AL WATAN: RIYADH: Some 90 people a month have a foot amputated due to diabetes in the Saudi capital, a doctor told AFP on Monday, expressing concern about the high levels of the condition in the oilـrich kingdom.
The number of diabetesـlinked amputations is rising quickly and beginning to occur at younger and younger ages, said Dr Abdulaziz AlـGannass, foot and ankle surgeon at the National Guard King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh.
"We have three cases every day of amputated feet due to diabetes in Riyadh," Gannass told AFP, adding that he could not provide a figure for such cases across the vast desert kingdom.
"It is the number two reason for admission (to hospitals) in the kingdom after trauma," he said.
Gannass called the level of diabetes in the country "shocking", attributing it to poor diet and high sugar consumption, lack of exercise and smoking, and said one of the worst complications, diabetic foot, is on the rise.
Diabetes occurs when a person cannot convert sugar, starches and other foods into energy due to a lack of insulin or because the conversion process is not working properly.
Diabetic foot, involving lack of feeling, ulcers which do not heal, bone softening, gangrene and other complications, results from nerve damage and constricted blood flow in the foot caused by diabetes. >>> AFP | Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
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