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What is Gout and How Does It Affect Your Feet?

You’ve likely at least heard the term “gout.” And if you’re reading this post, it’s probably causing you or your spouse intense pain.

Gout is simply a kind of inflammatory arthritis caused by a buildup of uric crystals. It causes sudden and intense pain and swollen joints that appear red and become hot.

Your joints can also become tender and highly sensitive to even a light touch. You can also develop lumps under your skin. While not painful, they can eventually cause damage to your bones or cartilage.

Most “gout flares,” as the sudden jolts of pain are called, begin in your big toe. And you’ll frequently experience pain in your knees, hands, and feet.

What Causes Gout?

A buildup of too much uric acid in your body results in gout. Your body produces most of it naturally.

And then your diet, genetics, and own personal history of conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and kidney disease contribute the rest of the uric acid required to develop gout.

In rare cases, some medications can also give you gout.

How Do You Treat Gout?

While gout cannot be cured, it can be kept under control so your life doesn’t become dominated by it.

NSAIDs and corticosteroids can reduce pain and swelling. Colchicine reduces the sudden pain and inflammation.

You can also take several other drugs which help lower the levels of uric acid in your body.

The best treatment for gout is living a healthy lifestyle likely to prevent it from happening. The particular changes to include in your life are:

  1. Drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated and to help your kidneys function properly
  2. Exercising regularly to keep your weight in check, as high weight increases uric acid
  3. Avoiding foods high in uric acid (alcohol, red meat, shellfish, gravy, sugary drinks, animal protein)

When Should You Seek Help?

Take action the moment you notice any sort of sudden and intense joint pain.

This may or may not be gout. If it isn’t, it could be an infection.

If it is gout, simply letting it go can lead to permanent joint damage, severe arthritis, kidney stones, and heart disease.

Regardless of what could happen, it’s not fun; it causes pain; and it costs you more time and money to deal with.

Gout isn’t fun. But it doesn’t have to rule your life. Seek help. And take action to stay as healthy as you can.

How Does High Blood Pressure Affect Your Feet?

No matter what way you look at it, high blood pressure is not good for your health.

Chronically high blood pressure always has negative effects.

Did you know that it affects your feet too?

How Do You Know High Blood Pressure Has Become a Problem?

Also called “hypertension,” high blood pressure is a problem the moment you notice it.

It creates a wide range of negative effects on your body. When it comes to your feet, you can experience:

  • Cramping in your feet and legs when you exercise
  • Sores on your feet or legs
  • Changes in color to your feet
  • Differing temperatures in your feet
  • The loss of hair on your feet or legs
  • Swelling in your feet and legs (also an indicator of heart disease)

If you notice any of these symptoms, you’re wise to act fast. You should schedule time to see your podiatrist and perhaps your general practitioner too.

And you should be ready to take action on your health immediately.

If you don’t, you can get ulcers. And you may even eventually need to amputate one or both of your feet.

How to Keep Hypertension in Check

Understanding how to take care of hypertension isn’t hard. The real battle lies in your mind.

What are you willing to do to get your blood pressure back in a healthy place?

Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do. For example:

  • Lose weight (by far the most effective thing you can do)
  • 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week (pick your favorite kind so you stay motivated)
  • Eat healthier (mostly vegetables, poultry, fish, and a little red meat)
  • Limit sodium, sugar, and alcohol
  • Stop smoking
  • Drink less caffeine
  • Do what you can to keep your stress under control

How Do You Make This Your New Lifestyle?

It’s easy to talk about what to do. It’s much harder to actually do it, and keep doing it.

Why?

Because most human behavioral change only happens when you finally become truly sick and tired of the way things are.

For some, that can be as simple as hearing they have to go to the doctor and get some bad news.

For others, they may need to experience ulcers or a heart attack.

Everybody has their own point where they finally realize they need to live differently. And then they become willing to do what is necessary to stay healthy.

Just remember that, though it’s hard to make these changes, you’ll feel so much better about yourself when you choose to take action.

And others will take notice.

To make it easier, you may want to join groups of others trying to make these changes too. They’ll be able to relate to the difficulties you experience.

That’s all we have for now. We’re happy to help in any way we can and wish you all the best going forward!

How High Blood Pressure Negatively Affects Your Foot Health

It’s not just severe diabetes that affects the health of your feet. In fact, hypertension (high blood pressure) also affects your feet.

It sounds strange at first. How can your feet and high blood pressure have any relationship?

The truth is that the human body is an incredibly complex system scientists and doctors don’t yet fully understand. Just think of how many different specialists you can see for various ailments that affect your body!

