Losing Weight Workouts without Foot Pain

The optimistic visions of the New Year are contagious. Lofty goals are being set and we all aim high in January. Still, many of us hold back. We paddle through a long list of excuses on why this year is not the year. Weight can be a huge aggravator for foot pain. Losing weight helps foot pain, but how do you lose weight when you can barely walk without pain?

In a survey done by the American Podiatric Medical Association, 72 percent of Americans says they do not exercise because of foot pain. First, foot pain is not an excuse and will not be accepted as one in my office! If you are having foot pain that is keeping you from healthy activities then something is wrong and you need to be treated. There are a variety of reasons that you may be having foot pain. Common conditions like plantar fasciitis require treatments such as cortisone injections, physical therapy, and night splints. Occasionally surgery is needed but this is a last resort.

The first thing to evaluate is your shoes. Not just the shoes you exercise in but all of your shoes. Most of us wear bad shoes or none at all. Whether it is dress codes or personal style, we do not give our feet enough room or support. We also love to kick the shoes off. Yes, walking barefoot around your house can be very bad for your feet! Some of us need extra support all of the time. Your shoes should be wide enough, long enough and have support in the arch area. Some athletes have trended towards the minimalist shoes or barefoot running. Is it ok? For some people, yes it is ok, but this is not for everyone and is only for the elite athlete with impeccable foot structure. Very few of us have the foot type that can bare the abuse.

Next is to evaluate the type of activities you are doing. Some sports or work outs have a higher impact on your feet than others. Swimming and biking have very low impact on the feet and are great alternatives if you are struggling with your feet. Other activities put a greater demand on your feet such as running on a treadmill or blacktop. You must also evaluate the consistency of high impact activities. Alternating between low and high impact activities will keep you doing what you love but also keep you on your feet!

It is that time of year to be optimistic. You will cure your foot pain, get back to the gym and lose the weight! First find the source of the pain, seek treatment, and stay focused. It is easy to find excuses and the foot is an easy target. Don’t let your feet get the best of you. 72 percent is an unreasonable amount of Americans struggling with foot pain.

Knee Pain Is A Foot Problem

Up to 75% of athletes have chronic knee pain. Is your knee pain driving you crazy? There are a million different reasons why so many people suffer from knee pain. Henry (Hank) Aaron, a home run king, is one of many professionals that suffer from arthritis in the knee. Is there anything you can do to treat or prevent these aches and pains in the knee?

All arthritides are irreversible. Once you have arthritis, you will always have arthritis. The first thing to identify is what is causing the arthritis. Weight is a very important factor. The heavier a person is the more stress and strain that is place on the knee.

Many people attribute activities to knee problems. Though high stress, pivoting, and jarring activities put a lot of stress on the knee, it does not always lead to arthritis. More importantly, a person’s biomechanics can cause chronic increased forces and instability that leads to damage and injuries. The knee is the most unstable joint in the body.

Most other joints have boney boarders that help stabilize the joint. The knee is simply two bones separated by cartilage and ligaments and surrounded by muscles, tendons, and ligaments. These are all soft tissue structures. The knee is surrounded by two more stable joints in the body, the hip and the ankle. However, small problems in these joints easily affect the unstable knee joint. Thus, if someone has chronic ankle or hip problems, it is not unlikely that they will also suffer from knee problems.

Since soft tissues are the major stabilizers of the joint, they can be strengthened with physical therapy, strength training, stretching and range of motion exercises. A biomechanical exam can be done to assess your ankle and hip range of motion, stability and muscle tightness that causes changes in joint function. Most people benefit from several different forms of physical therapy and other treatments gauged at correcting the mechanics of the joint, such as orthotics, custom shoe inserts made by a podiatarist.

Orthotics are not just for your foot pain! You may not have any foot pain and still benefit from orthotics. Many of my patients are extremely active in sports and running. From weekend warriors to obsessive marathon runners, I have heard patients say their orthotics helped their knees, hip, back and everything in between. Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to the human body and is studied extensively by podiatrists. Many of the basic concepts are also applied in physical therapy and sports training are biomechanical in nature. Orthotics are devices that enhance function and compensate for biomechanical problems in the leg. Changing joint positions and alignment in the foot and ankle have a direct effect on your knee and hip.
Not everyone needs orthotics, but many people benefit from them.

My clinical experience has me convinced me that orthotics are necessary treatment modalities for a number of musculoskeletal disorders in the lower extremity including arthritis.

Why See a Foot Doctor?

