Friday, September 26, 2008

Diabetes: Foot Complications and Kidney Disease

By Lindelwa Maseko


Foot complications of diabetes are caused by neuropathy. Because the high glucose levels in the blood of a diabetic person affects the central nervous system after a period of time, it also affects nerves in various parts of your body. Most often effected are the nerves in the feet and the furthest from the brain, it is here where people with diabetes who have nerve damage, often do not feel cold or pain or even heat. People with diabetes that is uncontrolled often can injure their feet without feeling it. The injury may result in a blister or wound that will be slow to heal. The blister or wound becomes infected and the foot complications of diabetes begin.

Because high blood glucose levels make it difficult to stave off infection, a diabetic with a sore on their foot must be treated differently than a person without diabetes. The sore may be very slow to heal, if it heals at all. Infection often sets in. This can lead to gangrene and, in some cases, amputation.

Gangrene can lead to foot amputation and in some cases, however, the gangrene has already spread to the foot making the amputation risks more infection. Now not only does the person lose their toe, but their entire foot. And this can continue until they lose their leg.

On kidney disease

Not everyone who has diabetes gets kidney disease. This is yet another popular misconception about the illness. While uncontrolled glycemia can cause kidney disease, diabetics who maintain their proper blood glucose levels can avoid kidney disease.

Kidney disease is acquired in many ways. In diabetics, it is acquired because the kidneys worked too hard to filter out the sugars and starches and were unable to remove waste products from the blood. Eventually, like any organ that is overworked, they shut down. When the kidneys shut down, a person is often put on dialysis, in which a machine functions as the kidneys. In some cases, a person with kidney disease can opt for a transplant, however this is not often available to persons with diabetes.

Diabetes is not necessarily a precursor to kidney disease. Kidney disease and diabetes are two different diseases. One does not always lead to the other.

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