Footnotes, The Foot & Ankle Blog - Page 5 of 29

A new study from Duke University shows that those who suffer from gout have a significantly increased risk of heart disease. What causes gout? Gout is a type of arthritis caused by a buildup of uric acid in the blood stream. Uric acid is a natural product of normal food digestion. The kidneys are tasked with eliminating uric acid, but read more »

Rod Stewart rhapsodized about a girl with “hot legs, right up to her neck”. It’s undeniably true that high heels can create “hot legs”. High heels do make women taller, make their legs look longer, and give the consequent illusion of a slimmer physique. But to what purpose? Valerie Steele, the director of the Museum of the Fashion Institute of read more »

When the outer edge of your foot hurts enough to get your attention, it can often be difficult to identify the precise cause. While some of the following conditions can occur anywhere in or on your foot, they all belong on a checklist of potential sources of pain on the outside of your foot. Stress Fractures in the Foot Stress read more »

Pregnancy triggers many changes in a woman’s body, and some of them can seem overwhelming. Take, for example, the weight gain that pregnant women universally experience. It begins suddenly, and then relentlessly persists throughout your pregnancy. In addition to the weight gain attributable to the growth of the fetus and its surrounding support systems, your pregnant body becomes a virtual read more »

Michael Dumas, 17, was diagnosed with cutaneous larva migrans, a skin condition caused by larvae from animal hookworms. We’re all aware of the beach hazards that lurk in the ocean, like sharks, stingrays, and jellyfish, but we feel safe on the sand. Now there’s cause for caution on the dry side of the beach. Michael Dumas, a teenage boy from read more »

Here’s how a woman got burns and blisters on her foot after trying a home remedy. When it comes to home remedies for athlete’s foot, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing A 45-year-old English woman suffering with a stubborn case of athlete’s foot read somewhere that garlic can help eliminate fungal infections. So, naturally enough, for the next read more »

Toenails!!!…huh…yeah. What are they good for? Absolutely nothing!!! (Apologies to Edwin Starr, the Temptations, and Bruce Springsteen). But it’s true, we don’t do much with our toenails. Our fingernails are still essential. Itches demand scratching. Our fingernails enable us to pick up small objects, and folks with a creative bent can paint them up like 10 tiny blank canvases on read more »

We recently discussed the various ways that being overweight can affect your podiatric health. To recap, it’s not surprising that carrying around surplus weight leads to foot and ankle problems. Being overweight exerts extra pressure on your feet and ankles, and this leads to serious difficulties such as flat feet, plantar fasciitis, tendinitis, bone spurs, arthritis, gout, diabetic damage to read more »

As that old song goes… “the toe bone’s connected to the foot bone… the foot bone’s connected to the heel bone” and so on. Eventually it makes its way up to the head bone, and then back down to the feet and ankles. The anatomical accuracy of that song may be dubious, but the basic theme is dead-on; in the read more »

Want some quick, natural, and instinctive advice about running in the dark? DON’T DO IT!! You’ll run into things (like tree trunks and branches, spiderwebs, curbs, mailboxes, wire fences, and potholes). You’ll run on things (like surface water, slippery leaves, sand, or gravel) You’ll be run into by things (like cars). You’ll run over things (like cliffs). You’ll be stalked, read more »