We’ll put up with pain in our feet in a way we wouldn’t elsewhere in our body. We can endure three months of heel ache or let a toenail issue ruin our summer. We try plasters or home remedies for ages before deciding we need the help of a professional.
But there’s more to this reluctance than meets the eye. Waiting so long before seeking help has repercussions – both financially and physically. An ingrowing toenail or damaged ligament might seem like a localised problem, but if left untreated, it sets off a cascade through the body.
We don’t realise we change our gait to protect a painful bit of ourselves, yet our brain makes an automatic shift to alleviate the stress. That leads to another part bearing greater pressure and becoming painful, and so it goes on through the rest of the body: up from the ankle to the knee to the hip to the lower back. Someone who complains of heel pain in January might end up with knee problems in March and lower back pain by June, never even linking the two.
This sets the bar far too high in terms of what we have to suffer before we go see a specialist. As a result, people visit a podiatrist not because they have a problem, but because it has become impossible to ignore and is spoiling their daily lives. For a Podiatrist Worcester, visit www.propodiatry.co.uk/podiatry/podiatrist-worcester/
The vast majority of foot complaints get better with less invasive, less expensive treatment if patients visit sooner rather than later.
Our two feet carry all of our body’s weight, yet we treat them as the poor cousins of the medical world. It’s about time we gave our feet the help they needed earlier, rather than later.
