Up above, the crashing of the wave tosses wild currents around the coral. A small damselfish swimming through the reef is tossed against the reef and nicks itself on the sharp coral. Three shiny scales scrape away and drift motionless, until the current starts to spin them about. A tiny drop of blood slowly seeps out into the ocean. Startled, the little damsel scurries away, out into the open ocean.
A mile away, a languishing bluetip reef shark senses an odor. The tiny droplet of blood, spread thin in the ocean, awakens the sharks hunger. He can smell the blood and weaves his way though the sea, continually tracking back and forth, to a stronger and stronger scent trail. The little damselfish, still barely bleeding, but leaving a trail to follow, is the end of the path for the shark. Jagged teeth, open wide, the damsel hasn’t a chance.
The story of the shark in the damsel provides a perfect analogy for the way your body fights bacteria when you develop a diabetic foot infection. The bacteria is much like the little damselfish. As it moves through the tissue in your foot, it leaves chemical markers that signal its presence.
The sharks are much like the white blood cells (known as macrophages) that track down the bacteria through a process known as chemotaxis. Once the macrophages locate the bacteria, thee actually surround the bacteria with the cell wall, effectively eating them. The way that they eat the bacteria in this way is known as phagocytosis. Unfortunately diabetes and the high levels of blood sugar that are associated with diabetes, can have a profound effect on both chemotaxis and phagocytosis.
When the serum blood glucose is high, the macrophages are not able to follow the scent that leads to the bacteria. In a way, the white blood cells are then much like a hungry blind shark, who cannot see or smell, drifting through the vast open ocean just hoping to bump into a damselfish.
To complicate matters further, the process of phagocytosis is also disabled when the blood sugar is elevated. So even if the blind, senseless shark does bump into a damselfish, is almost as if his mouth is wired shut. Even when the shark can find a damselfish, it still cannot eat it.
This is the reason that a diabetic foot infection is an emergency that quickly becomes limb or life-threatening. In less than 24 hours, a minor infection can kill a diabetic. In almost every amputation that is performed on diabetics, it is likely that earlier intervention could have prevented the extent of limb loss.
For this reason it is critical for a diabetic to check the feet every day. Otherwise, a minor blister, open sore or ingrown toenail can start with a small infection and quickly get much worse. As the bacteria divide, the sharks can do nothing to stop them.
In a normal healthy adult, an ingrown toenail can remain infected for days before the infection worsens. In a diabetic, this is simply not true. A diabetic with elevated blood sugar has an impaired immune system. The disabled immune system is incapable of controlling the growth of the bacteria and serious complications develop.
Every 30 seconds a limb, somewhere is amputated because of diabetes. Diabetes also accounts for more than half of all of the amputations that are performed. This problem is actually getting worse and not better. The rate of diagnosis of diabetes is continuing to skyrocket. It is also predicted that the prevalence of diabetes will continue to climb as the baby boomers age.
Given the current circumstances of Medicare and other insurance carriers not providing insurance coverage for preventative care such as aggressive monitoring and education of diabetic foot problems, the number of amputations will also continue to rise. Unfortunately this is all preventable, but it is not being usually prevented.
It has been well documented that performing daily foot checks, seeking early treatment for a diabetic foot problem, and maintaing low blood sugar can all help to avert the problems in diabetes that culminate in amputation. However the current trend is that insurance companies will only pay for care associated with the complications such as the diabetic foot infections, hospitalizations and diabetic amputations.
Because of the way these episodes unfold, this leaves many patients with no leg to left to stand on.
You must have a diabetic foot check every year. If you also have neuropathy or diabetic nerve damage, it is important to be seen more often. You must check your feet every day. You should also wear white diabetic socks so that you can detect any drainage in the event that you do get a sore on your feet, you cannot see. All of these minor interventions have shown to significantly reduce the rates of complications to the feet from diabetes.
Posts Tagged ‘infections’
What Do Sharks and Diabetic Foot Infections Have in Common?
Thursday, March 11th, 2010Women more vulnerable to HIV infections
Monday, March 8th, 2010Women more vulnerable to HIV infections
The view of poor and developing countries is that women and adolescent girls are more vulnerable to HIV infection on each sexual encounter because of the biological nature of the process and the vulnerability of the reproductive tract tissues to the virus, especially in adolescent girls.
For example, young women are generally disadvantaged by gender disparities in terms of food intake and access to health care. Growth patterns of girls are often worse than that of boys. The inequalities become evident soon after the birth, and by adolescence many girls are grossly underweight. Social, cultural and economic forces make women more likely to contract HIV infection than men. Women are often less able to negotiate for safer sex due to reasons such as their lower status, economic dependence and fear of violence.
