulcer. Other classic cases would be getting an ingrown toenail which can injure your feet and cause foot ulcers.
Here are ways on how you can prevent foot ulcers. By following these tips, you can be sure that you will be able to decrease the risk of developing foot ulcers and decrease the likelihood of amputation.
The first is to check your blood glucose level regularly. By doing so, you will be able to effectively monitor and regulate your blood glucose levels at acceptable levels.
In addition to that, checking your feet using a mirror is a must especially if you have sensory neuropathy. By doing so, you will be able to know if you developed chaffing in your feet, which can develop in to blisters then in to foot ulcers.
Cleaning the feet with warm water and mild soap can also help prevent foot ulcers. Always remember that after every washing, you need to dry your feet thoroughly especially between the toes.
If you are cutting toenails, never cut down in to corners as this can cause an ingrown toenail to develop. Instead, try cutting the toenails straight across. If you are unsure on how to properly cut your toenails, you should consult a podiatrist.
Appropriate footwear is necessary for diabetics. Make sure that the shoes you get fit you adequately. Consult your podiatrist in order to make sure that the shoes you get is comfortable and one that has enough space for your feet that it will not cause injuries.
These are some of the ways to prevent foot ulcers in diabetic patients. By following these tips, you can be sure that you will decrease the risk of getting foot ulcers, which will basically reduce the risk of amputation.
