Taking care of the wounds on your body is no different than maintaining the tires on your car or tune-ups on your air conditioning in your home. If you choose to ignore symptoms of an injury or make decisions that exacerbate your injury, especially if your body has difficulty healing, you run the risk of severe consequences like gangrene, hematoma, amputation, or even death.
By taking steps to prevent and treat a wound that won’t heal, you can safeguard your body against dangerous chronic wounds that can possibly save a limb and help you get back to normal life.
Diabetes is the root cause of many wounds that won’t heal because it directly damages the body’s natural healing process.
If you have healthy, balanced blood sugar, any wound on your body triggers a natural response of blood flow, clotting, and scabbing. This process protects your underlying tissues from bacteria and fights infection. Your nearby blood vessels also jump into action to deliver fresh oxygen and nutrients to the wound, which gives powerful white blood cells the opportunity to support rapid wound healing.
This natural response becomes far more difficult if you have diabetes or uncontrolled high blood sugar. Extremely high levels of sugar in the blood impair the function of white blood cells, which in turn stunts the body’s ability to ward off bacteria. As a result, diabetics are more prone to sudden infections and wounds that won’t heal.
Diabetes also poses a threat to rapid wound healing because it triggers a type of nerve damage called diabetic neuropathy. Since excessively high blood sugar levels interfere with the ability of your nerves to send signals, diabetic neuropathy causes tingling and numbness in the hands and feet.
If you are a diabetic with neuropathy, you could step on a nail and not even realize it! Unless you evaluate your feet daily for signs of injury and infection, a wound could fester for days or weeks before you find it. This is the unfortunate case with many diabetics, who don’t notice their wounds until infection has already spread down into the bone. In severe cases, amputation is the only viable treatment option.
We all know that injuries can’t endure too much pressure, which is exactly why patients of foot, ankle, and leg injuries use wheelchairs and crutches during the recovery process. Eliminating pressure from a wound is known as offloading, and a lack of offloading can interfere with proper wound healing.
This same principle applies to less obvious wounds like foot ulcers. Imagine if a 250-pound patient worked on his feet all day with an existing diabetic foot ulcer. All day long, his full body weight would crush the cells attempting to regenerate and heal his wound. If a specific offloading system isn’t implemented for patients at risk of placing excessive pressure on their wounds, healing may never occur.
Compression reduces swelling by increasing pressure in the tissue under the skin. As pressure increases, any excessive fluid build-up in the legs is forced back into the blood vessels. This simple component of wound care offers many essential benefits:
Given the proven correlation between diabetes and wounds that won’t heal, it’s essential that you keep your blood sugar under control. Working with your doctor to treat your diabetes with diet, exercise, and medication adjustments can have a huge influence on the efficiency of your body’s natural wound-healing process and immune system.
If you can optimize the activity of red blood cells, white blood cells, and your overall circulatory system, you’ll begin to improve your body’s wound-healing response and protect yourself from non-healing diabetic wounds.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is the ultimate proven treatment for diabetic wounds and other non-healing wounds. This safe and natural alternative therapy uses the power of pressurized oxygen to stimulate your body’s innate healing process. As a result, it can kickstart tissue repair in wounds that previously failed to heal.
During an HBOT treatment, you lie comfortably in a special hyperbaric chamber and simply inhale concentrated oxygen. As this oxygen flows through your body, it dissolves directly into all of your body’s fluids and permeates areas where circulation is reduced or blocked. Inhaling the concentrated flow of oxygen provided through regular HBOT treatments makes it possible to overcome oxygen deficiencies and stimulate a more effective healing process.
By stimulating and supporting the body’s natural healing capabilities, HBOT helps your non-healing wounds move into the recovery process. White blood cells deliver the oxygen needed to effectively kill bacteria, reduce swelling, and allow the rapid reproduction of new blood vessels. HBOT even enables cells to build new connective tissue and improve organ function.
A non-healing wound isn’t like an ear infection that disappears with a single round of antibiotics. It’s a serious and complex condition that requires dedicated holistic treatment to heal. That is why it’s so important to find an experienced wound care specialist who can help you address your non-healing wounds.
The team at BH Wound Care offers state-of-the-art treatments are designed to address your unique medical needs and help you enjoy your life without the hindrance and dangers of wounds that won’t heal.
Struggling with a non-healing wound can be incredibly frustrating, but you don’t have to face it alone, BH Wound Care has you covered.
By harnessing the power of advanced, evidence-based medical technologies, we aim to expedite the healing process, helping you get back to your life wound-free. Our ultimate goal is to achieve complete healing for every patient we serve.
Our highly trained specialists work in tandem, ensuring comprehensive care. Whatever your requirements, we’re here to help you through every step of the healing journey, from handling referrals to insurance authorizations and beyond.
With regular follow-ups and unwavering support, we keep a close eye on your progress, ensuring the quickest possible recovery.
Don’t let non-healing wounds hold you back any longer. Experience the difference at BH Wound Care and rediscover a life without limitations.