According to a new study published in the journal Arthritis Care and Research, many common foot deformities, like bunions, hammertoes, and claw toes are inherited, especially in those who are of European descent.
"These new findings highlight the importance of furthering our understanding of what causes greater susceptibility to these foot conditions, as knowing more about the pathway may ultimately lead to early prevention or early treatment," said study researcher Dr. Marian Hannan, of Harvard Medical School and Hebrew SeniorLife, who is the editor in chief of the journal in a statement.
Recent studies show that more than one third of older adults have bunions. In this study, researchers looked at bunions, lesser toe deformities, and plantar soft tissue atrophy in 1,370 study participants, with an average age of 66, who were part of the Framingham Foot Study. Researchers found that 31 percent of the participants had bunions, 30 percent had lesser toe deformities, and 28 percent had plantar soft tissue atrophy.
They found that bunions and toe deformities were heritable, but plantar soft tissue atrophy was not.
A previous study by the Arthritis Care and Research showed that bunions were more common as people aged and that women were more likely than men to have bunions.
Australian researcher Neil J. Cronin recently published a study on how high heels alter the biomechanics of the foot, says that high-heel wears should avoid towering heels when selecting shoes.
Wear heels "once or twice a week," Cronin told the New York Times, "or try to remove the heels whenever possible, such as when you're sitting at your desk."
Reference: Huffington Post and New York Daily News
If you have a foot deformity, call our Glastonbury or Middletown office to make an appointment.
Ayman M. Latif, DPM
Connecticut Foot Care Centers
Foot Deformity Doctor in CT
Podiatrist in Glastonbury and Middletown, CT
Visit our website, like our page on Facebook, and follow my tweets on Twitter.
Showing posts with label bunions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bunions. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
What Shoes Are Good For My Bunion?
High heels. Stilettos. Pointy-toed shoes. Too-tight shoes. Too-small shoes. Yes, these are all shoes that will aggravate a bunion, yet my patients with bunions don't seem to realize the damage they are doing.
While bunions are not caused by the shoes you put on your foot, if you already have a bunion, you will be helping the deformity to progress much quicker. Here's why your favorite shoes are causing your bunion to get bigger:
- Tight shoes. Peep-toe and pointed-toe shoes are bunion's best friends! The tight and small toe box compresses toes together and leads to a slight or severe realignment of the big toe, which is a bunion. Try this: take your hand, and with your other hand, squish your fingers together. Now hold it there for 8 hours. How do your fingers, especially your thumb, feel after that? Probably not so good.
- High heels. Yes, we know, high heels make you feel sexy and feminine. How does that bunion make you feel? Still sexy? It's certainly very sexy to look at, isn't it??? Any time you put your feet in shoes higher than two inches, you are shifting your entire body weight forward, creating this massive pressure, up to seven times, and weight on your toes and balls of your feet. Ever wake up in the night and your arm has fallen asleep because you were lying on it funny? That's how your feet feel at the end of the day, after being in high heels.
- Flat feet. Flat feet are often something you cannot help- flat feet can be genetic. People with flat feet often wear ballet flats, which are just as bad as high heels and pointy-toe shoes as aggravating bunions! Ballet flats have no arch support and this makes a primo environment for a bunion to worsen.
Reference: APMA
If you have a foot deformity, call our Glastonbury or Middletown office to make an appointment.
Ayman M. Latif, DPM
Connecticut Foot Care Centers
Foot Deformity Doctor in CT
Podiatrist in Glastonbury and Middletown, CT
Visit our website, like our page on Facebook, and follow my tweets on Twitter.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Will Yoga Help My Bunion?
When you have a bunion, you're sometimes so desperate to avoid pain, you'll try anything. Over-the-counter
remedies, medications, and herbal remedies, anything that will make that bunion stop hurting. Sometimes these remedies will help relieve the symptoms and pain, but they will not stop the progression of the bunion.
Some patients will ask if exercise will help their bunion, and while there are several types that will, most exercise will aggravate your bunion. For all yogies out there, good news! Yoga is one type of exercise that will help alleviate the symptoms of bunion pain.
