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Question by Shawn: How to reduce foot pain, leg pain and back pain while standing at work for a long time?
Hi everyone.
I was just wondering if anyone could give me advice on how to reduce foot pain, leg pain, and back pain while on the job at work.

Thanks!
I want to know if there is any foods, minerals, and what not that might be able to help me reduce the pain.

Best answer:

Answer by Love Life
Wear support socks or stockings and good shoes even if they are not attractive.

Add your own answer in the comments!

Debridement of an Infected Diabetic Wound on the patients foot caused by a diabetic foot ulcer. The first is a series of online diabetic foot care videos by The Mayer Institute. Diabetes affects 10% of the population in Canada. Up to 70% of diabetics will develop peripheral neuropathy (a loss of sensation in their feet). One in 4 of these patients will develop a foot ulcer, for whom amputation is a major risk. Diabetic foot complications are a leading cause of hospitalization, and accounts for is over 75% of the non-traumatic lower limb amputations performed annually in Canada. We believe these diabetic complications are preventable.

Ada heals with people for many years. She has many clients. By the way, she is a very nice person.

Yesterday James came into my office because he just found out that he had just been diagnosed with diabetes. His doctor said that he needed to get a diabetic foot check. First thing I asked James was if he’d ever known anybody who have a diabetic foot amputation. He said that yes he did have a cousin who had lost his lead to diabetes. He also said that his cousin had died shortly after the operation. When asked what happened he didn’t seem to recall any of the specifics surrounding the event. Asked if he knew how diabetes can cause an amputation. He said he had no idea.

Shouldn’t every diabetic know the details so that amputations could be prevented?

There are basically two groups of patients when it comes to understanding of diabetic foot problems. One group are ready fully understands all of the risks to their feet related to diabetes, but this is very rare. The much larger group of people have no clue how all of this happens. With every one of these folks I feel that the one goal is to get them to understand that diabetic foot problems are optional.

Diabetes can be a very difficult disease to learn to live with. Next thing you know, your doctor is telling you that you have to start exercising, he’s telling you what you can and cannot eat, and he is also telling you to have a heart attack. Then you are at home learning about blood sugar monitoring, taking medicine, pricking your finger every day. People will say, “Now I gotta think about my feet too? Seems like such a hassle.”

And it is.

But the good news in all of this is that everything bad that can happen to you because of diabetes is preventable. Everything. All it takes is a little learning, a little lifestyle change, and little daily effort. The goal is to get you to understand the basics of how diabetes can affect your feet…So you can take action and do something about it.

When you have diabetes you have three main problems, all working together and conspiring against you, that can lead to a diabetic foot amputation. It involves your nerves, blood flow and immune system.

When your blood sugar is high, there is a chemical reaction that directly damages the ends of the longest nerves in your body. The longest ones start in your back (where they exit the spine) and head all the way down to the toes in one long piece. Because the ends get damaged first, any nerve damage starts in the toes and gradually creeps up the foot toward the ankles.

It is always damaged at the same level in both feet. For example, if you have nerve damage (neuropathy) at the ball of the foot, the nerve damage is only in the toes. In this case the part of the foot around healed ankle and arch might be just fine.

Diabetic nerve damage makes it very difficult for someone to tell if they’re starting to develop a blister, cut, or even an infection. This can put them in a very high risk for developing serious problems. It is deceptive because you might be able to feel other things like the position of your feet, shoes and socks squeezing, but not a blister, cut or sore.

The second problem is the circulation or blood flow in the feet and legs. The arteries get clogged faster when you have diabetes. If you take two people who are identical, except one is diabetic, the one who is diabetic is four times more likely to have a heart attack. That is because of the increased rate of clogging up those arteries through the process called atherosclerosis. But this process happens everywhere, not just the heart. The blood vessels to the legs get plugged up too. Then, when you get a sore it takes longer to heal. It is also harder for your infection fighting white blood cells to get down there.

The last problem is your immune system. When your blood sugar is high, the white blood cells (called macrophages) have a hard to time fighting off those nasty bacteria. The white macrophages find bacteria through a process called chemotaxis. It is like following a trail of chemicals to its source. This is not very effective when the blood sugar is elevated. In effect, the macrophages are lost in the dark, simply bumping around, hoping stumble into some bacteria to kill. Very inefficient and not very effective.

Even if the white blood cells to find bacteria, they still have a problem. The high blood sugar prevents them from eating the bacteria. The process where the white blood cells engulf the bacteria (called phagocytosis) is essentially disabled. So they bump up against they bacteria, but can’t do anything. Imagine a great white shark with his mouth wired shut trying to eat a smaller fish for dinner. Because of all of this, the immune system is ineffective, the bacteria continue to grow and the infection quickly gets out of hand.

