AGEING FEET

As you age, your feet tend to unfold and lose the fatty pads that cushion the bottom of your foot. If you’re sporting greater weight, the bones and ligaments take an extra beating. Also, any abnormalities which you have been born with can emerge as more painful as your foot joints lose their flexibility and grow to be more rigid with age. Poorly fitting shoes make foot troubles worsen. The skin of your foot additionally becomes drier with age, in order that infections can arise effortlessly. Other reasons are as follows:

1. Bunions are deformities of the foot and may be an inherited trait but may additionally result from a few years of friction due to ill-fitting shoes. Flat toes, gout, and arthritis also increase your risk of developing a bunion.
2. Corns and Calluses result from friction due to poorly fitted footwear or socks or from feet rubbing in opposition to shoes. Calluses are just like corns, however they are located on the ball or heel of your foot.
3. Hammertoes are due to abnormal tension inside the muscular tissues and tendons across the toe joints, causing them to buckle or flex. Eventually the joint becomes rigid.
4. Toenail problems are due to inherited abnormalities, incorrect trimming of nails, damage to the toe, infection, or friction from poorly fitted shoes. Abnormally thick, cracked, and yellowing toenails may be because of fungal infections, friction from footwear, accidents, or conditions inclusive of diabetes or psoriasis.
5. Diabetic foot problems can give rise to decreased sensation on your toes from diabetes, making it tough to recognize that your foot is injured. Also, blood flow on your toes is impaired in diabetes, so infections may be tougher to combat off.
6. Arthritic foot problems such as osteoarthritis, gout, and rheumatoid arthritis are some situations that can give rise to extreme foot pain.
7. Heel pain along with plantar fascitis may be resulting from poor foot mechanics, such as an excessively flattened or overly arched foot. In both cases, the fascia—a ligament jogging along the bottom of your foot—may additionally grow to be painful. Painful heel spurs are small bone growths that appear while the ligament strolling alongside your foot tugs repeatedly at the heel bone.
8. Arch Problems. These include flat feet and an abnormally excessive arch (claw foot or hollow foot) may be due to an Achilles tendon (the vertical tendon behind the ankle) that is both too tight and too free. These situations are commonly inherited, however flat toes might also increase after years of wearing high-heeled shoes.
9. Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome. A nerve called the posterior tibialis nerve can also get trapped, inflicting inflammation and painful symptoms. This condition is called Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome.
10. Achilles Tendonitis. If you’re overweight, you could develop Achilles tendonitis from years of more stress on the tendon. It is also associated with a shortened Achilles tendon or from wearing excessively-heeled footwear. Sudden, severe Achilles tendonitis or even a ruptured Achilles tendon may additionally arise as an effect of antibiotics such as levofloxacin or ciprofloxacin.
11. Morton’s Neuroma. In this condition, thickened tissue wraps around the nerves that affects your toes. It is generally because of overly tight shoes, arthritis, injury, or malformed bones. The end result is nerve compression and ache.

Your podiatrist or other trained healthcare expert will assess your feet based totally on:

• Your medical records, which includes your family history for foot troubles, arthritis, diabetes, or different associated conditions
• Facts about your foot problem, consisting of severity, whilst it started, how long it has lasted
• Your way of life and physical activities
• An evaluation of your medicinal drugs
• A physical exam (blood circulation, skin condition, nerve function, bone structure)
• Your potential to face, stroll, and stability
• X-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scans if needed
• Doppler to take a look at blood flow
• Tuning fork to take a look at nerve sensitivity.