3 Ways Smoking Hurts Your Feet
Smoking is a dangerous habit that hurts your entire body, including your feet. Now, if you have diabetes, smoking becomes even more dangerous, taking an extreme toll on your heart health and circulatory system. Even worse, both smoking and diabetes can impact your cholesterol levels as well as your blood pressure. Plus, this habit can even make it difficult to control your blood sugar levels, which can speed up diabetic complications. In turn, your feet face three new risks when you smoke, with or without diabetes.
Peripheral Neuropathy
Diabetics have a higher risk for peripheral neuropathy because high blood sugar levels can damage your nerves. And, with neuropathy, that nerve damage reaches your extremities, reducing or eliminating feeling in your feet. As a result, you may not notice small wounds on your feet, which can increase your risk for ulcers and amputations. If you smoke with diabetes, your risk increases further. Because smoking makes it harder to control your sugar levels, increasing your risk for neuropathy.
Peripheral Arterial Disease
As we mentioned earlier, when you smoke, it can impact your circulation. In fact, smoking causes damage to your blood vessels. And it narrows the remaining healthy ones, too. Now, diabetics already face challenges to their circulation. So, when you smoke with diabetes, your circulatory risks rise dramatically, and that means limited blood flow to your feet, which can reduce your body’s ability to heal wounds. Add that to your increased neuropathy risk, and it will take you longer to notice foot wounds and even longer to heal them.
Bad News for Broken Bones
When you smoke, with or without diabetes, that spells big problems for your bone health. It’s true! Studies show that smoking impacts your circulatory system, affecting you in terrible ways. Inhaling carbon monoxide and nicotine slows down your body’s ability to form new bones. This hurts your feet in two ways. First, it can reduce your bone bass, upping your risk for broken foot and ankle bones. Then, if you do fracture your foot, it will take longer for that injury to heal. So you’ll be sidelined for a lot longer following an injury.
If you smoke and have diabetes, be sure to schedule regular foot exams with Dr. David Sullivan, to protect your feet from dangerous complications. And if you’re ready to quit smoking, click here for free resources and support.