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Fun With Toenails

A couple of miscellaneous facts about what your toenails can tell you: 1.)  A permanent line is left across the toenail (until it grows out) which indicates the presence of a 7-10 day fever. 2.)  A slow return to it’s normal pink color upon squeezing of the nail, indicates poor circulation. 3.)  If your entire nail is blue, this can indicate repetitive trauma caused by the shoes (perhaps improperly...

Diabetic Feet

One of the many problems with diabetes is that it can affect your feet in a very negative way.  What starts out as seemingly a harmless ingrown nail, can quickly proceed to gangrene and the loss of a limb. Many signs such as:  absence of hair growth on the digits, loss of sensitivity (which can be determined by your podiatrist with the use of a special filament), the color and temperature of the...

Topaz Treatment for Plantar Fasciitis

One of the latest treatment modalities, Topaz treatment, is showing promise in the treatment of plantar fasciitis. What is good, in my opinion, is that the procedure is practically non-invasive.  It can be done with a tiny stab incision, and patients need not worry about longer healing times. The principal behind which Topaz treatment works is to increase blood flow to the area, and to break up nocioceptors...

Danger of MRSA

With all this talk of the H1N1 virus, an alarming infection is being swept under the rug.  MRSA, or methicillin resistant staph aureus, is running at rampant levels. An infection that once was caught mainly in hospitals (you’d be amazed how much you can pick up in a hospital), has now branched out to many athletic groups and locker rooms.  MRSA infections also, interestingly enough, are misdiagnosed...

Pinpointe Foot Laser-Fungal Nail Treatment

Laser treatment for your fungal nails?  I’ve blogged about the futility of fungal nails in a previous post.  No more.  The Pinpointe Foot Laser has arrived. Fungus be gone! One visit to a podiatrist’s office and thirty minutes later-you’re done!  Painless, and without all the side effects that come with oral pills.  The results are not immediate; and as the nail grows out in...

Ulcers and Foot Temperature

Let’s face it, diabetic foot ulcers are a major problem in today’s society. Would Temperature Monitoring Have Avoided This? Lack of sensation the feet cause pressure sores to occur. Whether normal person without diabetes would notice and adjust, a person with diabetes would fail to notice. Diabetics have literally walked on a nail or coin to the point of ulceration. A study recently...

Bunions-You Can Pay me Now or Pay Me Later

Bunions are progressive deformities. The longer they are left untreated, the larger they will grow. What can start out as simply a mild bump, can quickly progress to a both unsightly and very painful deformity. I remember the old Fram oil filter commercials where the technician slams the cash register door and others those famous lines,” you can pay me now, or you can pay me later.” ...

Hammertoe Cure?

Often times, I am asked about the efficacy of one pad or another. Usually the patient has either a hammertoe or painful callus on the bottom of their foot. They are wanting to know if these pads that they see advertised either on TV, over the Internet, or hear about from friends would help their condition. Understand that hammer toes, in particular are bony deformities. While these pads may remove...

Bunion Aid gets award

Bunion Aid recently received an award for medical excellence.  The splint won the 2009 Medical Design Excellence award.  This award is only given to the most outstanding of medical products. It is judged by a totally non-partisan panel of judges. The MDEA Award follows closely on the heels of Bunion Aid being honored with a prestigious international “Red Dot” design award. As I’d...

Heel Pain and Weight

If you ‘ve ever been to my office, you’ve heard the tale of the relationship between heel pain and additional pounds. It relates to how many steps you take a day, and the ideal weight your heel and foot were designed for. Figure the average human takes about 10,000 steps a day. If you wear a pedometer-you’d know your average! Assume your ideal weight is 150, and you’re currently...