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How to Speed Up Your Recovery from a Severe Ankle Injury

With high school football season entering its mid and latter stages, volleyball season in full swing, and basketball beginning, severe ankle injuries are undoubtedly on the rise. The worst can sideline your teen for a couple months. Most will put them out of action for at least a couple weeks.

In many cases, you simply can’t avoid the injury. All sports have their risks.

So if your son or daughter finds themselves on the wrong end of a severe ankle injury, here’s what they can do to speed up their recovery time:

Begin Rehab Exercises Soon After Your Injury

Try to walk or put weight on your foot. Don’t force yourself to go beyond your limits. Pushing yourself too hard could actually result in you reinjuring your ankle or even a more severe injury. Walk and put as much weight as you can on your foot without severe discomfort. Use your crutches to help you if it still causes pain.

While you have ice on your ankle, work on increasing your range of motion by tracing the entire alphabet with your toe. This gives you increased motion in all directions.

Slowly Return to Activity

As you regain confidence in your ankle, you can slowly return to the movements required by your sport. You can’t go full-speed immediately.

However, you can increase the weight you bear, the distance you go, and the speed you use. Some discomfort is okay. But if you’re in severe discomfort performing the movements, you’re pushing yourself too hard. Reduce your intensity slightly.

Use Prevention Exercises to Reduce Your Future Chance of Injury

With your body, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. NBA all-stars do many exercises to prevent injury to their ankles.

You can do these simple ones to reduce future risk of injury to either of your ankles:

  • Single-leg calf raise – With this exercise, you simply go from flat-footed to your tip-toe on one leg. Keep your other leg on the ground to help with balance. Take 1 second to raise your other leg up. Then slowly take 5 seconds to return your heel to the ground. Consider using a squatting machine at the gym to apply weight so you can increase your ankle’s strength.
  • Single-leg ladder drills – Use a speed ladder to make this one work for you. It’s a common piece of equipment you can easily get anywhere online. Hop forwards, sideways, and backwards on one leg. Make sure you exercise both legs.
  • Plate raise – This strengthens the muscles of the front of your shins, which also helps you stabilize your ankles. Put a 10-pound weight plate over your toes while you stand. Raise the plate with your toes in 1 second, and then take 5 seconds to drop it down. Increase the weight as you can.

If you follow those steps, not only will you have a fast recovery from your ankle injury, but you’ll also greatly reduce your future risk of a repeat one. And, these exercises work for teens and adults alike.

How to Treat Athlete’s Foot

Some people live with athlete’s foot, and many other conditions they find embarrassing, for years before they get help. But, remember podiatrists see these problems on a daily basis! While you may feel self-conscious about it, we understand it’s a natural problem many people face.

Athlete’s foot is actually a fungus. You can get it from anywhere you walk. That could be a public or workplace shower, the local gym, or even your own socks.

It causes cracked and scaling skin on your feet, gets itchy and irritating, becomes red, can lead to blisters, and sometimes may indicate fungal infections on other areas of your body.

Athlete’s foot can actually become much more painful. It can lead to your skin feeling raw, thick and discolored toenails, and in some cases, toenails that pull away from their nail beds. Your feet can even become infected with cellulitis, which causes your feet to swell.

Athlete’s foot seems like a trivial infection, but it can be quite painful if you leave it untreated.

How Do You Treat Athlete’s Foot?

As embarrassed about this condition as you might feel, treatment is easy, quick, and generally has a high rate of success.

Over-the-counter fungal creams applied for 1-4 weeks usually work. Air your feet out as much as you can, but don’t walk barefoot.

Avoid sweating, and that includes if you’re an athlete. Fortunately, you can still get your exercise or participate in your sport. Apply antifungal powder before you put your socks on. Take extra pairs of socks with you so you don’t sit in wet and sweaty socks. Wash your feet with soap and water thoroughly after exercise. Change your socks at least daily, even if you don’t break a sweat.

This may sound a bit odd at first, but you do want to walk around barefoot around home. That keeps your feet ventilated and dry (Athlete’s foot fungus loves moisture). Just make sure you have a pair of sandals on so you’re not spreading the fungus all over. Disinfect your sandals nightly after each use.

