Stepping with Comfort: A Guide to Common Foot Conditions
Stepping with Comfort: A Guide to Common Foot Conditions
There are 26 bones in a human foot, with 33 joints and a minimum of 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments. The latter are made of strong fibrous tissues so that they can make sure that all the moving parts of our feet are kept together. Our feet take on our whole bodies weight and can produce a pint of sweat a day with the use of over 250,000 sweat glands. It is immensely important to take care of your feet to reduce the risk of health problems to your musculoskeletal system.
Athlete’s foot
When you think of conditions that commonly afflict your feet, the first name that comes to mind is that of an athlete’s foot. It is a fungal infection of the skin over there and happens between your toes. However, such an infection might spread and cause you discomfort. It can be painful as well. In most cases, this happens when your feet are exposed to the fungus that causes the condition, and the common hunting grounds of such organisms are gyms, pools, and showers where people tend to walk barefoot.
A foot and ankle specialist, such as a podiatrist, can take a sample of the affected area and provide you with the necessary anti-fungal treatment. Remember to wash your socks at 60 degrees, change them daily and purchase new shoes.
Arthritis
Arthritis is one of the most prominent musculoskeletal conditions that can affect your feet. There are several symptoms of such an issue, such as pain and swelling in the joints. At times, they may be limited to a single joint. Arthritis can translate to reduced range of motion, stiffness, and deformity of joints. The common causes are conditions such as inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Treatment for arthritis may involve custom orthotics to reduce the pressure to the affected bone, steroid injections or surgery. Your foot and ankle specialist will typically carry out X-rays to confirm the presence of osteophytes prior to a treatment plan.
Fungal nail infection
Tiny fungi might get inside your nails via cracks and breaks, and that leads to the said infection. The result of such infection is thick, brittle, and discolored nails. Such fungus usually thrives in wet and warm places and tends to spread a lot among people who swim a lot or have sweaty feet. This is an infection that will never go away on its own, and therefore it can be rather hard to treat it as well. In mild cases, you may be able to treat it with cream on your nails, but the best options are surgery and antifungal pills.
Your foot and ankle specialist will typically take a nail sample to confirm the fungi, surgery may be advised and then a topical treatment applied directly to the base of the nail, allowing a new unaffected nail to grow.
Conclusion
We are hopeful that the information we have provided in this content helps you recognise the potential signs of some of the common conditions your feet could suffer from. It is also significant to understand why it is crucial to prevent such ailments from happening.
If you find that you are experiencing pain in your foot or ankle, an ingrown toenail infection or a bunion deformity is present, contact a foot and ankle specialist for diagnosis and treatment.
