Your feet help you take thousands of steps each day, so not only is it common for them to develop cuts, scrapes and sores, these developments can cause quite the annoyance given how often we use our feet. If you take good care of the injury, odds are it will heal over the course of a few days or weeks. But what happens if these wounds are very slow to heal, or they don’t seem to be healing at all? We explain what might be going on with foot wounds that won’t heal in today’s blog.
Cuts That Won’t Heal
Oftentimes the reason why a cut won’t heal is because there is poor blood circulation in your feet. If circulation is poor, healthy oxygenated blood can’t get to the wound site as easily. This slows down cell metabolism and in turn reduces your body’s ability to close and heal the injury site. It also hinders your ability to fight off an infection, which can become even more problematic because of the inhibited blood flow to the area.
Now that we know the cause of slow healing foot wounds, let’s touch on some of the reasons why someone may have poor foot circulation. For starters, inhibited circulation is a common complication associated with diabetes. Diabetics need to pay close attention to their feet to not only prevent foot wounds, but help protect against infection if a cut or sore develops.
Aside from diabetes, some common health factors that can increase your risk of having poor blood circulation include:
- Smoking
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Obesity
- Older age
- Certain medications
The good news is that outside of age, all those bulleted factors can be influenced by our health choices. We can strive to get regular exercise and eat a healthy diet and help to reduce our blood pressure, cholesterol and weight. We can also talk with our doctor to adjust our medications and make the conscious choice to give up smoking, both of which can help prevent further damage and actually help to increase healthy circulation in your feet.
So if you are dealing with a cut or sore on your foot that just won’t heal, swing on into Dr. Silverman’s office. We can figure out the exact reason why your circulation is slowed, and we can develop a treatment plan that can help rectify the problem.