Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000082B
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00:01 Welcome back to the program.
00:02 I'm Nick Evinson here with Dr. James Marcum 00:04 of Heartwise Ministries 00:05 and we'd like you to visit our website 00:07 at Heartwiseministries.org, 00:09 there are Dr. Marcum's blog articles there, 00:11 you can read, learn more about health. 00:13 We also have, ask the doctor page 00:15 where you can ask your questions 00:17 and we also encourage you to get on there 00:20 and ask for your prayer requests. 00:22 We pray weekly for those who write in their requests 00:24 and we take it, as quite a privilege 00:26 that people put their requests there for us to lift up to God. 00:30 And, Dr. Marcum, today we're talking about 00:31 the sources of foot pain. 00:33 Yeah, and we're doing this pain series 00:36 and we've talked about different parts of the body, 00:38 and feet are definitely a part 00:40 that cause pain to lot of people. 00:43 And we've talked a little bit about some of the things 00:45 that we need to do for feet and foot, 00:49 I keep saying that the wrong way 00:50 but when you think about it, 00:53 you know, we want to do things that keep our feet healthy, 00:55 so we don't need to put trauma on our foot 00:58 and then when we do have trauma, 00:59 we want to do things that get it well, right away. 01:02 And if we think about little things 01:04 that we can do on a daily basis, 01:05 we want to keep our entire bodies healthy, 01:07 that's gonna help our feet. 01:09 We want to give good foot wear, keep our feet clean, you know, 01:12 not have a lot of other health problems 01:15 and then when we notice we have a foot problem, 01:17 we want to deal with it quickly and we've met a podiatrist, 01:21 Dr. Cheryl Haag and she is a podiatrist 01:24 and that's a doctor specialized in feet, 01:27 and they could help you get through foot pain 01:29 hopefully before it becomes a big problem. 01:32 And I'm glad you've mentioned our website, Nick, 01:34 there's a lot of neat things there are that people can go to 01:36 and right now, one of the nice things 01:39 about the website is if you're interested 01:40 in helping your fellow man, you know, 01:42 we're a place where people can get on 01:44 and give health information but they can share it 01:46 on their blogs, their websites. 01:48 That's right. 01:49 We're making one minute radio spots, 01:51 we're also gonna give one minute television spots, 01:54 so they can go back and listen to a lot of 01:55 radio programs about their health, 01:58 so this is a good place where people can 01:59 grow in their health because, you know, 02:01 when people become healthy, I mean, sort of, they realize, 02:04 you know, my health's important and it's sort of... 02:06 The physical and spiritual goes together. 02:09 And whenever anyone starts having pain, 02:11 you know, we've talked about this before, 02:13 it puts stress on the body. 02:14 That's right, yeah. 02:15 And if you have pain all the time, 02:17 guess what, you know, if you have foot pain, 02:18 you don't sleep well, if you don't sleep well, 02:20 that puts more stress on your body, 02:21 it may be you eat comfort foods. 02:23 That's right. 02:25 You know, no one wants to eat, you know, 02:26 but you'll start eating poorly, you don't exercise as much 02:30 and some people get in the medicine routine, 02:34 "Oh, I'm gonna take a medicine, 02:35 just so I can walk and feel better..." 02:37 "And keep the inflammation down." 02:38 Yeah. 02:40 And then, you know, 02:41 not too longer I wrote the book, 02:42 "Medicines that kill," 02:44 and long term medications all have side effects. 02:45 Some have dangerous side effects. 02:47 So I'm glad we're getting the message out here today, 02:50 and I heard we have some questions that come in... 02:52 That's right, that's right, we do. 02:55 Our first person writes in, 02:56 what can I do to prevent a foot problem? 02:59 Okay, that's a great one. 03:00 So I guess we would address this 03:02 to a baby, you know, 03:04 what can I do over the course of the life 03:05 to lower my risk of foot? 03:07 Well, I think that Dr. Haag made a great footwear, 03:12 we have to have the appropriate footwear. 03:14 Right, and I think she point out 03:15 specifically sandals and footwear 03:18 that doesn't give good support. 03:20 Yeah, it's not gonna be a good thing and, you know, 03:23 I had a patient once that had high heel shoes 03:25 and that really damaged her life, 03:27 you know, you wanna have, you know, 03:29 you don't wanna confine your feet, 03:31 you wanna give them room to breeze, 03:32 so I think in keeping the foot healthy, 03:35 nice footwear, we wanna have that. 03:37 I mean, other thing that's very important 03:39 for the foot is water, okay? 03:43 A large percentage of the foot is made of water. 03:46 If you're dehydrating, guess what happens? 