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Show !huI Released by Western Newspaper Union. PAINFUL FEET While the word orthopedic means straightening of the feet, orthopedic physicians are consulted by patients who have any trouble with bones and joints of the entire en-tire body. That physicians phy-sicians would be of more help to patients pa-tients if they studied foot pains more, is admitted by the medical profession. That pains in the feet are very often due to infection teeth, tonsils is known and patients Dr. Barton wlth painful leet wno are not on their feet much are likely suffering with infection. in-fection. In fact, some orthopedic physicians state that more than half of painful feet are due to infection. And when we think of the number of bones and joints in the feet, in which arthritis can get started, this is not hard to understand. However, there are a great many cases of painful feet due to bearing the weight of the body. In speaking of functional disorders of the feet (that is not due to disease dis-ease or infection) Dr. D. J. Morton, New York, in the New York State Journal of Medicine, states that the commonest cause of pain in sole of foot is because the inner bone of the sole of the foot, corresponding with big toe, is shorter than the other oth-er four bones and the ligaments supporting sup-porting it are loose or not as tight as with the other bones in sole of foot. Thus pain here is just like pain in any other joint that is being constantly con-stantly strained. In other words improper im-proper weight distribution, too much at this point, causes the pain. Suggestions for treatment of painful pain-ful feet are: (1) less work or play and weight bearing, (2) rest, (3) many short rests during the day with the legs and feet well supported support-ed at level of hips. (4) removal of all irritation (corns, calluses, warts) which cause the individual to put' his weight elsewhere when walking and avoidance of badly fitting shoes, (5) plunging feet first into hot and then into cold water a few times after aft-er the day's work is over to improve the circulation. Dr. Morton gives a helpful working work-ing rule which is to assume (in general) gen-eral) that pain at top and sides of the foot is likely caused by the shoe; when pain is on the bottom of the foot, the trouble is generaly inside the foot. An X-ray should be taken from top of foot to sole of both feet .- |