By David L. Podos
There is an old saying that you might have heard, “nothing feels right if your feet are uptight.”
How true that is!
How many of us actually pay attention to our feet until they start to hurt?
We can become preoccupied with other health concerns, such as the health of our heart or the health of our kidneys or weight gain, for example. While those concerns are legitimate, sometimes we can forget all about the health of our feet, which literally carry us through life.
In an article by NIH (News in Health) March 2023, “ Focus on Your Feet,” podiatrist David G. Armstrong weighs in on the importance of your feet and the importance of keeping them healthy.
“Our feet are usually covered with shoes and socks and they’re easy to forget about or we might take them for granted. Foot problems can really limit activity and make it hard to move through the world,” said Armstrong, a foot doctor and professor of surgery at the University of Southern California.
Feet are actually anatomically quite complex, with each foot having 26 bones, 33 joints, more than 100 muscles and a complex network of nerves and blood vessels.
“The foot’s complexity means there is a lot that can go wrong” said podiatrist Crystal M. Holmes, who heads the podiatry program at Michigan Medicine. “These can range from hammer toes, skin infections and painful structural problems that may require surgery.”
Wendy Schara holds a Doctor of Podiatry degree and works at Foot Doctors in Utica. She has strong roots in the area. She completed her residency training at Little Falls Hospital in Little Falls and is board-certified with The American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, as well as a fellow of the board. Schara has been in practice for 25 years.
“In general, our feet are very important, from a purely structural standpoint they support the rest of our body, helping with balance, posture, walking and running, exercising, getting up and out of a chair and just simple daily activities of living,” Schara said.
What shoes we wear also aids in giving our feet support and comfort and can go a long way in keeping our feet healthy.
“It is important to wear properly structured shoes to offer support to the foot, this will also help with balance and shock absorption,” Schara added.
With the rise in diabetes in the U.S., diabetic patients especially need to wear properly fitted shoes, as diabetes often causes circulation and nerve damage in the feet.
“As we get older and our bodies start to change, if we gain too much weight then our balance changes, our muscular strength changes, all of this can have a negative affect upon our feet. Certainly, there are diseases that can affect the foot like diabetes causing neuropathy,” Schara said.
Schara also lends her expertise in surgery to patients that may require such an intervention.
“Some of the more common foot conditions that would require surgery that I see are patients with bunions, hammertoes, as well arthritic toe joints. Other conditions would be a patient experiencing heel pain where surgery is required to release the ligaments, as well as some Achilles tendon surgical repair. These procedures are done outside of the clinical office at a local hospital and or surgery center,” Schara said. “In the clinical office I would say ingrown toenails are what we do most, along with wart removal, biopsies and treating trauma to the foot — for example, if someone dropped a heavy object onto to their foot.”
For some patients wearing an orthotic device (a foot pad or heel insert) is very important in maintaining healthy feet and reducing pain. A blog from Doctors United talks about the importance of proper orthotics for foot pain listing five key benefits.
1. Providing superior comfort
2. Assists in fighting off pain in the foot, ankle and leg
3. Improves balance
4. Helps to absorb shock
5. Enhances athletic performance.
Schara also provides custom orthotic devices to her patients as the practice does their own casting utilizing 3D scanning. Once that is completed an order is sent out to a lab in Ohio which makes the final product.