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Show Your Doctor Says.. . The following is one of a series of articles written by members of the Utah State Medical Association and published in cooperation with your local newspaper. These articles are scheduled to appear every other week throughout the year in an effort to better acquaint you with problems of health, and designed to itnprove the well-being of the people of Utah Painful Feet Primitive peoples walked on softer surfaces than modern man, and therefore carried the body weight rather generally over the soles of the feet. As soon as hard surfaces are introduced intro-duced the body weight tends to be borne on the prominent spots of the soles. These are the heel ar.d the bases of the first and fifth toes. Nature's response is a greater attempt to meet the demand. Thus, if the body weight is born largely on the heel and at the bases of the first and fifth toes, nature's response is to thicken the skin over these areas. It matters little that the skin grows into the flesh encroaching on nerves and causing pain. The ultimate solution to the problem of calluses, as these thickened thick-ened areas of skin are called, is to lessen the pressure on them by better distribution of the body weight on the feet. If this is done, the calluses recede spontaneously. A callus on the ball of the foot, between the bases of the first and fifth toes, is often encountered. Its presence indicates an underlying under-lying abnormal condition. The bones in the forepart of a normal foot form an arch. When bones forming this arch drop so that the arch is lost, weight is borne on a portion of the foot not designed de-signed for weight bearing. Here again the skin thickens and forms the painful metatarsal callus. The basic problem is in redistribution of ti.j weight-bearing- points. Relief is obtained by corrections incorporated incorpora-ted into the shoes and, in women, by lowering the heels. High-heeled shoes concentrate an excessive portion of the body weight in this region. Morton's toe is a painful affliction af-fliction involving principally the fourth toe. Often the pain is so severe that the sufferer will be compelled to remove his shoe, no matter where he is. When the bones of the metatarsal arch drop, a nerve may be pinched between them. The nerve to the fourth toe is the one usually involved. Removal of the nerve effects a permanent cure. The forerunner of bunions may be noted in infants. The toes of each foot, instead of growing straight, tend to grow in toward the opposite foot. Careful observation observa-tion will reveal that not only the toes veer inward but also the bones of the forepart of the foot. Usually there is no difficulty in childhood because children's shoes have wide toes. As soon as pointed-toe shoes are encountered the final ingredient ingredi-ent of a bunion has been added. At first the forepart of the foot and the great toe turn in toward the other foot. Then, the pointed-toed pointed-toed shoe turns the great toe in the opposite direction, toward the center line of the foot. Thus, the early bunion is not actually a lump on the bone but the point of a V laid flat, one arm of the V being the great toe and the other arm the bone in the forepart of the foot. The apex of the V forms a point of excessive pressure against the shoe. In time an actual bump forms on the bone in response to the ljng continued irritation. The larger the bony bump grows, the greater the irritation from shoes. Reconstructive surgical procedures now offer lasting relief from this condition. But, one might ask, why not get at the root of the difficulty by correcting the turned-in feet of infants? That is exactly what is being done. In a pliable infant's foot plaster casts correct the deformity de-formity before the child starts to walk. |