What Causes An Ulcer?

Ulcers can be very difficult to treat depending upon what their origin is and how well you treat it. There are a variety of causes for ulceration including diabetic neuropathy (which is when your nerves no longer allow you to feel something touching your foot), the loss of blood flow to an area, the inability of veins to take the blood back to your heart, undue amounts of pressure in a particular area and smoking. For each of these cases, there are preventative measures that you can take to work towards preventing ulceration from forming. In this blog, we will discuss these measures and in the next one we will discuss treatment.

Diabetic neuropathy ulcerations are due to the inability to feel a pebble, a sock, a rough edge in your shoe and a variety of other objects. When you go all day walking without feeling the pain or presence of one of these items, you can end up rubbing an ulcer on a part of your foot. So, to help prevent this from happening or from becoming worse, these are a few steps you can take. Accommodative orthoses are total contact inserts that once in your shoes will make sure that there is an equal distribution of weight across the bottom of your foot. This helps to ensure that there is no one point that is taking on more pressure. You can also dump out your shoes each morning before putting them on and feel with your hands to see if anything is in them. Finally, if you or your significant other notices the start of an ulcer, go and see your podiatrist immediately so that treatment can be aggressive and a major ulcer can be prevented.

An area that loses blood flow can also form an ulcer. Prevention in this situation is to make sure you are going to your doctor regularly to check that you have good blood flow. If it is noticed that it has decreased then you will need to see a specialist to determine what the best route of treatment is. The best prevention of these ulcers is working to to not get to the point of no blood flow in a particular area. Otherwise, depending on how much blood flow you have, we may not be able to treat your ulcer as well, until the underlying problem is addressed.

If your veins are not working properly, you will notice that your legs begin to feel heavy throughout the day and that they are swelling due to the excess fluid in the area, you may develop an ulcer. Prevention for this type of ulcer is using compression stockings to assist or more aggressive compressive therapies. This will help the return of the blood and relieve the pressure on your veins.

Pressure ulcers result from inappropriate amounts of pressure to a particular area. This can occur in instances such as bed rest. Prevention for these include changing positions frequently to reduce pressure on the skin.

Smoking opens you up to ulcers because it ages the skin, causing it to thin and become dry. This predisposes the area to an ulcer. The best way to avoid these is to stop smoking. Smoking causes a wide array of medical problems to both the user and the people around them. Smoking is an addiction and can be very difficult to stop, but it is imperative to a healthy lifestyle that you do.

If you or someone you know living in the Dracut, Methuen, Lowell or North Andover, Massachusetts areas has an ulcer, our office staff would be more than happy to make you an appointment. We can be contacted at (978) 794-8406. Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to help you with forming a treatment plan as well as suggesting prevention for the future.