Yoga instructor Jennifer LaRue Huget was asked by a client if yoga would reverse the progression of her bunion. The client had heard that by putting the affected foot up against a slanted wall or board and stretching out the other leg, you could stop bunions from forming.
Huget looked up in her favorite health book, Yoga as Medicine by Timothy McCall, but couldn't find the answer she was looking for. So she called McCall, editor of Yoga Journal, and asked him. He had never heard of the pose her client was talking about, but had heard of a pose that may help spread out the toes and metatarsals (Stand with feet side by side, a few inches apart and step the affected foot forward. Sickle your foot inward and rotate the heel inward and lower it down.).
McCall had heard of a woman whose bunion stopped progressing after she practiced a certain yoga move, but he couldn't remember which move it was. But, he acknowledged that bunions are a bone problem, and likely wouldn't be healed by yoga.
Yes, bunions are a bone problem with little that can be done to stop its progression. Patients who wear high heels or tight shoes can slow progression by switching to other shoes, and orthotics are often found to be helpful, but bunions are a mechanical problem with the bone.
"Once bones become altered, that wouldn't be very easy to change," says McCall, even with yoga and strength building exercises. "Spreading the toes and metatarsals, creating space, perhaps could undo some of the damage" done by wearing too tight shoes.
McCall feels that "People want to apply yoga in a quick-fix way. But to help with most chronic conditions, you need to establish a pattern of regular practice over the long term. If you have a bunion and you do yoga almost every day for the next several years, you will certainly feel better. But I don't think your bunion will be fixed."
Dr. Rock Positano, a nonsurgical foot specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC, agrees. "When you develop a bunion, the big toe is not functioning as well as it should. So other parts of the foot, like muscles, tendons, and ligaments, have to take up that slack. Yoga gives more strength and flexibility to the area around the bunion and takes some of the stress off the big toe, making the foot work more efficiently. Anything that gives the foot more stability and more flexibility is good for a bunion deformity because it allows the other parts of the foot to pick up the slack for what the big toe is not doing."
I would have to agree as well. When starting a yoga regimen, I would not go in expecting that your bunion is going to be cured- the progression will reverse and it will disappear. The only way a bunion can be "reversed" is through surgery. Your pain, discomfort, and symptoms however, may be alleviated and you may be able to go longer before having surgery.
Reference: Washington Post and Allure.
If you have a foot deformity, call our Glastonbury or Middletown office to make an appointment.
Ayman M. Latif, DPM
Connecticut Foot Care Centers
Foot Deformity Doctor in CT
Podiatrist in Glastonbury and Middletown, CT
Visit our website, like our page on Facebook, and follow my tweets on Twitter.
Some patients will ask if exercise will help their bunion, and while there are several types that will, most exercise will aggravate your bunion. For all yogies out there, good news! Yoga is one type of exercise that will help alleviate the symptoms of bunion pain.
Yoga instructor Jennifer LaRue Huget was asked by a client if yoga would reverse the progression of her bunion. The client had heard that by putting the affected foot up against a slanted wall or board and stretching out the other leg, you could stop bunions from forming.
Huget looked up in her favorite health book, Yoga as Medicine by Timothy McCall, but couldn't find the answer she was looking for. So she called McCall, editor of Yoga Journal, and asked him. He had never heard of the pose her client was talking about, but had heard of a pose that may help spread out the toes and metatarsals (Stand with feet side by side, a few inches apart and step the affected foot forward. Sickle your foot inward and rotate the heel inward and lower it down.).
McCall had heard of a woman whose bunion stopped progressing after she practiced a certain yoga move, but he couldn't remember which move it was. But, he acknowledged that bunions are a bone problem, and likely wouldn't be healed by yoga.
Yes, bunions are a bone problem with little that can be done to stop its progression. Patients who wear high heels or tight shoes can slow progression by switching to other shoes, and orthotics are often found to be helpful, but bunions are a mechanical problem with the bone.
"Once bones become altered, that wouldn't be very easy to change," says McCall, even with yoga and strength building exercises. "Spreading the toes and metatarsals, creating space, perhaps could undo some of the damage" done by wearing too tight shoes.
McCall feels that "People want to apply yoga in a quick-fix way. But to help with most chronic conditions, you need to establish a pattern of regular practice over the long term. If you have a bunion and you do yoga almost every day for the next several years, you will certainly feel better. But I don't think your bunion will be fixed."
