Diabetic Ulcers

• Athlete’s Foot
• Toenail Fungus
• Calluses
• Corns
• Blisters
• Bunions
• Dry Skin
• Foot Ulcers
• Ingrown Toenails
• Plantar Warts

If managing diabetes was simply a matter of controlling blood sugar, that would be one thing. But the condition is often accompanied by other troublesome complications, one of them being diabetic ulcers—wounds that heal slowly or not at all.

The good news is that there’s a far better natural treatment for these painful, persistent sores than today’s antibiotic therapies, and it’s one I’ve been using at the Whitaker Wellness Institute for more than 20 years. It’s a simple sugar dressing.

When white sugar or honey is packed inside and on top of a diabetic ulcer, it dissolves in the fluid exuding from the wound and creates a hyperosmotic, or highly concentrated, medium in which bacteria cannot exist. Scientists have tested the viability of many types of bacteria, including Klebsiella, Shigella, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pyogenes, and none of them have been able to survive in a honey or sugar solution.

In addition to curbing infection, this therapy facilitates healing in other ways. It draws fluid out of the wound, which reduces swelling. It provides a covering or filling and therefore prevents scabbing. It encourages the removal of dead tissue to make way for new growth. It promotes granulation, which is the formation of connective tissue and blood vessels on the surface of a wound. Finally, it supports the growth of new skin covering the wound.

Although we use them specifically to heal diabetic ulcers, sugar or honey dressings can be used to treat any kind of open wound or burn. However, they will not work on abscesses or pustules that are covered with skin. Also, do not use them on a bleeding wound, because sugar promotes bleeding. (By the way, sugar and honey are perfectly safe to use on diabetic wounds because they do not enter the bloodstream.)

Here’s how to use sugar to treat a diabetic ulcer:

• Unravel a 4” x 4” piece of gauze into a long strip and coat it with Vaseline. Place it around the outside edges of the wound, like a donut.
• Cover the wound with ¼-inch of sugar. (The Vaseline “donut” will keep it in place.)
• Place a 4” x 4” sponge on top of the wound. Bandage it firmly but not too snugly with a cling dressing.
• Change the dressing every one or two days. Remove, irrigate with water, saline, or hydrogen peroxide, pat dry, and repeat steps 1–3.

This is one diabetic complication you don't have to live with. Give this approach a try. I think you’ll be happy with the results.

 

As I’ve said many times (and conventional medicine continues to ignore) diabetes is a nutritional wasting disease. As a result of the continual nutritional losses that occur in people with diabetes, body parts simply fall off.

Diabetes is our number-one cause of blindness, amputation, and kidney failure. It dramatically increases the risk of both heart attack and stroke. And if you have pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome (also called syndrome X), you’re on the road to significant complications if you don’t address these nutrient losses with high-dose, targeted supplements for diabetes.

Folks, it’s not complicated. If you were to give a healthy person an osmotic diuretic every day and did not replace nutrients, you would produce the same complications suffered by those living with diabetes and related conditions.

Let’s examine some of these losses and what they mean for you.

Magnesium. Excessive urination washes out magnesium. Low magnesium levels are present in 25 percent of those with diabetes, and even those with levels considered to be “high” don’t reach the average levels of those without blood sugar concerns.

Magnesium is involved in glucose transfer across cell membranes and improves insulin sensitivity and glucose control. When magnesium goes down, glucose control deteriorates. That’s because magnesium is essential to normal carbohydrate metabolism.

Low magnesium levels are associated with the diabetic retinopathy. Said another way, if you have diabetes and you have very low magnesium, you are at the greatest risk of going blind. Low magnesium levels are also connected to high blood pressure and heart disease. Now, shouldn’t everyone living with diabetes be taking magnesium supplements to reduce or completely avoid such devastating complications?

Zinc is another water-soluble nutrient that is flushed from the body, and as a result, diabetes produces low zinc levels. This complication can impair the immune system, particularly T-cell function, which could lead to more infections and non-healing ulcers. Zinc deficiency also can cause hair loss as well as diarrhea, which triggers further nutrient losses still. All together now, shouldn’t everyone with diabetes be taking zinc supplements?

B-complex vitamins. B6, B12, and folic acid are also water-soluble and vulnerable to loss via excessive urination from diabetes. This leads to increased homocysteine levels and dramatically increased risk of heart disease.

Low levels of B6 can cause glucose intolerance, depression, cracked lips, and dry skin. A B12 deficiency may exhibit no obvious symptoms at first, but over time can produce mental disturbances, anemia, and impaired nerve function. A lack of folic acid may bring on depression, forgetfulness, insomnia, irritability, and fatigue. Repeat after me. Shouldn’t everyone living with diabetes be taking supplemental B vitamins?

Diabetes complications are as frightening as the disease itself--which is growing exponentially in this country. Given these facts, you’d think the most basic aspects of this illness would at least be understood, if not one of the primary focuses of treatment. Sadly, this isn’t happening.

It’s up to us. I’ll keep spreading the word. And if you have diabetes, you owe it to yourself to get on a high-dose supplement program as soon as possible, with a particular emphasis on these water soluble nutrients.