Prosthetics And Diabetes – Keeping Diabetic Patients On Their Own Two Feet

The occurrence of diabetes, already the leading cause of limb loss in the United States, is growing. Prosthetists, orthotists and pedorthists see more patients with diabetes than any other presenting condition. If any patient type can be described as the foundation of O&P practice in this country, it would be the older diabetic individual with peripheral sensory neuropathy.
Despite decades of progress in managing the disease, the course of diabetes still frequently culminates in varying degrees of lower-limb morbidity and ultimately amputation. An estimated 90,000 lower-limb amputations were performed on diabetic patients last year with vascular insufficiency secondary to diabetes as the predominant cause.
With other types of practitioners usually involved in diabetic limb care, we frequently do not see a diabetic patient until an infection, lesion or deformity has progressed to the point that amputation has become the best option, and we are engaged to provide prosthetic management. However, be assured our team is well prepared to help at risk patients preserve their intact limbs, be it one limb following amputation of the other… or both.
Another disturbing diabetes statistic reveals that up to 50 percent of surviving diabetic amputees will lose their contralateral limb within five years of an initial amputation. Our goal is not to add to that number. In the case of unilateral diabetic amputees, it is not uncommon to have rigorous orthotic-pedorthic management under way for the non-amputated leg while active prosthetic care is in progress.
Such is particularly the case d Continue reading

Rate this article

Total 1 ratings

Understanding and Managing Type 2 Diabetes

At least one in three people will develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime.1 I am in my sixties and have type 2 diabetes, which is particularly common in older adults. Over one-fourth (25.9 percent) of Americans age sixty-five and older have some form of diabetes, and over half (51 percent) are prediabetic.2 If you’re walking down the street and see someone over sixty-five, it’s highly likely that that person is prediabetic or diabetic.
As a psychiatric physician, I am not a diabetes expert, but I have learned a lot about it in the twelve years since I became ill, and I continue to learn. When new information comes along that seems worthwhile, I share the it, even if it contradicts prior information. Most importantly, I am a firm believer in the importance of eating a Wise Traditions diet if you have type 2 diabetes. Were it not for the information that I obtained through the Weston A. Price Foundation, I would have been disabled, at the very least.
HOW DIABETES DEVELOPS
To understand how type 2 diabetes develops, there are little islets of beta cells clustered in the pancreas, and everyone is born with a certain number. Beta cells produce and secrete insulin. Science is still learning about the life cycle of a beta cell, but we think that when there is a metabolic stressor, the beta cells start producing more insulin. We haven’t even identified all the metabolic challenges that elicit this response, but we do know that once the beta cells are taxed, consuming a lot of carbohydrates can be hard on them.
When beta cells start putting out volumes of insulin, a funny th Continue reading

Removable implant may control type 1 diabetes

For the more than 1 million Americans who live with type 1 diabetes, daily insulin injections are literally a matter of life and death. And while there is no cure, a Cornell-led research team has developed a device that could revolutionize management of the disease.
In Type 1 diabetes, insulin-producing pancreatic cell clusters (islets) are destroyed by the body’s immune system. The research group, led by assistant professor Minglin Ma from the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has devised an ingenious method for implanting hundreds of thousands of islet cells into a patient. They are protected by a thin hydrogel coating and, more importantly, the coated cells are attached to a polymer thread and can be removed or replaced easily when they have outlived their usefulness.
Doctoral students Duo An and Alan Chiu are co-lead authors of the group’s paper, “Designing a Retrievable and Scalable Cell Encapsulation Device for Potential Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes,” published Dec. 25 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
An example of the “radical collaboration” concept that is a hallmark of Cornell research, this work also featured key contributions from: Dr. James Flanders from the College of Veterinary Medicine; professor Jintu Fan from the Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design in the College of Human Ecology; and assistant professor Meredith Silberstein from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering.
Transplantation of stem cell-derive Continue reading

Pioneering type 1 diabetes therapy safe

The first trial of a pioneering therapy to retrain the immune system and slow the advance of type 1 diabetes has shown it is safe.
The disease is caused by the body destroying cells in the pancreas that control blood sugar levels.
The immunotherapy - tested on 27 people in the UK - also showed signs of slowing the disease, but this needs confirming in larger trials.
Experts said the advance could one day free people from daily injections.
Aleix Rowlandson, from Lancashire, was diagnosed in 2015 aged 18.
"Your blood sugars affect how much energy you have," she told the BBC.
"If they're high, they can make you feel tired. If they're low, you can feel shaky.
"I'm more optimistic knowing that the study has gone well and they can use that to find further treatments.
"Even if it doesn't help me, myself, and it might help other people in the future, I'm very happy."
Aleix's immune system is attacking her beta cells, which release the hormone insulin to keep blood sugar levels stable.
As a result, she has to inject insulin several times a day.
Balance
Aleix is taking part in the trials of immunotherapy at the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at Guy's and St Thomas'.
It is an attempt to stop her diabetes by tapping into the immune system's natural checks and balances.
The body's defence system is primed to attack hostile invaders.
But it also has "regulatory T cells", which calm the immune response and prevent it attacking the body's own tissues.
Immunotherapies try to get regulatory T cells on-side by exposing them to fragments of proteins found in Continue reading

Coconut Oil Effective in Treating Diabetes

Indeed Virgin Coconut Oil has a substantial effect on blood sugar levels. My wife and daughter (both have type 2 diabetes) measure their blood sugar levels at least three times a day. When they eat the wrong foods and their blood sugar levels get to 80-100 points above normal, they don’t take extra medication, they take 2-3 tablespoons of the coconut oil directly from the bottle. Within a half hour their blood sugar levels will come back to normal. Ed, Coconut Diet Forums
Diabetes Epidemic
25.8 million children and adults in the United States, 8.3% of the population, have diabetes.1 The current rate of people becoming diabetic in the United states is doubling every 10 years. This has resulted in a windfall for pharmaceutical companies capitalizing on this “disease” with drugs designed to treat type 2 diabetes, but not deal with the underlying cause. These drugs have serious side effects.
One of the most popular diabetes drugs, Avandia, was pulled off the market in 2011 after a number of studies showed that the drug increased the risk of heart attacks among type 2 diabetes patients. The manufacturer of the drug reached a $3 billion settlement in December 2011 over its fraudulent marketing of the drug, the largest federal criminal drug-company settlement to date.
Coconut Oil and Type 2 Diabetes
Information that is finally making its way into the mainstream media is that type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle and diet issue that can be reversed without drugs. This information has been known for years, however, among those in the alternative health crowd. Consider these testimoni Continue reading