03:48 The skin gets dry, starts to crack, 03:51 higher risk of infection. 03:53 Rubs on the shoes, you're more likely 03:55 to get cheilosis and those type of thing, 03:57 that's an important thing. 03:59 You don't wanna put things on your foot that's too tight, 04:02 you don't wanna squeeze them to death. 04:04 That messes up the circulation. 04:05 Yes, and it can damage the nerves, 04:07 you know, damages nerves 04:09 when you press on things too much, 04:10 that's never a good thing. 04:12 Other things that help us exercise the feet, 04:15 you know, feet need exercise too. 04:16 Moving, walking, stretching the feet, 04:19 stretching the tendons, the ligaments, 04:22 the different parts of the feet. 04:24 One of the things that a lot of people 04:25 don't realize is that, feet support the body. 04:29 If you carry too much weight, guess what that's gonna do? 04:32 Be harder on your feet. 04:34 Yes, heavy people, lot of stress on the feet and, 04:36 you know, you might be able to do it on the short term 04:38 but week after week, year after year, 04:41 all that extra pressure on the foot, 04:43 the foot part starts to wear out quicker. 04:45 Right. 04:46 Unfortunately, when your feet wear out, 04:48 you cannot be ambulatory, you can't move around 04:51 and you start to lose your independent. 04:53 What are other things? 04:54 Standing too long, 04:56 you don't wanna stand too long in one position. 04:58 That's gonna hurt your feet 05:00 because of the continued wear and tear 05:02 of the ballets mechanisms that you have to do. 05:05 Another thing that can help prevent foot problems is 05:08 when your toes are actually in your shoe, 05:11 move your toes. 05:12 Right, sure... 05:13 And move your toes every so often. 05:15 Some people like to wear the same shoe all the time 05:18 but giving your foot a different look, you know, 05:21 of course, sometimes we have fungus 05:23 in different shoes that goes from foot to foot. 05:27 We don't want to have fungus foot shoes 05:30 and so that's another thing, 05:31 change your shoes on a regular basis. 05:33 Stand on carpet, instead of hard things 05:35 that might help support up. 05:37 At the end of day, prop up your feet, 05:38 let your feet do some resting and massage. 05:42 Massage is another good thing we can do for the foot. 05:45 And then of course, in general be healthy, 05:47 especially diabetes. 05:48 Diabetes hurts the circulation of the foot, 05:51 hurts the nerves of the foot, so we want to avoid diabetes, 05:54 so just avoiding diabetes, obesity, big shoes, 05:57 all these things are just little things we can do 06:00 to prevent foot problems. 06:02 And then we do have a foot problem, 06:03 identify what the problem is and get help right away. 06:06 But a lot of time the feet will get better 06:09 just by proper shoe wear, proper exercise, 06:12 getting enough rest 06:14 and that's really many times all that's needed. 06:16 Now if you don't pay attention to that 06:18 and you continue to wear and tear, 06:19 that's when they go on 06:21 to need surgery and larger things. 06:22 Right. 06:24 Now you've mentioned something about 06:25 finding the right kind of shoe and good support. 06:28 Yeah. What does that mean? 06:29 What does that look like, shoe with good support? 06:31 Well, yeah, what does a good shoe look like? 06:33 Well, first of all, you wanna make sure 06:35 you're getting in the right size of shoe. 06:38 So you wanna measure your shoe, you know, 06:40 your shoe size in the evenings 06:41 'cause that's when your foot expands, 06:44 so measure your foot in the evening 06:45 as when your foot, 06:47 you wanna get shoes that are wide, 06:49 wide shoes so you have plenty of room, move your toys, 06:52 you actually wanna avoid heels if you can, 06:54 you know, this high heels shoes. 06:55 That puts pressure on different parts of the foot, 06:58 puts extra strain on different ligaments 07:01 that you don't really need. 07:03 You want to try to avoid pointy shoes, 07:05 you know, they squish all your toes together. 07:07 Toes together, right. 07:08 'Cause remember, we talked about 07:09 when the first toe squeezes the second toe, 07:11 it's a setup for bunions, don't want that. 07:15 You want, as you said, you want a roomy shoe with... 07:18 You want a stiff shoe 07:19 that doesn't have too much flexibility, 07:20 about the toe shift and you wanna have support 07:23 that helps the planar structures. 07:25 We talked about what shoes to avoid, we wanna avoid flats. 07:29 There's no arch support there. 07:31 We wanna have some shoes that will allow air in, 07:34 allow your foot to breathe, you know, 07:37 if you think back, the original design, 07:39 do you think in the garden of Eden 07:41 that there were shoes? 07:42 No. 07:44 Do you think they went on bare foot? 07:45 Yeah, bare foot, obviously. 