continuing education

What skin condiitons affect the feet?

Skin disorders will affect the foot exactly like on the skin anyplace on our bodies could be afflicted. Nonetheless, there are a number of different things about the feet that impacts skin conditions. To begin with, there are numerous skin problems that are unique on the foot and secondly, you will find the more general skin conditions which appear to be different when they affect the feet. The actual cause of this distinctiveness will be the skin on the feet are put into the dark and humid ecosystem of the shoe as well as the feet are subjected to considerably more injury from shoe pressure and injuries as compared to other areas of the body. Consequently skin problems that affect the foot have some distinctive challenges.

Some of the exclusive issues that affect the feet locally are corns and calluses. These are generally due to a lot of pressure on the affected regions of the foot coming from tight fitting shoes or as a result of foot deformities like hallux valgus and mallet toes. The assistance of a skilful podiatrist can often be essential in helping reduce these kinds of problems. Fungal infections of the epidermis and nails are likewise very common. The bugs which causes these grows fastest in darkish and also damp environments, which is the actual ecosystem that you can find inside shoes. The using of shoes predisposes to these conditions and for that reason trying to deal with these problems can sometimes be a up hill battle because you are trying to get rid of a fungus that likes the climate that it is in. Going barefoot with greater regularity may be needed to help these types of disorders as well as the typical treatments may be needed when it doesn't respond to treatment. Blisters are also a common skin complaint that affects the feet. This could be a footwear fitting matter in addition to higher levels of sports activity or walking quite a bit in brand new shoes.

Some other skin complaints which affect the rest of the body, get transformed with the standing and walking of the feet and the pressure from the shoes. This tends to have an affect on both the diagnosing the issue as well as the treatments for the condition. By way of example, the warts or verrucae that frequently affect the hands and fingers also frequently affect the foot, but they cause a diagnosis difficulty since the strain from standing and walking and the shoes alters the look of the wart. Skin psoriasis is a frequent skin disease which the sweating of the feet inside the shoes can alter the look of that skin disorder so that it is harder to diagnose and it could come to be mistaken for a tinea. The poorer blood flow which the foot has when compared to other parts of the body can also affect the nature of different skin problems which affect the rest of the body.

Most of these considerations ended up reviewed in detail in a newly released show of the podiatry relevant live stream, PodChatLive where the hosts of the live stream had a discussion with the podiatrist, Ivan Bristow. He is generally considered as a specialist in the dermatology in the feet and he is widely published in this area along with lecturing internationally.

What is PodChatLive?

PodChatLive is a regular monthly online livestream discussion for podiatrists and others involved in the subject which is streamed live on Facebook and it's also available later as a replay on YouTube, the website and the common podcast platforms such as iTunes and Spotify for the audio version. In each show both hosts have on a number of guests and discuss a variety of issues of relevance to podiatrists and the lower leg. Through the livestream, questions may be asked by those viewing during real time and the hosts and guests respond to them. The livestream has gathered an extensive following and is very popular in the podiatry profession.

The hosts of PodChatLive are Ian Griffiths and Craig Payne, both podiatrists. The show commenced one night when Craig was visiting Ian and they went live from Ian’s lounge to have a chat live on Facebook about whatever came up. It was later on named PodChatLive when they noticed that it proved helpful and they were getting a following. Craig is located in Melbourne and he admins the discussion forum, Podiatry Arena and runs the online courses for the Clinical Biomechanics Bootcamp. Ian is a sports podiatrist in London. The livestream did start off as a weekly broadcast, but as it is not monetized, it was just too much work for the hosts to keep it up, so following the first year it was changed to a monthly livestream.

Sometimes the discussion is about clinical topics such as types of foot problems, other times it talks about business issues like social media advertising. In other episodes the guest is someone famous inside the podiatry profession and so they focus on a wide range of issues with the guest. Some episodes are much more popular than the others and at times the hosts get amazed just how popular some shows are as they weren't always anticipating that episode to be as popular as what it was.

Why Podiatrists try to get the right dosing of foot orthotics

The thought of foot orthotic dosing may be having some more awareness in recent times. It is actually in line with the analogy of drugs dose. Everybody who may be on a unique drug or medicine for any medical problem really should on paper be on a specific dosage or amount of that medication. The same needs to be the situation pertaining to foot supports. A unique “dose” of foot orthoses should be applied. Too often foot orthoses are all given the similar dosage of foot supports, especially in clinical studies or research. An episode of the monthly podiatry livestream, PodChatLive  addressed this concern. The hosts of that episode chatted with Simon Spooner in order to focus on some of the constraints of foot orthotics analysis in accordance with the principle. They brought up the way in which clinicians ought to be watching all results from research made in the context of the constraints. They reviewed about what “perfect” foot orthotic research may look like, the points we might need to ‘measure’ and also the apparent discussion between the lab and the clinic. Even more importantly they described what ‘dosing’ is, and the way it may also help us resolve concerns that are at present left unanswered.

Dr Simon Spooner graduated as a Podiatrist in 1991 graduating from the University of Brighton in the UK, and in addition to his BSc in Podiatry, he had been given the Paul Shenton award for his research into callus. Then he continued to finish his PhD in Podiatry from the University of Leicester in 1997, in which he studied the reasons and therapy for inherited foot problems. Simon is now the Director of Podiatry at Peninsula Podiatry. His practice expertise include exercise medicine, foot orthotics, and paediatric and adult foot and gait disorder. Along with his own clinical practice, he has published many research papers on podiatry issues and has delivered lectures at both national and international conventions, and furnished postgraduate education for several National Health Service Trusts.