Mirrors for Our Feet

I don't think that your leg cramps are an early sign of neuropathy. The Mayo Clinic has an excellent discussion at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/night-leg-cramps/AN00499

They mention potassium (and a lot of other things well worth reading). Others whom I don't respect as much as the Mayo Clinic mention two other minerals in addition to potassium -- magnesium and calcium. I do know that people with diabetes are usually deficient in magnesium. So that might give you two reasons to increase the amount that you take. Please see my article about magnesium at http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/1672/magnesium-diabetes/

David

Thank you,

those links are both interesting.

I've had a few leg cramps in the past and know about them.

However, the cramping is minor compared to the achiness which is what wakes me. the cramps then come into it after I'm woken up by the achiness - if I don't hold my toes up in the anti-cramp pull toward the knees.

In my multi-vit and calc-magnesium supplements I get at least 500 mg per day of magnesium and at least 1500 mg calcium. I eat a lot of bananas for potassium and some grapes and brocolli too. I also eat chia seeds like I know you also suggest, in hopes of keeping from having too many nutritional holes.

The achy legs in the wee hours is something new recently. That's why I wondered.

Hello,

I'm the guy (Jack Guest) that David quoted in the article above - so obviously a bit biased.  I appreciate all of your feedback and wanted to clarify a few things.  All of your concerns are directly on point and were things that we have done our best to take into consideration.  We actually wouldn't recommend that anyone weigh themselves everyday, especially if you are trying to lose any weight as the daily fluctuations can be discouraging.  The act of checking your feet is done separately (best if sitting down on the toilet seat) from the weight measurement, so really having the scale out just serves as a good reminder to check your feet everyday - no need to weigh all the time.  We understand that people with diabetes are at increased risk of having impaired eyesight.  This is why we have the LED lights around the mirror to light up the image of the bottom of your foot as well as why the mirrors are concave which produces a magnified image.  We also tried to make the numbers in the weight reading as big as possible since you're eyes will be further away when standing on the scale than they are when you are sitting down looking at your feet.

With regards to the telescoping rod and mirror, it is certainly true that you can get these at a very low price.  Some people opt for just putting a mirror on the floor as well (though that can be a bit dangerous).  These products have been around for a long time and we knew of them when coming up with the idea for our product.  In talking to health care professionals and consumers, we found that these tools are often used for a while, but then confined to a drawer somewhere in the house not to be seen for quite some time.  Our hope is that our scale looks nice enough so that people are willing to display it in their bathroom.  Seeing it all the time will (we hope) get them into the habit of checking their feet everyday.  Not too many of the telescoping rods have lights and none that I know of have a mirror that magnifies the image either.  So if you'll remember to use it everyday and have good enough eyesight that you don't need a magnified image then I'd actually say to save the cash and use one of those products.  In fact, we may introduce one into our brand for people to bring along when traveling in the future.

That was more long winded that I had planned...haha.  If you have any other questions or comments though, please feel free to email me (jack at arcadiagp dot com).  I actually live over in Asia making sure that we get the highest quality product possible and I'm always looking for ways to improve our scale!