It is interesting to me how many people ignore foot and ankle problems. My feet hurt. My toe looks funny. My foot doesn’t feel right. My ankle is sore. I can’t run because of foot pain. My ankle gives out. This should warrant one to suspect a problem but most turn a blind eye to their foot problems. When you have a tooth ache, you go to the dentist. When you can’t see well, you go to the eye doctor. When your child has a fever, you go to your family doctor. So, when you have foot and ankle pain, shouldn’t you see a foot and ankle doctor?
For whatever reason, people have become to believe that sore feet are a part of life. Instead of seeking medical help, we adjust our activities to avoid the pain. I can’t tell you how many people I have met that have halted their favorite hobbies because they thought they didn’t have the feet to do it anymore.
Sandy, a dear patient of mine once told me she was an avid runner in her youth, but after college she stopped running because her feet couldn’t “handle” it anymore. She never did anything about her foot pain except decreased her activities and wore “ugly shoes.” As a result of her new found sedentary lifestyle, she gained quite a bit of weight and is now suffering from type 2 diabetes. Her primary care doctor referred her to me to monitor her foot health, which now is in great jeopardy due to her diabetes. It breaks my heart that Sandy, not only gave up something she loved but also put her heath at risk because of treatable foot pain. Since Sandy’s first visit with me 1 year ago, we have eliminated her foot pain, greatly decreased her chance of diabetic foot complications, and Sandy has taken up more physical activities and lost almost 100Ib.
Just yesterday, I had a patient who recently returned from a family vacation in Walt Disney World. Jim was upset because after the first day his feet hurt so badly, he spent most of the time sitting on benches as the rest of his family toured the park. I hear similar stories all the time. He admitted to suffering from moderate heel pain prior to the trip, but had a desk job so he never noticed the pain except when he went golfing, a hobby he practically gave up because of his busy schedule. Thus, since he only rarely had foot pain, he didn’t think it was a big deal. The full day of walking through Disney World flared up his condition, and his heel pain became unbearable for the remainder of the trip. Once again this could have been prevented if he would have gone to a podiatric physician about his foot pain.
I told Jim, “If you have difficulty seeing while driving in the dark, you go to the eye doctor and get glasses even though you are not suffering from a problem all day long. If your feet hurt with activity, you should go to the foot doctor (podiatrist), and receive treatment even if your pain is not all day or every day.”
If you find yourself adjusting your daily activities or avoiding hobbies because of your feet, call your foot doctor today! No matter your age, your feet should not limit the way you live your life, but rather be walking you up and down every hill and through every garden life has to offer. Take care of your feet!

The Effect of Ankle Injuries on Your March Madness Office Pool

There are two things for which March is known: green beer and basketball. This week, Americans are enjoying both. Whether you are a twelve year old boy or a grandma involved in the nursing home pool, it seems like everyone is talking about March madness. But did you know that just the last week there were five foot or ankle injuries among the players competing in the NCAA tournament. Before you turn in your bracket, you may want to take some of these injuries into consideration.
Robert Sacre, Gonzaga Bulldogs; Liam mcMorrow,Marquette Golden Eagles; Ty Lawson, North Carolina Tar Heels; Teondre Williams, Oregon Ducks; and Jonnie West, West Virginia Mountaineers have all had foot or ankle injuries within the last week and all of their teams have advanced into the tournament. Whether or not these injuries will affect the teams is questionable, but what we should be asking is why these injuries are happening so late in the season. At this point, the athletes should be at their prime strength, so why are the falling apart?
Basketball, like all sports, puts significant stress on your body especially your foot. Running causes an increase in forces on your foot and ankle three to six times your body weight. When a forward goes up for a rebound, they come down to contact the ground with a forces six times their body weight. Our body is designed to compromise and adjust for these forces, but if we do them too fast, we can cause damage to our body. This is why athletes go through training. Even with the best training, such as that provided to college athletes, your body can still get injured!
Ankle sprains are the injury seen most often on the court. Once an athlete has one ankle sprain, they are much more likely to have another one because the ligaments are weekend. Ligaments are small fibrous bands of tissue that connect bones to other bones. This along with muscles allows the skeletal system to have a considerable amount of stability. If a ligament gets stretched or injured, it will never recover to have the same amount of strength that it did before the injury. Therefore, once you have an ankle injury, you are much more prone to have one in the future.



