Feet Need Vitamins too

 

Many of my older patients wish they had taken better care of their feet when they were younger.

Thankfully, doctors and the health food industry are finally recognizing what many people have wanted for years: safe, natural ways to keep their feet strong and healthy.

The safest, simplest way to keep your feet healthy throughout life is already in your kitchen: water.

 

 

Water regulates temperature and metabolism, delivers electrolytes to muscles and lubricates our joints.

With each foot containing 33 joints and depending on 19 muscles, even slight dehydration can cause your feet to cramp and fatigue.

I recommend drinking eight glasses of water a day.

Guzzling Mountain Dew, Mocha Frappuccinos or six-packs of Bud Light isn’t the same.

Caffeinated and alcoholic beverages can actually cause dehydration.

Drinking water, not only for your feet, but also for your whole body, should be common sense, yet at any time, 75 percent of Americans are mildly dehydrated.

Moderate or severe lack of water can make feet cold and more vulnerable to infection.

Dehydration can also make toenails brittle and the skin of our feet dry.

Dry skin may not seem like a big problem, but on the feet, dry skin can crack and develop deep, painful fissures that are at risk for infection.

 

A patient with dry skin on their heel.

 

I’ve seen simple breaks in the skin, particularly in the feet of the elderly and people with diabetes, lead to catastrophic infections, at times resulting in the foot’s amputation.

However, dry skin on the feet may indicate more than just a lack of moisture.

Sometimes it’s psoriasis, a fungal infection or a sign of a more serious condition, such as diabetes, poor circulation or a thyroid disorder.

If your feet have severe or persisting dry skin, you should see a podiatrist.  

The best way to soothe dry skin is with moisturizers and applying vitamin A, D and E. You can put these on your feet separately, mix a concoction or buy a vitamin-enriched cream.

When choosing a cream, don’t go by price; more expensive doesn’t mean better.

Read the ingredients and avoid products containing alcohol or alcohol derivatives, which actually dry skin. Surprisingly, alcohol is common in many so-called moisturizers.

Dry, irritated skin also responds to foot powder, particularly when the powder is enriched with zinc or menthol.

A sprinkle a day will not only help keep the skin moisturized, but also lessen odor and perspiration.

Urea also helps keep feet healthy. A natural compound, urea attracts moisture, slowing its escape from the skin. Look for it by itself or in moisturizers.

For patients with severely cracked heels, I often prescribe medicated creams containing 40 percent urea.     

I also recommend urea for frail, brittle toenails.

To strengthen toenails, apply Biotin, a B vitamin, and take calcium and vitamin A. Vitamin C helps nails too—not that they have to fight off colds, but they can get painful hangnails, which this vitamin prevents.

Caring for your feet as you age also means keeping your bones strong.

Bones form the foot’s foundation, in turn supporting our entire body. With aging, bones lose strength and develop osteoporosis.

Combine osteoporosis in your feet—each foot a jigsaw puzzle of 28 small bones—with a one hundred and fifty or two hundred pound person landing on them repeatedly and you have a great chance for fractures.

Women past menopause are at the greatest risk for osteoporosis.

A simple test can check for osteoporosis and, if necessary, your doctor will prescribe medication.

To help prevent osteoporosis, eat foods rich in calcium and vitamin D and exercise regularly, doing activities that put weight on your feet such as walking, aerobics or weight lifting.

Lastly, vitamins and minerals—and in rare cases, even water—are not always safe for everyone. Before starting any supplements, always check with your doctor.

Preventing Infection One Shoe at a Time

I cannot begin to tell you how many of my patients throw out their shoes when they find out their feet are infected with bacteria, warts or fungus.

Now there is an alternative. I recently tired the SteriShoe UV Sanitizer. With the SteriSHoe, you can kill off those nasty germs that live and breed in our shoes and boots.

The SteriShoe UV Sanitizer is a unique device that uses UV light to kill bacteria, fungi and viruses that breed in our shoes and boots!

Alcohol for the foot: Medical treatment helps alleviate pain

By Rob Earnshaw

Times Correspondent | Monday, September 01, 2008 |

The relatively painless procedure of giving a injection of alcohol in the foot has been “out for a few years,” according to Dr. Michael Nirenberg, podiatrist for Crown Point’s Friendly Foot Care, but like anything else new in medicine it starts slow by testing the waters to see how people do with it.

Nirenberg has been giving the shot for several years but has seen a growth because of its good results. A new podiatrist at Friendly Foot Care, Dr. Michael G. Lacey, has performed the procedure for the last seven years in Chicago.

The doctors stress that the injection is not for everybody.

“Some people may still need a small surgical procedure,” Nirenberg said.

“Others don’t need a shot or surgery, but may require a custom-made arch support. But for those who do — it’s better than surgery.” Patients typically receive four to seven injections over a period of four to six weeks. Those treated don’t have to stop their activities or miss a day of work. Patients also need not rest or soak their feet afterwards, they can drive straight home and go for a jog.

The shot itself, which “kills” the neuroma, only takes a few seconds.

“We’ll use a diagnostic ultrasound to confirm where the neuroma is at but a lot of times we don’t need it,” Nirenberg said.

He said most insurance companies cover the injection because they recognize the benefit of having a person get a shot as opposed to surgery.

Without surgery, of course, a patient avoids any possible complications that go with it like scar tissue or infection. Surgery would also likely mean a six-to-eight-week recovery period.

Valparaiso’s Leigh Romanov had the treatment done on her right foot, now she’s doing the same for her left one.

“The shots don’t hurt at all,” she said. “I feel like I have my feet again.”

Surgery was Romanov’s only other option. Her feet tingled so much she had to give up running. It got to a point where walking barefoot caused pain.

“I’m running now, it was fantastic,” she said. “It takes about five to six (injections) to notice a difference, but it’s pain free.”

A shot of alcohol — or more specifically, an injection of alcohol — could alleviate a painful nerve problem that occurs in the ball of the foot and affects millions of Americans. For many patients, this alcohol injection is an alternative to surgery.

“We’re saving people from going under the knife,” said Dr. Michael Nirenberg of Crown Point’s Friendly Foot Care.

Getting on the nerves

Dr. Lou Santangelo, chief resident of podiatry at Chicago’s Norwegian American Hospital, has been giving the alcohol injections for the past few years. Santangelo, who is currently working out of Lansing Foot and Ankle Center, provides the injection for both patients suffering from neuroma and those with nerve entrapment, in which the nerve becomes irritated because of scar tissue in the area.

“Some people would prefer to take the nerve out,” Santangelo said. “But that’s a surgical procedure n so this is a way to avoid surgery but still give the patient relief. It works pretty well.”

There are other types of foot injections to relieve pain as well.

Dr. Armand Gasbarro, who’s operated Lansing Foot and Ankle Clinic in downtown Lansing for 48 years, said patients who suffer from general inflammation may require a steroid injection.

“It reduces the inflammation,” Gasbarro said.

This type of injection also reduces a patient’s pain following surgery.

“It diminishes post-operative pain tremendously,” Gasbarro said.

SOURCE: Times Newspaper, Sept 1, 2008.

http://nwitimes.com/articles/2008/09/01/get_healthy/get_healthy/docad1b375ecd4e9051862574b30065c8b5.txt

 

Pillows For Your Feet

Doctors are now creating “pillows” for people with pain on the bottom of their feet.