healthyfeet

Caring for children's feet

The bones in children's feet are not fully formed until around 12 - 14 years of age, so it's important that children's shoes fit properly to prevent the shoes damaging the feet. Feet should be measured and the length, width and depth of each foot assessed and the shoe selected to match these parameters.

Shoes, which are too small or too narrow, will cause the toes to curl and hurt, and shoes that are too large or wide will cause rub, blisters and increase tripping. Young children's feet in particular are very bendable and it is easy to unknowingly force on a shoe that is too small.

Healthy Steps on Diabetes

For many practitioners it is hard to imagine what it is like living with diabetes and why it is so hard to manage. From reading about the topic I found a great quote from a book by Robert Tattersall “Diabetes: The Biography”. One of his long standing Diabetic patients described diabetes as living with a tiger “If you look after it, and never turn your back on it, you can live with a tiger. If you neglect it, it will pounce on you and rip you to shreds”.

Diabetes (Greek word: Means Siphon or tube to drain fluid) has been around from a long period and was named by a Greek Physician Aretaeus which later on 100-175 (CE) had mellitus (Greek word: For honey) added to it combining to say sweet fluid. It wasn’t until the 19th century that tests could prove an excess amount of sugar in urine. Now in the 20th century we know a lot more about diabetes and the types there are however there is still more research to be done and one of the breakthrough’s in this century will be how education of the condition can be given to patients better to manage they’re condition and possible a cure for the damaged cells that cause the condition.

The next decade will see great changes in footwear

Casual, formal, running, walking, barefoot, minimalist and the biggest grossing category at the moment -toning. These are all the categories of footwear that will be influenced by new research investigating if people benefit from wearing shoes compared to being barefoot.

The barefoot vs. running shoe debate is constantly changing, but if one aspect stays the same it is the lack of consistent research to prove that either has positive or negative effects on the muscles of the foot. This is because it is hard to measure whether intrinsic muscles (muscles that begin and end in the foot) or extrinsic muscles (muscles that begin in the lower leg and finish in the foot) of the foot become weaker or stronger through wearing shoes or by being barefoot.