Dr. Rock Positano, a nonsurgical foot specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC, agrees. "When you develop a bunion, the big toe is not functioning as well as it should. So other parts of the foot, like muscles, tendons, and ligaments, have to take up that slack. Yoga gives more strength and flexibility to the area around the bunion and takes some of the stress off the big toe, making the foot work more efficiently. Anything that gives the foot more stability and more flexibility is good for a bunion deformity because it allows the other parts of the foot to pick up the slack for what the big toe is not doing."
I would have to agree as well. When starting a yoga regimen, I would not go in expecting that your bunion is going to be cured- the progression will reverse and it will disappear. The only way a bunion can be "reversed" is through surgery. Your pain, discomfort, and symptoms however, may be alleviated and you may be able to go longer before having surgery.
Reference: Washington Post and Allure.
If you have a foot deformity, call our Glastonbury or Middletown office to make an appointment.
Ayman M. Latif, DPM
Connecticut Foot Care Centers
Foot Deformity Doctor in CT
Podiatrist in Glastonbury and Middletown, CT
Visit our website, like our page on Facebook, and follow my tweets on Twitter.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Role Of Vitamin D In Bunions
These days, just about everyone knows how important vitamin D is to bone health. However, not everyone may know how vital vitamin D is in absorbing and utilizing calcium. When you have poor bone density, you are prone to foot deformities like hammertoes and bunions.
If you know that you have a vitamin D deficiency, spend at least a half hour each day in the sun or take a nutritional supplement.
Those with bunions are more likely to require surgery in order to heal from the swelling associated with the deformity. Several studies show that vitamin D deficiency can stop productive bone growth following bunion surgery. And those with vitamin D deficiency are more likely to have complications during or after bunion surgery. Make sure you let your podiatric surgeon know about this prior to your surgery so they are aware of potential complications.
If you have a bunion, call our Glastonbury or Middletown office to make an appointment.
Ayman M. Latif, DPM
Connecticut Foot Care Centers
Foot Deformity Doctor in CT
Podiatrist in Glastonbury and Middletown, CT
Visit our website, friend and like our page on Facebook, and follow my tweets on Twitter.
If you know that you have a vitamin D deficiency, spend at least a half hour each day in the sun or take a nutritional supplement.
Those with bunions are more likely to require surgery in order to heal from the swelling associated with the deformity. Several studies show that vitamin D deficiency can stop productive bone growth following bunion surgery. And those with vitamin D deficiency are more likely to have complications during or after bunion surgery. Make sure you let your podiatric surgeon know about this prior to your surgery so they are aware of potential complications.
If you have a bunion, call our Glastonbury or Middletown office to make an appointment.
Ayman M. Latif, DPM
Connecticut Foot Care Centers
Foot Deformity Doctor in CT
Podiatrist in Glastonbury and Middletown, CT
Visit our website, friend and like our page on Facebook, and follow my tweets on Twitter.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Young People Considering Surgery For Bunions
When you think of bunions, you likely think of older people who can't get their shoes on because of the bony prominence.
But bunions are a foot condition that attacks both young and old people. Take Kacey Barker, 26, of , who found herself with a pretty bad bunion. "Mine got progressively worse over the years. With all the sports and wear and tear... anything and everything was bothering it," Barker told the Wall Street Journal.
Haverhill, Massachusetts
The pain from the bunion had become so severe that Barker had to stop all athletic activities, including running, field hockey, and softball. After a charity walk last fall, she couldn't take the pain any longer and decided to have surgery to correct the deformity. She went to see Dr. James Ioli, chief of podiatry at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, who performed a chevron, which involves cutting the front part of the first metatarsal into a "V", moving the bone, and holding the sections together with screws. Six weeks later, she's still in a surgical boot and has another six weeks to recover. Barker's goal is to be pain-free on the dance floor at her wedding in September.
"A lot of my friends thought bunions were for women who are old or who wear high-heeled shoes for decades," says Barker, who normally wears sensible, supportive shoes. "It's definitely not something to take lightly. But for me, I'm excited to just be able to get back into a normal routine."
