Proper Hydration Aids Feet and Ankles
Drinking the right amount of water provides whole-body benefits. Let’s break down what it does for your feet and ankles specifically.
Take gout, for instance. Purines found in human cells and many foods are broken down in the body to form uric acid, an excessive amount of which can lead to its crystallization in the joints, especially the big toe. Dagger-like shards stoke extreme pain and inflammation that can linger for weeks. Drinking plenty of water, however, dilutes the uric acid in the bloodstream and aids the kidneys in flushing it from the body more efficiently.
Circulation issues are a common complication of diabetes. Proper hydration helps facilitate healthy blood flow throughout the body to avoid problems brought on by poor circulation.
Foot and calf cramps can be torture. Drinking the proper amount of water goes a long way in minimizing cramps and keeping our speech wholesome.
Proper fluid intake also lowers your risk of swelling (edema) in the feet and ankles. Sounds counterintuitive, but sufficient hydration helps prevent water pooling in the body’s lower regions. Want to avoid painful heel cracks and splitting, brittle toenails? Water is a great antidote.
Much of the body’s water supply is stored in tendons, ligaments, and collagen fibers. Aging, poor diet, and lack of water make us more vulnerable to injury and inflammation … and possibly chronic pain.
Drinking more water at meal time can make us full more quickly, enabling us to maintain or shed weight. In turn, your feet will thank you for easing the stress on your foundation.
Proper hydration is always important, even more so over the summer. It can do wonders for your feet and ankles!
Foot Punctures Require Special Attention
Over the summer, plenty of people ditch their shoes and go barefoot. That makes podiatrists nervous, as the risk of puncture wounds soars.
Puncture wounds can appear fairly innocent compared to lacerations. They have a small entry hole created by a sharp object, often don’t bleed much, and sometimes appear to close up. But don’t let looks deceive you; they are a major threat of infection and sometimes penetrate more deeply than first suspected.
In addition to dirt/rust/bacteria being delivered to the wound from nails, needles, toothpicks, bits of glass, seashells, pebbles, and so forth, tiny pieces of those same objects, plus skin, sock, or shoe, may be embedded in the wound.
Unfortunately, many people underestimate puncture wounds and neglect adequate treatment. Get a foot puncture checked out immediately. If our office is open, give us a call. If it’s after hours, head to an urgent-care clinic or ER. Even if you do the latter, contact us within 24 hours for a thorough cleaning, extraction of debris, possible antibiotics prescription, and diligent follow-up care. Urgent-care clinic and ER medical personnel provide a valuable service, but they don’t have the training that podiatrists do in these matters.
Improper care can lead to an infection that might evolve into a bone or joint infection — an extremely serious matter. Signs of an infection include soreness, redness, warmth, possible drainage, swelling, and fever.
We know that some people will go barefoot in the summer. But “some” should never include those with poor circulation or diabetics with peripheral neuropathy; for them, infection and amputation are too intimately linked.
If you suffer a puncture wound of the foot, contact our office for expert care.
Running at the Beach
For many beach vacationers, workouts with an ocean view, such as beach running, are on the agenda. But take heed of the following.
Running on sand requires more exertion than other typical running surfaces — studies have shown up to 1.6 times more energy is expended. More muscles are put to work, which means you might experience soreness afterward that you haven’t felt before. To counter that, cut back on your normal mileage to avoid excessive stress not only on muscles, but on ligaments and tendons, too.
Run at low tide, as close to the water as possible without splashing, as the sand is packed (but still soft) and provides improved stability. Unpacked sand away from the water’s edge is more of a menace for strains, sprains, and even fractures.
The shoreline is on a natural slant, which places extra stress on the pelvis as it adjusts for leg-length discrepancy with each stride. In turn, there’s a chain reaction of added pressure on the back, hips, knees, ankles, and feet. If you plan to run along the water’s edge, run an equal distance in both directions (an out and back) so that both sides of your body share the burden of the tilted landscape.
Wear running shoes, too. They provide support for your arches, heels, and ankles as well as protection from broken seashells, rocks, debris, jellyfish stings, etc.
If your beach trip wasn’t a vacation for your feet or ankles, contact our office to make things right.
tment at our office to find relief.
Mark Your Calendars
July 3 — Wimbledon Championships begin: Longest match — 11 hrs. 5 minutes, 2010, John Isner vs. Nicolas Mahut.
July 4 — Independence Day: Only John Hancock and Charles Thompson signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The other delegates signed later.
July 7 — Chocolate Day: 70% of the world’s cocoa comes from small family farms in West Africa.
July 14 — Shark Awareness Day: Sharks are over 425 million years old and have survived five mass-extinction events.
July 16 — National Ice Cream Day: Hawaiian Punch originated as an ice cream topping.
July 22 — Hammock Day: The Mayans invented hammocks, originally woven from the bark of hamack trees.
July 29 — Lasagna Day: Originally, the word lasagna referred to the pot in which the food was cooked.
Ice Cream … Good for You?
July is National Ice Cream Month, and the recognition is well-deserved. Mouthwatering ice cream spurs outbreaks of happiness but will never be regarded as a staple of a healthy diet due to its high saturated fat and sugar content.
However, ice cream has confounded researchers over the decades with regard to its possible health benefits — a subject they’ve been hesitant to talk about. The May 2023 issue of the Atlantic brought up the story of a Harvard doctoral student who presented his research in 2018. One surprising result was that, among diabetics, eating half a cup of ice cream per day appeared to be linked with a lower risk of heart problems.
The medical and dietary research communities were perplexed. Surely something was overlooked or data was misinterpreted. But so far, nothing has uprooted the student’s findings.
This has not been the only ice cream study in which results have tormented researchers. Past studies seem to indicate some health benefits, too, such as lowering the risk of diabetes — news that was frequently placed on the back page, not mentioned at all, or cloaked by linguistic sleight of hand (e.g., referring to ice cream as a “dairy-based dessert” instead of “ice cream”).
We all know the case against ice cream when moderation is discarded. Here’s the case for ice cream when moderation is restored: It has calcium, protein, vitamins, and fat (we all need some fat); it’s middle of the pack on the glycemic index; and there appears to be other possible benefits as mentioned above.
There’s no need to completely avoid ice cream, and no reason to pull up the Brinks truck at the supermarket. Just meet at that sweet spot somewhere in the middle and enjoy!
This Month’s Recipe
Grilled Steak Pineapple Skewers
Servings: 4–6; prep time: 1 hr.; cook time: 20 min.; total time: 1 hr. 20 min.
Grilled steak skewers with pineapple — a healthy, filling, and flavorful dish.
Ingredients:
• 1 pound steak
• 1/4 cup pineapple cut into cubes
• 1/3 cup cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 red onion cut into thick cubes
• 1 yellow bell pepper cut into cubes
• 1 cup Italian parsley, rough chop
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1/2 cup cilantro, rough chop
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
Instructions:
1. Using wooden skewers, place the steak, tomatoes, red onion, pineapple, and bell pepper onto each skewer.
2. Place the olive oil, parsley, cilantro, garlic, vinegar, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes into a food processor, and blend until well mixed — this is the chimichurri sauce.
3. Pour half the chimichurri sauce over the skewers and marinade for 1 hour.
4. Grill the skewers for about 10 minutes on each side until the steak is cooked through.
5. Serve with the remaining chimichurri sauce on the side.
Recipe courtesy of thedomesticdietitian.com.