Welcome to www.FootUlcers.org
Your Resource Guide for All Topics Relating to Diabetic Foot Ulcers.

Everything You Want to Know About Foot Ulcers;
But Are Afraid to Ask!

When you have diabetes, your feet need extra care and attention. Diabetes damages the nerve endings and blood vessels in your feet, making you less likely to notice when your feet are injured. Diabetes also interferes with your body's ability to fight infection. If you develop a minor foot injury, it could become an ulcer or develop into a serious infection. Ulcers can be found on the bottom of your feet, or on the top or bottom of your toes. With good
foot care, you can prevent most of these problems.

Caring for your feet is easy. Most of the care can be done when you are bathing and getting ready for bed. Preventing injury to your feet is merely a matter of wearing properly fitted shoes and socks at all times.

These steps can help keep your feet healthy:

Examine your feet every day and have your doctor examine your feet
during every visit. Check your shoes for any loose objects or
rough edges before you put them on.

Look at foot care as part of your daily routine. Soon it will become as automatic as brushing your teeth. Don't use home remedies to treat foot problems. Home remedies can hurt your feet. Over-the-counter medicine designed to remove calluses could contain chemicals that could burn your skin. Also, trying to cut corns or calluses yourself could lead to infections.
Get early treatment for any foot problem, even a minor one.
(WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise - Jan 30, 2007)

If you do develop a foot ulcer you may want to try a product we have heard produces excellent results - DermaWound®. If you are active, you do not want to use it during the day while ambulating (follow the directions carefully, they are easy, but you have to do it right). Using it only at night will suffice; even if there is only moderate/low blood flow the results will still be remarkable.
It is very cost effective and has been around for years.

Quite often, the conventional method of treating these potential devastating wounds (see below) does more harm than good. Never ending painful debriding that seems to only make matters worse; not to mention the financial drain that only benefits the wound care "professional". Wound Vacs are not very practical for feet and their efficacy is questionable. Hyperbarics are not any better and there may be serious risks involved. Again, and this is a significant tip,
Google DermaWound.

Why Is This Important?

Among persons with diabetes, 15% develop foot ulcers during their lifetime.
Their risk of LEA (lower extremity amputaion) increases by a factor of 8 once an
ulcer develops. At 2 years following transtibial amputation, 36%
of these patients are known to have died.

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) precede 85% of nontraumatic lower extremity amputations (LEAs). Approximately 3-4% of individuals with diabetes currently have foot ulcers or deep infections.

Individuals who develop foot ulcers have a decided health-related decrease in their quality of life and consume a great deal of health care resources.

But all is not lost. Proper diet and exercise have been shown to produce dramatic effects and complete remission is possible. All it takes is some serious will-power to manifest a "do-it-to-yourself" miracle. Good luck!