Claudia Ngo, 22, went to see Dr. Neil Blitz, chief of foot surgery at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center for her bunion in July. She received a bunionplasty, which is a cosmetic approach to the correction of bunions. "I always tried to hide, wearing socks and shoes around my friends or a blanket on the couch. In college I would wear heels... so they actually got bigger," said Ngo, of Bethesda, Maryland.
The first podiatrist she went to recommended she wait for bunion surgery and to only have them corrected if they were causing her pain. Ngo had pain after she wore heels all day or after working out, but not on a regular basis.
After Dr. Blitz performed the surgery on her right foot, she was able to walk with a surgical shoe right away. "After four weeks I was wearing regular shoes. Now I'm really happy with the results, it looks perfect," says Ngo, who plans on having the procedure done on her left foot this year.
Meghan Morrison's bunions haven't progressed to the same degree that Ngo's and Barker's did, but she's keeping an eye on them. So far the 27 year old graduate student from Nashville, Tennessee is using conservative treatment therapies, like avoiding high heels, wearing flat, wide shoes with support and padding. But if the bunions get worse, she will have surgery. "I don't want my feet to end up looking insane and horrific. And if it ever got to a point where I couldn't walk or be active I would definitely do it," says Morrison.
Reference: Wall Street Journal.
If you have a bunion, call our Glastonbury or Middletown office to make an appointment.
Ayman M. Latif, DPM
Connecticut Foot Care Centers
Foot Deformity Doctor in CT
Podiatrist in Glastonbury and Middletown, CT
Visit our website, friend and like our page on Facebook, and follow my tweets on Twitter.
But bunions are a foot condition that attacks both young and old people. Take Kacey Barker, 26, of , who found herself with a pretty bad bunion. "Mine got progressively worse over the years. With all the sports and wear and tear... anything and everything was bothering it," Barker told the Wall Street Journal.
The pain from the bunion had become so severe that Barker had to stop all athletic activities, including running, field hockey, and softball. After a charity walk last fall, she couldn't take the pain any longer and decided to have surgery to correct the deformity. She went to see Dr. James Ioli, chief of podiatry at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, who performed a chevron, which involves cutting the front part of the first metatarsal into a "V", moving the bone, and holding the sections together with screws. Six weeks later, she's still in a surgical boot and has another six weeks to recover. Barker's goal is to be pain-free on the dance floor at her wedding in September.
"A lot of my friends thought bunions were for women who are old or who wear high-heeled shoes for decades," says Barker, who normally wears sensible, supportive shoes. "It's definitely not something to take lightly. But for me, I'm excited to just be able to get back into a normal routine."
Claudia Ngo, 22, went to see Dr. Neil Blitz, chief of foot surgery at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center for her bunion in July. She received a bunionplasty, which is a cosmetic approach to the correction of bunions. "I always tried to hide, wearing socks and shoes around my friends or a blanket on the couch. In college I would wear heels... so they actually got bigger," said Ngo, of Bethesda, Maryland.
The first podiatrist she went to recommended she wait for bunion surgery and to only have them corrected if they were causing her pain. Ngo had pain after she wore heels all day or after working out, but not on a regular basis.
After Dr. Blitz performed the surgery on her right foot, she was able to walk with a surgical shoe right away. "After four weeks I was wearing regular shoes. Now I'm really happy with the results, it looks perfect," says Ngo, who plans on having the procedure done on her left foot this year.
Meghan Morrison's bunions haven't progressed to the same degree that Ngo's and Barker's did, but she's keeping an eye on them. So far the 27 year old graduate student from Nashville, Tennessee is using conservative treatment therapies, like avoiding high heels, wearing flat, wide shoes with support and padding. But if the bunions get worse, she will have surgery. "I don't want my feet to end up looking insane and horrific. And if it ever got to a point where I couldn't walk or be active I would definitely do it," says Morrison.
Reference: Wall Street Journal.
If you have a bunion, call our Glastonbury or Middletown office to make an appointment.
Ayman M. Latif, DPM
Connecticut Foot Care Centers
Foot Deformity Doctor in CT
Podiatrist in Glastonbury and Middletown, CT
Visit our website, friend and like our page on Facebook, and follow my tweets on Twitter.
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