Archive for March 2010
Need Relief From Flat Foot Pain?
Flat feet, also known as fallen arches, is a condition that occurs when the arch in the foot collapses. The collapse of the arch causes the entire sole of the foot to come into complete contact, or almost in complete contact, with the floor. As a result, people with flat feet are unable to tread normally and are forced to alter their steps.
What causes flat feet?
- Genetics – In most cases, (approximately 20-30% of the population) flat feet is genetic and both feet are affected. Those born with naturally flat feet usually have a malformed joint, or two or more bones may have merged together that caused the feet to become stiff and flat.
- Injury that causes stiffness and distorts the foot joints such as a ruptured tendon
- Arthritis
- Illness – Diseases that affect the nervous system or muscles (I.E. spian bifida, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy) can cause flat feet because muscles become week and stiff, and can no longer function effectively together.
- Natural aging process
- Pregnancy – Sometimes pregnant women develop flat feet from the temporary changes caused by an increase in elastin in their body.
Usually, flat feet is a permanent condition.
What symptoms can occur from having flat feet? People with flat feet are at a higher risk of developing foot problems because they suffer from over-pronation. Over-pronation is when the feet roll excessively inward due to the stress overload placed on the ligaments and tendons of the ankle. This weakens the ankle and inside portion of the foot causing it to turn inward. Over-pronation can lead to painful symptoms including –
Bunions – A deformity of the big toe that occurs when the joint becomes misaligned and protrude outward.
Calluses – When the big toe loses flexibility, calluses usually occur under the sole of the foot near the second toe where stress is being placed.
Hammer toes – When the angle of the big toe increases inward, it begins to slide under the second toe. As a result, the metatarsal bone rises up and causes a hammer toe to form.
Plantar fasciitis and heel spurs – The Achilles tendon becomes shorter and pulls up on the heel of a person with flat feet, causing the arch to flatten and the foot to become longer. Thus, the plantar fascia (tight band of muscle under the foot arch) becomes abnormally stretched, which can lead to pain in the heel bone (plantar fasciitis) and heel spurs.
Low back pain – This usually occurs due to strain on the sciatic nerve. This nerve links the lower back to the foot via the leg. The strain is typically caused by repeated shock from running and over-pronation.
Finding relief from symptoms – There are different methods for treating flat feet, such as -
- Stretching exercises – Engage in exercises (2 – 3 times daily) that focus on the arch of your foot and Achilles’ tendons (IE. rolling your foot back and forth over a rolling pin or foot gymnastics). This will help increase flexibility and reduce the stress and pain felt by these areas.
- Lose weight – If you are overweight, losing weight helps to provide relief for your feet.
- Wear supportive shoes – Keep an eye on the stability of your footwear. Don’t wear shoes that are worn, tight, or tilt inwards. These shoes only increase your risk of injury and pain. Also, use orthotic insoles for your shoes to provide your foot with better support.
- See a professional – If you suffer from chronic discomfort or pain, seek the attention of a foot specialist such as a podiatrist or orthopedist. They can help provide you with proper shoes and orthotics that are custom made for your foot. They can also recommend exercises and even surgery if it is in the patient’s best interest.
Dave Wilson
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/need-relief-from-flat-foot-pain-114572.html
Lumbar Disc Prolapse Surgery Abroad At Affordable Cost-Lumbar Disc
Lumbar Disc Prolapse Surgery Abroad
Overview
Lumbar Disc Prolapse Spine Surgery
Spinal disorders and the pain associated with them account for a significant portion of disability at work, with most complaints occurring in the lumbar region. Men are more frequently affected. It is essentially a disease of the middle aged, unless precipitated by trauma. L4/5 and L5/S1 disc account for 90% of the cases, with each level affected about equally. L3/4 disc accounts for the majority of the remaining herniations…
Symptoms of Lumbar disc prolapse
In the acute presentation, symptoms often follow trauma or an injury to the disc produced by a sudden spinal strain, such as lifting heavy weights. There is acute low back pain, and, in the event of nerve root compression, radiating pain, paresthesias, and motor weakness. Severe bilateral root dysfunction may produce bowel and bladder incontinence and sexual dysfunction. If the leg pain is not immediately experienced, it usually appears over ensuing hours with associated paresthesias…
Signs of Lumbar disc prolapsea
1) The paraspinal muscles are often in spasm, particularly on the side opposite the leg pain, and are tender to palpation. The patient leans away from the side of leg pain with the hip and knee flexed in an effort to reduce the leg pain.