07:46 Yeah, they breathe and then when they, 07:48 after that they went to sandals, you know, 07:49 we didn't get all these, 07:50 I don't think fancy footwear for quite a few years, so... 07:53 Now do you think, back in those times, 07:55 that they were using their feet as intended 07:57 and they were up on their feet more? 07:59 And so that benefited their feet. 08:01 Yes, I think that the original plan was to be up 08:03 and moving and exercise our feet, 08:05 I'm sure they didn't have 08:07 some of these chronic weight issues 08:08 that we have now today. 08:10 They weren't sitting all day, the things they weren't doing, 08:13 so their feet were probably better, overall shape... 08:16 To deal with the complexities of life. 08:20 So because of the lifestyle we have now, 08:22 we're rather sedentarian, 08:23 we're not up working on our feet a lot, 08:25 our feet can't handle being barefoot, 08:27 we need that support, a lot of us. 08:28 I think that's a good support and, you know, 08:30 you remember she said, cushioning in the shoes, 08:32 especially for arch support was a very important thing 08:35 and I think another thing that's helpful for feet 08:37 is having some traction on the bottom of the shoe, 08:40 you know, so you're not sliding a lot. 08:42 Yeah. 08:43 Now those are just some general things to look for 08:45 when you're buying a shoe but how many people 08:46 when they look for a shoe, 08:48 they don't think about the foot health, they think, 08:49 let me pick some that looks good. 08:51 Let me get the color right. 08:52 Yeah, let me look good but how about this, 08:54 whatever is the coolest shoe out there... 08:55 Right, that's right, yeah. 08:56 Whether it's a good shoe or not, 08:58 I'm gonna get that shoe because it's a cool shoe, 08:59 you know, I'm gonna get this 'cause this is what expecting, 09:01 it makes me look good but I would tell you 09:03 over the long haul, day in, day out, 09:06 if you put pressure on your feet, 09:08 that shouldn't be there and sort of, 09:09 going against the original design, 09:11 our foot was never designed to be cramped, 09:14 it was never designed to have all this stuff 09:16 we're doing to it, over a long period of time, 09:18 it puts trauma, damages the foot, 09:21 the foot has long term problems. 09:22 What about people that have a flatfoot? 09:24 Is there a flat shoe with no arches? 09:27 Is that okay for them? 09:29 Well, there is a condition known as flatfeet, you know, 09:30 where people have flatfeet, 09:31 they end up getting arch support, 09:33 to support their arch, so they do better. 09:36 And, you know, we do that some great technology now, 09:38 where we can get special shoes, that breathe easier 09:41 you know, the diabetics have special shoes 09:43 and I recommend them getting those shoes, 09:46 makes it less likely get a small crack 09:49 in their foot or whatever but I think 09:51 everyone needs to just pay attention 09:53 to their feet 09:55 and give it a little bit more care 09:56 and prevent some of these problems 09:58 that we're talking about. 09:59 I know, when I was doing some training, 10:01 I starting to run, I learned pretty quickly that 10:04 I need to start in small increments 10:06 and build up slowly, 10:07 otherwise my feet just couldn't handle it. 10:08 Right, and your feet, 10:10 remember your feet have muscles and ligaments 10:11 so they have to get stronger too 10:13 and the blood supply has to keep up with the demands 10:15 you put on your feet, feet are lot more complicated 10:18 and, you know, in our opening you said, 10:20 52 bones... 10:21 That's a lot of bones and if you think about it, 10:23 bones are bones, no matter where they're at. 10:26 So bones need to be strong with, you know, calcium 10:28 and there's a certain amount of things 10:30 you do to keep the bones strong, 10:31 we've talked about that, before you move the bones, 10:33 your water, vitamin D, you hydrate yourself, 10:36 get lots of calcium, 10:38 lots of those electrolytes that do it, 10:39 keep the blood supply to the bone healthy 10:42 and keep working the bone. 10:43 And I think that's one of the big things is, 10:45 we don't work our bones like our ancestors did. 10:48 Right. 10:49 And because of that, 10:50 we're seeing more chronic disease. 10:52 Yeah, we got another viewer 10:53 that writes in with the question, 10:54 they ask, what are the options for toe nail fungus? 10:57 You know, Nick, 10:58 that is probably the number one all time question 11:01 that comes in to Heartwise Ministries. 11:03 It's a big problem, huh. 11:05 Toe nail fungus, yeah, 11:06 no one likes to look down into a toe and see a fungus. 11:09 Right. 11:10 And unfortunately, you know, 11:11 this is sort of a two part answer, you know, 11:14 and there is a lot of different home remedies 11:17 that have been used, you know, 11:18 I've heard things from Vicks vaporub, 11:21 wrapping it in that to some anti fungus medicines in that, 11:26 the party line is that most of podiatrists recommend 11:29 a short course of antifungal medication. 11:31 Okay. 11:33 Now the antifungal medications can hurt the liver, 11:36 so they have to monitor the liver. 