Blockbuster Wedge Shoes

2011 Shoes styles have gone native. Very high, stacked platform shoes in wood and sometimes cork bases. Great for elevation and with substantial leather straps can be very comfortable.
Wedges give instant leg lengthening effect without the stiletto wobble.
Some designers have gone for raffia styles eg Charlotte Olympia which is a great inexpensive (not the shoes) material used by shoe genius Ferragamo when leather became too expensive. Raffia and cork are light materials which is important when you have strap these to your feet and carry them at every step.

The current fashion for extra-extra long trousers resulting in the almost complete loss of sight of the shoes is an interesting development.

Sarah Brown 5th Toe

Sarah Brown (wife of current Prime Minister) has had her feet papped! (picture BAPS media)

Digiti Minimi Quinti Varus (DMQV) is a condition of the 5th toe she was born with and is simply a slight distortion of the smallest toe so it is short and sits on top of the 4th toe.

At worse it is problematic in shoes but can cause corns and callus that can be painful.

Mostly people seek an opinion due to the appearance.

Surgery if requested is a tendon lengthening and plastic surgery incision to get the toe back down to ground level although it is never "normal" after this.

Mail on Sunday

Due to be featured in Mail on Sunday (3rd Jan 2010) in an article on me and my flatfeet and the reasons for choosing to have my own foot corrected by the Hyprocure.
The article talks about my daughter who also has significant flatfeet and, as her mother, if she is to have this procedure done I wanted to see what it really entailed and have essentially put my foot forward to try first!

Nearly a year since I had the right foot done and all is well. Delighted to have a static, stable, well behaved foot. No more wobbling or pain from the sinus tarsai. No more pain into the toes due to trapped nerves, no more bunion formation slowly but surely and just better stability overall.

And no; I cannot feel it. I have no restriction due to pain and nothing to make me limp or suffer any consequence, just enjoy the benefits.

Veruccae

Most parents are unaware that veruccas, usually found on the soles of our feet, which are the blight of children who swim (as they’re often picked up on damp surfaces such as pool surrounds), are caused by the HPV virus.

Verucca is actually another name for ‘wart’ but commonly refers to the black-headed warts that affect our feet. The black head is actually a result of the way the wart pulls blood vessels up towards the surface.

Avoid catching them by:

• Wear flip-flops around the pool and changing room


• Don’t cut toenails too short

If your child has one: Don’t panic – most veruccas clear up of their own accord, although it can take anything up to two years.

The current medical advice is to treat veruccas only if they’re painful. See a podiatrist if they persist or are sore.

From www.supplefeet.com/products you can buy tea tree oil with lemon which is great in the early stages and for more active treatment moderate strength salycyclic acid preparations such as Duofilm and Occusal are recommended for At Home use.

Keeping them covered with a simple elastoplast also helps speed up the resoution of these.

How to Cut your toenails properly

A simple task you would think but as with all things there is a better way.

Best to avoid jagged, sharp edges and for this reason I was asked by the Daily Mail to write a short piece on how to cut your toenails!

My main advice is to follow the natural contour of the nail, ie not just straight across and more gently rounded. Use clippers, not scissors ( they slip) and no digging down the sides.

See a podiatrist for advice on thickened or difficult nails. We can painlessly pare them down for you. What you do not want is to creat the nasty ingrowing toenail pictured.

Use tea tree oil to keep the nails clean and olive oil is always great for adding moisture to the nail plate and gives a nice healthy shine.

BBC newsround

We were featured today on BBC newsround. A programme specifically for kids so we had wonky camera angles and fun "worse feet" stories. With my daughter's assistance we demonstrated flat feet in kids and various insoles to be used to help. the main message was that bad shoes equals bad feet!

Take a look at http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8290000/newsid_8290100/8290117.stm

keystone effect

I am always reminded about the need to restore the arch.
We do it as Podiatrists in many different ways, usually with insoles or orthotics.
The real arch of the foot is across the middle and is known as the transverse arch. Get this right and the foot is a stable structure. Any problems here lead to hyper pronation and a tilting and rotating of the foot.
Hence the need to stabilise the arch with shoes, insoles or the Hyprocure or other arch procedures.