Skin is a funny thing. Although it is often regarded as your body’s first line of defense against outside attackers, it is an incredibly porous surface, prone to absorbing the things on and around it. The skin may be one of your body’s first lines of defense, but it is also one of the first clues into what is going on within—including the presence of diabetes or diabetes complications.

Skin: A Window Into Your Diabetes

If you’ve suffered from skin conditions in the past, ranging from mild acne to severe dryness and itching, diabetes may be at the root of your problems. It may seem unrelated, but unchecked diabetes (or difficult-to-manage diabetes) can play quite a large role in harming your skin, including:

#1. Dry, Itchy Skin

A lack of proper blood flow can cause your extremities to develop dry, itchy patches of skin that are not quite as easily treated as pouring some lotion on the affected area. Because this particular type of dryness is caused by poor circulation, it is not an external problem, but an internal one.

Increasing your circulation via exercise is one way to combat the inner workings of your body’s blood flow. Keeping your blood sugar in target ranges is another way to keep itchy skin at bay. If neither of these is helping, some intensive moisturizing creams do help keep some of the itching under control.

#2. Decreased Circulation

In tandem with dry skin, decreased circulation can create a conundrum in the general appearance of skin. Many a poem has been written about the healthy flush of youth—a healthy flush that requires a well-functioning circulatory system. With decreased circulation may come a pale or gray appearance of your skin, robbing it of its glow.

This is not the case for all diabetics, nor is it necessarily dangerous. Instead, a drab appearance to skin is largely cosmetic but can cause some difficulty with confidence. If you’ve experienced a decrease in your skin’s vivacity, you may have to use an old-fashioned trick or two of pinching the cheeks or lips to create the appearance of color.

#3. Infection

Skin infections come in a wide variety of types. Acne, for instance, is an infection of the skin, as is an abscess or staph infection. Athlete’s foot and jock itch are both skin infections, and all have the potential to be caused by diabetes.

Because diabetes increases the likelihood of inflammation in the body and decreases your body’s immune response, bacteria have greater purchase, including on your skin. Similarly, excess sugar in your body creates an ideal environment for fungus, which can cause numerous infections, including nail fungus.

Diabetes has a habit of affecting every portion of your body, and your skin is no exception. Thankfully, most diabetes-based skin conditions are readily treated, and can usually be avoided through careful management of diabetes symptoms.