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What if flat feet were… normal? We debunk the myth about injuries

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For many a long time, if not centuries, researchers, doctors, and the general public have believed that folks with flat feet are more prone to various problems.

In particular, flat feet were thought to predispose to future pain and other musculoskeletal (i.e. muscles, tendons and/or ligaments) problems.

It was believed that flat feet were a sort of time bomb.

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However, in A latest editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, my research team debunks this myth. We show that the theory that flat feet inevitably result in pain or other musculoskeletal problems is unfounded.

As a researcher in podiatric medicine at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), I’ll explain here the primary findings of our study.

Where does this theory come from?

The concept that flat feet are an issue goes back centuries.

It was revived in the second half of the twentieth century by American podiatrists Merton L. Root, William P. Orien and John H. Weedwho popularized the concept of “ideal” or “normal” feet.

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These clinician-researchers were the first to propose that if feet didn’t meet certain criteria for normality (e.g., well-defined plantar arch, straight heel consistent with the tibia), they were abnormal, less efficient, and more prone to injury. injury on account of multiple biomechanical compensations, akin to greater flattening of the arch during walking.

This theory has grow to be a central element of health care skilled educational programs. Although today the theory is regularly disappearing as modern curricula are updated, the theory was taught around the world for nearly five a long time, although the scientific basis was weak. In fact, science has never confirmed this theory: it remained at the stage of hypothesis.

Nevertheless, over the years and as much as the present, many health care professionals have continued to support the theory that flat feet represent a significant risk for developing musculoskeletal diseases.

As a result, the idea continues to be firmly entrenched in the beliefs of the general public.

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Do flat feet cause musculoskeletal injuries?

Contrary to theory Root et alMeta-analyses, which represent the highest level of scientific evidence, have found no increased risk of developing the overwhelming majority of musculoskeletal injuries in individuals with flat feet.

These meta-analyses identified only weak associations between flat feet and the risk of medial tibial stress syndrome (pain in the shin bone), patellofemoral syndrome (pain around the kneecap), and nonspecific lower limb overuse injuries.

That’s it.

Moreover, a systematic review ia meta-analysis showed that runners with flat feet aren’t any more susceptible to injury than runners with normal feet.

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These analyzes call into query the idea that folks with flat feet are at significant risk of developing musculoskeletal diseases.

However, despite these findings, various sources akin to gray literatureskilled web sites, forums and other media often suggest that folks with flat feet are at higher risk of injury and even require treatment – even if they haven’t any symptoms.

Unfortunately, this often leads to the need for unnecessary interventions, akin to the use of orthopedic shoes or custom-made foot orthoses for asymptomatic flat feet. This also results in significant concerns amongst patients about the appearance of their feet.

Runners with flat feet aren’t any more in danger for injury than runners with regular feet.
(Shutterstock)

Equalizing the record

Asymptomatic flat feet generally don’t require intervention from medical personnel. Based on current scientific knowledge, assessing whether an individual has flat feet to find out risk of injury is ineffective and counterproductive.

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Although an individual with flat feet may experience a musculoskeletal injury, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the flat feet caused the injury.

It is sort of possible for 2 variables to occur concurrently with no causal relationship. There is a crucial difference between causation and correlation. A cause-and-effect relationship assumes that a change in a single variable (cause) results in a change in one other variable (effect). When two variables are correlated, changes in a single variable could also be related to changes in the other, but this doesn’t mean that one causes the other.

To illustrate this idea, let’s take the following example: We give 500 children between the ages of six and 12 the same math test. When conducting correlation tests, we notice an inclination: the larger the kid’s feet, the higher the final exam grade.

This begs the query, does foot size actually affect math skills? Of course not!

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Another variable that just isn’t taken under consideration plays a crucial role on this correlation, namely age. Since feet get larger with age, there may be a robust, yet spurious, correlation!

The same rule applies to flat feet. If an individual with flat feet develops a musculoskeletal injury, current research indicates that flat feet will not be necessarily the cause and that other aspects ought to be investigated.

The relationship is correlation, not cause and effect.