No one person gets the full picture.

Because of the generally sedentary lifestyle and high salt/sugar American diet, somewhere around 100 million Americans (according to the American Heart Association) have high blood pressure. And that’s nearly ⅓ of the entire American population!

So How Does High Blood Pressure Affect Your Feet?

High blood pressure doesn’t just harm your feet. It hurts your entire body.

When your blood pressure gets too high, it damages your blood vessels. Plaque builds up in your blood vessels, which restricts blood flow.

The plaque buildup is usually the defining characteristic of PVD (peripheral vascular disease).

Because certain parts of your body no longer have an adequate blood supply, they become susceptible to a number of serious problems.

This can lead to open ulcers, which if not promptly treated, can result in the need for amputation.

Believe it or not, this can actually happen without diabetes present. However, it’s 20 times more likely to happen to diabetics.

How Do You Know If High Blood Pressure Is Affecting Your Feet?

You really should be aware if you have high blood pressure in the first place. Your doctor will let you know about it in your annual physical.

But how do you know if it’s getting to the point where it could be causing serious problems in your feet?

Here’s a few telltale symptoms:

  1. Cramping in your feet and legs (particularly when exercising)
  2. Unusual sores on your feet and legs
  3. The color of your feet has recently changed
  4. Your feet experience noticeable temperature changes
  5. Hair loss on your legs and feet

If you notice any of those going on, you definitely need to see your podiatrist ASAP. Letting those symptoms go can lead to painful foot ulcers and possibly amputation.

It isn’t worth the risk to do nothing.

You may be prescribed medication to control your blood pressure. And you should strongly consider a healthier diet and regular exercise to keep your blood pressure in check.

High blood pressure is also a leading contributor to heart attacks. So, it’s a wise decision on your part to take care of it immediately upon discovery.

Why Women Need to Be Aware of Haglund’s Deformity

You’ve probably never heard of “Haglund’s Deformity.” More commonly called “pump bump,” the foot deformity can really affect either gender, but it usually happens to women.

The name “pump bump” comes from the fact that the condition most commonly happens to women who wear pump-style shoes.

The deformity itself is an enlargement on the back of your heel bone. This happens because the rigid backs of certain types of footwear put pressure on your heel bone.

In addition to pump-style shoes, ice skates, roller skates, and women’s dress shoes also cause this condition.

However, men’s dress shoes, steel-toed work boots, and stiff winter boots are also leading culprits of the condition’s cause too.

To add insult to injury, Haglund’s Deformity will also cause bursitis. The bursa, a fluid-filled sac between the heel bone and nearby tendons, becomes inflamed because it also gets agitated by your enlarged heel bone.

If you’ve never experienced either condition, both cause quite a bit of pain!

Your Choice of Footwear Isn’t the Only Cause of Haglund’s Deformity

Haglund’s Deformity is also a somewhat mysterious condition not yet fully understood.

Heredity also plays a role in the cause of the condition too.

Having a foot with a high arch, a naturally tight achilles tendon, or a tendency to walk using the outside of your heels may also play roles in the creation of Haglund’s Deformity.

What Can You Do To Treat Haglund’s Deformity?

Fortunately, you can treat this condition and fully recover. It’s more a question of whether or not you’ll need to get surgery.

The non-surgical treatment regimen includes:

  • Using NSAIDs to reduce pain and inflammation
  • Applying ice to the affected area (Wrap the ice in a towel. Apply for no more than 20 minutes at a time. After a 40-minute break, apply the ice again.)
  • Using a prescribed routine of exercises to relieve tension from your achilles heel.
  • Inserting heel lifts in your shoes to decrease pressure on your heels (if you have high arches).
  • Using heel pads in your shoes to reduce irritation as you walk.
  • Wearing backless or soft-backed shoes that don’t agitate your heels.
  • Physical intervention from medical devices (such as using ultrasound to reduce inflammation)
  • Inserting custom orthotics to control the motion of your heel.
  • Entirely immobilizing your heel in a cast.

If some combination of the above doesn’t relieve your heel pain, then you’ll probably have to get surgery.

And if you do, make sure you follow your post-surgical treatment and prevention routine.

Haglund’s Deformity can recur if you routinely run uphill or on hard’s surfaces or if you wear shoes that agitate your heels in any way.

Fortunately, you have an excellent prognosis for a full recovery from this painful condition.

Considering a Pedicure? Top Dos and Don’ts

Because so much research has been done in recent decades, speaking generally, we’ve learned a lot about the right ways and wrong ways to do things.

Things that weren’t recommended when you were a child have now become the norm and vice-versa.