So a diabetic amputation goes something like this. If you start a walking program to help control your diabetes, but you have a little nerve damage, he may not be able to field blister starting to develop. If you keep walking the blister conversed. Just like that, you have an open sore. Your blood flow is a little sluggish and it takes a long time to heal. Then it gets infected while it is trying to heal. If your blood sugar is high, all of those sharks are wandering around in the dark, mouths wired shut, and the infection spreads.

If it spreads enough, one of the foot bones gets infected. And a bone infection is the kiss of death for the diabetic foot. The most consistently effective method of treatment for a diabetic bone infection (called oseomyelits) is to take out the infected bone. And that is where the amputation begins.

The moral of the story is watch your blood sugar, and your nerve damage will never get any worse. If you walk 30 minutes a day, fives days a week, your blood flow will never get any worse. If you develop any diabetic peripheral neuropathy, it is important that you are closely monitored and evaluated by someone who is an expert in the treatment of diabetic foot problems. If you ever get any open sore, blister or ingrown toenail it is an emergency…no joke. Get that foot checked out or it might get chopped off!

Up above, the crashing of the wave tosses wild currents around the coral. A small damselfish swimming through the reef is tossed against the reef and nicks itself on the sharp coral. Three shiny scales scrape away and drift motionless, until the current starts to spin them about. A tiny drop of blood slowly seeps out into the ocean. Startled, the little damsel scurries away, out into the open ocean.

A mile away, a languishing bluetip reef shark senses an odor. The tiny droplet of blood, spread thin in the ocean, awakens the sharks hunger. He can smell the blood and weaves his way though the sea, continually tracking back and forth, to a stronger and stronger scent trail. The little damselfish, still barely bleeding, but leaving a trail to follow, is the end of the path for the shark. Jagged teeth, open wide, the damsel hasn’t a chance.

The story of the shark in the damsel provides a perfect analogy for the way your body fights bacteria when you develop a diabetic foot infection. The bacteria is much like the little damselfish. As it moves through the tissue in your foot, it leaves chemical markers that signal its presence.

The sharks are much like the white blood cells (known as macrophages) that track down the bacteria through a process known as chemotaxis. Once the macrophages locate the bacteria, thee actually surround the bacteria with the cell wall, effectively eating them. The way that they eat the bacteria in this way is known as phagocytosis. Unfortunately diabetes and the high levels of blood sugar that are associated with diabetes, can have a profound effect on both chemotaxis and phagocytosis.

When the serum blood glucose is high, the macrophages are not able to follow the scent that leads to the bacteria. In a way, the white blood cells are then much like a hungry blind shark, who cannot see or smell, drifting through the vast open ocean just hoping to bump into a damselfish.

To complicate matters further, the process of phagocytosis is also disabled when the blood sugar is elevated. So even if the blind, senseless shark does bump into a damselfish, is almost as if his mouth is wired shut. Even when the shark can find a damselfish, it still cannot eat it.

This is the reason that a diabetic foot infection is an emergency that quickly becomes limb or life-threatening. In less than 24 hours, a minor infection can kill a diabetic. In almost every amputation that is performed on diabetics, it is likely that earlier intervention could have prevented the extent of limb loss.

For this reason it is critical for a diabetic to check the feet every day. Otherwise, a minor blister, open sore or ingrown toenail can start with a small infection and quickly get much worse. As the bacteria divide, the sharks can do nothing to stop them.

In a normal healthy adult, an ingrown toenail can remain infected for days before the infection worsens. In a diabetic, this is simply not true. A diabetic with elevated blood sugar has an impaired immune system. The disabled immune system is incapable of controlling the growth of the bacteria and serious complications develop.

Every 30 seconds a limb, somewhere is amputated because of diabetes. Diabetes also accounts for more than half of all of the amputations that are performed. This problem is actually getting worse and not better. The rate of diagnosis of diabetes is continuing to skyrocket. It is also predicted that the prevalence of diabetes will continue to climb as the baby boomers age.

Given the current circumstances of Medicare and other insurance carriers not providing insurance coverage for preventative care such as aggressive monitoring and education of diabetic foot problems, the number of amputations will also continue to rise. Unfortunately this is all preventable, but it is not being usually prevented.

It has been well documented that performing daily foot checks, seeking early treatment for a diabetic foot problem, and maintaing low blood sugar can all help to avert the problems in diabetes that culminate in amputation. However the current trend is that insurance companies will only pay for care associated with the complications such as the diabetic foot infections, hospitalizations and diabetic amputations.

Because of the way these episodes unfold, this leaves many patients with no leg to left to stand on.

You must have a diabetic foot check every year. If you also have neuropathy or diabetic nerve damage, it is important to be seen more often. You must check your feet every day. You should also wear white diabetic socks so that you can detect any drainage in the event that you do get a sore on your feet, you cannot see. All of these minor interventions have shown to significantly reduce the rates of complications to the feet from diabetes.

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