Often you can take care of ingrown toenails on your own. If the pain is severe or spreading, your doctor can take steps to relieve your discomfort and help you avoid complications of ingrown toenails.

If you have diabetes or another condition that causes poor blood flow to your feet, you're at greater risk of complications of ingrown toenails.

You can treat most ingrown toenails at home. Here's how:

• Soak your feet in warm water. Do this for 15 to 20 minutes three to four times a day. Soaking reduces swelling and relieves tenderness.
• Place cotton or dental floss under your toenail. After each soaking, put fresh bits of cotton or waxed dental floss under the ingrown edge. This will help the nail grow above the skin edge.
• Apply antibiotic cream. Put antibiotic ointment on the tender area and bandage the toe.
• Choose sensible footwear. Consider wearing open-toed shoes or sandals until your toe feels better.
• Take pain relievers. Over-the-counter pain relievers such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and naproxen sodium (Aleve) may help ease the toe pain.

 To help prevent an ingrown toenail:

• Trim your toenails straight across. Don't curve your nails to match the shape of the front of your toe. If you have your toenails done at a salon, be sure to tell your pedicurist to trim your nails straight across. If you have a condition that causes poor blood flow to your feet and you can't trim your nails, see a podiatrist regularly to have your nails trimmed.
• Keep toenails at a moderate length. Trim toenails so they're even with the tips of your toes. If you trim your toenails too short, the pressure from your shoes on your toes may direct a nail to grow into the tissue.
• Wear shoes that fit properly. Shoes that place too much pressure on your toes or pinch them may cause a nail to grow into surrounding tissue. If you have nerve damage to your feet, you may not be able to sense if your shoes fit too tightly. Take care to buy and wear properly fitted shoes, preferably from a shoe store specializing in fitting shoes for people with foot problems.
• Wear protective footwear. If your work puts you at risk of injuring your toes, wear protective footwear, such as steel-toed shoes.
• Check your feet. If you have diabetes, check your feet daily for signs of ingrown toenails or other foot problems.

If home remedies haven't helped your ingrown toenail, your doctor may recommend:

• Lifting the nail. For a slightly ingrown nail (redness and pain but no pus), your doctor may carefully lift the ingrowing nail edge and place cotton, dental floss or a splint under it. This separates the nail from the overlying skin and helps the nail grow above the skin edge. At home, you'll need to soak the toe and replace the material daily.
• Partially removing the nail. For a more severe ingrown toenail (redness, pain and pus), your doctor may trim or remove the ingrown portion of the nail. Before this procedure, your doctor may temporarily numb your toe by injecting it with an anesthetic.
• Removing the nail and tissue. If you have the problem repeatedly on the same toe, your doctor may suggest removing a portion of the nail along with the underlying tissue (nail bed). This procedure may prevent that part of your nail from growing back. Your doctor will use a chemical, a laser or other methods.

The post Home Remedies: Complications of ingrown toenails appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ANSWER: Peripheral neuropathy is a common problem that can happen as a result of diabetes. But it isn’t inevitable. To help prevent peripheral neuropathy, closely follow your health care provider’s instructions for managing your diabetes and make healthy lifestyle choices.

Peripheral neuropathy happens when nerves in your feet or hands — your peripheral nerves — become damaged. Diabetes may lead to peripheral neuropathy because excess sugar in the blood can injure the walls of the tiny blood vessels, called capillaries, which deliver blood to the nerves. That injury hampers the capillaries’ ability to carry sufficient amounts of blood. Without proper nourishment, the peripheral nerves lose their ability to function properly.

Although peripheral neuropathy can affect both the hands and the feet, for people with diabetes, it’s more common in the feet. It usually involves a slow progression of numbness, prickling or tingling in the feet that may then spread into the legs. Some people with peripheral neuropathy also feel a sharp, jabbing, throbbing, freezing or burning pain, and their feet may be extremely sensitive to touch.

The best thing you can do to help prevent peripheral neuropathy is keep your blood sugar under control. Monitor your blood sugar regularly, and take your diabetes medications exactly as directed by your health care provider.

Exercising regularly also can help control your blood sugar and help prevent peripheral neuropathy. Try to make physical activity part of your daily routine. Thirty minutes of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, on most days of the week is recommended. A combination of exercises — aerobic exercises, such as walking, biking or swimming on most days, combined with resistance training, such as weightlifting or yoga twice a week — often helps control blood sugar more effectively than either type of exercise alone.

A healthy diet is important, too. Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes each day, and limit the amount of food you eat that contains saturated fat. If you have questions about your diet, talk to your health care provider, or consider meeting with a dietitian who specializes in working with people who have diabetes.

Exercise and diet also can help if you need to lose weight. If you’re overweight, getting to and staying at a healthy body weight can lower your blood sugar significantly, thus reducing your risk of peripheral neuropathy.

If you smoke, stop. Smoking can affect your blood circulation and raise your risk of developing peripheral neuropathy. If you're having trouble quitting on your own, ask your health care provider about smoking cessation options, including medications to help you quit.

Because peripheral neuropathy can sometimes begin slowly with just numbness in the feet, it’s important that you are vigilant about foot care. Check your feet daily for any cuts or other injuries. Left unchecked, a small injury can turn into a major infection. To avoid foot damage, be careful when you trim your toenails, wear shoes that fit properly and don’t go barefoot.

If you notice any foot injuries or sores on your feet that do not heal, make an appointment with your health care provider to have them checked as soon as possible. Also, talk to your health care provider right away if you notice any foot numbness or pain. Early diagnosis and treatment of peripheral neuropathy offer the best chance for controlling its symptoms and preventing further damage to your nerves. — Dr. Elizabeth Cozine, Family Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System, Zumbrota, Minnesota 

The post Mayo Clinic Q and A: Diabetes and risk of peripheral neuropathy appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

In this Mayo Clinic Minute, reporter Vivien Williams talks to Dr. Elizabeth Cozine about how to keep your feet healthy.

Watch: The Mayo Clinic Minute

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video pkg (0:58) is in the downloads. Read the script.

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Listen: Mayo Clinic Radio 9/10/16

According to the National Institutes of Health, functional neurological disorders, also known as conversion disorders, are conditions in which you show psychological stress in physical ways. Conversion disorder can present as blindness, paralysis or other nervous system symptoms that cannot be explained by a physical illness or injury. Symptoms may occur because of emotional distress or psychological conflict, and they usually begin suddenly after a stressful experience or traumatic event. On  Mayo Clinic Radio, psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Staab explains diagnosis and treatment of functional neurological disorders. Also on the program, Dr. Justin Kreuter, medical director of the Blood Donor Center on Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus, covers the urgent need for blood donations. Family medicine physician Dr. Elizabeth Cozine has tips on foot care. And, Dr. Heidi Nelson talks about the importance of the human microbiome.

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Here's the Mayo Clinic Radio podcast.

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Listen to the program on Saturday, Sept. 10, at 9:05 a.m. CDT, and follow #MayoClinicRadio.

Mayo Clinic Radio is on iHeartRadio.

Access archived shows.

Mayo Clinic Radio produces a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic.

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Listen to the program on Saturday, Sept. 10, at 9:05 a.m. CDT.

Miss the show?  Here's the Mayo Clinic Radio podcast.

Follow #MayoClinicRadio, and tweet your questions.

Mayo Clinic Radio is on iHeartRadio.

Mayo Clinic Radio produces a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic.

Access archived shows.

The post Mayo Clinic Radio: Functional neurological disorders / blood donation / foot care / human microbiome appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.