To prevent getting athlete’s foot again, bleach your socks and the bottom of your shower and bath tub at least weekly. Athlete’s foot is easy to treat, but it’s difficult to stop it from happening again.

If you have a family member with athlete’s foot, encourage them to get treated immediately so they don’t pass it on to you.

Don’t Let Athlete’s Foot Be Any Worse Than It Is

The key to success is taking action, seeking treatment, and then taking preventative measures. Swallow your pride and discuss Athlete’s foot with your podiatrist so you can get the relief you need, and prevent yourself from spreading it to others in your family.

How to Prevent Ingrown Toenails

How to Prevent Ingrown Toenails

Have you had ingrown toenails before? Are you wondering how you can lower the risk so you don’t have to endure the pain?

You can prevent ingrown toenails in most cases. Here are some important tips on how:

  1. Trim your nails properly. Cut your toenails in a fairly straight line and don’t cut them too short. You should be able to get your fingernail under the sides and end of the nail. Avoid clipping to match the natural curvature of your toe
  2. Avoid poorly-fitting footwear. Don’t wear shoes that are too short or too tightly in the toe box. Also avoid shoes that are too loose.
  3. Pedicures from Inexperienced Technicians. There is nothing wrong with getting a pedicure. However, just make sure you get one from an experienced technician who knows how not to give you ingrown toenails.
  4. Repeated Toe Trauma. Sometimes this is preventable, and other times it’s not. Stubbing or jamming your toe, or dropping something on it, may not always be preventable. Just make sure that whatever tasks you do, that you’re as careful as you can be so you don’t hurt yourself. Ingrown toenails can also happen from running, soccer, or ballet. Make sure you take proper care of your feet and give them a quick examination each day so you don’t develop ingrown toenails and find yourself sitting out.
  5. Genetics Play a Role. Do ingrown toenails run in your family? This doesn’t guarantee you’ll get them, but it does increase your chances. If you do, take extra caution and time to examine your toenails to make sure they don’t become ingrown. Poor hygiene can also put you at risk for ingrowing toenails.

Myths vs Truth about Home Treatment/Remedies

  • Cutting a “V” doesn’t affect the regrowth of the toenail. New nail growth will continue to curve downward.
  • Repeated nail trimming fails to correct future nail growth and can make the condition worse.
  • Cotton placed under the nail can be harmful. It can easily harbor bacteria and fungus and encourage infection. Another cause it secondary infection with toenail fungus (onychomycosis) due to compromising the integrity of the nail plate itself.
  • Over the counter topical medication may mask the pain, but they fail to address the underlying condition.

If You Have an Ingrown Toenail, Act Fast

The longer you let ingrown toenails persist, the more problems they cause, until finally you can’t stand it anymore. So if you notice you or a family member with one, get it addressed as fast as possible to minimize your pain and downtime.

Top 4 Benefits of Orthotic Inserts

Why would you wear orthotics?

Top 4 Benefits of Orthotic InsertsTypically, you don’t think about them until you notice painful problems in your feet, ankles, or back. They do cost a little bit, so if you’re like most people, you put them off until you realize you absolutely need them.

But they offer a number of benefits and make a ton of sense. Here’s why you should strongly consider orthotics once you’re aware you may need them:

  1. They Relieve Pain

This is far and away the number one benefit of orthotics. At worst, they’ll minimize the pain of standing and walking a lot during the day. At best, they’ll completely eliminate it.

They do this by supporting and realigning your spine, feet, ankles, and knees with the rest of your body. Your muscles and ligaments leading to your hips are also prevented from stretching unnecessarily.

  1. Reduce Muscular Fatigue

To compensate for inefficiencies in how you stand or walk, your muscles may overexert themselves. This leads to fatigue when you shouldn’t necessarily experience any.

With the right orthotics in place, you should notice far less fatigue, or none at all. Even professional athletes sometimes wear orthotics.

  1. Can Prevent Falls and Other Injuries

Orthotics shouldn’t be worn once you get to older age, and that’s a decision you should make with your podiatrist. It doesn’t become necessary for everyone at a particular age.

