Angry Pod Doc

There is no magical cure for plantar fasciitis. There is no secret sauce for plantar fasciitis. On the internet there are plenty of people touting cures for plantar fasciitis. You can tell that they have never actually treated a case of plantar fasciitis in their lives. Plantar fasciitis is easy to treat. All you need is to get the orthotics right and they work well in the short term; and stretching works well in the medium term; and strengthening the muscles and loosing weight works well in the ling term. If you are not doing that, then find a health professional who does it. I am not the only one to rant about it!

Well not exactly! Let me explain: Chinese foot binding was an old tradition that used to be carried out in rural china. It was really a form of torture. The feet of young girls were tightly bound to stop them growing. This caused a lot of pain and agony. It was done to please men as they could get a better price for a bride if the feet were small.

What makes me angry is that women are still putting their feet into tight shoes to deform them to please men. It causes so many of the foot problems that we see today.

As the father of a child with mild ASD, I take more than a passing interest in the topic. There were some recent Congressional hearings on autism in which the absolute nutters got yet another chance to air their nutty conspiracy theories about vaccines causing autism. These people are the biggest threat to advancing our understanding of autism, research on autism and the future care of those with autism. There is no controversy about this. The evidence is absolutely 100% clear that autism is not caused by vaccines. What these people are doing by manufacturing a controversy is diverting money, resources and energy away from the things that can make a difference in the lives of those with autism. Please get over it.

I just operated today on my second case of a barefoot runner with posterior tibial tendon dysfunction. Neither of them will probably be able to run again as it had progressed beyond stage two and they needed bone work. What they both had in common is they followed online advice from fellow barefoot runners and ignored the advice from their doctors. I have also recently dealt with metatarsal stress fractures that have gone on to complete fractures – I have not seen that for years until recently. There is probably nothing wrong with barefoot running for a number of runners, but barefoot runners have got to stop giving medical advice to each other. Barefoot running has been good for my business, but the nonsense has to stop about it being the best way to run injury free. Its certainly does not look like that from where I sit. If you are thinking about barefoot running, have a read of this first. There is no evidence that you get less injuries when running barefoot.

I am not so sure if its those that promote the foot detox with a straight face or those that are gullible enough to believe them that actually make me angry The foot detox is a scam. It does not work. It will never work. Do not believe those that promote it. You can not remove toxins in the body through the foot. There are plenty of videos showing that it is a hoax. There is no evidence that it works and plenty of evidence that it does not work.

Why do they treat people as being so gullible that they fall for it? There is not one shred of evidence for a plausible physiological link between parts of the body and the sole of the foot, yet they keep trying to claim that there is. Every single systematic review of the scientific research that only includes the good quality studies have concluded that reflexology does not work, yet they keep trying to claim that it works. What more evidence is needed to show that it does not work and there is no link between the foot and the various organs in the body? It is nothing more than a placebo and I like a good foot massage as much as the next person and always feel good after it. That is not reflexology, that is just a relaxing foot massage!

The public have been sold a pile of nonsense. Obamacare is not working; is going to raise healthcare costs and stifle innovation. A year ago, 70% of doctors thought it sucks as well. It will probably be higher now! Don’t you think that those on the coal face of delivering health care should be listened to?

Why do they make me angry? Not necessarily because there is anything wrong with them, but because of all the promises they make about the health gains you can get from them. they have claimed to cure cellulite; they claim to tone up the butt; and that they can give you an extra workout. The evidence does not support that and as a consequence they are all now getting sued and settling or multi-million dollar amounts. The toning shoes do have a place. The rocker nature of the shoes means they are useful in patients with hallux rigidus, and for that reason, they make me less angry!

I so wanted to believe; boy did I want to believe. I just can no longer believe. Armstrong is a remarkable person: Seven Tour de’ France wins, prostate cancer and the Livestrong Foundation, but he did it by cheating! The only redeeming feature is that it was the culture of the time and everyone was doing it. What makes this even more galling is the strength of his denials. He can no longer deny it and needs to come clean to save the future and integrity of cycling.

Cycling forums are abuzz with the issues and there is a lot of anger because of the lies and a lot of support because of the charity work. I do hope the “Armstrong” brand survives this and the good work continues. I see a number of cyclists in my sports clinic and they all feel the same when I ask them about it.

Podiatrists see cyclists because of problems with the foot alignment that may need orthotics and conditions like mortons neuroma (pinched nerves) and other types of neuropathies due to the compressions from the shoes and the loads on the foot.