A person averages 3000-8000 steps a day, so why wouldn’t you care about your feet? And if you’re a diabetic, foot care is even more vital to your overall health. A diabetic with poor foot care can wind up with serious health problems including the possibility of foot or leg amputation.

Diabetes can damage nerves and minimize blood flow to your feet. When this occurs, amputation may be necessary. However, most serious health problems associated with the disease can be avoided if you take good care of your feet.

Here are some foot care tips for diabetics:

1)      Wash and dry your feet every day. When doing so, be sure to use mild soaps and warm water. When drying off, pat the skin without rubbing. Once you finish, use lotion on your feet to prevent cracking, but be sure to avoid lotion between your toes.

2)      Carefully examine your feet every day. Check the top and bottom of each foot thoroughly. If you cannot see a specific area, ask someone to look for you. Things you want to look for include cracked skin, blisters, cuts, scratches, sores, redness, increased warmth or tenderness when touching a specific area, ingrown toenails, corns and calluses. If you end up with a blister or sore from your shoes, don’t try to pop it or peel it off. Just bandage it up and wear a different pair of shoes.

3)      Protect your feet. You never want to go barefoot. Always wear shoes or hard-soled footwear. Try to avoid shoes with high heels or pointed toes, anything that exposes your toes, and wearing shoes for more than an hour at a time. Always make sure to look inside your shoes to make sure there are no foreign objects in there which could raise your risk of injury or infection.

4)      Be careful when exercising. You want to be wearing comfortable shoes when working out and you don’t want to exercise when you have open sores on your feet.

5)      Take good care of your toenails. When cutting your toenails, cut straight across and smooth the nail with a nail file, preferably right after bathing when the nails are soft. Avoid cutting into the corners of the toes. You may even want to have a podiatrist cut your toenails for you.

6)      Wear the right shoes. The best shoes for diabetics are ones with closed toes and heels, leather uppers without a seam inside, at least ½ inch of extra space from your longest toe, a soft inside with no rough areas, an outer sole made of hard material, and ones that are as wide as your foot.

Call your doctor about these symptoms:

a.       Athlete’s foot

b.      Sores or wounds on your feet

c.       Ingrown toenails

d.      Numbness or pain

e.      Calluses

f.        Redness

g.       Blackening of skin

h.      Bunions

i.        Infection

j.        Hammer toes (when the middle joint of toes is permanently bent downward)

If you care for your feet properly as a diabetic, you will increase the likelihood of avoiding other diabetic symptoms. Foot care is the number one priority. So take a step back and realize what’s important to you to maintain a healthy lifestyle.