That’s certainly the case with pedicures also.

The APMA (American Podiatric Medical Association) has released its own guide for getting a pedicure. And here’s some of their top recommendations:

1. Top Dos

If you have diabetes or poor circulation, talk with your podiatrist before getting a pedicure. This allows them to recommend a customized routine that keeps your feet in optimal health.

Remember, you have unique conditions affecting your feet that the typical salon may not know how to best approach.

Next, schedule your pedicure first thing in the morning.

Why?

This is the time before many customers have been helped, which means that the salon has the cleanest water.

If you simply can’t make it in early in the day, then ask your salon if they change the foot bath water between clients.

When you do go to the salon, bring your own pedicure utensils. Bacteria and fungus can easily move from one person to the next. And your salon, though well-intended, may not perfectly sterilize their utensils.

Finally, when caring for calluses, use a pumice stone, foot file, or exfoliating scrub. First soak your feet in warm water for five minutes. Then use your chosen utensil to smooth out your calluses.

2. Top Don’ts

It may feel nice to shave your legs before your pedicure, but it’s a big mistake. The small cuts you make in your legs can be perfect entry points for bacteria.

If the salon technician wants to use a foot razor to remove dead skin, politely decline. If used incorrectly, it can cause permanent damage to your feet. Even if it doesn’t cause such damage, it can result in infections if the salonist removes too much dead skin.

Never round the edges of your toenails. Always clip straight across. Rounding can lead to painful ingrown toenails.

Never share emery boards with friends and always bring your own for use at your salon. They can’t be sterilized.

Never allow your cuticles to be cut. Not only does this increase your risk of infection, but cutting them and pushing them back in an attempt to remove them only makes them thicker.

Finally, if you suffer from thick or discolored toenails, don’t paint them. This could be a sign of fungal infection. And your feet need to allow air in (which paint prevents) to combat the fungus. You’re better off working on the underlying issue.

Those are the top things to concern yourself with. You can read the full list at the APMA website.

Now you can go to your local nail salon without any worries and have a fun, relaxing time!

How to Help Your Teen Find the Right Footwear

It’s frustrating to help your teen find the right shoes, only to learn that in under a year, they won’t fit anymore. Then you have to go through the same old process all over again, and the cost can really add up.

Plus, they might have a particular style so they fit in and don’t get teased.

So here’s what to do to help them get a style they like and the support their feet need:

1. Measure Your Teen’s Feet Whenever You Can

Always measure your teen’s feet when possible because you never know how much they’ll grow.

Whether you’re at the mall, shoe store, a retail store, or the podiatrist, just give their feet a quick check.

That way, if they’re complaining about their shoes, you can have an idea if it’s a legitimate complaint.

That leads us into the second tip.

2. Always Get Your Teen Comfortably Fitting Shoes

Don’t get shoes one size too large. Yes, it’s tempting to think that your teen will grow into them.

But, the problem is that too large of shoes will make them unstable when walking or running.

Sure, they’ll last longer. So, they can actually increase the risk of a foot or ankle injury.

To get the right fit for your teen, make sure they can comfortably wiggle their toes freely without their toes slipping or getting squished.

Basically, they’ll need about a thumb’s width from their big toe to the front of their shoe.

Don’t worry too much about the stated size of the shoe. Manufacturers make the same size in different ways. So, the same stated size can fit differently.

3. Watch Out for Wear

Check the tread and midsole of your teen’s shoes regularly. Their shoes should show wear where the balls of their feet and middles of their heels come into contact with the ground.

If you see uneven wear in other areas, that means it’s time for new shoes.

It could also mean that your teen needs orthotics to balance out their feet. If they’ve been complaining about foot and heel pain, then that confirms they’ll more than likely need orthotics.

4. Help Your Teen Be Aware of What They Wear

Backless footwear, like flip-flops, can alter the way your teen walks, which eventually leads to injuries.

High heels expose them to injury too.

Your daughter should consider platform or wedge heels instead of stilettos.

Flip-flops and other similar casual footwear are okay to wear. Your son or daughter simply shouldn’t wear them all the time.

Keeping your teen happy and safe with the right shoes can be a difficult task. But with these strategies at hand, you can accomplish both.

How Achilles Tendonitis Happens And What You Can Do About It

Although your achilles tendon is quite strong, it can be prone to inflammation (tendonitis), tears, and ruptures.

In fact, your achilles tendon is the largest tendon in your body and can handle forces up to 1,000 pounds or more!

But unfortunately, it’s not invincible. Achilles tendonitis happens most frequently to active people who have suddenly increased their exercise intensity. And it also happens to middle-aged people who engage in less frequent but higher intensity activity (like basketball or tennis on weekends only).