So why aren’t athletes spraining their ankles every day.
Physical Therapy helps your body regain as much strength and function as possible. Since muscles also contribute to stability, a physical therapist will adjust the patient’s exercises to strengthen the muscles in the areas prone to injury. This type of therapy is the most beneficial and is why your podiatrist often suggests physical therapy for most types of injuries.
Basketball shoes are quite a bit different than the cross trainers or running shoes we all have stashed away in our closets. Basketball shoes or high tops come up higher to give your ankle more support. You put a lot of stress on your body jarring back and forth, running up and down the court and jumping up for the rebound. Simply changing your shoe gear can do wonders to reducing injuries on the court.
In addition, some people are more prone to ankle sprains due to biomechanical weaknesses, or simply put, the way their foot and ankle moves when they walk or run. This can innate weakness can be eliminated with a properly made custom orthotic that controls excessive foot motion.
Though the NCAA offers some of the best training and resources to their athletes, some injuries are inevitable. If you ever roll your ankle, take a stumble, or hear a POP, make sure to contact your podiatric physician as soon as possible. The earlier you seek medical attention by a highly trained doctor in the foot and ankle or a podiatrist, the better the outcome of your injury will be.

What is That Tingling, Burning Feeling in My Feet?

Morton’s Neuroma

A neuroma is a thickening of a nerve and can occur anywhere in the body, even the foot. Morton’s neuroma describes a neuroma of a specific location in the foot, between the third and fourth metatarsals. This is located on the balls of foot between the third and fourth toes. Clinicians may refer to this benign growth as a tumor. In medical terms this is a correct description but this is not an indication of cancer. The enlarged nerve is benign, meaning it will not become invasive or become cancerous.

Though a morton’s neuroma is not a medical emergency, it can cause severe pain and impede on your daily life. Some patients describe the pain as walking on a marble, but the most often complaint is a burning, sharp pain. Tingling and numbness is also common.

It is thought that the nerve becomes enlarged due to repetitive irritation or pressure. Over time, this irritation leads to a neuroma and pain. Wearing shoes that are tight, too small, or with a heel can aggravate the pain because it causes increased irritation. The pain may also be caused by running or other sports. Flexing and relaxing your toes causes compression on the nerve, and the balls of your foot takes on the most weight during walking or running. Since this is the area where the neuroma is located, doing such activities can elicit a lot of pain.

The podiatric physician will take x-rays of a patient with such pain to rule out a fracture or other foot disorders. The doctor will also attempt to elicit the pain by squeezing the foot. This will not only cause pain, but there the doctor will also hear a clicking sound due to the neuroma shifting between the bones.

There treatment ranges from conservative treatments to surgery. Like all treatment plans, surgery should be a last resort for when all other treatments fail. The pain may be greatly reduced by changing shoe gear, but this is often not enough. It is very common for your podiatric physician to prescribe a custom orthotic. Many patients find relief by not only wearing orthotics but also wearing a pad under the balls of their foot. A podiatric physician can properly fit and provide such padding. Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, such as Advil, can also be used to help reduce the pain but should not be used long term. Your doctor may also suggest a steroid injection which has a greater effect on relieving the pain. Stretching, massages, and icing has also shown to relieve pain.

If the pain has increased due to physical activity, it is suggested to take some time off from the activity to allow your foot to rest and heal. It may be better to take on activities that cause less impact on the foot. Excises’ such as swimming or bicycling may be good alternatives.
Neuromas are not life threatening, but they do cause alterations in your life. You should consider wide toed shoes with plenty of room for your toes to wiggle. The pain most often subsides with conservative treatment, but in rare cases surgery is necessary. Unfortunately, the procedure removes the entire nerve and will leave numbness of the effected toes. Thus, you and your podiatric physician should try to avoid surgery if possible.

MistleToe

The holidays are here and the jolly is to fallow. With family and friends, we all take some time to indulge. Indulge in giving, Indulge in receiving, but most of all Indulge in Holiday Cheer! There is nothing merrier than eating a big Holiday meal and having a few drinks with all who is near. The time that we all enjoy may lead you or your loved ones to have unbearable pain, joint pain!
Gout is a disease of high uric acid levels in the body that can cause crystal accumulations in the joints. This can cause excruciating joint pain. Uric acid is found in red meat and alcoholic beverages but mostly beer. Overindulgence in such food and drinks can cause a “gout attack.” The first joint that is often affected is the big toe. The joint will become swollen, red and very tender. The joint is often so tender, that even a bed sheet will cause pain. A gout attack usually subsides within hours or days. Gout attacks are not only caused by over indulgence, but also diuretics, and surgery with someone who already has elevated levels of uric acid. Not everyone that has high uric acid levels has gout but they are at a greater risk of complications, such as kidney stones and kidney damage.
Gout is much more common in males over 35. So if dad or grandpa complains of joint pain after a day of holiday cheer, he may be suffering from a gout attack. Over time the uric acid crystals can cause permanent joint damage that may lead to some mobility problems or constant pain. There are several different medications to reduce the amount of uric acid and others to accommodate any pain. Most importantly, if you are at risk of elevated uric acid levels, or if you have had a gout attack previously, you need to limit the amount of red meat and alcohol that you consume.
Enjoy your holidays and bring in the New Year with moderation.