However, for people who have neuropathy (loss of feeling in their feet), arthritis, nerve damage, or general muscle weakness, orthotics can provide a stronger support base. This leads to a reduced chance of falling.

This assumes you have the right orthotic insert for your foot. When you do, it gives you optimal balance and flexibility, while improving the range of motion of your ankle. Besides preventing falls, this can also lead to the prevention of other serious foot and ankle injuries, even if you’re in great shape.

  1. More Affordable than Orthotic Shoes

Besides orthotic inserts, you can also get orthotic shoes. But, of course they cost far more. And to get the benefits of orthotics, you really need ones perfect for your feet. So, you have lower risk when you go with orthotic inserts because they cost less.

Do orthotics make sense for you? That’s a decision you have to make with your podiatrist. For now, you understand why you might choose them.

How to Care for Arthritic Ankles

Does arthritic pain flare up and make your ankles uncomfortable to walk on from time-to-time?

Arthritis isn’t fun to have. But you can minimize the discomfort and disruption it causes in your life.

If you have arthritic ankle pain, here’s what you can do about it:

Wear Shoes with Low, Flared Heels

While your stilettos may make you feel attractive, they’re the opposite of what you want to wear if you have arthritis in your ankle. You already have low stability because of their structure. And since you have arthritis in your ankles too, that makes you much more vulnerable to taking an awkward step and rolling your ankle, which could lead to a fracture or break.

Avoid Flat Footwear like Sandals and Flip-Flops Too

Flatter shoes don’t offer the greatest arch support. If you have arthritis, this can lead to pronation. That’s when your foot and ankle roll inward to your arch. Flat footwear doesn’t ease this painful movement.

Enclosed shoes with lace and heels no higher than 1 ½ inches give you the best support.

Watch What You Do With Your Feet When You Sit

Crossing your feet behind you and pointing them down puts additional pressure on your toes. This leads to more soreness and stiffness in your ankles.

You might do this because you get anxious in social situations. So, it’s a great opportunity to not only relieve a factor agitating your arthritis, but you get to learn how to feel a little more comfortable and relaxed in social situations too.

Ice Your Ankles When the Pain Flares Up

Cold works wonders to keep freshly injured ankles from swelling and resulting in more pain. But that’s not the only situation where you should use it. If you have your arthritis flare up, ice your ankles for 15-20 minutes to help relieve the pain.

Consider Losing Weight

This is a little tricky if you have arthritis in your ankles. Your ankles bear the weight your body places on them. So, the less you weigh, the lesser arthritic pain you may experience also. You know there’s many other benefits to weight loss too. So, it’s never a bad idea to consider.

Condition Your Ankles to Become Stronger

Just about any part of your body benefits from strength conditioning. Your ankles are no exception. Strengthening them improves stability. Do simple exercises like stretching your calf or writing out all the letters of the alphabet with your feet. Both are simple and take just a few minutes.

By doing these things, you keep your arthritic pain to a minimum.

How to Prepare Your Feet for Fall

You just celebrated Labor Day, so that means fall’s coming soon. Aside from obvious measures, you probably don’t think about your feet too much as the air cools down.

How do you prep your feet for the coming fall weather? Here’s what you should consider:

Rub Your Hard Skin Patches Down

Going without shoes and hanging out on the beach, or even just walking around your yard, leads to your feet becoming calloused and hard. That works well during the warmer summer months. However, it leaves your feet scaly and unattractive when winter comes.

The remedy is simple and fast: take a pumice stone and some elbow grease, and rub the harder, scaly skin down until your skin feels and looks the way you want. It only takes 5 minutes.

Moisturize to Soften Your Skin Even More

Have peeling and cracked skin on your heels and foot soles? Use a heavy-duty moisturizer to make them as soft as a baby’s skin again.

For the best effect, do this when you step out of the shower. However, make sure you don’t slip and fall.

Trim Your Nails

Besides your skin, when was the last time you trimmed your toenails? Remember to clip and file your toenails.

If you notice any unusual colors below your toenails, consider seeing a doctor to learn what’s going on and the fastest cure.

Consider Coconut Oil for Deep Conditioning

Thought you were done with your foot care, didn’t you? Well, as the air gets drier during fall and eventually winter, your feet need hydration to be at their best and most attractive.