Hill running, stair climbing, calf muscles not in shape and ready for exercise, and trauma to your calf muscles can also lead to achilles tendonitis.

Typically, you’ll experience mild pain after exercising that gradually worsens over the coming weeks and months.

Left unchecked, achilles tendonitis can also lead to “bone spurs,” which can be quite painful.

How Do You Know If You Have Achilles Tendonitis?

It’s actually pretty easy to know. Basically, you’ll have recurring pain in this tendon during or a few hours after exercising. Sometimes, this pain can be severe.

Less painful symptoms include:

  • Tenderness in your achilles tendon in the morning
  • Swelling in the tendon
  • Stiffness that goes away as you warm up your achilles tendon up for exercise

How Do You Treat Achilles Tendonitis?

Treatment depends on your symptoms, the duration of the pain, and the type of injury.

It’s important to know that the longer you wait, the more extensive (and expensive) the treatment.

You could even end up needing surgery because ignoring achilles tendonitis for too long can eventually cause a painful rupture. Recovery from this requires several weeks before you can return to any activity. And it can be 4 – 12 months before you are able to play intense sports again.

But if you take care of the condition when you first notice symptoms, you’ll be just fine with pretty standard treatments.

That includes stretching, ice, using anti-inflammatory medications, and perhaps shoe inserts that take more load off your achilles tendon.

North Texas Foot & Ankle Also Offers Noninvasive MLS Laser Therapy

Another potential treatment option for achilles tendonitis includes MLS laser therapy.

This uses a MLS pulse, which is a synchronized and continuous emission of pulsed lasers with varying infrared wavelengths.

The laser helps your tendon’s cells, ligaments, and muscles repair quickly, which calms pain and inflammation much faster than your achilles tendon can do on its own.

If you feel pain in your achilles tendon, come on in and we’ll help you figure out the treatment approach that gets you back to your favorite activities the fastest, and without the pain you’re experiencing right now.

How Nutrition Affects Your Feet

Nutrition plays a much larger role in your life than simply affecting your weight or the health of your heart.

To some degree, it affects every last aspect of your life.

And it even affects the health of your feet too.

For example, medical research published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2015 found that what you eat affects bodily inflammation.

Inflammation is actually usually a good thing. Your body uses it to stop the growth of abnormal cells, heal damaged tissues, and fight off viral or bacterial infections.

However, inappropriately triggered inflammation causes problems. For example, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and gout can be inflammatory responses. And this inflammation can cause intense heel pain with your plantar fascia.

Refined grains, sugar, and trans fat (found commonly in junk food) are believed to encourage inflammation. But, the story doesn’t end there. Omega-6s found in vegetable oil and the saturated fat found in red meat both are believed to increase inflammation too.

What Should You Eat to Reduce Inflammation?

The story here does not change. Basically, you should eat something resembling the Mediterranean diet: lots of vegetables (and especially green veggies), fish, and poultry. Limit your sweets and red meat.

At a high level, that’s all you need to focus on.

And eating that way does so much good not just for your feet, but for your health in general. It keeps your mind sharp, your heart healthy, your weight in check, and it can reduce your risk of diseases like Type 2 Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and stroke.

Healthy Eating Doesn’t Just Reduce Your Risk of Inflammation. It Helps Reduce Your Risk of Many Other Conditions That Can Affect Your Feet Too!

Eating this way can also reduce your risk of osteoporosis. One of the most common initial signs of osteoporosis is a stress fracture in your foot.

Risk of peripheral artery disease, and diabetes, both of which we see a lot of here at North Texas Foot & Ankle, can also be greatly reduced with a healthy diet.

Finally, eating healthy also helps keep your weight in check. Though 20 – 25 pounds isn’t a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, that’s enough to put more pressure on your feet and ankles, increasing your risk of health problems.

And as you know, many Americans have much more than 20 – 25 pounds to lose.

So, yes, you’re wise to consider how nutrition plays a role in problems that affect your feet. And remember, when you eat healthy, you’re doing not just your feet, but your entire body, an amazing favor!

There’s plenty of delicious and healthy recipes. And they’re all over the internet, which makes living a healthy lifestyle easy and convenient.

Why Good Nutrition Is Essential for Healthy Feet

You probably don’t realize how much a healthy diet positively affects your body. And in many cases, you don’t find out unless you eat an unhealthy diet for decades and experience some of the consequences.

When you think about eating healthy, you probably think about your heart, weight, stomach, or butt.

But when you eat healthy, you do your feet a big favor too.

