In winter, the endocrinology departments of Guangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhongshan Second Hospital South Hospital and other hospitals started to have tight bed capacity, and there were extra beds and queues for admission. The reporter learned that in the “warm winter” season in Guangzhou, more than 80% of the “old patients” with diabetes still have itchy skin or diabetic foot, which is 50% higher than the summer foot. The key is to control blood sugar, but some patients at home self-testing is not effective. In addition, drinking more water and taking fewer baths can help patients “survive the winter” safely.
80% of diabetic patients have itchy skin in winter
The hospital’s endocrinology department 26 beds are now fully occupied by diabetic patients, “before the holidays went back to some, before the aisle is full of extra bed patients. Almost all of the inpatients since the beginning of winter are accompanied by skin damage or diabetic foot. At present, diabetic patients have taken up 1/4 of the number of patients in the department’s inpatient unit, and the hospital has had to add beds. Zhang Jin, associate professor of endocrinology at the hospital, said the incidence of diabetic foot increases significantly in winter, and many patients are admitted to the hospital as a result, most of them also have skin damage. At least 80% of diabetic patients in Guangzhou have itchy skin in winter, and some have diabetic foot, making winter a high incidence of these two conditions.
It is understood that diabetic skin lesions are one of the main complications of diabetes, of which the incidence of diabetic pruritus is up to 30%, and the incidence of cold winter can even soar to the highest value. Doctors in the clinic have found that 90% of diabetic patients have skin disease, “foot foot more than 50% higher than in summer.” In addition to this, sufferers should also be aware of cracked feet, which are likely to be a precursor to diabetic foot disease and are also more prevalent in the winter.
The root cause of diabetic pruritus and diabetic foot is elevated blood sugar, combined with the dry, cold winter climate in Guangzhou, which causes vasoconstriction lesions, so the disease appears. “Elevated blood glucose causes a decrease in skin resistance, and at the same time the sugar content in the body fluids secreted by the skin glands increases, forming a breeding ground for bacteria or fungi; elevated blood glucose also causes peripheral nerve sensory disorders, plant nerve disorders, reduced skin sweat secretion, and dry skin causing itching. In addition, elevated blood glucose can also attack local blood vessels, causing vascular occlusion and progressive necrosis of skin lipids. So many diabetic patients have difficulty escaping winter itchy skin.”
According to the introduction, diabetes has a variety of skin lesions, including skin infections, pruritus, skin redness, eczema, anhidrosis, purpura and anterior tibial pigmentation.
Lowering blood sugar formula can completely prevent and control itchy skin
The focus of treating diabetic itchy skin is to lower blood sugar, so as to avoid high blood sugar damage to blood vessels nerves and other organs, and to prevent and control itchy skin from the root.
We found that many people are reluctant to go to the hospital to monitor their blood sugar, but the effect of self-monitoring at home is very poor, and some are even basically ineffective, and it is not surprising that skin disease and diabetic foot attacks. An old patient who “disappeared” two years ago suddenly “reappeared” due to itchy skin, and as a result, his blood sugar rose very much. It turned out that he usually bought his own medication and rarely monitored it. “If you take oral hypoglycemic drugs without regular blood glucose monitoring, you can’t guarantee good blood glucose control, because oral hypoglycemic drugs have the possibility of failure in the long term; in addition, for economic cost considerations, some patients can save with a box of blood glucose test paper for a long time, in fact, after opening the use of the deadline, it is likely that the test paper has failed to be accurate.
Diabetic patients should drink more water and take less bath in winter
Diabetic patients should not bathe too often and the water temperature should not be too high. Excessive washing will affect the normal sebum protection, making the skin too dry, leading to the aggravation of symptoms, cleaning should use neutral cleaning products, avoid using soap to clean the skin, so as not to cause excessive stimulation.
The following are the basic precautions for diabetic patients to “winterize”.
1, diabetic patients should apply moisturizer on the skin in time for winter, such as cream containing Vaseline or vitamin E capsules, and check the skin of the whole body every night, especially the skin of the feet for cracking and breaking; pay attention to warmth, advocate wearing wool socks, to relieve the foot cold at night can wear socks, but should not use hot water bags or electric hand warmers, electric blankets, etc.;
2, do not cross your feet for a long time, so as not to compress the vascular nerve; pay attention to eat more vegetables and drink more water, drink at least 8 glasses of water every day;
3, warm water every night to wash feet, regular bathing, the water should not be too hot, so as not to dull the patient’s senses to occur scalding, soak feet to be especially between the gap between the toes gently wipe dry.
Pork rind soup diet therapy to effectively prevent skin damage
Diabetic patients with itchy skin and other signs tend to have a “yin deficiency” in their bodies, so eating more pig skin soup or astragalus, which contains gum, can be effective in winter. She recommends a variety of dietary treatment methods as follows.
1, pig skin soup: fresh pig skin scraped off the subcutaneous fat layer, plus astragalus, Huai Shan, prunus ginseng, add water to boil soup to drink.
2, astragalus and Huai Shan coic rice porridge: astragalus 30 grams, Huai Shan 60 grams, 30 grams of coic rice, add water to the appropriate amount, boil the porridge to eat.
3, spinach and silver fungus soup: 200 grams of fresh spinach (chopped), 15 grams of silver fungus (water hair to remove the root), add water to boil soup for consumption.
4, wolfberry stew rabbit: wolfberry 30 grams, 250 grams of rabbit meat, add water to the appropriate amount of stew.
5, white pigeon yam yucca soup: white pigeon 1, yam 30 grams, yucca 15 grams, cooked with meat rotten can be eaten.
6, lotus leaf loach soup: 10 loach, dried lotus leaf 60 grams, boil soup to take. All kinds of fish soup can be taken.
7, black beans and mulberry soup: 30 grams of black beans, mulberry seeds 30 grams, wash and stew with water for 1 hour on low heat can be eaten.