In This Issue...

• What is Chilblains?
• How Smart Is Your Right Foot??
• Keep Your Feet Safe at the Gym in the New Year
• Welcome to our Practice
• Let’s Wish Happy Birthday to the Following Patients!
• Meet Our Staff

What is Chilblains?

Chilblains is a painful reaction of the blood vessels in the skin when exposed to cold temperatures. The cold exposure damages capillary beds in the skin, which can cause redness, itching, blisters and inflammation. When they are warmed too quickly, your blood vessels expand in the response to the heat. As a result, your blood vessels become inflamed, which causes chilblains.

What Causes Chilblains?

Chilblains is usually the result of an abnormal reaction of the body to cold. It tends to develop on skin that is exposed to cold and is then warmed too quickly. It can occur after, for example, warming hands directly in front of a heater or fire. The cooling and rapid heating can cause small blood vessels under the skin to expand more quickly than your blood vessels can handle. It results in a blockage and blood leaking into nearby tissues. It is unclear why this occurs in certain people.

Signs and Symptoms of chilblains:

• Burning sensation on the skin
• Changes in skin color from red to dark blue, accompanied by pain
• Inflammation of the skin
• Possible blistering
• Possible ulceration
• Small, itchy red areas on the skin
• Swelling
  
  

How to Prevent Chilblains

• Avoid or limit exposure to cold. Dress warm!
• Cover all exposed skin when going outside in cold weather
• If skin is exposed to cold, be sure to warm it gradually
• Keep active. This helps improve circulation.
• Make sure damp winter shoes are dry before wearing them. Do not put on cold, humid shoes.
• Moisturize feet regularly. This stops them from drying out and the skin from cracking.
  
  

Treatment

Treatment for chilblains entails protection of the part of body exposed, avoid rubbing to try to warm frozen tissues. Refreezing of the body part can be destructive. Rewarming of the frozen body part in a footbath with warm water.

How Smart Is Your Right Foot??

This is hysterical. You have to try this...It’s absolutely true. I guess there are some things that the brain cannot handle.

How Smart Is Your Right Foot

You have to try this please, it takes 2 seconds. I could not believe this!!! This will boggle your mind and it will keep you trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can’t.
It’s pre–programmed in your brain!

1. Without anyone watching you (they will think you are goofy!) and while sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number ‘6’ in the air with your right hand.
   
   

Your foot will change direction!!!

I TOLD YOU SO!!

And there’s nothing you can do about it! You and I both know how stupid it is, but before the day is done you are going to try it again, if you’ve not already done so!

Keep Your Feet Safe
at the Gym in the New Year

In the New Year, don’t forget to keep your feet in tip-top shape while following through with your resolutions to get fit. The American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons offers tips for foot safety while at the gym.

Start new workouts gradually– Increase your stamina and the length of your workouts gradually to avoid overuse injuries such as stress fractures or tendon strains and sprains. Stretching your muscles before and after workouts also helps prevent these types of injuries. If you do feel you’ve sprained your ankle, be sure to seek treatment right away. Untreated or repeated ankle sprains may lead to chronic ankle instability, a condition that causes persistent pain and a ‘giving way’ of the ankle.

Wear the right shoe and sock–Wear well-fitting athletic shoes designed for the exercise or sport. Shoes that don’t support the arch of the foot and provide cushion for the heel can cause heel pain (plantar fasciitis). Shoes that are too small can also cause a neuroma, or a thickening of the nerve tissue, in the foot and may require injections, medication or physical therapy. Wearing cotton or non-slip socks are also key to help avoid painful blisters, which can become infected and cause more serious issues.

Use good technique– Improper exercise techniques can result in injury to the tendons or ligaments in your feet and ankles. Incorrect posture or misuse of exercise equipment can cause decreased stabilization in the foot and ankle, leading to joint sprains and muscle strains.

Protect yourself from bacteria–Sweaty shoes, public showers, exercise equipment and the pool deck at the gym are breeding grounds for fungus, viruses and bacteria, including drug-resistant strains like MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) which has become increasingly more common. Never go barefoot while in public areas; water shoes can provide a great barrier between your feet and the wet surfaces. “It’s also best to cover cuts and cracks in the skin or ingrown toenails since these minor tears in the skin’s surface can act as entry points for bacteria.” If you have a cut or scrape that becomes red or swollen and is not healing in a timely manner, don’t hesitate to see a foot and ankle surgeon for an examination.

Above all, it’s important to listen to your body. If you experience an injury or pain, call your foot and ankle surgeon.

Welcome to our Practice

Patients are the lifeline of our practice. We realize that you have a choice, and we are proud that these new patients have chosen us as their health care provider! We hope that we exceed your expectations and help you progress towards a healthy lifestyle!
We would like to proudly welcome the following new patients:

The staff and physicians of FootCare Consultants of Cleveland would like to wish all of our patients and their families a safe and Happy New Year!

Let’s Wish Happy Birthday to the Following Patients!

Happy Birthday to You... Happy Birthday to You... We’d like to give special recognition to all the patients who have a February birthday. We have a large patient population with a birthday in February, so unfortunately we cannot list all of you. We hope each one of you enjoys your special day.