EP #8: Sidestepping Foot Injuries: Your Guide to Pain-Free Feet

Ever found yourself hobbling around after a seemingly innocent jog, wondering why your foot feels like it's plotting against you? It's time to unravel the mysteries of common foot injuries with me, Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff, and my co-host Jeremy Wolf. On today's LMD Podiatry Podcast, we're not just talking about the occasional stubbed toe; we're delving into the nitty-gritty of sprains, stress fractures, and the dreaded tendonitis. Get ready to learn how your everyday activities could be setting the stage for a foot faux pas and, more importantly, how to sidestep these pitfalls for a pain-free stride into the new year.

This episode is your ultimate guide to understanding and preventing those pesky podiatric pains that can come from both high-impact sports and simple daily motions. We'll break down the difference between injuries resulting from repetitive abuse versus sudden, unfortunate encounters with gravity. Plus, we'll share our expert insights on the importance of building a solid foundation through stretching and strength training to keep you dancing through life without missing a beat. So, slip on your comfiest headphones (sorry, we don't do shoe fittings here!) and join us for a journey to happier, healthier feet.

To learn more, visit: LMDpodiatry.com or contact (954) 680-7133

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the LMD podiatry podcast. Trust us to get back on your feet. Here's your host, Dr Lauren Devakarov.

Jeremy: 0:14

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the LMD podiatry podcast. I'm your cohost, Jeremy Wolfe, joined by your host, dr Lauren. Dr Lauren, so nice to see you again.

Dr. Lauren: 0:26

Nice to see you too, Jeremy.

Jeremy: 0:27

Yeah, I don't think we've spoken since the New Year. So happy New Year to you and happy New Year, sure, you're ready for a bright and prosperous 2024.

Dr. Lauren: 0:36

Yes, I'm very excited Hoping it starts on the right foot.

Jeremy: 0:43

Pun intended. Oh, and thanks to our listeners for tuning in. So, as you know, it's like I feel like I'm on a journey here, like my running journey just continues. I'm still running, I'm still out there. Thankfully, I have been fortunate to not have too many serious foot injury injuries from my my newfound activities. But I thought we could get into some common types of foot industry industries. Foot injuries that folks get you know everything from like stress fractures to sprains. So why don't you start off with that, and then we shall proceed from there?

Dr. Lauren: 1:20

So you know, foot pain in general is a big thing. That's like probably the number one thing that brings patients walking through my door because nobody likes pain, nobody looks like pain in their foot because they need their feet to walk. So when you have an injury there's like so many different injuries A person can get anywhere, from like a toe sprain, a foot sprain, an ankle sprain. You can get a tendon itis. You can get partial tear of either a tendon or a ligament. You know ligaments hold together bones to bones, tendons hold muscle to bone together and a lot of time people play pickleball or, you know, basketball. They get all of these different types of injuries and there's many, many different approaches to healing it and there's also a lot of factors that play into the healing process of injuries in general.

Jeremy: 2:21

What are some of the most common? Let's just touch maybe on some of the more common injuries that folks get maybe, like I'd imagine, sprains and maybe stress fractures are, to maybe get into those in a little bit more detail what they, what they are, what's going on there and some good ways to prevent the treatment the most common thing.

Dr. Lauren: 2:39

The most common sprain I see is an ankle sprain, like someone plays basketball, lands on their foot, rolls it out and then they get you know it's called the lateral ankle sprain, sprain on the outside of your ankle, so that's pretty common. A lot of people, like most patients, have it, so that's a pretty common sprain. As far as like running injuries or other sports injuries, like if you're, if it's a sport that's very repetitive, like running or tennis, so you can get, like you know, a tendonitis, like your tendon is always inflamed and tight. So those are like, those are injuries that are more repetitive sports. And then there's like direct trauma, like you fall, you fell or you tripped. You know it's a little bit different, different types of injuries.