Adolescent girls in poor families in developing countries often do not have the option to make real choices about their sexual and reproductive lives, such as when and whom to marry, whether and when to have children and how many to have, and whether to use contraceptives. Women tend to marry very young: nearly two thirds of adolescents in most South Asian countries marry before 18 years of age, and many even before 15 years, despite laws prohibiting such early marriage.
The âRainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation’ identified four major approaches in a groundbreaking study on spread out HIV in Bangladesh. This study undertook by comparing of social-economic norm, family pattern, economic dependency, cause of mounting sex industries, gender discrimination status & global analysis fact. There are four factors that appear to play a crucial role in HIV transmission in Bangladesh: Injection/ intravenous drug use (By sharing needle), female sex work (Due to lack of safe sex knowledge), gender discrimination (which indirectly force females commercial or non-commercial sex), Same sex/ homosexually/ Hizra (Due to lack of HIV/AIDS information, because they act invisible in this society). Poverty & illiteracy fueled it proportionally.
In many poor regions women’s limited economic opportunity and relative powerlessness may force them into sex work in order to survive through household financial disaster. This exposes them to HIV infection and they in turn transmit HIV to their clients. In those areas girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV infections because of intergenerational sexual relationships, violence, and limited access to information. In addition, discrimination and stigma obstruct adolescent girls’ access to health services. Poverty causes increased migration to look for work.
Gender analysis in relation to HIV/AIDS has tended to focus on women of reproductive age, and infrequently on young girls, because young women and girls are increasingly being targeted for sex by older men seeking safe partners and also by those who erroneously believe that a man infected with HIV/AIDS will get rid of the disease by having sex with a virgin. So HIV/AIDS epidemic has been fuelled by gender inequality or discrimination. Unequal power relations, sexual coercion and violence are widely faced by women of all age-groups, and these have an array of negative effects on female sexual, physical and mental health.
In many developing countries poverty and gender discrimination between women and men are both strongly linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS. Gender and age analysis shows the ways in which women and girls of different ages are vulnerable to the infection, and it requires support to help the survivors overcome the financial and social effects of the epidemic. The approach for checking HIV/AIDS and that of poverty alleviation are interconnected. Therefore health and development workers should work on a set of integrated policies and programmes to reduce poverty and address HIV/AIDS. They should emphasise the need for special efforts to protect women and girls exposed to the risk of HIV/AIDS and ensure that the legal, civil and human rights of those affected and infected are duly protected and that women have access to treatment, counselling and support on an equal footing with men.
References: Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation, UNAIDS, ARDS
Womens Health – Obesity and Yeast Infections
Saturday, February 6th, 2010As if the overweight men and women of the world didnât have enough to worry about, but yes, obesity is one of the risk factors of chronic yeast infections.
There are two reasons why overweight women get more vaginal yeast infections, and why both men and women who weigh too much can get skin rashes and oral thrush, which are both caused by Candida albicans yeast.
The first reason is purely physical â yeast loves warm, moist areas on the skin, and folds of fat create exactly the right conditions for yeast living on the skin. Yeast can overpopulate areas under the breasts, in the armpit, in the crotch, and in any area that stays damp from perspiration. An absorbent powder used in these areas can help.
The other reason has to do with hormones. As most of us know, obesity is one of the major risk factors for Type II Diabetes. And the risk of diabetes is caused by something that also causes yeast infections â a change in your hormone balance due to increased insulin resistance.
Insulin is a hormone that is used by your body to keep your blood sugar at a safe level. Extra fat cells can make your body resistant to insulin, so your pancreas needs to produce more and more of this hormone to be effective. When the pancreas is no longer able to pump out enough insulin to clear your blood of excess glucose, you are said to have insulin resistance. By this point, you will probably also be diagnosed with diabetes or pre-diabetes.
Since insulin resistance can cause yeast infections, many women are first diagnosed with diabetes when they go to their doctor about their chronic vaginal infections.
How can an overweight man or woman reduce their risk of yeast infections? By staying as dry as possible, of course. But the most important thing to do is to improve your health so you reduce your risk of diabetes, which is a far more serious condition than a yeast infection. To do that, you must lose weight, go on a healthy diet, and get regular exercise.
Since insulin resistance can make it difficult to lose weight, itâs important to include exercise in your daily routine. Exercise helps improve your cellâs ability to use insulin. It also helps to prevent heart disease, which often accompanies obesity and diabetes. The exercise will help you lose weight, too.
And, you need to talk to your doctor about a healthy diet that will help prevent or reverse your risk of diabetes. Studies have shown that a good diet, accompanied by regular exercise, are the most effective treatment for insulin resistance.
