Contact dermatitis and plants
Summer certainly attracts more plants and visitor activity than other seasons. Yet, even as I write this article, I feel itchy. We need to know what to avoid and if we are unfortunate to have a contact rash, we should know what to do. One point about the 10 plants I have picked is that many originate outside the UK while others remain in North America. Given the serious concerns with Japanese Knotweed for example, demonstrates that boundaries do not guarantee that you will come across something that has a kick in its leaf, stem or sap. Skin and respiratory problems arise in some but not all.
A Dying Healthcare System
Consultants split their time between the NHS and the independent sector, although some remain loyal to the NHS alone. Surgeons often make up their salary in this system, taking away an essential NHS resource – experienced professionals. This was the deal that Bevan had to negotiate. It is true that junior consultants have found it harder to follow their senior colleagues into the independent sector but eventually they trim back their hours if they want to work this sector.
Arthritis and the big toe
I confess I am not keen on the word arthritis as it conjures up a disease of the worst kind. So let us use the phrase ‘arthrosis’ because the term means a condition associated with deterioration of any joint, not just the big toe. Severe forms of arthrosis come under a wonderful term – the arthritides (arth-rit-eedees), which sounds like a member of Jason and the Argonauts crew in Greek mythology. Rheumatoid arthritis and gout are two such conditions which are highly destructive. Already you can see Latin and Greek in our language. Medical people love to make everything sound complicated and a bit of old language helps!
Morton’s Nerve Pain
Nerves can recover but often start off because there is local inflammation. The symptoms of what we call neuritis can shoot back up the foot, are often short lived and occur when the foot is compressed initially. Most of the population consult someone between the ages of 40-60. However, there are some who experience the condition as early as 20-30. If caught young then recover can be encouraging. In 1995 Gordon Bennett looked at 115 patients and followed them for 2 years. Thirty-nine percent did well with insoles and footwear alterations. In other words altered their footwear.
Tennis player loses her toenails
Good foot care should be carried out for all sportspeople. They spend huge sums on their sport so they should invest in ensuring the foot is stable and the footgear is correct for their foot shape. Shoes should be fitted with care and the constituent materials should be considered equally important. Consultingfootpain is keen to ensure the public receives good advice so here is some self-help information
Nail care is essential in sports
Having a go yourself sounds a good idea and so there are two approaches to help you. What you can do to prevent the problem from arising and secondly what to do if it happens to you. Let’s start with managing the nail if a problem arises.
Tarsal Tunnel Pain
I want to introduce you to the condition called tarsal tunnel syndrome as a cause of heel pain but with the distinctive quality that the pain burns. The second feature that gives the condition away is that feeling of fullness, a sort of exploding sensation when exercising worsening with standing walking or running. Sometimes this type of problem pain is called referred. This means that the source of pain and location may not match. The pain may be in front of the foot but is related to the structures in the hind part of the foot.
More About Heel Problems
The most common types of heel pain problems arise from general overuse or repetitive heel pad strain but heel pain is complex and if left can resist treatment. In this article, there are four key subjects that you need to know about. The first relates to children while the other conditions are adult related. There are conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, gout and ankylosing spondylitis that may affect the heel as well as rarer conditions and of course fractures. If the pain does not subside with self-help remedies recommended after several weeks, then seek professional medical help from a podiatrist or medical practitioner.
The Vascular Podiatrist
Taking a good clinical history is vital together with social history. We cover limb oedema (swelling) and changes in the skin with the effects of poor supply. The ultrasound Doppler and blood pressure tests in arms, ankles and toes are vital to match clinical findings with factual changes in pulse quality, pressures and the types of waves. All this information can make a prediction as to the risk associated with vascular disease from amputations to aneurysms to clots and thickening of the walls of blood vessels.
Understanding ganglions in feet
The nuisance factor behind ganglia and swellings is the potential for pain associated with trapped nerves producing sharp electric shock pains that can shoot into the foot or up the leg. Infections are not common but cause ascending pain and must be investigated and managed. Deeper bursae do well from injections where they form part of normal anatomy. These are called an anatomical bursa. Tethered down with strapping can help or they can be protected by foam and gel padding.
Biomechanics and the foot orthosis
In the USA, from the sixties, the earlier designs were based around a popular subject called ‘biomechanics’. This was a pseudo term but became a significant part of the podiatric medicine degree course in the USA. Much of this pseudo-science involved measurements with protractors (tractographs) and in build error ‘eyesight’ assessment which led to assumptions with a predilection for the concept of wedging. The foot orthosis (F.O.), as it was called, tried to separate itself from the older insole and appliance. A google search today will still confuse the terms.
Smelly Feet and the Home Truth
Poor hygiene adds to the build-up of skin squares offering greater bacterial opportunity. However, increased sweating requires increased temperature, exercise and stress affected by medical drugs and chemicals as in foods. Increased sweating may require medical intervention. One condition that is less common is pitted keratolysis; lysis means breaking down.
