Diabetes and your feet: five habits that protect them
With diabetes, most foot problems start silently: sensation is reduced, and a small wound simply doesn’t hurt. So the main principle is not to wait for symptoms but to make care a daily habit. Here are the five rules I repeat to every patient.
1. Inspect your feet every evening
One minute before bed: the sole, the heel, the spaces between the toes, the nail edges. You are looking for redness, small cracks, blisters, dark spots. A small mirror on the floor makes the sole easy to see.
If you spot a wound that hasn’t healed in two or three days, don’t treat it with “something from the medicine cabinet” — show it to a doctor.
2. Wash with warm water — and dry thoroughly
Warm, not hot: with reduced sensation a scald is easy to miss. After washing, pat the skin dry, especially between the toes — moisture there is fungus’s best friend.
3. Cream every day — but not between the toes
Dry diabetic skin cracks, and a crack is an open door for infection. Moisturising cream on the soles and heels daily. Between the toes no cream — that skin should stay dry.
4. Never barefoot — even at home
Stepping on an unseen crumb or a furniture corner and not feeling it is the classic story behind a diabetic wound. At home: closed-toe slippers. Check new shoes from the inside with your hand — seams, folds, foreign objects.
5. Nails — atraumatically, ideally with a podologist
Digging out corners with heavy clippers is dangerous with diabetes. Nails are filed straight across, without deep rounding. The optimal routine is instrument-based treatment with a podologist every 4–8 weeks: no blades, no micro-injuries, and a risk-zone check at every visit.
When to see a doctor immediately
A callus with a dark spot underneath, a wound that weeps or smells, hot reddened skin, an ingrown nail. With diabetes this is not “it will pass” — it is a reason to visit this week.