Diabetic amputations are on the rise among Blacks and Latinos

The number of people with diabetes has increased in the United States in recent years, and so has the number of amputations related to diabetes complications. As with many other health disparities in the United States, Black and Latin American communities have been hardest hit by this crisis, experiencing higher rates of amputations than whites.

The number of Americans with diabetes who suffer from complications that lead to amputation is on the rise across the country. About 154,000 According to the American Diabetes Association's Amputation Prevention Alliance, Americans with diabetes undergo amputations every year. 80% of non-traumatic lower extremity amputations are due to complications of diabetes. And many of the amputations were preventable.

“It's a perfect storm of poor health and lack of medical guidance,” said Dr. Dean Schillinger, founder of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations. guardian. People who develop foot ulcers “often don't realize that they need to avoid putting weight on this foot in order for it to heal,” she says. They are often working to support their families and cannot simply 'endure four to six weeks.' ”

Statistics show that certain communities are more likely to be caught in that perfect storm. Research shows that less affluent Americans with diabetes 4 times more likely More people will have their limbs amputated than wealthy Americans with diabetes. Black and Latin American diabetics are four times more likely to require amputation than white Americans, according to a September study study. So do black people. 3 times more likely They could develop peripheral artery disease (PAD), a “diabetes-related condition that obstructs blood flow to the extremities,” the Guardian said. Schillinger told the magazine that amputation is known as a “huge disparity” in health care. “This is perhaps the most striking disparity in health between blacks and whites in the United States.”

Texas has one of the highest rates of diabetes-related amputations, and San Antonio, a city with a large Mexican-American population, has been hit hard by the crisis. The disease is caused by a “lethal combination of genetics, poor access to medical care, a diet rich in processed foods, and a sedentary lifestyle,” he said. new york times. The problem is particularly acute for men, who are about three times more likely to lose a leg to diabetes than women. “Perhaps it's because of cultural biases that prevent many Latino men from paying close attention to their health.”

“For Hispanics in South Texas, diabetes is the big boogeyman that they always have to worry about, especially when they can't afford preventive treatment,” Congressman Joaquin Castro, who represents San Antonio, told the Times. ” he said.

The rise in type 2 diabetes is a “deadly epidemic” that is “mostly reversible with low-carbohydrate diets”, Neil Barsky said in the Guardian. The lack of public urgency about the public health crisis is, in part, the result of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the nation's most powerful diabetes advocacy organization, which says it is “the result of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the nation's most powerful diabetes advocacy group,” which claims that “major food, drug, and health care organizations “Working together,” the “donors of medical technology” benefit from the $400 billion Americans spend each year on diabetes-related care. The challenges faced by diabetic patients with limb amputation are “intertwined with other challenges such as poverty, race, and inadequate health care,” he said. “America's amputees are almost invisible.”

Difficulty accessing preventive care is part of the root of the problem. Dr. David G. Armstrong, a professor of surgery at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, told the Guardian that by the time a patient ends up in the emergency room, “sometimes it's too late.” “However, the majority of these cases are preventable if diagnosed earlier in the clinic.”

said Dr. Richard Brown, senior medical executive at Johnson & Johnson. ABC News Another factor is that many black patients don't get accurate information about diabetes from their doctors early on. “Very often, their symptoms are ignored,” Brown says. Medical professionals can be influenced by 'unconscious bias', leading them to jump into amputations based on the assumption that patients may not come for treatment. Dr. Brown said that with proper treatment, patients can avoid amputation altogether.