The diabetes epidemic that is sweeping the world is being fuelled by many things. There is the obesity epidemic, the lack of traditional exercise, the westernization of traditional diets (I have even heard this called the Coca-Colonisation of traditional societies). It is all adding up to a looming health care crisis. From a podiatry perspective, this means the ‘diabetic foot’. The diabetic foot is that foot that has been placed at increased risk from damage due to the processes of diabetes. In the diabetic foot, the nerve sensation is affected, so this means that any damage that happens is not detected. In the diabetic foot, there is impaired healing due to compromised blood supply and immune responses are slower. In the diabetic foot there are biomechanical changes to the way the foot function that place it at greater risk for tissue damage. The diabetic foot presents many unique challenges to Podiatrists.