Diabetes is a chronic condition, which develops due to the increased levels of sugar in the blood. It can lead to several serious health-related complications such as nerve damage, blurry vision, and gangrene. In addition to many severe diseases, it can also cause burning feet, because of which you may lose the sensation in the feet or legs.
Many times, people with diabetes may sometimes also feel that their feet are burning, which may even feel like walking on fire. Sometimes, along with the burning sensation, a person suffering with diabetes may experience redness and pain in the feet, which may cause pain even when touched softly.
This is one of the main symptoms of diabetes but not many people know the reason for this symptom. Understanding the causes of diabetes and burning feet will help you understand the relation between diabetes and the burning feet sensation.
Various Causes of Diabetes
Immune system is a great natural mechanism that protects us from any infections or foreign bodies. But in diabetes, the immune system itself fights the healthy cells and tries to destroy them. The destruction of insulin producing cells causes no or low amount of insulin in the body. This affects the transportation of sugar content to the cells due to which it remains in the blood stream causing high levels of blood sugar.
Uncontrolled Blood Sugar Levels
When the level of sugar in the blood increases uncontrollably, then it increases the chances of developing diabetes in a person. In this condition, pancreas fails to produce significant amount of insulin that is required for the body, to function in a healthy manner.
This leads to the piling up of sugar content in the blood stream, which makes it harder for the kidneys to flush out all the extra sugar content through urine. So, it is advised to maintain healthy levels of sugar in the body so that one can control diabetes.
Genetics play a vital role in the development of diabetes. In many families, if diabetes runs in the lineage, then people get vulnerable to developing this chronic ailment. Mostly, if the immediate family members such as mother, father or siblings have diabetes, then the chances of getting diabetes increases manifolds. But, genetics or hereditary factors do not alone cause diabetes.
A number of environmental factors such as different types of bacteria and viruses can lead to this chronic disease. Many viruses like rubella and Epstein-Barra are some of the most potent environmental factors that may cause diabetes. More often than not, people take vaccines to get immune to these factors, but sometimes, due to prolonged illness the body may become weak and can get diabetes.
During pregnancy, in many cases, the placenta may produce certain hormones that aid to sustain the pregnancy. These hormones tend to make the cells resistant to insulin. With the increase in the placenta in the second or third trimesters, the placenta tends to produce more of such hormones.
These hormones eventually make it tough for the insulin to help convert the glucose into the energy required for the body to function effectively. In this medical condition, only a small amount of glucose goes into the cells of the body and most of it remains in the blood, causing the gestational diabetes.
Important Causes of Burning Feet in Diabetes
Neuropathy is one of the main causes of the burning feet sensation in diabetics. In this condition, the nerves get damaged due to uncontrolled levels of sugar in the bloodstream.
Neuropathy affects the nerves that are responsible for controlling the movement of muscles and those that help detect the sensation like pain, coldness or hotness in the body. Neuropathy can even affect different organs such as the heart, intestines or blood vessels. In most cases, firstly, the nerves of the legs get damaged at the ends of the feet. This produces a tingling effect and causes numbness in the feet.
Over exertion may also lead to burning feet. In diabetes, when you walk a lot or do a lot of exercise that includes movement of legs, it may lead to this sensation. If you observe that you are suffering from this burning sensation frequently, then you need to check with your doctor for it may be due to diabetes.
Athlete’s foot, a fungal infection mostly develops in the moist places between the toes and other parts of the foot. If you are diabetic, then you may develop this infection and eventually suffer from the burning feet.