Frownies In The News
Skin Care for Diabetics
Frownies' Immune Perféct™ Chosen For Studies
NASSAU, THE BAHAMAS—Dr. Daniel Johnson, Director of the Amputation Prevention Initiative of the comprehensive Diabetes Treatment Program in the Bahamas has announced that Immune Perféct™, a lotion that restores natural moisture and flexibility to aging and damaged skin, is the first product selected for comprehensive study under the program.
"We have seen excellent results in a limited trial," he said, "More than good enough to justify full-scale clinical study."
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study of 120 subjects is in the process of enrollment and subject-qualification.
"Using human subjects activates safeguards that will take a week or two to comply with," Johnson explained, "We have also applied for registration of all of our clinical studies so that our colleagues have ready access to our findings." In the US, big pharmaceutical companies had been coming under fire for reporting only those studies that are favorable to their products.
Diabetes destroys the nerves and blood vessels that supply the feet which lowers blood flow to the area. With less fluid and nutrition, the skin dries out and thins, becoming vulnerable to cracking from pressure or friction. Compromised immune function added to decreased blood flow, keep diabetic skin from healing once it is broken, causing diabetic ulcers to form. Unless aggressive surgical wound care procedures are started immediately, the ulcer destroys underlying muscle and tendon, and rapidly develops until the limb has to be amputated.
"All diabetics must make foot care an absolute priority," the doctor emphasized, "and, even then, the risk of ulceration is always present."
Dr. Johnson is already conducting an observational study of the effects of Immune Perfect in 24 diabetic subjects at the Foot and Ankle Institute in Nassau. The results of this, open-label, trial should be available before the start of the American Diabetes Association's Scientific Session in Washington, D.C. on 9 June. "Unfortunately," Johnson said, "we didn't start soon enough for the report to be part of the Session, but we will be there and we look forward to sharing information with our colleagues in the U.S."
Diabetes and its complications have become a major health problem throughout the hemisphere according to the World Health Organization and the U.S. Center for Disease Control. The disease is most devastating among the ethnic populations of the Caribbean, taking a frightening toll on the lives and limbs of middle-aged men. Over the course of a few years, diabetics suffer loss of sexual function, loss of vision, kidney failure, and losses of toes and feet. Diabetes is the number one cause of blindness in the United States and in the hemisphere, and is responsible for 90% of all lower limb amputations - over 70,000 last year alone.
The Bahamas has felt the impact of this public health threat to a greater extent than many other countries, largely because of its predominantly black population. "Life expectancy in black males is nowhere near the same as in whites," Dr. Norman Gay, former Minister of Health, and retired 3 time Chairman of the Pan-American Health Organization, points out. Dr. Gay was one of the physicians responsible for the establishment of the Diabetes Treatment Priority and the Amputation Prevention Initiative now getting under way in the Bahamas.
All of the physicians working in the Amputation Prevention Initiative have strong personal motives driving them - Dr. Johnson's uncle, E. Pedro Roberts II, M.B.E., retired Chief Pharmacist at Princess Margaret Hospital, died of the complications of diabetes this year - after suffering a lower leg amputation. Norman R. Gay, M.D., dedicated his career to fighting the disease after his father had both legs amputated.
"We are very grateful to Jim and Kathy Wright and all the folks at Frownies," Dr. Gay said, "for bringing this product to our attention - if we continue to see the results that we have been getting so far, they have made a real contribution to improving the lives of countless diabetics."
Immune Perfect™ was developed to treat similar effects that accompany aging, exposure to sun, and damaging skin wrinkling. For more information on Immune Perféct, call 800-648-6891.
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