Per example, a toe or even a leg
In: Biology
Diabetes affects the body in many ways. Some of them related to this question include:
1) Blood vessels – narrowed arteries can bring less oxygen which can lead to tissue death and narrowed arteries that supply nerves lead to nerve damage so you may not notice small injury that then can lead to larger injury if not attended to.
2) Nerves – nerve damage not only means our sensation may be altered, but damaged nerves to muscles means that muscles become weak over time and it can ultimately change the shape of your foot or other body part. Altered shape of the foot can cause abnormal pressure points and this pressure again can slow down blood flow to the area and can also cause small skin cuts due to rubbing against poorly fitting shoes, etc. Nerve damage can also affect our body’s ability to sweat and secrete normal oils which can be protective for maintaining a good skin barrier to outside world/bacteria.
3) Affects immune function – high blood sugars impair ability of white blood cells to travel to the area of damage and impairs their ability to kill bacteria. Bacteria also thrive in conditions where there is a bunch of extra sugar around to use as energy.
In general, when someone with diabetes has part of their body (usually feet/legs as these are some of the farthest structures from the heart) amputated it is either due something called dry gangrene where there is just not enough blood supply and the tissue is dead and sometimes just falls off on its own (auto-amputate) or wet gangrene where there isn’t enough blood supply causing dead tissue that then gets superimposed infection due to a combination of all the factors above.
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