Reducing overdiagnosis in health care

Reducing overdiagnosis in healthcare has grow to be crucial. This phenomenon, defined as the diagnosis of a medical condition that has no net individual profit, represents a world burden and could have adversarial effects on patient health. Physical, psychological and financial well-being.

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From a financial standpoint, it is easy to grasp that prescribing custom-made foot orthotics costing a whole lot of dollars to stop musculoskeletal injuries related to asymptomatic flat feet has a big negative impact. This is particularly true considering that the presence of flat feet only barely increases the risk of those injuries.

To address this issue, health care providers must help reduce the overdiagnosis of flat feet by more clearly distinguishing for patients between harmless anatomical variants and conditions which may be of concern.

Since overdiagnosis often results in overtreatment, avoiding unnecessary procedures will help alleviate patients’ concerns about flat feet.

Finally, we want to desert the outdated, still common belief that flat feet are an issue that puts people at high risk of musculoskeletal injuries. It’s time to alter your perspective and approach to the importance of flat feet and recognize their natural diversity in the context of overall foot health.

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First of all, it is time to think about asymptomatic flat feet for what they’re… just an anatomical variant!

This article was originally published on : theconversation.com
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Health and Wellness

Why the quality of gait is important as it ages

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Walking is one of the most important things that we do for our quality of life. In fact, Research shows It contributes greater than another physical activity in how well we live overnight. Already one in three People over the age of 60 report some difficulties in walking.

With age, gradual changes in our bodies and health can change the way I walk, often without realizing. But the way we go, known as our gait pattern, is more important than we might sound. Poor gait not only makes walking harder and more tiring; It can result in joint deformation, instability and greater risk of falls.

Think about your walk like a heart rhythm. Like electrocardiogram (EKG) shows whether your heart works properly, your walk also has a rhythm. When this rhythm is turned off, it will be one of the earliest signs that you’ll not age as well as you’ll be able to.

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Thanks New technologyWe can now easier and thoroughly measure the quality of gait. One promising tool is Heel2toe wearing sensor. This small device attaches to the shoe and follows the movement of the ankle while walking, grabbing the series of gait in real time.



A healthy step begins with a heavy heel impact. Your weight moves on the sole of the foot, ending with pushing out of your toes. When the foot rises, it changes cleanly – without dragging or drawing. This smooth sequence creates a rhythm in the movement of the ankle, which, when it is coherent, resembles the type of “walking ECG”.

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But with time, Many individuals are unknowingly accepting Less efficient movement patterns. These modified gaits could appear normal, but they are sometimes unstable, tiring or dangerous.

The older man fell to the floor while walking
A weak gait can increase the risk of falls.
https://www.shtterstock.com/image-photo/asian-senior-palling-on-grund-2147078055

Weak gait reduces confidenceIt increases the risk of falling and might discourage people from walking in any respect. The less we walk, the weaker our muscles turn out to be – deterioration of the problem. This is a flawed cycle.

Giving as much as walk well

The excellent news is that we are able to Losing our gait.

The Heel2toe sensor not only monitors your movements – that is also Encourages higher walking. When he detects a superb step (the one which starts with a heavy heel impact), provides audio guidance as positive feedback. Over time, the following pointers help discover a stronger, more stable walking pattern. Good gait becomes your latest norm. Tools such as Heel2toe help people tune in to their body signals and achieve sustainable progress.

The goal is not only to maneuver – it’s higher.

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Of course, being physically energetic is Only one aspect What does it mean to live well as you aged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjujlrx9GC

To get a more complete picture of healthy aging Researchers have developed A tool that measures how often older adults experience key facets of well -being. This tool – a tan measure (elderly people to energetic life) – goes beyond tracking what people do. He asks how they feel about their lives.

Opal may help people understand their very own well -being and offers decision -makers and communities a option to assess how their services support older residents – not only physically, but in addition socially and emotionally.

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For people, which means that even small improvements, such as higher gait, can result in significant changes in how you’re feeling: more confident, more mobile and more independent.

For the community, it is a reminder that promoting physical activity is important – but insufficient. We also need programs, spaces and services that support the combination, goal, creativity and joy.

