Did you know that people with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have vascular disease like peripheral artery disease?
At Memphis Vein Center, Kishore K. Arcot, MD, FACC, provides comprehensive care for vascular disease due to diabetes. He can also help you prevent blood vessel complications by assessing your risk and recommending steps to slow or stop problems.
High blood sugar damages your blood vessels. The way the damage occurs is complex and involves multiple body systems. But blood sugar leads to changes that dramatically increase your risk of life-threatening conditions.
Elevated blood sugar causes the following problems that damage your blood vessels:
AGEs are waste products created when sugar reacts with proteins and fats. The more sugar in your blood, the higher your AGEs. High AGEs cause blood vessel inflammation.
Free radicals (unstable atoms) are waste products that develop during metabolism. AGEs also cause free radicals. If free radicals aren’t neutralized by antioxidants, they harm blood vessels, thicken artery walls, and increase inflammation.
Blood vessel damage from high blood sugar causes three dangerous conditions: atherosclerosis, diabetic neuropathy, and diabetic retinopathy.
Damage to the arterial wall creates a rough area that snags cholesterol and triglycerides in your bloodstream. Plaque develops as the fats build up. Before long, that area hardens and blocks blood flow — a condition called atherosclerosis.
Atherosclerosis can affect any artery but most often causes:
As the blockage increases and blood flow decreases, chronic kidney disease progresses to cause kidney failure. And your risk of having a heart attack or stroke increases.
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) stops blood flow to your lower leg and foot. Without enough blood, the tissues die.
Tissue death leads to complications, such as leg ulcers that won’t heal, infections, and gangrene. PAD and diabetic neuropathy (described below) are the top causes of amputation.
Artery damage due to diabetes also affects small blood vessels supplying oxygen-rich blood to your nerves. The lack of blood damages the nerves.
Diabetic neuropathy begins in the small nerves in your feet, causing tingling and pain. In severe cases, you lose sensation in your foot.
Without nerve sensation, you can’t feel minor cuts and bruises. The diminished blood flow also prevents them from healing. That’s when nonhealing wounds develop.
Like the arterial wounds of PAD, diabetic foot ulcers won’t heal on their own. If you don’t get medical treatment, these wounds enlarge, infections develop, and you’re at risk of extensive tissue death and amputation.
High blood sugar damages the small blood vessels in your eye’s retina. Though there are some treatments, diabetic retinopathy often leads to vision loss. It's also the leading cause of blindness in adults.
We have extensive experience diagnosing and treating peripheral artery disease. If we find the blockage early, we can stop it from worsening, often with lifestyle changes.
Following a healthy diet and exercising improve underlying problems like high blood pressure and cholesterol. They also keep your blood sugar in the healthy range, which is essential for preventing and treating vascular disease.
Schedule an evaluation if you have PAD symptoms like leg pain that appears when you’re active and feels better with rest. You may also have leg fatigue or changes in one leg. For example, one foot might be colder than the other or the hair may stop growing on one leg.
Advanced PAD with significant blood blockage must be treated with a minimally invasive procedure called angioplasty and stenting. We guide a thin catheter (hollow tube holding a balloon and stent) through the blood vessel to the plaque.
We inflate the balloon, which pushes the plaque against the blood vessel wall and restores healthy blood flow. Then, we deflate and remove the balloon, leaving a mesh stent in the artery to hold it open.
Call us at Memphis Vein Center or request an appointment through online booking if you have questions, want to learn your risk for PAD, or need treatment for leg pain.
