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In terms of home remedies for the diabetic foot, there are likely a whole host of things that could be helpful. There is not a lot of evidence for treatment of various aspects of the diabetic foot in the home, but some things may be helpful. Let’s start with things on the skin. There are different kinds of lotions and creams and oils that can be useful for the skin. If you are using something like a moisturizer for the skin, I like creams and oils more than I like things like lotions. The creams have some fat in them and obviously oils do as well and they stay around a little bit longer and they could really help to moisturize the skin. Your skin can (instead of being like a cracker) it can be a little more like a tortilla. You know that a Tortilla is way stronger than a cracker, and so too is that the case in the skin. That’s what you want to work toward to make your skin a lot more moisturized and therefore stronger and less apt to crack and to develop a blister and a wound. There are a whole host of treatments for painful neuropathy – if you have pain like tingling or feeling like insects crawling on you or electricity or horrible burning at night. There are various therapies that may be useful that you can try at home. But before you try them, I really would urge you just to talk to your doctor so that you can go into this as a partnership because I think an open minded clinician working with you is a whole lot better than you just trying some kitchen chemistry on your own. I think the two can really be helpful. If you have a wound on your foot, there are many kinds of home remedies that people may talk about. But what I would urge you is to get in and see your doctor ASAP because these wounds – while they may not hurt you, because of the loss of the gift of pain with neuropathy and diabetes – they can kill you. I stress to you that instead of beginning a home remedy on a wound, that you get in to see your doctor. There may still be some remedies that may be really useful in the home that could help. But get in to see your doctor first and make this a partnership.
