Chronic foot and ankle injuries, why not wait?

I just had a friend tell me this. She has had pain and swelling in her ankle and is ready to have it addressed. Crazy thing is, her injury happened in 1996! Say again?! 1996?! And this prompted me to write about what happens if you wait.

With 26 bones, 33 joints on top of more than 100 tendons, ligaments and muscles, the foot has plenty of places it can injure. All of these parts make a whole in the function of the foot and ankle. And since the foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone and the ankle bone’s connected…well you get my drift. One component stretches, breaks, tears, strains and every other part has to bear the load of that one small part. With as much as we use our feet, one or some components have already given out to some degree.

So now we all have feet that are not in their perfect position to function at their best.
The aches and pains begin. Sure, Tylenol and Motrin are great band-aides. But they mask pain rather than fix what’s wrong. Keep it up and over time, the anti-inflammatories stop working. Not a good sign. The stress from years of small, meaningless injuries start adding up to more stress than your feet and ankles can handle. Now your injury is chronic. What does that mean? It means that you have ignored the small stuff and now your body is ignoring it too and won’t heal it on its own.

Good thing is, most of you are not a professional athlete, like Shaquille O’Neal, whose plantar fasciitis raised havoc on his ability to dunk those hoops! Bad thing is, whether you are Shaq or not, ignoring an injury or chronically re-injuring could have dire consequences.

I found this list off an article about athletic performance by Keith Wassung listing the following athletes using chiropractic care as part of body maintenance:

Joe Montana, Roger Craig, Keith Jackson, Emmit Smith, Chris Carter, Evander Holyfield Sugar Ray Leonard, Roy Jones, Jr., Wade Boggs, Penny Hardaway, Jon Smoltz, Ken Griffey, Jr. Mark McGwire, Ryne Sandberg,, Ricky Bell, Brett Butler, Dominique Wilkins, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippin, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Robert Parish, Gerald Wilkins, Lee Haney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dr. Frank Columbu, Irving Fryar, Brett Hall, Tiger Woods, Roberto Clemente Michael Carbajol, Bob Hayes, Muhammad Ali, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Alex Karras, Gary Clark, Mark May, Charles Haley, Bill Fralic, Dan Marino, Warren Moon, Tim Dwight, Jack Dempsey,Fred Funk, Beth Daniel, Mary Lou Retton, Olga Korbut, Wayne Gretzky, Rocky Marciano, Dan O’Brien, Bruce Jenner, Donovan Bailey, Mac Wilkins, Dwight Stones, Mary Decker, Willie Banks, Nancy Ditz, Gregg Blasingame, Billy Jean King. Tracy Austin, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Jim Connors, Jan Stephenson, Shawn Marion, Stephon Marbury, Barry Bonds, Vijay Singh,Steve Nash, LeBron James, Barry Zito, Grant Hill, Shaquille O’Neal

Why not podiatric care to maintain the only set of “tires” you have?!

The simple lesson here is, if you do not want to spend your golden years limping and kicking yourself for not addressing your foot and ankle pain sooner, get in to see your podiatrist when the injury happens! An acute injury is sooooo much easier to treat and your prognosis is soooo much better if you treat EARLY. And remember that with many injuries, though you may have healed, you are also more prone to re-injury. The best thing about early intervention is that you will also be informed of ways to prevent re-injury. Either way, that visit to your podiatrist could take you many more miles and that is golden!

The simple lesson here is, if you do not want to spend your golden years limping and kicking yourself for not addressing your foot and ankle pain sooner, get in to see your podiatrist when the injury happens! An acute injury is sooooo much easier to treat and your prognosis is soooo much better if you treat EARLY. And remember that with many injuries, though you may have healed, you are also more prone to re-injury. The best thing about early intervention is that you will also be informed of ways to prevent re-injury. Either way, that visit to your podiatrist could take you many more miles and that is golden!