Really random question but it just confuses me how it ends up causing someone to lose a body part
In: 9014
In general, diabetes, especially with poorly controlled hyperglycemia, can result in nerve damage, and the person loses some sensitivity in some parts of the body. This can result in someone not noticing a injury or infection in an early stage until it’s too late
Having uncontrolled high blood sugar causes crystals to form in your extremities which damages the nerves.
This make it harder for you to heal and can make it difficult to diagnose an infection or complication. Ulcers can form that won’t properly
In bad cases this leads to amputation
It’s also a micro vascular disease. The blood flow is decreased and this decreases healing from the damaged areas resulting in ulcers and non healing wounds. This eventually can lead to gangrene and amputation.
Physician here. Some of these posts are near the target, but not completely. Basically chronic high blood sugar causes non enzymatic glycosylation of arteries. That’s a big fancy word that means that sugar at high levels can damage your arteries, even very small ones that supply nerves. If those tiny arteries to nerves get too damaged, then blood (and thus oxygen) cannot get to the nerves and the nerves die. If nerves die, then you can’t feel your feet or toes as well which makes you more susceptible to bumping them on things and causing injuries/cuts. When you get a cut though, now your body can’t heal it as well because the tiny arteries that would normally bring cells, nutrients etc are also damaged. So the repairing things in your body can’t be delivered where they need to be, so then those tiny cuts become big cuts or ulcers. Those ulcers get infected with bacteria, say from a shoe. Your body still can’t heal it because the arteries are so damaged. The ulcer gets deeper. The bone in your foot is now infected. You can die from that. Foot has to go.
Uncontrolled blood sugar causes damage to your blood vessels which prevents certain parts of your body to not receive the nutrients they need. This causes them to be at risk of dying due to loss of blood supply. High blood sugar also damages your nerves,so you lose feeling and without realizing it,you get cuts on your feet which you don’t feel. This causes bacteria to enter and high blood sugar also stops your immune system from working properly. Now you have an area where you aren’t receiving any sensation,that area isn’t receiving adequate supply of blood and that area is getting infected and now the infection is spreading upwards. The easy solution for this is to amputate above in order to prevent the spread of the infection.
Edit 1: I thought I was being unnecessarily praised for answering the question simply until I read other comments and realized how everyone answered the questions in a manner that can only easily make sense for people who are in the medical field like me. Thank you for the upvotes.❤️❤️❤️
there’s three main reasons.
damage to small blood vessels.
blood supply to toe or foot inadequate, and foot develop ulcers which become a entry point for germs.
damage to small nervous systems.
foot becomes numb, owner of foot doesn’t notice himself walking on glass and infection develops. foot becomes dry because glands shut down and skin becomes fragile.
damage to the immune system.
owner of foot easily gets fungal infections, small nicks get infected easily too. because the white blood cells that are supposed to deal with it are sluggish.
actually this topic alone is capable of being discussed for over an hour.
I’m paraphrasing from a previous question like this. Basically the blood gets spiky (sugar not dissolving) and it tears the blood vessel walls. Blood vessels near fingers and feet are much more frequent and thinner, especially in the feet. So the blood is more likely to rip and tear what’s down there.
Think of sugar as a tiny little knife. The more tiny little knives in your blood the more tiny little cuts are made in your veins. The little veins and arteries in your extremities can only heal so much damage before they are fucked. Fucked veins=no healing. No healing=deadums.
Doctor explained to me when I was diagnosed.
Podiatrist here – friendly reminder to all diabetics to please see your podiatrist for routine foot care and screenings! A lot of these amputations can be prevented.
Diabetes destroys the nerve endings which removes your ability to detect small injuries. This can lead to untreated wounds that fester.
Also, severe diabetes can restrict or interfere with circulation as well, which means that the natural cleansing and healing that is supposed to happen, doesn’t. This is often what damages the nerve endings in the first place but it also limits the body’s ability to heal itself, since the body’s self repair systems rely on the bloodstream as a highway to get where they need to be. Restrict that highway, and minor problems that the body would deal with out of hand become a lot more challenging.
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