Diabetes can affect many parts of your body, including your skin. When diabetes affects the skin, it’s often a sign that your blood sugar (glucose) levels are too high. Diabetes is no longer a disease of the select few, it has now become a mainstream lifestyle disease that has affected millions (men, women and children) around the world. Experts have seen an upward trend when it comes to incidences of diabetes in India.
Skin signs of diabetes
1. Yellow, reddish, or brown patches on your skin
This skin condition often begins as small raised solid bumps that look like pimples. As it progresses, these bumps turn into patches of swollen and hard skin. The patches can be yellow, reddish, or brown. A lot of people with high levels of blood sugar or type-2 diabetes tend to have skin tags.
2. Hard thickening skin
When this develops on the fingers, toes, or both, the medical name for this condition is digital sclerosis. On the hands, you’ll notice tight, waxy skin on the backs of your hands. The fingers can become stiff and difficult to move. If diabetes has been poorly controlled for years, it can feel like you have pebbles in your fingertips. Hard, thick, and swollen-looking skin can spread, appearing on the forearms and upper arms. It can also develop on the upper back, shoulders, and neck. Sometimes, the thickening skin spreads to the face, shoulders, and chest.
3. Delayed wound healing
Diabetes makes the body unable to use insulin the way it should, which leads to high blood sugar levels. This slows down wound healing. Diabetes can also trigger immunity system deficiency, poor blood circulation and make you prone to infections. Leaving wounds untreated can lead to complications, so make sure you are doing everything you can to prevent it.
4. Blisters
It’s rare, but people with diabetes can see blisters suddenly appear on their skin. You may see a large blister, a group of blisters, or both. The blisters tend to form on the hands, feet, legs, or forearms and look like the blisters that appear after a serious burn. Unlike the blisters that develop after a burn, these blisters are not painful.
(Disclaimer: Tips and suggestions mentioned in the article are for general information purposes only and should not be taken as professional medical advice. Please consult a doctor before starting any regime or medical advice.)
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