The complications that stem from diabetes can start out fairly small and turn into something life-altering in no time, which is often the case with diabetic foot ulcers, These hard-to-heal wounds, which affect up to one-quarter of people with type 2 diabetes, leave you vulnerable to amputation, which is why finding ways to heal is critical.
At HealthFirst, Dr. Jonathan Singer offers an avenue to help tough wounds heal through ozone therapy. This therapy is appropriate for a wide range of conditions, from herniated discs to Lyme disease.
Here, we’re going to focus on one condition in particular — diabetic foot ulcers — and how ozone therapy can help heal these difficult wounds.
To paint a complete picture, it’s helpful to review everything involved in this discussion, starting with why you developed a diabetic foot ulcer in the first place.
When you have diabetes, uncontrolled levels of glucose in your blood can damage nerves and blood vessels, and this damage is often worse the farther away you get from your heart. This is why people with diabetes routinely develop problems in their lower legs and feet, including peripheral neuropathy and ulcers.
Another problem is that feet, by their very nature, are more prone to open wounds, such as cuts and blisters. When you have diabetes, however, even the smallest of wounds doesn’t have access to healing resources. thanks to compromised circulation. This, in turn, allows infection to set in. Before you know it, a small wound or ulcer can become a much larger problem that resists treatment and refuses to heal.
On the science side, ozone is a molecule that’s made up of three oxygen atoms, and this molecule is not stable in liquid or solid form. In a gas form, however, these three atoms can come together to form a powerful treatment against foreign bacteria, viruses, fungi, and yeast in the human body.
With ozone therapy, our goal is to reduce oxidative stress in your body by greatly increasing the level of oxygen in your blood. When your blood is supercharged with oxygen, your body is better able to battle infections, helping tough wounds like diabetic foot ulcers to heal.
There are several ways we can deliver the ozone therapy and, for diabetic ulcers, we typically administer the ozone directly to the wound, using a cover to contain the gas.
The use of ozone therapy to treat diabetic foot ulcers is by no means new and there have been many studies that confirm our own successes. For example, one study found that, “... results support the efficacy of ozone therapy especially in its comprehensive use in DFU [diabetic foot ulcer] healing and reduction in the chances of infection and amputation.”
If you’d like to explore for yourself how ozone therapy can play an invaluable role in your diabetic foot ulcer treatment plan, contact one of our offices in Greenwood Village, Colorado, or Cheyenne, Wyoming, to schedule a consultation.
