Perils of of Diabetes and Barefoot

Conventional Wisdom is often wrong.  This is a two part post discussing the practice of going barefoot and diabetes.

  • A discussion of barefoot and diabetes, including amputations
  • A barefoot  incident with a sharp object

 

Amputations are a real ‘fact of life’ for millions of diabetics. Diabetes amputations happen to approximately 40,000 diabetics each each year in the United States alone. Think about that… body parts being removed.

Diabetes and Barefoot

 

With so much pain and suffering world wide … why do so many continue to listen to the American Diabetes Association and their world wide partners? I DO NOT!!!   And I thrive.

 

Intro to Barefoot and Diabetes

1)  If you are diabetic,  DO NOT TRY going barefoot unless you maintain normal blood sugars.

2) Move into barefoot exercise gradually, allow your feet to adjust to moving without shoes.  Walk barefoot in your home,  then your yard, later down the street and in parks.  Always checking your intended path for foreign, sharp objects. 

 

I go barefoot because I love it, I truly do.  Especially the barefoot play on a grassy field or on the local football field….  it is an exhilarating feeling.  I run “distance” barefoot on pavements and sidewalks because it’s a challenge.  I run barefoot on pavement in part, to prove that YOU do not have to live, eat and take drugs like the American Diabetes Association and their minions want you to do.

Diabetes and Barefoot Exercise”  is a good introduction and sums up my thoughts on barefoot exercise.

 

Barefoot Diabetes Incident

I decided to “turn my garden”, I wanted to do so in my bare feet so I used a pitch fork instead of a shovel.  The shovel would have required shoes but using a pitch fork I was able to accomplish the task barefoot.

All was well until I began raking up small brush on one end of the garden, I was going to burn them and use the ash as a fertilizer.

 

While doing so… I felt a sharp pain shoot up my foot and into my leg.   Of course my first thought was… a NAIL!  I reached down and removed the thorn in the picture (top right).   The pain lasted the rest of the day and was sore the next as well.

barefoot and diabetes

 

The picture (above) is not a great picture, despite numerous attempts the ‘auto focus’ on my camera would not function properly.  Still, it was NOT a major injury, it was merely a puncture of the skin by a thorn that had been laying in the garden where I dump my kitchen refuse.  There are all kinds of bacteria, bugs and worms in the garden eating on the organic garbage. I’m sure it was COVERED in bacteria. :)

The picture below was taken yesterday, three days later.   Once again, I made this a mini-experiment.

I used no soap, salves, ointments, lotions nor potions.  In fact, I never touched it once I removed the thorn.

The picture below is just more evidence ,a diabetic toe… is just a toe, if you maintain normal blood sugars as I do.

I did not highlight it,  but hopefully you can see the “slight” scratch in the center of the picture.   No infections … the body did it’s job.

That is the essence of “low carb paleo living” in my opinion.

Eating and living in a low inflammation lifestyle that allows your body to heal and defend itself.

 

barefoot and diabetes

 

For 90% of diabetics, the thorn in the foot would have been a “big deal”. Why? Because according to a report in this post, “90% of diabetics do not maintain normal blood sugars.   With high blood sugars, you risk infections that can lead to amputations. … which leads me to part two of this post.

Click Here for the category of  all posts regarding.”barefooting”

 

 Diabetic Amputations

With my promotion of going barefoot for diabetics … many people falsely believe I “make light” of the risk of amputations… I do not.

Diabetic AMPUTATIONS are real!!   I spent some time digging up information of diabetes amputations…  here’s what I found.

 

From the National Institute of Health

Total: 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—have diabetes.

Amputation

  • More than 60% of nontraumatic lower-limb amputations occur in people with diabetes.
  • In 2006, about 65,700 nontraumatic lower-limb amputations were performed in people with diabetes.

 

WOW! in the US alone … 65,000 diabetic amputations.  THAT IS A TRAVESTY!!

