Dr. Wachtel on Athlete's Foot

Why Are High Heels Bad For Your Feet?

Wearing high heels may be fashionable and make you feel taller and sexier. However, they are not only bad for your feet, but also can cause problems with the rest of your body. In your posture it can cause increased pressure on your toes, which will cause you to adjust the rest of your body to maintain your balance. The lower part of your body leans forward and the body’s response is to decrease the forward curve of your spine to help you keep in line. Also high heels can cause your upper body to lean backwards, which is not a normal standing position.

High heels also cause pain when you are walking. When you wear high heels your hip flexor muscles and your knee muscles are working harder then normal, which can cause discomfort. Balance is one of the most important things that are affected by heels.  High heel shoes cause your foot and ankle to move in a suppurated (turned outward) position causing risk of falling and spraining your ankles.

Your back is another part of the body that you can hurt while wearing high heels. Your back is in the form of an s-shape that acts as a shock absorber and reduces stress on your vertebrae. Wearing heels causes the lower part of your spine to flatten and causes displacement of your head and mid-back spine.  Poor alignment can lead to overuse in your muscles and cause severe back pain.

As for your hips, the hip flexor muscles are located on the upper front part of your thigh. When you wear high heels its causes your hips to work harder and longer to help you walk. While wearing heels your feet are being held in a downward position and have reduced your power to move forward. If your flexor muscles are overused it can cause major pain and lead to flattening in your lower back.

Did you know that osteoarthritis is twice as common in women? Some of that is due to wearing high heels! The knees stay flexed and the shinbone turns inward when wearing heels. This position puts a force on the inside of the knee. If you already have osteoarthritis I would stay away from wearing high-heeled shoes.

With your foot in a downward position it can cause an increase in pressure on the bottom of your foot. This causes foot deformities including hammertoes, bunions, and neuromas. The narrow part of high heels can also cause corns, calluses and blisters. Have you ever seen a babies foot and compared them when an adults foot? The babies’ toes are spread apart and an adults’ toes are squished together. Harmful shoes could cause this.

When it comes to a special occasion its okay to wear high heels, but don’t wear them on a daily basis. It’s in your best interest! You don’t want your body to ache and your feet to hurt now do you?

Does Duct Tape Treat Warts?

Most people have heard the old wives tale that duct tape is an effective treatment for warts. If you understand in full how warts come to be and what they are caused by, you can easily understand that this is just a story. Warts are a surface virus that we routinely see in our practice.  Plantar warts are caused by contact of the skin on a moist surface.  The name of the virus is the Human Papilloma Virus.  If someone touches a moist surface with an exposed wart and you contact that surface within a short period of time, you can wind up developing warts.

Warts appear in many ways. Most commonly you will see a thickness of skin on the bottom of the foot, but the wart can be seen elsewhere on the foot.  Typically you will see a little black specks under the lesion, which are small capillaries or vessels.  These lesions are typically painful to walk on. The problem with warts is if they are not treated by a specialist, such as a podiatrist, the possibility of another outbreak with many other lesions developing over time is a possibility.

Duct tape has long been thought of as a remedy for warts.  Of the hundreds, if not thousands of warts I have seen I have never seen this as a cure.  There are multiple studies that have disproved this treatment.  Simple debridement of a wart by a foot specialist with application of a strong acid is our first treatment choice.  Patients are sent home with a home care kit of a special antiperspirant (moisture control agent) for the foot and an acid treatment.  We recommend patient apply it twice a day.  Moisture control is of  paramount  importance in treating plantar warts because warts love moisture.  Within a few short visits to our practice we usually see resolution of the annoying painful lesions.  If conservative care fails we will provide surface laser treatments to our patients.  Surface laser is relatively new and requires no anesthesia or injections and works on disturbing the blood supply to the warty lesions.   Other treatment options are excision of mass with a scalpel and complete destruction the wart with another type of laser.

As you can see there are a multitude of ways a podiatrist/foot specialist can provide care to this pesky problem. Ways to avoid warts are always to wear shoe gear, whether it be a shoe or a sandal.  When going into public showers always wear flip-flops to decrease possibility of skin contact.  When diagnosed with a wart by your foot doctor make sure you bleach your floors, especially in the shower area.

Is My Child's High Arch Normal?

Children who are born with a high arch foot face many challenges.  Cavus or high arch foot tends to have a c shaped foot.  Over time cavus foot can lead to a host of problems from the foot ankle and leg, all the way up to the hip and back.  Due to the high arch it causes the foot to be inverted. Inverted feet tend to cause imbalances in the foot, which cause children to walk on the outer aspect of their feet.  This foot type can cause chronic ankle sprains because of the way the patient lands while walking.  The Achilles tendon, which connects the back of the foot to the heel bone, may be affected as well.  Another common pediatric problem is in-toeing, or the toes pointing towards the inside of the foot. There are some patients that develop tendonitis on top of the foot or on the outer aspect of the foot which are all caused by the rotation of the foot.  Some patients develop pain on the bottom pads of their feet called metatarsalgia. This is caused by the rotation or downward rotation of the long bones of the foot called metatarsals.  There is a natural fat pad we are born with, which deteriorates because of how far down the heads of the bones are. Other parts of the body besides the ankle and foot are affected; the knee can be rotated out, causing strain on the knee, hip and back.  

When a child begins to walk, parents should note what their feet look like and how they are walking.  If you notice they are walking on the outside of their foot and suspect a high arch foot we recommend you seek a podiatrist.  A foot specialist who treats children regularly in their practice can notice problems in structure, the way they walk.

These foot problems can be noticed in newborns. If deformities are seen one and appear severe, which is rare, some patients are put in casts to change the actual shape of the foot. Another way of way of treating a high arch foot is through orthotics put in the shoes that change the way the foot is positioned.  As the child begins to walk the best way to treat a high arch is with a custom orthotic.  A custom orthotic will support the foot correctly and decrease pressure on the different parts of the foot. You decrease the possibility of spraining your ankle and the foot is put in a position where it can act in a more stable position.

Patients with this foot type should be evaluated regularly, especially with children to make sure the orthotic fits the foot correctly and is doing it's job.  The other part of using orthotics in a child is for the podiatrist to evaluate shoe gear to make sure the orthotic fits and is supported correctly.  If the problem is severe enough there are surgical procedures that a foot specialist can determine to be necessary.  Some procedures used for cavus or high arch foot is an actual cut in the heel bone to change the angle of the heel bone. There are also implants used to change the ankle joints position.  As always surgery is a last option.

If you notice this type of deformity; c shaped foot- the first thing that should run through your mind is the thought that this type of deformity can lead to a multitude of physical problems for your child as they grow into adulthood.  Please consider a podiatrist for an evaluation.