A career in Podiatric Medicine
Most podiatrists are only too happy to speak to school leavers and students about the profession of podiatry. Contact the practice and ask if you can attend a clinic
Podiatry as a career choice?
Like a flying carpet from the Arabian Nights of old, I was transformed along a landscape that threw up new opportunities; it was an unchartered journey, unlike today. Like many friends and colleagues, I did not leave school knowing about podiatry. Our career’s office at school failed to mention this, and I was heading for a failed destiny. By chance, I was redirected as many have been.
Foot cramp is there a cause?
Salt is not just sodium chloride but calcium, potassium, magnesium. These chemicals are also known as electrolytes which are important for nerve conduction and health muscle function. One myth cramp was to eat a banana because this had potassium, a significant body salt. Athletes had their blood levels measured based on their loss of water in sweat and, hence, salt loss. The findings showed little difference between those who suffered cramp and those that don’t.
What is a foot orthosis?
A podiatric consultation is wise for medical foot problems (diabetes, rheumatoid, psoriatic arthritis, compound arch pain, or deformity). High-performance athletes are best consulting a podiatrist with a sports interest as the market is broad and confusing for laypeople.
Urine Holds the Secrets of Health
In the past, physicians would hold up a sample of urine to the light and declare all manner of diagnoses. As a podiatrist in training, colour became a prodigious indicator of so many aspects of medical assessment – the colour of the lips for oxygen exchange, the skin and blemishes for cancer, the colour of the nail bed for heart and lung as well as kidney disease. In every case, subtle colour changes might have played a part from the yellowing features created by jaundice and hence a sign of liver malfunction to the loss of pigment in black skin – vitiligo. When it came to body waste, it was easy to assume this had nothing to do with the podiatrist…
Does it matter which foot bone you break?
When my wife broke a bone in her foot back in October 2021, no one was more surprised than me. During my career, I have been interested in two facts. How people walk on their feet for so long without knowing they have broken a bone. Secondly, the methods we use to make such an assessment can fail, or the diagnosis can be missed. I wanted to introduces broken bones into the discussion about foot health as part of my ongoing pain series. Officially we all know breaks as fractures. Fractures, by dictionary definition (Little Oxford dictionary, 2002), are cracks or breaks which serves my purpose well. A quick check on Wiki and the definition has not changed but our views have.
Fitness centres make health better
Fitness centres are often called gyms, but are they just places to enhance our bodies or can they contribute to our health and wellbeing? I talked to Daley Denning, manager of the LED centre at Seaton, to find out more about his service, career, and training.
Foot and Mouth Tales and Myths
Pooke, an entrepreneur of his time, used good contacts amongst fellow clinical managers, one being a local dental officer. He soon saw the potential of the designs that dentists used and set out to replace the grotesque chairs that were not only substandard but did not recline. Even barber’s chairs reclined. This followed on with implementing autoclaves for sterilisation and Foot Care Assistants who supported chiropodists in these early days.
Do corn plasters work on corns?
Today we know more about the humble corn than we have done in the past, but for many patients, sharp dissection on a cyclical basis is a quick fix, even if it is not permanent. Unlike a callus, however, your approach must be considered more cautiously. Part 1 covers some of the reasons why everyone needs to be aware that a corn may appear simple but may not be.
Hard skin on our feet?
If your foot is not conventional in shape, and you have bone prominences, the chances are these parts of the foot will be exposed to pressure. You may have to measure the largest foot and fit this, then use an insock (filler) to allow the smaller foot a better fit. Most shoe shops carry these insocks. Unlined shoes stretch better than lined shoes; you can push paper or shoe trees into the toe box to stretch the shoe. Professional stretching is less common than once available. Cobblers may offer a service to do this for you, or you can purchase a shoe stretcher for under £20 online.
The Softer Side of Podiatry
When it comes to skin – callus and corns occur in different degrees and can form extremely painful conditions, from splitting skin (fissures) to deeper ulcers, foreign indwelling damage and cysts. The nail bed harbours many problems and requires skill to navigate fleshy tumours and overgrown blood vessels, causing deformity and distortion known as hypergranulation.
Getting the best foot healthcare
This article focuses on getting the best foot care, but you can consider other relevant health concerns. Following some tips, you can check out some of the 70 key articles to support your quest for your foot problem at the bottom of this article.
The Fish Pedicure – good or bad?
CFP decided to look into this topic further and found some interesting facts. Yes, you can become infected from the doctor fish, as they are sometimes called, although the fish as Garra rufa fish and are found in the Middle East, such as Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, the Far East – Indonesia. The Garra rufa belongs to the carp family. In their natural habitat, their suction helps them stick to rocks so they feed on plankton. In a town called Kangal, it was observed that the resident Garra rufa fed spared normal skin but ate psoriatic plaques. Let’s look at risk and potential reasons for scaremongering. Secondly, we need to feature the Garra Rufa fish.
