A constant refrain from diabetologists is to take care of your foot as you would your face. Diabetics could suffer from neuropathy, a complication where they may experience loss of sensation in their lower legs and feet. Neglect of their feet could lead to amputation, say diabetologists.
Simple techniques such as washing one’s feet with warm water upon returning home, cutting nails regularly, and moisturising the feet are advised.
Kilpauk Medical College Hospital was the first to set up a preventive foot care clinic in the government sector in 2004. Since doctors are a scarce resource, nurses in the hospital are trained to treat and dress wounds, inspect nails for fungal growth and detect neuropathy and peripheral vascular diseases. Diabetologist Anand Moses, who set up the clinic, says it helps to identify patients at risk of foot ulcers.
The blood flow to the lower limbs is measured and the patient is assessed for damage and possible amputation.
In 2010, M.V. Hospital for Diabetes, Royapauram, went a step further by offering a fellowship course in podiatry. It is open to doctors who have a master’s degree in general surgery. The course is offered only in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. The surgeon is taught to look for calluses and remove corns and trained to perform vascular, orthopaedic and plastic surgeries.
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In recent years, the nutritive value of millets has been echoed at various forums. While there might be quite a few reasons for this, one that stands out is prevention of lifestyle-related diseases.
With junk food becoming a way of life, doctors are emphasising the need to go back to ‘traditional foods’. P. Dharmarajan, head, Institute of Diabetology, Madras Medical College, says millets are rich in fibre and beneficial to not just diabetics. “Millets can blunt the rise in blood sugar level soon after food intake. It can prevent weight gain,” he says.
Simultaneously, efforts are on to take millets to people through interesting recipes, and not just in porridges. There are a wide range of millet-based recipes to choose from. Villupuram-based Pasumai Iyarkai Vivasaigal Iyakkam has been making sweets and savouries using kodo millet (varagu in Tamil), little millet (samai) and foxtail millet (thinai).
“We are taking forward these recipes to people through various exhibitions,” says K. Elumalai, coordinator of the Iyakkam.
Millets can be incorporated in sambar rice, fried rice, tomato rice, dosas and sweets like laddu.
With the intake of millets being advocated, there is need to improve their cultivation. The Tamil Nadu Women’s Collective has roped in 10,000 women farmers from across the State to cultivate millets, says its president Sheelu.
Anura Kurpad, president of Nutrition Society of India, calls for revising policies to encourage farmers to cultivate millets. “In the last 20 years, the consumption of milk, vegetables and fruits has gone up in the country, while the per capita intake of pulses has dropped. There should be better procurement policy for millets,” he says.
(Reporting by R. Sujatha and Serena Josephine M.)