Jeremy: 3:33

Yeah, so I guess the ones that come from more repetitive motions, the ones that aren't quite as traumatic. There's clearly a lot of things you can do to prevent those types of injuries from occurring in the first place. Maybe touch upon some of the things I know we've talked about stretching, obviously. Strength training is a big part of that, right, right?

Dr. Lauren: 3:52

It is definitely. There's a lot of ways to prevent injuries from happening.

Jeremy: 3:58

yet yeah, many things that I'll be the first to say that I don't do enough of. So I think it's probably why I've been prone to injury in my life, because I don't do a lot of the preventative side. So I really need to do that more, for sure. So what is a stress fracture?

Dr. Lauren: 4:16

for those that don't know, A stress fracture is also in the category of repetitive motion. So like, for example, it's really common to get a stress fracture in your metatarsal, which is the long bone of your foot, especially in runners, like they are pounding the pavement with the same motion over and over and over again, and sometimes you know if they just they're not wearing the right shoes or they're, you know, running on concrete versus asphalt asphalt's actually softer For example, like they can get that stress fracture. Basically, it's like the bone breaks in on itself. So it's not like it's not a break, it's a stress fracture. Like the bone is trying to break but it's not, and that's a stress fracture. I think that's the best way that I could kind of-.

Jeremy: 5:16

Is that the same as a hairline fracture? Is that the same thing?

Dr. Lauren: 5:18

It's similar to a hairline fracture. Yeah, it's like you know, if you just keep using you know, breaking the bone in the same spot or putting pressure on the bone in the same spot over and over and over again, you get a stress fracture which is a hairline fracture, like it doesn't actually break, like the two pieces of bone don't actually separate, but there is. The bone is not whole and it's really hard to pick up on X-ray and you know, usually it's diagnosed with an MRI pretty much. But that does happen from more, from repetitive running and sports and things like that, like track and field and tennis and pickleball and all that kind of stuff.

Jeremy: 6:05

So here's a question for you that I have, as somebody that has been running a lot Balancing rest and activity like recovery periods should you be doing I mean, I guess there's a lot of other factors that go into this, though, but like, oh, it's just for me, 44 year old man started running. Should I be out there like running five, six days a week, or is that no good? Should I do like three days on and one off, like, how should I implement and incorporate rest and recovery into that?

Dr. Lauren: 6:34

I mean, you know when you go to the gym, right. If you haven't gone to the gym for a while, what happened? Like your muscles start aching.

Dr. Lauren: 6:43

You have all the crushed yeah, so it's the same thing with the foot. Like you can, you can run every day. You just have to kind of Be cognizant and mindful about the environment, like what are you running on? What shoes are you running in? Are you protecting your feet and your toes? Are you stretching Before and after you know? If you feel like your foot's a little bit sore, did you ice it right away, right after?

Speaker 1: 7:15

the run.

Dr. Lauren: 7:16

You know what I mean. So some people, just like a lot of people, don't replenish their electrolytes and don't drink enough water, and then you know they're more prone to. You know these injuries and things like that, like muscle strains, and you know Pull. You know muscle pulls, muscle strains, which it can happen in your foot and your leg as well. Like people get sense. You know what shin splints are.

Jeremy: 7:40

I've heard shin splint many, many times, but I'd be hard-pressed to give you an actual explanation.

Dr. Lauren: 7:45

So you know, it's when the front part of the lower leg hurts when you walk and run and it's mostly because you're wearing the wrong shoe and you're not stretching or you might have an abnormal foot type that creates that abnormal tug-and-pull when you are doing more heavier activities.

Jeremy: 8:09

Now, that makes sense.

Dr. Lauren: 8:10

So it almost feels like the front of your leg is exploding. That's what it feels like feels like it's what exploding.

Jeremy: 8:17

Yeah that's no good.

Dr. Lauren: 8:20

No, it feels like height and like you can't keep walking. So you know the best way to fix that is, you know, stretching and an orthotic, because the foot does crave a lot more support than people think.

Jeremy: 8:36

Yeah, or unless you're David Goggins, in which case the best way to fix that is just to keep running until you fall over.

