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Speaker 1: Let's talk about feet and diabetes because this is foot

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Speaker 1: problems are quite linked to having type two diabetes and

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Speaker 1: today is the first ever Diabetes Feet Day launched by

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Speaker 1: Diabetes Feet Australia. Who knew Sirrid Martin helps run a

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Speaker 1: program coordinated at Samary, the Essay Health and Medical Research Institute,

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Speaker 1: and Sirrid on the line, good.

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Speaker 2: Morning him, Matthew, how are you all right?

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Speaker 1: Thank you? So foot health and diabetes and particularly amputations

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Speaker 1: not something we want to think about as a result

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Speaker 1: of diabetes, but it does happen, of course.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Unfortunately Australia has one of the highest amputation rates

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Speaker 2: in the world. Really yeah, there's around six three hundred

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Speaker 2: diabetes related amputations that occur each year and that equates

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Speaker 2: to on average one amputation every two hours. So the

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Speaker 2: statistics are really quite frightening. Something that we don't think about.

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Speaker 2: We don't think about our feet until there's something wrong.

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Speaker 2: So today is all about the first Diabetes Feet Day

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Speaker 2: is its aim is to put a focus on feet.

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Speaker 2: As I said, it's something that we don't normally think

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Speaker 2: about until we've got something wrong with our feet. And

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Speaker 2: today is all about an opportunity to spread awareness and

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Speaker 2: improve everybody's footthalth, whether you've got diabetes or not.

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Speaker 1: All right, what do we need to know?

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Speaker 2: So I'll just give a quick background around how diabetes

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Speaker 2: actually affects our feet. So many of your listens might

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Speaker 2: be aware that diabetes is when we've got too much

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Speaker 2: sugar in our blood and our body is just not

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Speaker 2: able to cope with taking that sugar out of the system,

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Speaker 2: and the sugar attacks the nerves in our body, and

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Speaker 2: the feat being furthest away from our heart and our

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Speaker 2: center get affected quite prominently. And if you think of

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Speaker 2: your nerves as like an electrical cause with wires in

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Speaker 2: the middle and insulation on the outside, sugar actually does

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Speaker 2: is attack the insulation and it unravels. So you've got

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Speaker 2: exposed nerve wires or you've got exposed wires. And if

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Speaker 2: you're thinking about our nerves, you can imagine with an

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Speaker 2: electric electrical cord that doesn't function very well. So what

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Speaker 2: can happen is that we can injure our feet if

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Speaker 2: we've got nerve damage in them. So you might get

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Speaker 2: a blister from a pair of shoes that aren't fitting properly,

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Speaker 2: or you might step on something sharp and you don't

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Speaker 2: realize that you've actually hurt yourself, so you don't end

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Speaker 2: up doing anything about it because you don't realize. So

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Speaker 2: the other part of diabetes that affects our feet is

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Speaker 2: that it affects the blood supply to our feet. So

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Speaker 2: sticky sugary blood is very thick, makes it very difficult

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Speaker 2: to flow through the body. And again our feet being

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Speaker 2: furthest away. If we have an injury and we can't

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Speaker 2: get blood down to that area to heal it up,

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Speaker 2: that's when people run into trouble with ulcers and then

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Speaker 2: sometimes infection and subsequently amputation can occur. Wow.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so that's how it happens. How best, Well, I

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Speaker 1: suppose the easy answer. I don't know if it's that easy,

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Speaker 1: but avoid sugar.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. So you know, for people who are living

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Speaker 2: with diabetes, there are some really simple daily routines that

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Speaker 2: you can put into your into practice that can really

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Speaker 2: reduce your risk of foot complications. So whilst there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of doom and gloom around the amputation rate, there's

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Speaker 2: really something positive that people can put in place to

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Speaker 2: protect their feet.

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Speaker 1: Themselves, and information on that is readily available.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there is diabetes feed Australia website has quite a

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Speaker 2: bit of information on there that you can go to,

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Speaker 2: but a quick rundown of what people should be looking

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Speaker 2: out for, and this is for anyone whether you're living

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Speaker 2: with diabetes or not. But we want to drop a

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Speaker 2: wash and dry our feet carefully each day and then

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Speaker 2: you can be checking for any signs of injury or

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Speaker 2: damage to the skin and if you do notice something,

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Speaker 2: put a clean band aid or addressing on it to

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Speaker 2: protect it and help with the healing process. And if

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Speaker 2: you're not having seeing improvements in a few days, reach

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Speaker 2: out to your pediatress, your GP or your nurse to

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Speaker 2: get it checked. We would much rather see somebody earlier

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Speaker 2: on and say everything's okay, then laid it down the

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Speaker 2: track where it's much harder. It can be harder to

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Speaker 2: turn things around. And for those people who are living

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Speaker 2: with diabetes, wearing well fitting footwear with clean socks is

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Speaker 2: a really great protective strategy to make sure that your

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Speaker 2: feet aren't getting injured. And we'd like to see people

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Speaker 2: at least once a year to get their foot health

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Speaker 2: checked with the pediatress. But like you said, Matthew, working

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Speaker 2: with your health care team to optimize your diabetes control

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Speaker 2: is a really positive step to protecting your feet.