2) Neurological examination may detect the motor, sensory, and reflex impairment (LMN type)…
Diagnosis of Lumbar disc prolapse
MRI is the test of choice for evaluation of disc disease. Its multiplanar capabilities make it suitable for visualizing far lateral disc herniations as well as the paravertebral structures.
CT myelography still is useful in patients with equivocal MRI studies and in those who are unable to undergo MRI scanning…
Surgical Treatment of Lumbar disc prolapse
Indications for surgery include failure of acceptable pain control by non-operative measures, progressive neurological deficit, and Cauda Equina syndrome.
The traditional approach to lumbar discectomy is through posterior hemilaminotomy and foraminotomy, either in prone position or ‘knee-elbow’ position, usually under general anesthesia. Use of a microscope helps and has become a routine these days.
Lately, fenestration (microlumbar discectomy – wherein no bone is removed and the disc is approached by excising the ligamentum flavum at the required level) is increasingly employed with good results. The advantages in addition to minimal disturbance to spines are less postoperative discomfort and less stay in the hospital.
Whichever approach is used, at least 10gms of disc material has to be removed for adequate pain relief…
Outcome of Lumbar disc prolapse Surgery in Abroad
Approximately, 2/3 of the patients with acute sciatica recover within 4 weeks; about 1/3 of them report with recurrence.
The main advantage of surgery is to accelerate the time to recovery. In most studies, there is a definite advantage to surgery in the first postoperative year. In general, patient selection is important. A motivated patient, with history, physical findings, and diagnostic studies confirming nerve root compression, can be expected to do well. 90% of the operated patients do well…
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http://www.articlesbase.com/medical-tourism-articles/lumbar-disc-prolapse-surgery-abroad-at-affordable-costlumbar-disc-1155573.html
Leg Lifts and Low Back Pain
Leg raises can be a useful ab exercise, but for some people the risk of injury might outweigh the benefit gained from doing leg raises. Let’s talk a little more about what’s going on with your abdominal muscles and lower back during leg raises.
When you perform leg raises, your abdominal muscles work with your hip flexors. Your abdominal muscles work to keep your pelvis stable, while your hip flexors work to move your legs. This is actually an important motion to master, but here are the problems that may arise.
Problem #1: Your Abdominal Muscles are too Weak to Keep Your Pelvis and Lower Back Stable!
Our legs are heavy, so our abdominal muscles must work really hard to keep our pelvis and lower back in the correct position. As the legs lower towards the floor, there is a tendency for the lower back to arch.
When the lower back arches, there is extra pressure placed on the joints of the lower back. The job of the abdominals is to stop the lower back from arching excessively, so if you have weak abdominals you will likely have extra pressure on your lower back when you perform leg raises.
Ab Workout Tip: You can build up your abdominal strength and protect your lower back by limiting your range of motion during leg raises. Begin with your hips at 90 degrees. Lower your legs until you feel your pelvis tipping and your lower back arching; at that point reverse directions and return to the starting position.
As you move closer to the floor more pressure is placed on your lower back so limit your range of motion and move only as far as you can control.
Workout Tip: If you have trouble keeping your legs straight in the air, it is likely a sign of poor flexibility in the hamstring muscles. Stretching your hamstrings can improve your form during this ab exercise.
Workout Tip: If you have any trouble performing leg raises, begin by mastering reverse crunches. Reverse Crunches can help to strengthen your abdominal muscles and increase the flexibility in your lower back, and they are a great exercise for beginners and athletes.
Problem #2: You Have Bad Posture and Bad Alignment in Your Spine!
Here are 2 simple statements about posture. When your posture and alignment are ideal, you have the least pressure on your lower back and the most stability. And, when your posture is not ideal, you have more pressure on the joints of your lower back and less stability in your lower back. Bad Posture adds pressure to your lower back.
Problem #3: Your Hip Flexors add Pressure to the Joints of the Lower Back!
When the legs move during ab exercises, the hip flexors contract. When the hip flexors contract, pressure is added to the lower back. This is a normal process, and this happens during every exercise and at every joint.
But if you have joint irritation in your lower back aggressively working your hip flexors can add excessive pressure to your joints. This problem is really only a problem if you have lower back injuries.
