Elect to Save Your Feet Campaign

Key Messages
 

·        Nearly 24 million American children and adults have diabetes.

·        Close to six million Americans have diabetes, yet are undiagnosed.

·        The feet, which are often overlooked during regular medical checkups, can reveal the first signs and symptoms of diabetes and other serious medical conditions.

·        Diabetes can cause nerve damage in the legs and feet, which can lead to the inability to feel pain.  Due to poor blood flow, small sores and cuts that go unnoticed on the feet can lead to hard to heal wounds called diabetic ulcers. 

·        Diabetes is the leading cause non-traumatic lower-limb amputations.

·        Podiatric physicians are medically trained to treat foot conditions that result from the disease, such as neuropathy, infection, diabetic ulcers and amputations.

·        Feet can show a number of diabetes warning signs and symptoms such as redness, numbness, tingling, burning, swelling, coldness, loss of hair, inflammation and non-healing wounds or sores.

·        The type and severity of complications suffered as a result of diabetes varies from person to person. For this reason treating diabetes requires a team approach encompassing physicians from different specialties, including a podiatric physician, a dentist, an eye doctor and a primary care physician.

·        A comprehensive foot care treatment plan can reduce amputation rates by 45 to 85 percent, according to the American Diabetes Association.

·        Unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes is highly preventable.  Excess weight and inactivity contribute to the large number of type 2 diabetes cases.  Having an active lifestyle and adopting a healthy diet can significantly decrease a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

·        Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

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