Take a minute to learn the difference eating healthy makes for your feet:

1. Reduce Bodily Inflammation

“Inflammation” refers to your body’s defense against the growth of abnormal cells, ability to heal injured tissue, and to fight off viral and bacterial infections.

However, eating in an unhealthy way can cause inflammation to persist when your body doesn’t really need it. And this can lead to the destruction of healthy tissue or the presence of disease.

For example, this can eventually result in intense pain in your heel that’s caused by plantar fasciitis.

And it can lead to other extremely painful conditions like psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and gout.

Refined grains, sugar, trans fats, and saturated fats are believed to be the main culprits behind the creation of an unnecessary inflammatory response.

To avoid this problem, instead eat the mega-3 fats that you find in fish. Salmon is an amazing superfoot to have in your diet. Green vegetables and other fresh foods from plants are also exceptionally beneficial as well.

2. Osteoporosis

You don’t think of osteoporosis as affecting your feet, but it can absolutely cause bone loss in every bone of your body.

Interestingly, stress fractures in feet are one of the first signs of the condition in many cases.

To keep osteoporosis at bay, simply add plenty of calcium and vitamin D to your diet.

Calcium can be found in abundance in dairy products. However, full-fat dietary products also contain plenty of saturated fats, which can lead to the inflammation problems you just learned about.

So, the simple solution lies in eating reduced-fat dairy products, and then simply limiting how much dairy food you consume.

Vitamin D can be found in fish. You can also get it from being in the sun for about 15 – 20 minutes per day.

And if you can’t make these dietary adjustments, add a multivitamin to your diet.

3. Peripheral Artery Disease/Diabetes

These two conditions are easily kept at bay with a healthy diet. And they’re not just painful to your feet as they bring along a whole list of problems for the rest of your body too.

To avoid both, eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Avoid sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and trans fats.

Our society makes it easy to eat unhealthy. But it’s not impossible to eat a healthy diet. The whole/natural/organic food movement has been growing noticeably for some years now.

And you have plenty of options available for eating healthy.

The key may lie in eating a healthy diet that you enjoy. Remember, this does not need to be an exercise in torturing yourself and depriving yourself of any joy whatsoever when eating.

Instead, take time to design healthy snacks and meals you enjoy eating so you look forward to that time.

And maybe once per month or so, you can allow yourself to eat an unhealthy meal. Just don’t make it your main form of eating!

Don’t just protect your feet. Protect your body, mind, and emotions by eating healthy. While challenging, you’ll thank yourself for it!

How to Keep Your Feet Fit and Healthy During Summer

COVID-19 is on the way out. Society is returning back to normal. You can do the things you want again!

What would be worse than a foot or ankle injury that keeps you sidelined for 6 weeks?

You’d be stuck at home like you have been for the past 18 months or so!

So learn steps you can take to protect your feet so they stay fit and free from injury this summer:

1. Always Have Footwear On

Going barefoot sounds like fun when it’s warmer out. But for the most part, this actually increases your risk of injury.

At the beach, you may find yourself stepping on glass or sharp metal objects. At the pool, you expose yourself to warts, athlete’s foot, ringworm, and other infections.

And wherever you go, you always expose your feet to sunburn.

Wearing flip-flops works fine as long as they have some arch support.

But you give yourself the greatest protection by wearing shoes.

2. Don’t Forget Sunscreen

Yes, your feet need sunscreen too. Sunburns may actually feel the least painful when they happen to the tops of your feet.

But it’s simple enough to toss some sunscreen on so your feet don’t get burned at all.

And keep in mind, any sunburn to any part of your body increases your risk of getting skin cancer over the long term.

In general, dermatologists recommend sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30. This blocks 97% of the sun’s UVB rays, which are the ones responsible for giving you sunburns.

Higher SPFs provide slightly more UVB protection. No sunscreen offers 100% protection.

Remember to get waterproof sunscreen. And just to be sure, re-apply that sunscreen after you come out of the water.

3. Avoid Cotton and Wool Socks

Synthetic socks do the best job of wicking away moisture from your feet. This allows it to evaporate away, rather than staying in contact with your feet for hours.

The more moisture that remains in your socks, the higher your risks of all kinds of conditions that affect your feet.

This can lead to sores, blisters, rashes, dead skin, and even athlete’s foot.

Cotton and wool socks hold in much more moisture than their synthetic counterparts. So when you wear shoes, make sure you have synthetic socks.

Also, give your feet plenty of time to air out at various points in the day.

That’s it! Just doing these three simple things greatly reduces the risk of any injury to your feet.

Now go out there and enjoy your summer!