The Diabetes Prevention Program suggests a low-calorie, low-fat diet. Since yeast loves sugar, you may want to eliminate sugar from your diet, as well. It will help you reduce the daily calories you consume, help you lose weight, and reduce your risk for those aggravating yeast infections.
Your first step if youâre overweight and suffering from chronic yeast infections? Talk to your doctor, get checked for diabetes, and take your doctor’s advice! It could save your life.
Baldder Infections in Men, Women and Childerns
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Although many people associate a bladder infection with women, all humans are actually at risk for developing this infection. There are numerous causes for bladder infections, as well as urinary tract infections. Let’s take a look at some of the most common urinary tract infection in women, men and children.Men
Although male urinary tract infections are not as many bladder infections as women, thanks in part to the length of their urethra, which makes it harder for bacteria to reach the bladder, most men will deal with the issue at least once in their lives. Urinary tract infections in men can be incredibly painful for a man, so it is important to understand what causes a urinary tract infection.
First, let’s look at an STD that is becoming increasingly more common and is one of the top causes of bladder infections in men. Chlamydia trachomatis is the second most popular bacteria that can lead to a UTI, and as the name suggests, it is related to the STD known as Chlamydia. You can get this STD through unprotected intercourse. Once the bacteria is present, it travels up the urethra, until it reaches the bladder. After it arrives there, a bladder infection will commonly ensue.
It is important for men that are afflicted with this STD to understand that they can pass the bacteria on to their partner. For women, this is also the second most popular bacteria responsible for a UTI.
By far however, the most common cause of male bladder infection is the bacteria called e-coli. This bacteria is present in most digestive tracts and improper hygiene or specific sex acts can increase the risks of having this bacteria cause a bladder infection in men. Once again, this can also be transmitted during sex, to both partners.
Kidney stones are a common affliction for many man, and one of the usual side effects of this problem is a UTI. The stone creates a blockage in the urethra, which allows bacteria to build up, therby causing a bladder infection. This is a more difficult situation to handle since hygiene does not play as large of a role. Every human has bacteria in their system, but when it builds up, it can easily cause bladder infections in men and women.Children
By far, the most common cause of urinary tract infections in children is improper hygiene. For children that are just starting their bathroom training, it can be difficult for them to grasp the necessity that they must wipe in the proper direction, from front to back, in order to keep clean. They may have coordination issues at first, and it is quite common for children to experience a UTI during this stage of their lives.
Even if they are past this point in their training, if parents do not effectively monitor hygiene practices, frequent infections can occur. Since this is such a common cause for bladder infections in children, parents must really drive this particular lesson home with their children.
A lack of hand washing can also lead to urinary tract infections in children. They may not be as diligent as they could be, and it is very easy for them to spread the before mentioned bacteria, e-coli to themselves as well as one another. Children must be taught that hand washing is absolutely mandatory to avoid this type of infection.Women
By far, women have to deal with UTI’s much more frequently than man. There are many causes for female bladder infections that are similar to what men face. Sexual activity is usually the number one issue and cause of bladder infections for women. Whether the woman is using a diaphragm as birth control, or the act itself pushes bacteria into the urethral area, there are many risk factors that women face.
Although these can usually be treated with medication, there are times when this may be complicated by other factors. For example, treating a bladder infection during pregnancy can be risky. Some medications pose a danger to the fetus, so proper medical care is necessary when this is the case.
For some women, urinary tract infection during pregnancy can be attributed to frequent bladder infections. The bladder may not be able to empty all the way, depending on the location of the fetus, and this can lead to a build up of bacteria. Inflammation starts and before long, a full blown bladder infection can occur. If you are pregnant and experiencing frequent UTI’s, it is best to discuss your options with your doctor.
Other causes of bladder infections in women include as we mentioned before, the use of a diaphragm as well as some sexual practices. When a diaphragm is used as a contraceptive, it effectively blocks some debris, which can lead to a build up of bacteria. This bacteria travels up the urethral tract, eventually stopping in the bladder, where it causes a full blown bladder infection.
Sexual relations with men that are infected with the chlamydia trachomatis bacteria can also cause bladder infections in women. This is associated with a common STD that we mentioned earlier in this article. The main issue at hand is that many men do not experience many symptoms with this SID and they may not be aware that they are spreading it.
Certain physical conditions can also be the cause of bladder infections in women. For example, those that suffer from diabetes are usually quite likely to have at least a few bladder infections on a regular basis. Other conditions that suppress the immune system, such as AIDS, can also be blamed as a frequent cause of urinary tract infections in women.
One of the most elusive causes of bladder infections in women may actually be genetics. Although the theory is still being studied, doctors have found that patients with family members that had frequent UTI’s are much more likely to suffer them as well. Research is continuing on this premise, but for now, if you do have a family history of dealing with UTI’s, it is important to let your doctor know.