How Sugar Affects Your Feet?

One of the most crucial elements in everyone's life is nutrition. By eating properly, you lower your risk of developing a variety of health problems. Additionally, your chances of living a longer, happier life are higher. There are many kinds of food, such as those that are high in sugar, which can result in some serious inflammations that have a negative impact on the health of your feet.

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which is brought on by too much sugar being stored as fatty deposits inside blood vessel walls, can cause your circulation to slow down. The restricted blood flow can result in tissue damage, cold feet, and inadequate wound healing.

The excessive number of cytokines released into your blood stream causes an increase in inflammation. The result is increased warmth, redness, fluid retention, pressure, and pain. These proteins drive cells to rush to regions of injury in your feet, such as those caused by arthritis or a torn tendon. The first things that come to mind for most people when they think of diet and how it impacts their health are heart-related problems, obesity, etc. However, the truth is that nutrition has an impact on every area of your body, including your feet.

Glucose, which also goes by the name blood sugar, needs to be controlled in your bloodstream. Your pancreas creates insulin, a hormone that does just that—delivers glucose to your cells as and when it is required. You may develop insulin resistance, or your pancreas may not be able to create enough insulin to control the levels of sugar in your blood if you consume more glucose than your body can use. Diabetes is caused by an inability to control blood glucose and having sugar levels that are higher than usual can be harmful to your body. Nerve damage, which frequently affects your feet when you have diabetes, is one of the main issues. Nearly half of diabetics experience the condition, also known as peripheral neuropathy or diabetic neuropathy.

It happens because elevated blood sugar levels might harm the blood vessels and peripheral nerves in your foot.

Peripheral neuropathy has some early warning symptoms, such as:

  • Foot pain
  • Numbness or tingling in the foot
  • Weakness;
  • inability to sense warmth;
  • slow wound healing.

One of the major worries is that the numbness in your feet could make it difficult for you to detect tiny wounds like blisters. Additionally, because high blood sugar levels can harm the blood vessels in your feet, a wound doesn't have access to the resources it needs to heal correctly, which can result in infections that are resistant to treatment.

L.F.
11.11.2022.

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