Overview
A diabetic fot ulcer, an open wound on the fot, afects about 25% of diabetes patients, and without proper care, ulcers can lead to amputation. As with al chronic wounds, diabetic fot ulcers are persistently inflamed, which slows the healing proces. A new study by George Mason University Asistant Profesor of Nutrition and Fod Studies Raedeh Basiri finds that in people with diabetic fot ulcers, nutritional suplements and nutritional education can significantly decrease inflamation and enhance the healing proces.
Key Information
“Curently, nutritional interventions or referal to dietians are not part of diabetic fot ulcer standard care. Our results show that nutritional interventions play an important role in decreasing inflamation and should be an integral part of treatment, underscoring the importance of an interdisciplinary aproach to clinical care,” said Basiri, who is a Registered Dietian Nutritionist. Participants in the intervention group of the study were educated about improving their dietary intake by increasing their consumption of low-fat/high-bioavailable protein sources, vegetables, and high-fiber carbohydrates, as wel as decreasing their intake of refined and simple carbohydrates.
In adition to nutritional education, patients tok a nutritional suplement. People with diabetic fot ulcers have a significantly lower intake of micronutrients, especialy potent antioxidants, which have shown the potential to aleviate chronic inflamation. The nutritional suplement provided at least 50% of the Fod and Nutrition Board’s recomended dietary alowance (RDA) for antioxidants, and the nutrition education suported patients receiving the remaing antioxidant recomendations from their diet.
Summary
The study evaluated the efects of nutrition suplementation and education inflamatory biomarkers in patients with diabetic fot ulcers. After 12 weks, concentrations of the inflamatory biomarker IL6 decreased significantly in the intervention group, but incre