Selling & Misselling Orthoses
At ConsultingFootPain my colleagues and I try to take the mystique out of foot health science and recognise it is easy to confuse patients. For example, pronation is yet another word based around anatomical movement.
Sports magazines and journals, podiatrists and others use the word pronation all the time. However, do we know or understand the importance of the term, which can be used to confuse? In addition, there is another angle to this word and one that is often attributed to flat feet.
Musings about corns and callus
My favourite story comes from space
Scott and Don had been in space for 300 and 365 days respectively. Their blogs recorded interesting experiences. Because astronauts are not walking around on the ground under the force of gravity they don’t have to wear shoes in space.
“The calluses on your feet in space will eventually fall off so, the bottoms of your feet become very soft like newborn baby feet. But the top of my feet develop rough alligator skin because I use the top of my feet to get around here on space station when using foot rails.” Scott Kelly
Contact dermatitis and plants
Summer certainly attracts more plants and visitor activity than other seasons. Yet, even as I write this article, I feel itchy. We need to know what to avoid and if we are unfortunate to have a contact rash, we should know what to do. One point about the 10 plants I have picked is that many originate outside the UK while others remain in North America. Given the serious concerns with Japanese Knotweed for example, demonstrates that boundaries do not guarantee that you will come across something that has a kick in its leaf, stem or sap. Skin and respiratory problems arise in some but not all.
A Dying Healthcare System
Consultants split their time between the NHS and the independent sector, although some remain loyal to the NHS alone. Surgeons often make up their salary in this system, taking away an essential NHS resource – experienced professionals. This was the deal that Bevan had to negotiate. It is true that junior consultants have found it harder to follow their senior colleagues into the independent sector but eventually they trim back their hours if they want to work this sector.
Arthritis and the big toe
I confess I am not keen on the word arthritis as it conjures up a disease of the worst kind. So let us use the phrase ‘arthrosis’ because the term means a condition associated with deterioration of any joint, not just the big toe. Severe forms of arthrosis come under a wonderful term – the arthritides (arth-rit-eedees), which sounds like a member of Jason and the Argonauts crew in Greek mythology. Rheumatoid arthritis and gout are two such conditions which are highly destructive. Already you can see Latin and Greek in our language. Medical people love to make everything sound complicated and a bit of old language helps!
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Treating Simple Ankle Sprains
Managing the ankle sprain is well within reach of the average person. However the success is dependent in the extent of the injury. This article looks at both recognition and how to deal with the problem as part of first aid.
When is surgery indicated for the bunion?
One common question a patient will ask is do I need bunion surgery. This short article is offered to provide some advice that looks objectively at the how to make that decision and discuss your needs with your foot health clinician. In this revised article the patient is now placed at the centre offering more than simple fact sheets.
A common foot treatment device
This brief article covers orthotics or orthoses providing tips about what you might expect when this form of treatment for your foot is recommended. Can you buy your own for example and what is a prescription? Who should you avoid when being sold an orthosis. Read this article by podiatrist and a former orthotic director without adverts and sales pitch.
What is a podiatric surgeon
What does a podiatric surgeon do and how do we distinguish this profession that is now over 40 years old in the UK. This brief article helps enquirers in the UK make that distinction with links to relevant sites. Further enquiries to the official bodies are recommended for those wishing to seek a career in podiatric surgery.
Heel Pain due to a bruised heel
Take bruised heel. Relatively unknown if not poorly described. The condition is mixed up with other forms of heel pain such as plantar fasciitis. David, a podiatrist and keen user of the gym writes about his own heel pain and how to deal with it.
First Aid Kit
Having written a couple articles on foot safety and accidents I wanted to talk about what to have in your First Aid Kit at home. It does not have to be complicated but better to have a stock of items to fit the need of that little mishap.
Foot injury & self-help
Had an accident to the foot? Well podiatrist David did. Fixing the problem was easy but then a good article was worthwhile and what better than a bit of self-advice from this former podiatric foot surgeon. He will take you through some pointers as how to manage and even prepare for that event you may never have happen – hopefully!
Blisters and Pathology in the foot
Blisters occur in vigorously active populations and result from frictional forces that mechanically separate epidermal cells at level of the stratum spinosum. Moist skin increases the frictional force, but very dry or very wet skin decreases friction force. Read more by Mike who has made a study of this common problem in this two part article for Reflective Podiatric Practice.
How can podiatrists help with hand-foot syndromes?
Hand-foot or palmar-plantar syndrome (HFS) and hand-foot skin reactions (HFSR) arise with cancer therapy. Initial symptoms include; swelling, numbness, a sense of tightness/stiffness due to the swelling), and pain in the palms and/or soles.
Dry Skin in the Foot Associated with Cancer Treatment
Routine podiatry will help to reduce fissures and callus through debridement (finely skilled scalpel reduction of dead skin) and leave healthy pain free skin. Frequent use of ointments to rehydrate the skin is recommended
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