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Speaker 1: Well, Simona's texted in says, my toenails on the big

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Speaker 1: toe have recently been going black, which is probably a

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Speaker 1: fungal thing, but just wondering if it could be linked

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Speaker 1: to diabetes.

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Speaker 2: Certainly diabetes again, because your nails require a blood supply

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Speaker 2: to keep them healthy. So I'm not giving any personal advice,

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Speaker 2: but yeah, if you wanted to, if your caller wanted

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Speaker 2: to check in with a p dietrist to get that

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Speaker 2: looked out, that would probably be a safe bet and

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Speaker 2: they can come up with a treatment plan to help

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Speaker 2: with that. But yeah, certainly something to be cognizant of

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Speaker 2: any changes in your feet and reaching out for help

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Speaker 2: to get it looked at.

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Speaker 1: Sure that high rate one in one amputation every two hours,

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Speaker 1: which is what it comes down to, is that avoidable?

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Speaker 1: Why is it so high in this country? Yeah? Surely

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Speaker 1: doctors aren't that trigger happy. I wouldn't have thought definitely. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So why is it so high here?

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Speaker 2: I think there's a multitude. That's a really complex question, Mathew,

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Speaker 2: you wouldn't think it should be, but I think it's

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Speaker 2: very complex. We've got very high rates of diabetes unfortunately

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Speaker 2: in Australia, and I think we're a big country, so

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Speaker 2: access to care can be difficult in some parts of

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Speaker 2: the country. But you're right, diabetes related foot amputations should

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Speaker 2: be avoidable. They can be avoidable, and that's something that

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Speaker 2: the work that we're doing at Wadly Peringer and the

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Speaker 2: Aboriginal Health Equity Unit is working towards improving foot health

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Speaker 2: outcomes for Aboriginal in terrestrate Islander people living with diabetes

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Speaker 2: in South Australia and Diabetes Feed Australia are leading the

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Speaker 2: way for everybody living with diabetes trying to turn around

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Speaker 2: those amputation rates in the country.

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Speaker 1: The Indigenous population suffers more highly from diabetes as I

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Speaker 1: understand it, is there a reason for that?

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Speaker 2: Again, the complex question and access to care can be

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Speaker 2: very difficult for a multiple a multitude of reasons. But

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Speaker 2: at the end of the day, diabetes affects everybody, even

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Speaker 2: if you're not living with it personally, there's probably somebody

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Speaker 2: in your life that you know who has diabetes and

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Speaker 2: supporting people to live their their slives and their healthier

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Speaker 2: lives is what we should all be trying to do.

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Speaker 1: I've never had a foot problem that's required, well, anything

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Speaker 1: apart from three broken toes when I was ten on

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Speaker 1: the apart from that. So I've never been to a pediatrist.

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Speaker 1: Is there an age you should start visiting?

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Speaker 2: Great question, I think once if you are living with diabetes,

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Speaker 2: and absolutely we advocate that people should be seeing a

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Speaker 2: p dietrist every year for their general foot health checkup

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Speaker 2: because we can pick up changes in their foothealth and

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Speaker 2: we can tailor advice and help them monitor their feet

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Speaker 2: so that they can stay healthy and strong. For people

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Speaker 2: who are not living with diabetes, then again it's really

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Speaker 2: I think engaging with pia. We podiatrists look after people

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Speaker 2: across the whole lifespan, so we have poetrists who specialize

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Speaker 2: in pediatrics and looking after children right through the sports

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Speaker 2: stars you know in all in the footy teams or

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Speaker 2: you wekend warriors who are out pounding the pavements, right

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Speaker 2: through to people at the end of their days who

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Speaker 2: maybe aren't able to get to their feet as easily.

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Speaker 2: But a great if you it's like your dentist, You

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Speaker 2: go for a general you know, to a mouth check

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Speaker 2: up and teeth check up every year, so it's actually

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Speaker 2: not a bad idea, just to keep be aware of

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Speaker 2: our feet, give them a little bit more love and attention,

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Speaker 2: because they're really one of the work courses of our bodies.

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Speaker 2: They get us around every single day, and if you

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Speaker 2: think about the amount of work that they do, we

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Speaker 2: don't look after them very well, myself included. So it's

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Speaker 2: a great thing to be conscious of for sure.

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Speaker 1: All right, So yeah, maybe just check in not a

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Speaker 1: bad thing to do. And even if you don't do

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Speaker 1: it annually, if there's nothing wrong with you, but you

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Speaker 1: do it every well so often, because let me tell

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Speaker 1: as I've started to get a bit older, sarid se

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Speaker 1: the years roll by pretty quickly, and that annual appointment

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Speaker 1: can you think, no, it was only six months ago,

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Speaker 1: but no a year ago. So I suppose the key

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Speaker 1: is to see them reasonably regularly, whatever that might end

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Speaker 1: up being for you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's great advice. That's to you. I

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Speaker 2: totally agree.

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Speaker 1: All right, appreciate your time, Thank.

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Speaker 2: You, thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Sank you too, Sirrid Martin, podiatrist and program coordinator at

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Speaker 1: Samari