How Does Diabetes Affect Wound Healing And Skin Health?

Our skin is literally the first line of defence against any infection causing pathogens. This is doubly true if you are diabetic. Not only is the skin just pretty packaging, it serves many other physiological functions like helping regulate your body temperature, as first class protective armour, for storage of water and other substances, Vitamin D production and as a centre for initiating any immune response if any pathogen enters via a cut or surface level injury.

Diabetes and Skin Health Issues

You may have noticed a few issues like dry skin, itchiness, redness, accumulation of fluid in your limbs or ulcers in your feet- they all need care right away if you are diabetic. This is because any cut can afford free entry into the blood and body, increasing your chances of having to deal with severe infections later on. Since your immune system is also not working well like before, you are in an immunocompromised state, making it that much easier for opportunistic infections to affect you. So, prevention is the best cure really. You can liken this whole situation to locking your house and gate properly so that all of your valuables and folks stay safe and protected inside. If the lock or the gate are of poor quality, then you could get robbed right?

Why Wounds Heal Slowly with Diabetes

You would have noticed by now that wounds don’t heal quickly and require special care too. That can be attributed to a variety of causes- the most obvious being high blood glucose levels, peripheral circulation issues and delayed immune response by cells which are needed to help close your wounds and prevent infection respectively. Imagine the circulation is a highway inside, and it contains everything from cells to food molecules. If your limbs are not getting enough blood, then these cells don’t get a chance to reach there and do their job- protecting you. This means delayed wound healing and other complications.

Tips for Faster Wound Healing with Diabetes

Some of our favourite tips include:

• Always make sure you take baths with warm water. Don’t pour boiling water over yourself even if it feels good because it will dry your skin out. Dry skin is much more vulnerable than normally moisturised skin. Next, remember to use a non-sticky moisturiser immediately after.
• Make it a habit to dry yourself thoroughly – moisture in the folds of your skin is a great place for problematic agents to grow and bother you.
• Take good care of your nails and feet.
• Cracked feet need more attention- apply lots of petroleum jelly and put on a pair of socks when you sleep at night. Keep doing this till your heels get better.

Conclusion

Skincare is not luxury but a necessity for everyone, even more so if you have diabetes. You will look good, feel confident and also know for a fact that your body is protected for the most part from minor injuries and threats. You can do this with some simple hacks and don’t exactly need to follow a K-Pop idol-esque 7 step skincare routine. Diabetes costs India billions of dollars in associated wound healing and care costs are obviously mind boggling. So, do your part everyday and feel better for sure!