Apply coconut oil to give your feet deep hydration.

Keep Wearing Sunscreen

Here in sunny and warm Texas, our version of fall is actually more like a continuation of summer in many states. In these parts, keep wearing sunscreen on the top of your feet. Make sure it’s at least SPF 30, and don’t forget to apply it even when you wear sandals that leave your feet exposed to the sun.

As you can see, fall foot care doesn’t take a lot of work. You just have to remember a few small things. So keep them in mind to keep your feet looking their best!

How to Help Your Teen Protect Their Feet And Ankles During Football Season

Football leads to nearly every imaginable type of injury. Foot and ankle injuries, however, probably aren’t the first ones that come to mind. But make no mistake about it, your son’s feet and ankles are at risk. Just like many other football injuries, they can spell an early end to their career or season.

Here’s how to help your son keep his feet and ankles safe during this upcoming season:

What to Look for in Ankle Braces

Your son will be wise to wear an ankle brace, even if they don’t necessarily have any ankle problems. With ankle braces, look for ones that work on both the left and right ankle interchangeably. Laced-up ankle braces also offer more support than most others. This also makes the ankle support more comfortable. Finally, you’ll want to look for lightweight ankle braces that also allow for extensive ventilation.

Have Regular Checkups If You Already Have Foot or Ankle Problems

A thorough examination before, during, and after the football season helps your son spot any problems and address them before they become serious injuries. Obviously, you can’t prevent all major injuries. But a consultation with a podiatrist could be just what your son needs to develop strategies for successfully preventing injuries during practice and games.

Make Sure Your Son Works on Having “Quick Feet”

Your son’s coach will likely have them do a number of agility drills that help them develop quick feet. But, they can also supplement that with agility ladders and balance boards, which help reduce their chance of ankle injuries even further.

Wear the Right Cleats

At this point, initial research suggests your son should wear more flexible cleats. Why? Their ankle can respond more naturally to absorb the blow when tackled. This additional flexibility helps reduce their chance of experience a high ankle sprain or ligament damage, which causes more long-term harm than lower ankle injuries. When you go to purchase cleats, rotate your ankles around to see how they perform.

Follow those tips, and you help your son significantly reduce their chances of experiencing a foot or ankle injury this football season.

What Your Daughter Can Do to Protect Her Ankles During Volleyball Season

Ankle injuries are one of the most common in volleyball. How can your daughter prevent hers from being injured so she doesn’t miss several weeks during the season?

Here’s some tips:

When to Wear Ankle Braces

At this point, the research is conflicted on whether ankle braces help prevent injuries if your daughter’s ankles aren’t already injured.

However, research has clearly indicated ankle braces do help prevent re-injury of an ankle. Combine ankle braces with specific ankle exercises to provide the greatest support going forward.

What Type of Ankle Brace to Wear

For the most part, this doesn’t matter because most people experience lateral/inversion sprains. However, if your daughter has anterior/posterior instability, then she has a possible chance of injuring her ankle. Lace-up braces provide strong support for your ankle on all sides.

All types of braces, however, offer proprioceptive input, which helps your muscles react faster and with greater strength when they experience a strong impact.

Do Ankle Braces Ever Hurt Your Ankles?

Only wearing a poor-fitting ankle brace would impact your daughter negatively in any way. No evidence suggests braces will weaken your ankle muscles. If your daughter feels uncomfortable, she needs to practice in the ankle brace more or find one that fits more comfortably.

Ankle braces do not reduce her vertical jump. And while some claim ankle braces can contribute to knee injuries, no evidence currently supports that.

Exercises Your Daughter Can Do to Strengthen Her Ankles

Most athletes don’t do additional work to strengthen their ankles. The exercise you do doesn’t need to be sophisticated. Your daughter can start by simply standing on one leg for as long as she can. Then she could add arm exercises to the mix, or trying to balance on an unstable surface. Squats, lunges, and side leg lifts on a balance board also work to improve ankle strength.

However, some patience is required. Training can take 2-3 months before it really pays dividends.

