If you or someone that you love is a diabetic, you should know that compression socks can be a very important tool in helping to manage diabetes. The reason for this is that due to their lowered immune systems, diabetics often have a tendency to suffer from foot infections. In some diabetics, these infections can get severe enough that amputation of the affected foot is required. Fortunately though, wearing these types of socks can help prevent those foot infections from occurring in the first place.

Diabetic neuropathy is another problem that can commonly occur. This particular condition can result in diabetic individuals experiencing uncomfortable pain and numbness in their extremities. However, wearing compression socks can go a long ways towards helping to alleviate this problem.

Circulation problems are also frequently seen in diabetics. This can cause diabetic individuals to experience foot sores and blisters. By using diabetic socks they can alleviate this problem. This in turn will then allow a diabetic person to feel more much energetic which will consequently result in them experiencing a much more active, better quality life.

Also, because diabetics have a tendency to experience problems with swollen feet, wearing regular socks often feels binding and too restrictive. compression socks are especially designed to allow proper blood circulation of a diabetic’s feet they are also made to be wider than normal socks to aid in comfort plus the material they are made from will help wick away moisture. The elastics in regular socks also tend to be much tighter cutting off circulation. This can sometimes be rather painful to a diabetic, and it tends to lead to other foot problems for diabetics. Wearing compression socks is also a great way to help prevent the development of varicose veins.

In order to get the most benefits out of compression socks, it is imperative that they fit correctly. For starters, you will want to make sure that you are wearing the right size. If you are not entirely sure what size are right for you, just check with your doctor, and they will be more than happy to assist you with this.

Diabetes is oftentimes a difficult condition to have to deal with. Luckily though, utilizing the proper tools such as wearing compression socks can make your diabetes much easier to deal with. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope that this helps to keep your diabetic symptoms under good control for many more years to come!

An observational study shows that glycemic control improves when repaglinide is added to metformin in patients with Type 2 diabetes not adequately controlled with metformin monotherapy.

An insulin secretagogue is usually the next agent added in patients failing to achieve adequate glycemic control with metformin monotherapy.

In a real-world, observational study, Michel Hermans (Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium) and D D’Hooge (Novo Nordisk Pharma, Brussels, Belgium) evaluated the benefits on glycemic control of adding the short-acting insulin secretagogue repaglinide to metformin in 2171 patients managed in routine primary care.

Participating physicians recruited three to five consecutive patients with Type 2 diabetes who were not adequately controlled with metformin monotherapy and in whom a switch to dual therapy with metformin and an insulin secretagogue was being considered.

The initiation of dual therapy, as well as starting dose, frequency, and any changes in treatment, were based on physician’s clinical judgment.

Patients made two visits, at the repaglinide??”metformin dual therapy initiation and at a follow-up visit within 10??”20 weeks. Measures recorded at both visits included glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose, body mass index (BMI), and number of hypoglycemic episodes in the past month.

At the second visit, the authors reported a statistically significant decrease in HbA1c levels from 8.2% to 7.2%, and in fasting plasma glucose from 179 mg/dl to 135 mg/dl. BMI decreased slightly by an average of 0.4 kg/m².

The percentage of patients experiencing at least one hypoglycemic episode within the previous month rose slightly from 5.0% to 5.6%, but did not reach statistical significance.

The authors also determined the proportion of patients at HbA1c treatment goal at each visit. When using a goal of 7.0%, 145 (8%) patients achieved the goal at the first visit and 699 (38%) patients achieved this goal at the second visit. The number of patients with high HbA1c values (ie, at least 8.0%) decreased from 53% to 19%.

The authors note that almost all patients (98%) decided to continue dual therapy with metformin and repaglinide after the study had finished.

“Combining metformin with repaglinide appears a safe and effective therapeutic option once monotherapy with metformin is no longer adequate in adult patients with Type 2 diabetes followed in a primary care setting,” they conclude in the journal Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews.

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a part of Springer Science+Business Media. © Current Medicine Group Ltd; 2009

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Men with poorly controlled Type 2 diabetes are at increased risk for erectile dysfunction, report researchers.

“Men with diabetes have a three-fold increased risk for erectile dysfunction compared with those without diabetes,” explain Osama Mohamed (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA) and colleagues, with the presence of microvascular complications and cardiovascular disease increasing the risk still further.

Age is also a factor, as men who have Type 2 diabetes have a 10??”15-year earlier onset of erectile dysfunction compared with men with normal erectile function.

Mohamed and team investigated whether level of glycemic control, measured by percentage glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), influenced risk for erectile dysfunction in a group of 100 men with Type 2 diabetes aged 35??”50 years. The men were free of kidney and liver failure and blood abnormalities.

The researchers measured the degree of erectile function using the abridged form of the International Index of Erectile Function questionnaire.

Erectile function was graded as poor, fair, or good potency. The authors found that levels of HbA1c increased as potency decreased, with mean values of 11.0%, 8.2%, and 7.9% for poor, fair, or good potency, respectively.

“Our findings suggest that glycemic control is independently and inversely associated with erectile dysfunction in men with Type 2 diabetes,” conclude Mohamed et al.

However, they caution: “More studies with a larger number and longer duration of follow-up are required to confirm these results.”

The results of this research are published in the International Journal of Impotence Research.

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a part of Springer Science+Business Media. © Current Medicine Group Ltd; 2009

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