Dr. Lauren: 8:42

Yeah, let's not be him.

Jeremy: 8:46

Truly a beast that man is for sure.

Dr. Lauren: 8:51

So, yeah, I think there, you know a lot of runners and athletes they also there's, you know, you tape, you can tape your foot Like. A lot of people use kinesio tape and things like that, and I do show that in my office. I teach patients how to tape their foot Before the run so that what the what the taping does is it helps the muscles and tendons move better, like it's really in. You know, it's not better, it's it helps it go in the right direction and that's kind of how kinesio tape works. So there's kinesio tape, there's, you know, ankle and foot scrappings and toes Grappings and all the kind of stuff that I do teach patients in the office and it makes for a better workout, for a better run. I mean, you even see it in dancers how they tape their toes and things like that.

Jeremy: 9:46

Yeah, I imagine when the toes are, when the toes are restricted from moving all over the place, there's gonna be less friction, there's gonna be less propensity for them to kind of get blisters and rub up like, for if someone has like arthritis in their big toe Right and they want to run but there's no motion there.

Dr. Lauren: 10:02

So I teach patients you know how to tape it so that they take Less pressure. They take more pressure off that joint so that they don't have pain when they do run, which I could mimic in a custom orthotic, for example.

Jeremy: 10:16

Okay, a lot of different topics, obviously a lot of injuries, and I think we kind of gave a broad overview of a few of them.

Dr. Lauren: 10:23

Yeah, there's, it's spraying, you know you're. The major injuries are sprains, strains, muscle, uh, spraying strains, tendonitis fractures, stress fractures those are like the main injuries that that happened.

Jeremy: 10:41

Yeah. So I think again we kind of touched on you know these topics and a really kind of basic overview. Maybe it would make sense in some future segments to do to really hone in on each specific type of injury and ailment and really kind of dig deeper and give listeners you know a little bit more information on everything. But are there any other Types of injuries that you wanted to touch upon before we wrapped up here?

Dr. Lauren: 11:09

No, not specifically, but I will say this the reason why I brought up Injuries as a topic today in general is the number one thing that patients do wrong when they do have an injury is they keep walking on it and they think they can walk it off. It's very important to come, go and see you, go to an urgent care, or your local actress, me and you. It's very important when you do have a sprain or a strain or anything, or a fracture, to immobilize Right away, because the sooner you force your foot, an ankle, to rest in the correct position, the faster it heals. And then, when you don't let it heal correctly, you end up with chronic Issues, chronic scar tissue and things like that. And then you guys end up here with chronic pain. And I'm just this is just an inform for information, so you guys will prevent that from ever happening. Like, don't just walk it off, don't just brush it under the rug. You have pain, it's telling you something, you want to fix it before it gets bad or worse.

Jeremy: 12:23

That just made me think about David Goggins again. I just heard I just heard a podcast of them. He was talking about how he was in a whatever Ultramarathon and he had stress, stress, fractures in his legs and the pain was unbearable and he just he worked his way through it and he self through Continuing to go harder, and harder, and harder, which is just like so counterintuitive and it's probably not something that that is made for everybody to do, and I'm sure that fast forward 10, 15 years, no, he's gonna have a lot of problems.

Dr. Lauren: 12:54

You know I don't want to say anything, but listen ballet dancers. They work through it and they tape it and you know there's ways to get around it. But in the end of the day your body just wants you to rest and you got to let it, because if you don't let it it's not gonna get better.

Jeremy: 13:09

No, makes a whole lot of sense. All right, cool, dr Lauren. Always a pleasure your wealth of knowledge. Thank you for sharing your tips and insights for our listeners and to our listeners. Thanks for tuning in and we will catch you all next time. Everyone, have a wonderful day and take care.

Speaker 1: 13:32

Thank you for listening to the LMD podiatry podcast. For more information, visit LMD podiatrycom. That's LMD podiatrycom, lmd podiatrycom, or call 954-680-7133.