Finally, understand that taping ankles doesn’t provide as much protection as a brace. While it works well initially, taping loosens up over time and may not even provide any real support within an hour – even if an excellent trainer did a good job of taping.

If your daughter does all those things during this volleyball season, she should be in a good place for minimizing her risk of a season-ending ankle injury.

How to Heal 5 Common Foot Injuries You Could Experience This Summer

What foot injuries could you experience this summer? Maybe you have one of these right now.

Learn some of the common foot injuries you can experience, and what you can do to make them heal as quickly as possible:

  • Blisters

They’re annoying and easy to pop. But, popping blisters is the worst thing you can do. Not only does it sting and make the blister feel worse, but a popped blister can become infected. That could require you to take an emergency visit to your podiatrist.

Instead, apply antibiotic cream over the blister and cover it with a bandage. If your sandals or flip-flops cause blisters, consider using blister bandages to minimize the rubbing.

  • What to Do about Sweaty Feet

Prepare yourself for a true, but fairly gross statement. Each of your toes has 250,000 sweat glands. And each one of those toes can release a pint of sweat daily. Not a pleasant thought.

To counter this effect during the intense Texas summer, spray your feet with antiperspirant every morning and night. The metals block your sweat ducts and reduce sweating.

  • Reduce Your Risk of Cancer

Yes, it’s easy to forget, but too much sun exposure (without sunblock) can cause skin cancer. That includes the tops of your feet.

Fortunately, it’s not hard to protect your feet. Simply apply SPF 30 sunscreen (or stronger) on the top and bottom of your feet and between your toes.

  • You Can Kill Athlete’s Foot Before It Grows

Foot powder, baby powder, and even talcum can be sprinkled in your shoes to kill the athlete’s foot fungus before it grows. Do this on a daily basis.

If you notice you have itchy feet and toes, or if your feet look scaly, you could easily have athlete’s foot. For another preventative, never go barefoot or wear flip-flops near public swimming pools or in locker rooms.

  • End Your Children’s Foot Pain

Remember back when you used to run around without anything on your feet? Ahhh, the freedom of being a child.

But that can lead to heel pain when done too much. If your child is complaining of foot pain, identify the location. If it’s their heel, have them wear running shoes to protect their feet.

You now have five simple remedies to common summer foot injuries. Have a fun-filled (and safe) summer!

How To Prevent Summer’s Most Common Foot Injury

Flip-flops and summer go together hand-in-hand. What would summer be like without flip-flops?

Well, apparently it could be a lot less painful. That’s because flip-flops are the leading cause of summer’s most common foot injury: metatarsalgia.

What’s “metatarsalgia?”

It’s inflammation of the ball of your foot. It’s extremely painful. And if you don’t treat it, it can result in stress fractures, several weeks in a cast (or worse), and a complete fracture that results in surgery.

All that from wearing seemingly innocent flip-flops? Yes.

When you walk in flip-flops, you grip the toe piece with your toes. That forces you to push the ball of your foot into the ground.

Do You Have to Stop Wearing Your Flip-Flops?

No, although it would be the simplest solution. If you insist on wearing your flip-flops, despite the risk of this painful injury, buy a pair with a stiffer sole, a slight arch, and a rocker bottom. And, buy a new pair every year.

Flats Don’t Give Your Feet a Break Either

There’s nothing positive about flats. They’re just like flip-flops. Besides exposing you to metatarsalgia, you can also become vulnerable to plantar fasciitis (a stabbing pain near the heel of your foot) or heel spur syndrome (a bony protrusion near your heel that causes pain or plantar fasciitis).

If you insist on wearing flats, you can get orthotics to help support your foot.

What Should You Wear During the Summer?

Sandals. They give you more support than flip-flops. You can find brands with built-in arch support and cupping to fit your heel. To maximize support, you want sandals with a stiffer sole and straps that cross over your foot. This takes the weight off the ball of your foot, which helps you avoid pain.

When it comes to your fashion, you’ll end up doing what you want to do. The guideline for seeking help from a podiatrist works like this:

If the pain you’re experiencing lasts more than a few days, you need to find help pronto. Not doing anything results in the pain remaining, which leads to a stress fracture you otherwise wouldn’t have experienced.

Otherwise, enjoy your summer.