Diabetes Research Reveal Fewer Amputations

By: Bill Waters
01/26/2012 06:30 PM ET

Diabetes was the recent focus in a health study that reveal amputations have drastically declined.

In fact, amputations were once a fairly common practice among people who suffered from diabetes, and it often resulted in the removal of the patient’s feet and legs.

However, new government research shows that there has been a dramatic decline in the practice involving people who have the blood sugar disease and it is most-likely the result of better treatment options. According to this extremely comprehensive study, the rate has decreased by more than half since the mid-1990s.

It was reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that older diabetic’s amputations fell from over 11 to around 4 per 1,000 people.

Many diabetes studies have presented a decline in lost appendages; however, they were not as drastic as this one.

Diabetes is a chronic disease in which sufferers have high levels of sugar in their blood stream. Diabetics have elevated blood sugar due to their bodies being unable to move sugar into their liver, fat and muscle cells where it is normally stored for energy.

The sugar is not moved into these body parts due to their pancreas not producing enough insulin or their cells not responding to the insulin in a normal way or both reasons.

Source: Diabetes Amputations