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Preventative Care the standard to treat new
Diabetics
Newswise — The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention recently reported that the
number of Americans with diabetes has grown
to 24 million - a surge of more than 3
million people in the past two years.
That surge is evident at Temple University’s
School of Podiatric Medicine, where
podiatrists have seen a spike in recently
diagnosed diabetic patients who have been
referred by their primary care physician as
part of a heightened awareness of the
disease.
“Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions,
and health care providers are becoming more
proactive in their approach to care,” said
Temple podiatrist Kathya Zinszer, who
specializes in diabetic wound care. “In
years past, patients would come to their
doctor with chronic foot wounds, and would
be so far gone that the only option would be
to amputate. Now, that’s not the case,
thanks to the push for preventative care.”
Temple’s approach to preventative care is
two fold: at the Foot and Ankle Institute,
newly diagnosed diabetics undergo a number
of baseline tests including shoe fittings
and gait analysis, to determine and correct
any problem areas before they develop into
chronic ulcers or wounds.
In addition, Zinszer and her colleagues
stress the need for patients to make foot
care a part of their everyday lives. She
suggests wearing good, supportive slippers
in the house, never going barefoot outdoors
and checking inside the shoes to make sure
there are no foreign objects that could rub
or cut the foot.
“I tell all my patients to get in the habit
of checking their shoes now, because while
they may have good feeling in their feet
today, in 10 years, they might not,” said
Zinszer.
“Our goal is to do everything we can to
salvage limbs and help our diabetic patients
maintain a good quality of life,” she said.
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