Diabetes - It Can Affect Many Parts of Your Body

Article submitted by Dr. Charles Oehrlein with Helena Family Podiatry.
For more information, he can be reached at 205-271-7620.

When I was in podiatry school in Philadelphia, PA, I was fitted for a new pair of glasses at the optometry school down the street. As I listened to the student doctor questioning a new patient, I noticed that his medical questions sounded very much like the ones we were taught to ask our patients. The disturbing part was that his patient became mad when asked if she was diabetic. She angrily said, "All I wanted was to have my eyes checked! What does diabetes have to do with it?"

As it turns out, it has a lot to do with it. This is true for both eyes and feet. As a podiatrist, I focus on the damage diabetes can do the feet, but this disease affects many parts of the body.

Diabetes has quietly become an epidemic, affecting millions of people without them even knowing it. A series of articles in the New York Times in January noted that about 21 million Americans are diabetic and 42 million are prediabetic. Diabetes is the number-one reason that Americans go blind, and it can wreak havoc on the extremities as well.

One of the worst things diabetes can cause is neuropathy. This is a constant burning and tingling sensation that causes pain, yet the feet feel numb. This allows minor injuries, such as scrapes or cuts, to go unnoticed and then worsen. These can develop into life-threatening problems, such as ulcerations, if left unchecked. Almost 84,000 toes, feet, and legs are amputated every year due to complications from diabetes. Most of these amputations are preventable with proper podiatric care.

Many treatments are available to help prevent diabetic complications. Medicare will pay for 1 pair of diabetic shoes and 3 pairs of diabetic inserts per patient each year to help prevent ulcerations. New medications are available to treat the pain of neuropathy, and new surgical treatments have been developed to treat more complicated diabetic foot problems.

If you have diabetes, please take off your shoes and have your feet examined EVERY time you see your doctor. Make an appointment to see your optometrist and podiatrist every 6 months. Your doctors can help you with your diabetes; all you need to do is let us.