Cures for Common Feet Ailments: Neuropathy, Tailor’s Bunion, and Foot Ulcers
Don’t restrict your health knowledge to problems about your heart, stomach, lungs, or any other part of the body that’s commonly discussed by health professionals.
You should also increase your awareness about foot ailments…starting now.
Foot pain is all too common – whether it’s caused by overstretching, injury, or arthritis. Sprains, tendonitis, and arthritis can all lead to pain and stiffness in your feet, making it difficult to bear weight or exercise. But there are treatments available to help reduce your discomfort and improve the health of your feet.
Contents
Sprains
A sprain is an injury caused by stretching or tearing a ligament beyond its normal capacity. This can be due to a sudden traumatic event, or even something as simple as overdoing an activity. Symptoms include pain and swelling, and potentially bruising of the skin around the injured area. Sprains should be treated with rest, compression, and elevation of the area. If severe enough, medical attention may also be necessary.
Sprains are common walking and running injuries, and they can range from mild to severe. In mild sprains, the ligaments may be a little stretched but are still able to provide some stability. Moderate or severe sprains can cause significant instability or even dislocations, making walking or running impossible. To reduce the risk of injury, it’s important to wear properly fitting shoes and listen to your body’s signals if your feet are tired or in pain.
Arthritis
Arthritis is a term that refers to more than 100 medical conditions that affect the joints, causing pain, stiffness, and swelling. It is more common in older adults, but can also affect younger people due to injury or genetics. Arthritis can be caused by an infection, autoimmune disorder, or any other condition that affects the joints. Treatment typically involves medications, physical therapy, exercise, and lifestyle changes.
Arthritis is a chronic and often progressive condition that can affect all joints in the body, including the foot. Damage to the joint and surrounding structures can cause pain and swelling, as well as difficulty with walking, running, and everyday activities. A range of non-surgical and surgical treatments are available to help reduce pain, increase mobility in the joint, and improve function.
Tendonitis
Tendonitis is an inflammation of the tendons caused by overuse or repetitive motion. It results in pain, tenderness around the affected area, and decreased range of motion. Treatment usually involves rest and medications to reduce inflammation and swelling. Physical therapy may also be prescribed to strengthen the tendons and improve range of motion.
Neuropathy
When a person is diagnosed to have neuropathy, this means that the individual has lost sensation in his feet. With neuropathy, your feet aren’t able to recognize when they’re being subjected to extreme heat or cold. The nerves in your feet aren’t even able to inform your brain when they’re in pain. Neuropathy is often related to diabetes.
Cause
Besides diabetes, peripheral neuropathy may also be attributed to alcoholism, nutritional problems, and even AIDS. When your feet are exposed to temperature extremities, it can also lead to peripheral neuropathy. Other lesser-known causes are the wrong choice of medication, arthritis or other diseases common to aging, and scleroderma.
Treatments
- Lifestyle Changes – Decreasing your intake of alcohol and nicotine as well as regulating exercise in your life will greatly help in preventing you from experiencing peripheral neuropathy.
- Footwear Choices – By simply choosing the right shoes to wear, you’re already lowering the risk of having peripheral neuropathy. We’re not saying that you should stay off those lovely stilettos forever, but rather, just limit the use of them to special occasions.
- Regulating Glucose Levels – Diabetics must take care not to have too low or too high glucose levels because this can lead to peripheral neuropathy.
- Regular Check-Ups – Even if you are taking absolute care of your feet, visiting the doctor regularly still wouldn’t hurt.
- Medication – At times, rather than loss of feeling, your feet may instead be subjected to extreme pain when it is suffering from peripheral neuropathy. In such cases, the use of pain relievers and antidepressants are advisable.
Tailor’s Bunion
Also known as a bunionette, tailor’s bunion is a metatarsal disorder. More specifically, this condition is an enlargement of the fifth metatarsal bone in your tiny toe. Although tailor’s bunion is more often an inborn disorder, you can have a physician confirm your suspicions through X-rays.
Signs of Tailor’s Bunion
If you happen to notice that your tiny toe has a slightly different appearance compared to other people’s tiny toes, that’s already a good indication you have tailor’s bunion.
Making It Worse: If you have tailor’s bunion, your condition will only worsen if you persist in wearing ill-fitting shoes that place constant pressure and friction on your toe.
Tailor’s Bunion Treatment
The Right Shoes: If you have a tailor’s bunion, it automatically requires you to bid farewell to shoes with tight or pointy tips. Yes, it’s a definite fashion sacrifice, but if you love your feet, you need to do it.
Oral Medication: You can take pain relievers to keep the pain and inflammation at a tolerable level.
Injection: Your physician may also inject corticosteroid to your system to reduce inflammation.
Bunionette Pads – Use of these will help decrease the pain you feel in your feet and ankles.
Icing – For emergency situations, slapping a pack of ice will aid you in your quest to forget the pain that tailor’s bunion is causing you.
Surgery – If there’s chronic and persistent pain, the only possible recourse left to you may be undergoing surgery. You’ll be glad to know however that these surgeries have high success rates. Recovery time depends on the type of degree of seriousness of the surgery.
Foot Ulcers
Yes, stomachs are not the only ones that develop ulcers. Our feet are vulnerable to them, too…unfortunately. Diabetics are more prone to having foot ulcers than other individuals. Worse, if foot ulcers are not given immediate treatment, they may, later on, require amputation of a part of the foot or the whole leg itself.
When there’s a break in the skin, it can lead to a foot ulcer. This break is an opening that may allow bacteria and viruses to enter your body.
Cause
If you like walking barefoot, favor ill-fitting shoes, or experience constant and extreme pressure or friction on your feet, such preferences or circumstances can lead to foot ulcers.
Symptoms of an Infected Foot Ulcer: Visible redness and swelling are common symptoms of this condition. Experiencing fevers, colds, an abnormal increase in glucose levels, and becoming easily exhausted are other signs of an infected foot ulcer.
Treatment
Besides getting rid of circumstances that led to foot ulcers, you can also take medication and use dressings to treat them.