It is well known that approximately 90% or more of peripheral arterial disease is caused by atherosclerosis. For the general population, peripheral arterial disease can occur in nearly 20% of people over the age of 50, and the incidence is even higher in patients with diabetes. Foreign studies have found that more than 70% of people with a history of diabetes for more than 15 years have a combination of peripheral artery disease. Peripheral arterial disease caused by diabetes has its own characteristics. First, the onset is earlier: diabetes accelerates the process of atherosclerosis, and diabetic patients develop lower extremity arterial disease 8 to 10 years earlier than non-diabetic people, i.e., the onset is younger. Second, the disease is more serious: the incidence and severity of peripheral arterial lesions are higher in diabetic patients than in the general population. From the perspective of clinical symptoms, the early stage can appear cold and numbness of the limbs, mild weakness of the lower limbs when walking, and some patients may feel a wind-like discomfort in their legs and feet at night. As the disease continues to progress, the patient will experience soreness or spasmodic pain in the calf muscles when walking, also known as leg cramps, which can be recovered after resting in place for 3 to 5 minutes, and the above symptoms will still recur after walking for a while, which is known as intermittent claudication. Once the disease has progressed to this stage, it is necessary to actively treat it. If the disease progresses further, resting pain may appear in the lower extremities, especially at night, and the pain may intensify, and some patients can only sit on their knees all night, with their legs hanging down to the side of the bed to feel slightly comfortable, and they cannot sleep all night. At this stage of progression, the condition is critical and the patient’s feet are very susceptible to injury, with the slightest trauma leading to ulceration and eventually gangrene of the toes or foot or even the limb. Risk factors for lower extremity vascular disease include diabetes, smoking, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hyperhomocysteinemia, as well as advanced age, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. People with these risk factors should all be screened for peripheral vascular disease. From the perspective of diabetic patients themselves, to prevent lower limb vascular disease, they must actively control hyperglycemia, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, as well as quit smoking, lose weight, pay attention to a reasonable diet, and strengthen exercise. Here we should especially advocate sports exercise. Appropriate exercise can make the local ischemic muscle tolerance to hypoxia increase, and also can promote the formation of collateral blood vessels. The form of exercise mainly focuses on walking, and such exercise needs to be carried out under the guidance of a doctor, rather than blindly carrying out large-volume physical activities. In addition, once vascular disease is detected, a doctor should be consulted as early as possible to seek strategies for the next step of treatment. Diabetic patients can also do some simple self-exams on their own. The easiest way to check is to touch the pulsations of superficial arteries, such as the femoral, dorsalis pedis and posterior tibial arteries in the lower extremities and the radial artery in the upper extremities, etc. If the pulsations of these arteries are weakened, it indicates the presence of atherosclerosis. If there is frequent coldness in the limbs, or intermittent claudication or resting pain, go to the hospital for examination as soon as possible. In the past years, due to the lack of health promotion, people often lack the awareness of disease prevention and treatment, so few patients can take the initiative to go to the hospital for early screening of peripheral vascular lesions. As a result, many patients with diabetic foot have already developed serious ulcers and gangrene when they arrive at the hospital for treatment, and some of them even had to have their limbs amputated when they arrived at the hospital. However, the above situation has improved in recent years, and some patients were able to take the initiative to receive diagnosis and treatment at the hospital when intermittent claudication appeared. This also indicates that some patients are now gradually becoming aware of the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. It is recommended that all diabetic patients with the above symptoms, especially those who have developed foot rupture or gangrene and resting pain, should visit a vascular surgery clinic to investigate the presence of diabetic lower limb ischemia.