If you have weak abdominals, poor posture, and a lower back injury, then, full straight leg raises all the way to the floor are probably not the best ab exercise for you. If you are a beginner, start by practicing the drawing in maneuver and the plank exercise. Then, move on to reverse crunches and regular crunches. Once you have mastered the basics, it is okay to progress to leg raises and more challenging ab exercises.
Charles A. Inniss, Jr. DPT
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/leg-lifts-and-low-back-pain-723461.html
Does Back Pain Lead To Brain Drain?
Back pain is a very common disease by which people get afflicted worldwide. It has been rightly termed as a ‘lifestyle disorder’. A general cause of a back pain is sitting or standing in bad postures, though there can be various other medical reasons to it.
But as the saying goes: ‘nothing is alone in this world’, the same is true with the back pain. Back pain not only involves physical suffering but it also comes with a plethora of other sufferings. Your professional and social life too suffers due to it.
Various new age studies have come up with a direct relationship between your back pain and the brain. With the help of various comparisons of the brain size, made between two sets of people of the same age group, one who was afflicted with back pain and the others who were found to be totally fit, showed a deviation. People who suffered from back pain showed an acute shrinkage in their brain size, of up to 1.3-centimeter cube per year. Further it was shown that till the time the pain lasted, the brain’s size kept on shrinking. In case of chronic pain, the brain loss was faster as compared to the shrinkage in mild pain.
But there are still some questions that remain unclear with this theory, as to whether the brain loss associated with back pain is permanent or it remains till the pain lasts. Some researchers argue that there have been cases where, there was a decrease in the grey matter that led to shrinkage of the brain without any neuron loss. That means that the effect was only on the brain size and there occurred no memory loss. This statement brings us to the fact that the process of brain loss can be reversed with the help of an effective suggested treatment.
But the reason for this relationship between loss of grey matter and back pain still remains uncertain. But still, researchers have tried to answer this relationship to some extent. They are of the view that development of negative mood and intense stress and pressure can be a cause of this process of degeneration of the brain cells.
So the only way out to this problem is by following various psychological therapies that will help you relieve stress and give you peace out of both, your back pain and brain drain.
Ashish Jain
http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/does-back-pain-lead-to-brain-drain-123388.html
Foot Cryosurgery for Plantar Fasciitis, Heel Pain, Morton’s Neuroma and Neuropathy
Cryosurgery, also known as Cryotherapy or Neuroablation, is a minimally invasive FDA approved procedure done in the office for pain relief and nerve problems of the foot. Dr. Katz notes that treatments have provided longstanding relief for heel pain, plantar fasciitis, Morton’s neuroma and neuropathy and many other painful conditions.
The procedure is performed under local anesthesia using a tiny incision that does not require stitches. A probe is used to freeze tissue in a 15 minute office procedure. Extreme freezing temperatures produce an anesthetic effect beyond the temporary relief produced by simple cooling. This procedure may be used as a primary treatment but is more commonly used after other conservative treatments have failed.
Cryoanalgesia has been known to decrease pain and inflammation for centuries. Physicians, physical therapists and sports trainers have used ice for many conditions and injuries. Cool temperatures result in vasoconstriction of blood vessels, thus reducing inflammation, but also create an anesthetic effect by altering nerve function.
Historically, researchers performing cryosurgery observed that extreme freezing had an anesthetic effect beyond the temporary relief produced by simple cooling. Over the last thirty years, many treatments have been introduced to address chronic pain by neurologists, surgeons, pain management specialists, and neurosurgeons. These techniques have had a common goal of producing prolonged nerve blocks to relieve intractable pain. Within the last ten years, cryosurgery has been utilized to relieve trigeminal nerve pain, lumbosacral pain and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Advantages to Foot Cryosurgery
* Painless – use of local anesthetic
* Minimally invasive
* In-office physician performed procedure
* Walking the day of the procedure
* Minimal to no down time from work or activity
* Decreased use of pain medications that can cause complications
* May permit patient to return to fashion shoes, sandals and heels
* May permit patient to walk barefoot
Success rates have been high and patients find that they get significant relief while being able to return to normal activities quickly. This is truly a breakthrough technology for foot pain said Dr. Marc Katz of Tampa.
Marc Katz, DPM
http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/foot-cryosurgery-for-plantar-fasciitis-heel-pain-mortons-neuroma-and-neuropathy-80398.html