11:38 And at the same time, if you get rid of the fungus, 11:40 you have to get rid of the cause of the fungus, 11:43 so you have to make sure you're not passing fungus 11:45 from shoe to shoe and they usually recommend 11:47 some ultraviolet lighting that they can put in, 11:50 that will kill fungus in the shoes. 11:51 Okay. 11:53 Recommend different shoes, different changing of the, 11:57 whatever sock type wear you're doing 11:59 and also keeping the feet fairly dry, 12:02 so in addition to give the medicine, 12:04 they recommend those things as well. 12:06 There is some other home remedies, 12:08 I'm not sure, they've never had scientific studies 12:10 that show they help well but it's a big problem. 12:13 Now, the problem is if one toe nail is infected, 12:16 the fungus can jump to another toe nail. 12:19 Now another thing you can always do 12:20 is have the whole toe nail and the toe bed removed as well 12:23 and that's an option as well, 12:25 but this is a big problem but right now, 12:27 they're using medicines for a short period of time, 12:30 that's monitored closely then getting rid of the cause 12:32 of the fungal infection, 12:34 otherwise you take the medicine and guess what? 12:36 The fungus come back. 12:37 Yeah, you know, Dr. Haag actually mentioned 12:39 one other thing to me 12:40 that didn't make it into the video, 12:41 if you wear socks that are just white cotton socks, 12:43 that don't have a dye in them, that sometimes can help 12:45 'cause sometimes the dye can interact with the foot 12:48 and make your feet sweatier. 12:50 It's like a little bit of problem itself. 12:51 Yeah, and feet really aren't made to retain sweat. 12:54 'Cause when it retains moisture, you know, 12:56 that's where bugs like to live and things like to grow 12:59 and this little things like that and just, you know, 13:01 simple things as making sure 13:03 your toe nails are cut correctly. 13:04 That's a very important thing as well. 13:06 And that queues our next question here, 13:07 is surgery usually recommended for an ingrown toe nail? 13:10 Well, everyone handles ingrown toe nails differently 13:13 and I've had friends that will try to plough their nail out 13:17 and do everything they can 13:18 but, you know, you're in trouble 13:20 when it gets infected 13:21 and it hurts a lot of lot, but I say, you normally, 13:24 they can do some things that, you know, 13:25 to get it taking care of by podiatrist, 13:28 then get them to teach you how to cut the nail correctly, 13:31 but I would go to podiatrist for that 13:33 'cause you could actually get an infection of the toe 13:35 if you don't get that taking care of well. 13:37 Yeah, and that can be a really sensitive area too, 13:39 if you get an ingrown toe nail and it's infected, 13:41 it hurts a lot. 13:43 It hurts a lot and then makes it 13:44 that much, you know, 13:45 if you cut it right and get the, you know, 13:47 they put some medicine on it 13:48 that helps it from curling under it, 13:50 that's a thing to do. 13:51 Yeah, well, Dr. Marcum, thank you for all the advice 13:53 and thoughts on foot pain. 13:55 My pleasure and the big take home point is, 13:57 you know, try to take care of your feet, you know, 14:00 get back to the original plan and when there's a problem, 14:02 get it taken care of as quick as you can 14:04 and try to keep the over all body healthy 14:07 that'll help keep the foot healthy as well. 14:09 Right, and we wanna invite you if you have questions, 14:11 visit Heartwiseministries.org 14:14 where you can ask and get answers 14:15 for your health questions 14:17 and also put your prayer requests on there 14:18 and we'll pray for you every week, 14:20 we'll be back in just a moment. 14:31 We have been talking about the feet 14:35 and what are the take home points we must remember today, 14:38 well, I think from listening to the program, 14:40 you'd have to say, we have to have good shoes. 14:44 Shoes that take care of our feet 14:46 and we have to spend more time on choosing those shoes 14:50 and don't worry about 14:51 if it costs a little extra money, 14:53 it's better to have your feet feeling well 14:55 than have the latest in fashion. 14:57 Another important thing 14:59 is keep your entire body healthy, 15:01 this will also help keep your feet 15:03 the healthiest they can be, no one likes chronic pain 15:07 and if your feet are hurting all the time, 15:09 even though it might not be an immediate danger to you, 15:12 you need to see about getting that checked out, 15:15 the doctor that does that is a podiatrist. 15:18 I wanna pray with you today. 15:20 Father God, please be with us as we care for our bodies, 15:23 we hope that no one has pain 15:25 and just keep us in your love is our prayer. 15:28 Amen. 15:29 Please join us again, check our website out, 15:32 that's Heartwiseministries.org, wishing you the best of health. |
Revised 2016-11-28