How Your Foot Health Directly Affects Your Overall Health

 It can be a struggle to stay healthy, with Americans dealing with a range of infections, diseases, allergies, and mental health illnesses. Amongst the most common are problems with respiratory ailments, hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), weight problems, hypertension (high blood pressure), type 2 diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 

Physical injuries are also widespread, leading to millions of trips to the ER and your doctor each year. Injuries in one area often create issues in other body parts and endanger overall health. Foot conditions are a good example; we frequently think of these problems in isolation, but when injured, they can lead to issues throughout the body if not taken care of.

For people with foot problems in the Fort Worth and Weatherford, Texas, area, Drs. Glen Beede and Gregory Jaryga and their dedicated staff at Trinity Foot & Ankle Specialists are here to help.

Types of foot conditions

Foot problems occur in one or more categories:

Infections

Since your feet are in shoes all day, they spend ample time in the perfect environment for bacteria and fungi to develop. Infections include illnesses like athlete’s foot (tinea pedis) and ingrown toenails.

Physical damage

Problems can result from impact injuries that damage the feet or wear and tear issues from wearing ill-fitting shoes or high heels. These can cause corns, blisters, calluses, hammertoes, and bunions.

Diseases

Conditions not directly related to your feet can lead to problems over time, such as nerve damage from diabetes, gout, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. These conditions can lead to such problems as claw toe, metatarsalgia, and heel spurs.

Deformities

Foot structural problems can develop at birth or form over time. Examples include flat feet and high arches, which can cause Achilles tendinitis, plantar fasciitis, and metatarsalgia.

Their effect on your general health

Understanding how these foot ailments affect the rest of your body requires knowing more about biomechanics, which focuses on movement mechanics. Running, for example, requires a set of movements, but running and performing other actions while playing sports is more involved and needs more coordination in your body.

So much of everything we do, whether standing up or not, relies on our feet. Foot conditions compromise basic actions and lead to posture, balance, knee, hip, and back pain and mobility problems. Without treatment, these problems become chronic and make it harder for you to move around normally.

Treating your feet before problems worsen is the best option to prevent dangers to your overall health. We offer many services to care for your feet, including exercises, orthotics, braces, splints, medications, and surgery. You need your feet every day, and to prevent ailments there from becoming a problem for the rest of your body, make an appointment with Drs. Beede, Jaryga, and Trinity Foot & Ankle Specialists today.