Miscellaneous
Welcome to the newly released Beating Diabetes Podcast with Dr. Michele. This year the podcast will be focusing on all things diabetes. As your host, I’ll be recording solo episodes which will answer some of the most common questions I’m asked as a physician such as “what CAN I eat as a diabetic?”, “how can I lose the extra weight that I’ve put on recently?”, “is it really possible to reverse type 2 diabetes?”, “What can I do to prevent my children from getting diabetes since it runs in the family?” and more. I will also be coaching patients and clients live on-air, and conducting interviews with other diabetic experts. Today Dr. Michele is discussing diabetic neuropathy and how it leads to infections and amputations of your feet. With the increase in diabetes in recent years, we have seen an increase in many of the complications of diabetes. One of those complications is diabetic neuropathy, which is the numbness of the feet (and sometimes hands) of diabetic patients. And as with everything else in life, there is a trickle down affect when we look at diabetes, and this is why diabetes is such a big deal! Please read the example below: A simple example would go like this: A patient has diabetes for 10 years, develops numbness (diabetic neuropathy) in his feet, develops a blister on his right big toe while wearing new shoes, but because of the numbness, he does not feel the blister and continues to wear the new shoes for over 8 hours in one day. The blister pops on its own and develops into a wound (diabetic foot ulcer) which becomes infected, and after noticing pus and a bad smell coming from his foot, the patient tries to treat it on his own by soaking his foot and applying Neosporin and band-aids at home. He finally comes to see me in the office for a consultation about 3 weeks later when he realizes that it is not improving. When I see the patient, the foot is reddish pink, swollen, warm to the touch, and pus is coming out of the ulcer. I take x-rays of the foot and see that the bone is also infected. Gangrene has not set in yet, but it could happen. This patient is at risk for amputation and further complications down the road. This is a serious complication of diabetes, and unfortunately it is also very common. If you or a family member has diabetes, please schedule an appointment with your podiatrist today to evaluate your foot health and to begin a diabetic foot care program (which will prevent tragedies such as this example). Every 30 seconds, a lower limb is amputated due to a diabetic foot infection. If you or a family member has diabetes, do NOT hesitate in scheduling an appointment with your podiatrist today to avoid a diabetic foot infection which can lead to amputation. You do not need to be a statistic if you have diabetes. There are many preventative measures that can be administered by your podiatrist such as Diabetic Shoes and a Diabetic Foot Care Program. "My #1 goal as a podiatrist is to save feet!" If you have any of these conditions or type II diabetes and would like to discuss how we can work together to prevent or reverse diabetes, schedule a free consultation with me so we can dive deeper to find out what is going on and come up with a plan of action for you: drmichele.com/schedule Dr. Michele S. Colon, DPM, MS 3503 Lexington Ave. El Monte, CA 91731