Daily HealthBeat Tip

Feeling in your feet

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I�m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

People with diabetes who keep close watch on their blood sugar may find it keeps paying off. Researchers say those with tight glucose control are less likely to have neuropathy � nerve damage that can lead to numbness or pain in the feet.

Eva Feldman of the University of Michigan compared people on tight control with those on conventional control. Her work in the journal Diabetes Care was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

"Eight to 10 years later, although their control was not nearly as rigorous as the first five years, they still had a 51 percent less likelihood of having neuropathy." (11 seconds)

The study looked at type 1, in which the body does not produce insulin. Feldman believes the results also apply to type 2, in which the body does not produce enough, or cells ignore, insulin.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: June 7, 2006

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