September 2010 – Patient Sympathy

August 2010 – Back to School Shoewear

July 2010 – Womens Shoewear

June 2010 – Summer Foot Care

May 2010 – Skin

April 2010 – Ingrown Toenails

March 2010 – Barefoot Running

February 2010 – Pediatric Flatfoot

January 2010 – Being a Compliant Patient

December 2009 – Raynaud’s Disease

November 2009 – NA

October 2009 – Shin Splints

September 2009 – Dealing with Corns and Callouses

August 2009 – Relieving Painful Gout

July 2009 – Caring for Plantar Warts

June 2009 – Bunions

May 2009 – Children's Heel Pain

March/April 2009 – Heel Pain

February 2009 – Shoe Fitting

January 2009 – Nail Fungus

December 2008 – Neuroma

November 2008 – Diabetic Foot Care

NEUROMA

December 2008

Published in - Healthy Lifestyles

First of all, I would like to wish everyone a great holiday season. As I sit down to write this, it is not yet Thanksgiving and in a few days for some of you, the most important season will begin; The Shopping Season. With the advent of the shopping season there is obviously much time spent on your feet walking, rushing and, of course, standing and waiting in lines. I would like to offer everyone men, women, older, younger some sound and obvious advice. Or, so it would seem. Whether you are going out for 20 minutes or a shopping marathon, it is very important to wear the correct shoegear. Let me rephrase that-the correct sized shoes.

It truly does not matter if they are a pair of sneakers, dress shoes, boots or sandals, new or old please wear the right ones for you. I know, I know, you do you always do. OK, so what does that actually mean? Well, please humor me and pretend that I know, for the moment, that pretty much that every pair of feet I have measured in the office for more than a decade close to 100% of you wear the WRONG shoe size. I know, you are the fraction of the 100 % that wears the correct size. Then this is for the other ninety some-odd percent that do not. And I must admit, I have fallen into the higher category myself, at times. Who would’ve thought?

Sometimes we purchase a pair of shoes that we just have to have, regardless of whether they actually fit. It could be the style, the brand, the color, the material, the name, whatever. And if they don’t, well they will soon enough, I’ll just “break them in”, you say. Well that may have been something that was common years ago but, it’s not so nowadays. You shouldn’t have to do the “breaking in” thing. Shoewear should fit right out of the box. If it’s too tight it usually will not stretch enough to fit our foot correctly and properly. And even though you were a size 9 in high school, or you’ve ‘always’ been a size 6, it most likely isn’t the case 10, 20 or for that matter 5 years later. Our bodies change, good or bad, but they do accept it or not. It’s not my rule. I’m in the same boat you are. (I’m not certain when it happened but I’ve gone up a half size myself, recently)

Okay, so what if you do purchase those awesome shoes or sneakers that you’ve needed to get for that party, for work, a wedding, sport, to work out in, and they just happen to be a little snug, what’ll happen? Well, first of all you’re forcing your feet to be in an unnatural state for any length of time- not a good thing. Your feet need to have enough room in the toe box area for your little piggies to be able to wiggle, at least a little. A wider shoe will offer this room and keep you from otherwise squeezing, pinching or irritating the nerves that run between the long bones (metatarsals) and end in your toes. When this occurs a number of different sensations have a tendency to make themselves quite noticeable and usually not in a good way. This includes numbness, tingling, burning or a cramping of the toes. A common statement that I hear is that patients say they feel as if their socks are bunched up beneath the toes, only to find they were not. If they remove the shoewear and massage the area this does help it feel better but only to return later on, although only worse.