Summer Bumming Hard on Your Feet!

Though it is hard to admit in a heat wave, summer is coming to a halt. It won’t be long until the kids are at school, and pumpkin picking, football games, and turkey dinners will be on the agenda! Thankfully there is still a good month of sandals and barbeque left! But, are your feet still up for the summer challenge or has summer gotten the best of them already. You may need to pay special attention to your feet on the last stretch of fun in the sun!

Complaint: My feet are dry and cracked. My feet are itchy, red, and sometimes have blisters.
Cause: Believe it or not, both of these complaints will often root from the same problem! Warm, dark, humid environments create a delightful home for fungus! Dry feet are a sign of sweaty feet and sweaty feet are a precursor to fungal feet.
Prevention: The number one thing to avoid is going barefoot in public. Wear sandals around the pool, in the locker room, and in public showers. When possible wear sandals over shoes to allow your feet to breath. Wear dry shoes, change socks often and inspect your feet on a regular basis.

Complaint: I have calluses or corns making my feet ugly. I have thick skin on my foot and it hurts.
Cause: The summer shoe selection can be referred to as the podiatrist’s best resource for job security. Too often men and women put their feet in shoes or sandals that are nowhere near the shape of their foot. This causes the foot to rub against the shoe. Friction causes a buildup of skin that can become painful or unsightly.
Prevention: Wearing wide toed shoes or just properly fitting shoes can help with this problem! Over the counter creams and lotions can help soften the skin, but be careful with corn pads. They often make the problem worse over time. If the callus or corn is continuously painful see a podiatric physician to properly remove the ailment.

Complaint: I have warts. I have a hard, flat, bump on the bottom of my foot.
Cause: Warts are caused by the human papilloma virus. It only takes a small cut or opening in the skin to allow the virus into your skin. These opening are often unseen by the naked eye. Some people are more susceptible to getting warts and need to take extra precautions to avoid the virus.
Preventions: Avoid walking around barefoot, even in your own home! If your family members have warts, you can all get warts! Avoid at home or over the counter treatments. Picking at the wart or improperly removing them can make the wart spread and what started out as one wart can quickly multiply creating a mosaic of many warts.

So as summer comes to an end make sure you keep your feet healthy and safe. If you have any
questions or concerns about your foot health or other summer threats to your feet, seek medical help
from a foot and ankle specialist also referred as a podiatrist. They are trained to treat all foot ailments of children and adults.

Ped Egg Over-Easy

Isn’t it great that you can buy cheese pre-grated. I had to grate cheese for dinner last night and I realized how awkward and difficult it was to use a cheese grater. If only the grater fit nicely in your hand like those Ped Eggs I see on commercials. Maybe that is what I’ll do next time; use a ped egg to grate my cheese because I surely wouldn’t be caught dead taking that device to my body.

It seems like every time you turn on the TV or walk through the pharmacy there is a Peg Egg waiting to be bought. With over 75% of the population suffering from foot problems, almost everyone is looking for a foot product to fix their problems. Is Peg Egg the answer to all of our problems? Personally, I think this gadget is better suited in the kitchen rather than the medicine cabinet.

Many people suffer from calluses and they can be very unsightly and very painful. For years, my patients have asked me advice on lotions and pumice stones, but now I’m frequently being asked about the Ped Egg. My answer: It is not safe! The Ped Egg is made up of sharp metal blades that literally cuts or shaves your skin off. Why would that ever be a good idea? Calluses are accumulation of dead hard skin. If painful, the callus can be reduced by medical professionals using a scalpel. This involves a delicate technique to prevent open lesions, bleeding, and infections. This type of callus is a sign of improper foot structure or gait. To treat, the doctor not only takes down the callus with instruments but also treats the patient with devices and or therapy to correct the underlying problem. The fact that patients may be self treating these problems with a glorified cheese grater is downright scary!

Most people experience rough dry skin because of improper shoe gear. This problem is easy to treat with specific lotions, stones and a change in shoes. The dry dead skin should be sloughed off to remove the dead skin and not any of the live, healthy skin underneath. Imagine if you had an old piece of furniture and the paint was chipping off. To remove the paint but save the chair, you would use a sander to just take off the top damaged layer. You would never think to take a chain saw, a chisel, or ax to the chair unless you wanted to completely destroy it. If you want to lose your foot then the Ped Egg is right up there with the chain saw. If you actually want to save your foot and have it look all nice and pretty than stay away from the fancy cheese grater.

With all jokes aside, the Ped Egg can be very dangerous for people with diabetes, peripheral vascular disease or any other disease that compromise the healing process or the immune system. Sometimes it only takes a tiny cut for some to get a devastating infection. Any product that has the potential of cutting the skin should be used with severe caution or not at all.