Lifespan: The Revolutionary Science of Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To

by David A. Sinclair

For older diabetics, in particular, a small wound can be deadly: The five-year mortality rate for a foot ulcer in a diabetic is greater than 50 percent. That’s higher than the death rates for many kinds of cancer.13 Chronic foot wounds, by the way, are not rare; we just don’t hear much about them. They almost always begin with seemingly benign rubbing on increasingly numb and fragile soles—but not always. My friend David Armstrong, at the University of Southern California, a passionate advocate for increasing our focus on preventing diabetic foot injuries, often tells the story of one of his patients, who had a nail stuck in his foot for four days. The patient noticed it only because he wondered where the tapping sound on the floor was coming from.

Oh shit, I should keep note.