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Smelly Feet and the Home Truth

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.

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Podiatry as a Career

Podiatry as a Career

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.

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Foot Cramp is There a Cause?

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.

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What is a foot orthosis?

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.

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Urine Holds the Secrets of Health

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…

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Which Bones are Most at Risk from Fracture?

Which Bones are Most at Risk from Fracture?

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.

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Footwear can be tricky

Footwear can be tricky

As a child of the late fifties, I had my feet measured with loving care. It was an independent shoe outlet called Pomfret’s. As the years went by the father moved on and left it to his son John, a smart forty-something man with tight but neatly creased trousers, and sharp-pointed slip-on shoes. His haircut might have come from the days of Elvis Presley.

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Some Things You Need to Know About Bunion Surgery?

Some Things You Need to Know About Bunion Surgery?

When a colleague (HFP) sought this question, she was generous and mentioned her surgeon was busy and thought it an oversight. I am both an ex-patient and a foot surgeon, and I’m afraid I have to disagree. We often confuse nice with good, and all clinicians have a blip – but then don’t we all? So we have a patient leaving the hospital after bunion surgery. No post-operative information is apparent, so what does she do? Call a friend! This, in fact, is Facebook and jolly good it is as there is a heap of friendly advice.

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How Does Bunion Surgery Impact Our Lives?

How Does Bunion Surgery Impact Our Lives?

It may seem simple to accept a risk from surgery is low in percentage terms but in this article I explore a new phenomena to may patients and that is actual impact should a perceived low risk actually arise. A number of different complications and problems are discussed and the impact this has should it arise is highlighted with examples and supplementary papers.

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Caught Out with Cancer

Caught Out with Cancer

Cancer is something which affects any part of the body but being caught out may not always be the doctor’s fault. In this article I am using the abbreviation ‘S.M.ART’ which will be explained at the end. But how could we call be fooled by the story of my father’s sudden death from bowel cancer. Who was to blame?

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The Irritating Little Toe

The Irritating Little Toe

In this self-help article, the irritating little toe problem is discussed. Usually the problem will settle within a week of self prescribed care. I have chosen this subject as the condition is slightly different from the usual fungal infection affecting the toe. Before panicking and thinking you are unclean read this article from ConsultingFootPain.

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Cancer and the foot

Cancer and the foot

The fifth commonest skin cancer is the melanoma according to the Marsden Hospital (London) but other forms of cancer exist and the foot is as much a target as other parts of the body. The Mayo Clinic in the US suggests only 1% of cancers affect bone. Peeling information off the internet needs interpretation and in reality the foot is a low target for cancer.

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Skin Cracks & Fissures in Feet

Skin Cracks & Fissures in Feet

Skin fissures can affect all genders, but footwear design can be an influencing factor. The shoe that causes the most problems is the mule or a shoe design that has no heel counter or strap. This allows the heel to slip but can cause the skin to bulge over the edge of the heel. This extra tissue distortion causes skin the thicken and then crack. Cold and damp weather can affect the skin as much as overuse of these shoe designs.

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The Puppet Toe

The Puppet Toe

Zandra’s toe was not dislocated, but untreated hallux valgus (bunion) deformities can cause this problem. The simplest approach is to straighten both the first and second toe together. If the toe problem arises later, as in Zandra’s case, we can deal with the second toe alone. Evidence is poor, so we must look at the broader picture. Do we know when hammer toes start to be notable in the human population?

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Do corn plasters work on corns?

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.

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Hard skin on our feet?

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.

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The Softer Side of Podiatry

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.

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The Fish Pedicure – good or bad?

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.

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Selling & Misselling Orthoses

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.

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Contact dermatitis and plants

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.

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A Dying Healthcare System

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.

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