{"id":14392,"date":"2021-12-01T14:00:15","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/blog\/?p=14392"},"modified":"2022-04-20T11:37:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T16:37:59","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-about-diabetic-socks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osf-blog.live.imagescape.com\/blog\/what-you-need-to-know-about-diabetic-socks\/","title":{"rendered":"What you need to know about diabetic socks"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you have diabetes, you probably know to watch your blood sugar. But do you know to watch your feet, too?<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at your feet every day.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

These are some of the first words Tina Canada, RN, a certified diabetes educator for OSF HealthCare, tells people who seek guidance on their diabetes diagnosis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many symptoms of diabetes can be detected through subtle \u2013 and sometimes not so subtle \u2013 changes in your foot health.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why if you think you may have diabetes<\/a> or if you have been diagnosed with diabetes, get to know your feet. \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Why feet?<\/h2>\n

For people with diabetes, the foot is a window to your health. Diabetes can cause nerve damage, known as peripheral neuropathy<\/a>, which often affects the feet.<\/p>\n

When you have diabetes, your body doesn\u2019t make enough insulin, a vital hormone that helps sugar turn into energy. When the body doesn\u2019t make enough insulin, sugar has a harder time entering the cell and producing energy. That excess sugar collects in the blood.<\/p>\n

With diabetes, the excess sugar in the blood interferes with blood circulation throughout the whole body. Without proper circulation, the lining of the nerves wears off. This happens most frequently in the feet because the body has to pump blood all the way down to the tips of our toes, and that blood has travel back up to the heart.<\/p>\n

Nerve damage to the feet can cause all sorts of problems:<\/p>\n