Here I am, running around barefoot,  occasionally getting  shards of glass in my foot or stepping on sharp rocks…and even getting thorns in my foot… WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE, while 10’s of thousands have amputations each year.

Does this make any sense… to ANYONE??? 

The high carb diabetes care advice ‘sold’ to millions does not benefit diabetics.

Who does the ‘carb up and shoot up’ advice benefit? … The Medical Industry, Big Pharma and Big Food.

 

I run around barefoot all the time… and I have normal blood sugar.

There is a better way to manage diabetes!

 

Reduce Your Blood Sugar the Warrior Way

Below is my personal ‘diabetes care’ manual. It is truly diabetes friendly, not Big Food, Big Pharma and Medical Industry friendly.  Every person who follows my plan improves blood sugar control.  Not coincidentally, each person who follows my diabetes care plan reduces the profits of Big Food, Big Pharma and the Medical Industry.

managing diabetes

4 thoughts on “Perils of of Diabetes and Barefoot”

  1. With respect to this quote:
    “The rewards are potentially great, and include the realization of the St. Vincent target, a 50% reduction in amputation”–it comes from an abstract of an article (Patient Educ Couns. 1995 Sep;26(1-3):183-8) that I can’t read in entirety, but the abstract suggests the following:

    1. St. Vincent is a hospital.
    2. The article states that 50% of heel ulcers are from “poor patient care”. Poor patient care is putting immobile diabetic patients in a hospital bed and not making sure that they are turned frequently enough to relieve pressure on their skin, leading to pressure ulcers (bed sores), AND feeding them a horrible “diabetic” diet of carbs, carbs, and more carbs so that their blood sugars are poorly controlled when they most need good control–when ill and trying to recover. This is what leads to diabetic amputations.

    Poor patient care is right, but I doubt “St. Vincent” sees the lousy diet they feed their diabetic patients (duly prescribed by clinical dieticians) to be a contributing factor.

    That article was written in 1995, and I don’t think the situation has changed much in the ensuing 17 years.

    1. Regarding ‘poor patient care’ … I do see your point and I appreciate the comment and your perspective.

      Your comment regarding ‘lousy diet’ … reminds me of Ruth Hintz’s story. https://www.diabetes-warrior.net/2010/09/10/ruth-hintzs-story/

      She was drug and insulin free after working with her for months. She went back into the hospital for a totally unrelated knee surgery. They fed her a high carb ‘diabetes diet’ … she exited back on drugs and insulin. It took her months before she was AGAIN drug and insulin free. She fought and beat the addiction twice, one of my heroes. :)

  2. Hi Steve, greetings from Australia, have been studying your site for some time, your articles are inspiring, helpful and wide ranging. Its a pity to expose the truth, good folks such as yourself have to put up with repressive corporate/government vested interests trying to keep the lid on alternative and natural means to cure or healthily maintain oneself.
    Being a T1 in the fifth year has been a real education, in 2007 after losing much weight and many other symptoms I ended up in a coma in a bad way, the doc telling the wife that I made it to hospital with an hour to spare, apparently achieving a BS reading just over half of a world record !
    A month in hospital, getting the “Golden Staph” bug and not having been in hospital for anything serious in my 50 odd years it was time to seriously study this condition.
    To cut a long story, my attitude is a little different, being a special forces veteran it is a “this is the end result, this is what is going to happen to get there ” attitude that has found out that natural is best, cutting out all possible processed foods, good water (not mains supplied with the cocktail of chemicals), herbs that heal,foods that boost the immune system has seen my T1 diabetes as almost a non-event, with very low dosage of insulin required, in direct contrast to docs recommendations, have managed to lower by around 70% of the amount used in hospital. Exercise, immune system, proven herbs, vegetables, good water, plenty of fresh air, never fail to stand under a tree at least once a day and breathe in refreshing oxygen, these are simple things that work.
    Keep up the great work Steve, you are an inspiration to many.

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