With diabetes, swelling of the legs can be caused by pathology from both the heart and the kidneys. Also, the cause of this problem in this disease can be the decompensation of diabetes mellitus.
Pathology of the heart and kidneys can be assessed by standard tests and examinations, which are also done by other patients facing this problem:
general urine analysis,
blood biochemistry,
urinalysis for microalbuminuria ,
ECG and other standard methods.
If no visible pathology is found in these examinations , then it is worth thinking about leg edema associated with fluctuations in blood sugar and chronic decompensation of diabetes.
Due to fluctuations in sugar (4 mmol / l – 16 mmol / l and more significant), there is a change in the permeability of the vascular wall and fluid retention in the body. Also, vascular regulation, the tone of venules and veins is disrupted , and all this leads to the occurrence of such a problem as swelling of the legs in diabetes mellitus.
Treatment is prescribed based on the reason: but in any case, first of all, it is necessary to achieve stable compensation for diabetes and the level of glycated hemoglobin in the range from 7 to 8% HbA1c. At first, it is necessary to exclude fluctuations in sugar, to make it, if not ideal, but stable without a high amplitude of fluctuations.
To protect themselves from possible complications of diabetes mellitus, including from edema of the legs, people with such a diagnosis should know as much information about their disease as possible. An excellent assistant in the fight against diabetes will be the “Course of video lectures . School lecture hall for diabetics ”.