Prediabetic Feet Deliver Profound Message

Hi. Today I am going to give you sort of a public service announcement about preventing diabetes. This is partly because I am doing a clinical trial known as D2d, looking at the use of vitamin D to prevent the progression to diabetes in people with prediabetes.^[1]

As the principal investigator on that trial, I look at all of the patients when they come in to the trial and I do a physical exam. I want to point out that I am doing this trial in East Los Angeles, which is a primarily Latino population in a poorer part of town, in a building where I take care of patients who already have diabetes—many of whom have not had access to good healthcare and ended up with many complications—as well as patients who we are screening for enrollment into our diabetes prevention trial.

I can tell you that the patients who come in for the prevention study look similar to the patients who have diabetes. They may be a little bit younger, but by and large, they look about the same. But when I take off their shoes and socks and look at their feet, it is unbelievable, because these patients with prediabetes have normal feet.