Topical Olive Oil Benefits Foot Ulcer Healing in Diabetics

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. After four weeks of topical application, olive oil significantly improved the healing of foot ulcers in the sixteen participating Iranian type 2 diabetics compared to the fourteen subjects who received a control oil.

Diabetic foot ulcer is one of the most common and devastating complications of diabetes. High blood glucose levels coupled with neuropathies and poor circulation due to peripheral arterial disease that restricts blood flow to the feet, contribute greatly to poor wound healing and the development of diabetic foot ulcers. ¹. Foot ulcers are present in more than 1 in 4 type 2 diabetics ^2,3 and frequently lead to infection, gangrene, amputation, and even death if the necessary care is not provided ⁴. Those with type 2 diabetes are 46 times more likely to have a lower limb amputation compared to those without type 2 diabetes ⁵. As a result, finding affordable and effective ways to manage diabetic foot ulcers is needed.

In a 2014 Iranian study ⁶, 30 patients with type 2 diabetes (11 men, 19 women between the ages of 30 and 65) and with diabetic foot ulcer (Wagner’s ulcer grade 1 or 2) received either olive oil (16 subjects) or a control oil (14 subjects) every day for 4 weeks. Before and after the study, the ulcers were assessed by a medical physician.

After four weeks, significant improvements in the olive oil group were noted compared to the control group:

At the end of the 4th week, there was a significant differences between the two groups regarding three specific ulcer parameters: degree (P = 0.03), color (P = 0.04) and surrounding tissues (P < 0.001) as well as total ulcer status (P = 0.001). With respect to ulcer drainages, no significant difference was seen between the two groups (P = 0.072).

Also, at the end of four weeks, when compared to the control group, olive oil significantly decreased ulcer area (P = 0.01) and depth (P = 0.02) and contributed to significantly greater “complete ulcer healing” in the olive oil group (73.3% vs.13.3%, P = 0.003). Furthermore, there were no adverse effects to report during the study in intervention.

When suggesting a mechanism explaining olive oil’s effects on ulcer healing, the researchers note that an exact mechanism “is not yet clear” though they suggest that olive oil may improve blood flow ^7,8, and reduce inflammation ^9,10 to support the healing process. They also cited the high levels of antioxidants in olive oil called polyphenols which may also reduce inflammation levels and increase blood flow ^11,12.

For the researchers, “Our results indicated that olive oil in combination with routine care[ ] is more effective than routine care[ ] alone, and is without any side effect” but admit that “further studies are required in the future to confirm these results.”

Source: Nasiri, Morteza, Sadigheh Fayazi, Simin Jahani, Leila Yazdanpanah, and Mohammad Hossein Haghighizadeh. “The effect of topical olive oil on the healing of foot ulcer in patients with type 2 diabetes: a double-blind randomized clinical trial study in Iran.” Journal of Diabetes & Metabolic Disorders 14, no. 1 (2015): 38

© 2015 Nasiri et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waive (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Posted August 3, 2017.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com

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