What does “active life” really mean?

IN International study 2024Older adults in Canada, Great Britain, the USA and the Netherlands shared, which suggests “active life” for them – in 4 languages ​​and cultural contexts.

They identified 17 different “ways of being” that contribute to activity. Physical health was just one part. Others included the feeling: self -confidence, combined, creative, energized, encouraged, engaged, glad, mentally healthy, independent, interested, mentally, motivated, resistant and self -sufficient.

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In other words, energetic life is not only taking (or counting) steps, it’s about how you’re feeling while taking them.

Aging is inevitable. But is getting old well? This is something that we are able to shape – step-by-step.

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This article was originally published on : theconversation.com
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Health and Wellness

The star Jones says “indignation” about the health of the heart will save your life

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The star Jones says

Ghettos

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Star Jones was pioneering in lots of industries, including in law, television and health, and is an energetic volunteer of the American Heart Association.

Considering that that is the national month of women’s health, he works with MedtronicAn organization coping with medical devices, in an effort to increase awareness of heart disease in women and throwing light to a brand new study of women aged 30-50, sponsored by an organization that shows that heart health is a smaller motivator of biological renewal for ladies than maintaining the physical appearance or body (10%), despite the primary of the women’s killer. The study sheds light on the gap in the field of awareness and open discussions on heart health, despite over 60 million women in the United States living with some form of heart disease.

Jones is deeply conversant in women’s heart disease, because she was diagnosed with heart disease in 2010 and she or he was told that she would want operations on an open heart. Although Jones said that she was obese for a few years and worked on accepting weight, she was surprised by the specific symptoms she experienced, even when the weight disappeared. “The types of symptoms I had were not symptoms that normally would make the woman think about heart disease at least at the time. I fought with symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue and dizziness or a garden when I was moving from sitting to standing,” he says to the essay. “I lost 150 pounds. I ate correctly. I got a huge number of exercises. I did what I should, but the symptoms were so annoying that I couldn’t just ignore them.”

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Fortunately, Jones listened to her body and decided to go to her cardiologist, after which diagnosed in not heart disease. “My doctors conducted tests that were necessary, listening to my body, explaining my symptoms, and we found that I had an aortic valve failure, which caused my heart to work optimally, so I had to have an open heart surgery with the purpose of repairing aortic valve, so that we would not replace it or receive a heart transplant,” she shared. “So I literally saved my own life, knowing enough about myself and knowing that something is wrong.”

Although Jones got here from a family with a protracted history of heart disease, their health was not a subject. “I can rightly say that until I had an open heart surgery, she became the subject of conversation,” he says. Her experience and lack of open communication together with her family inspired her participation in a letter to my mother’s campaign, which inspires women to priority to heart health, starting with a conversation together with her mother or woman of their lives, about family history, risk aspects and symptoms of heart disease. The campaign, which is a component of Medtronic’s continuous involvement in conducting and developing clinical trials for ladies’s health, goals to scale back the gap in the awareness of heart and risk diseases, particularly heart valve failure and hypertension in women.

This month, Medtronic encourages women to commit to check with moms or women in life about the health of the heart and signs of heart disease they need to search for, equivalent to hypertension and irregular heartbeat.

The national coalition for ladies with heart disease, the leading voice of a nation for ladies living with heart disease or risking to risk, has discovered the following statistics:

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  • One -third of women (30%) didn’t check with the doctor about heart health.
  • While greater than half of women are afraid that their old mother will ignore the symptoms or will not tell them when something is improper (53%), additionally they inform (56%) that they never talk about the health of the heart with their mother or other women in the family.
  • Almost half of women (45%) would favor to debate politics, money or relationships with mother or grandmother before discussing the history of family health.
  • Women argued preventive health care, equivalent to demonstration and routine controls, as the most vital conversation with mother or mother, since it still ages (35%) in comparison with funds (12%), pensions (5%) or plans at the end of life (16%).
  • Of the women from the sandwich generation with the family history of heart disease, only a 3rd (35%) asked the doctor to evaluate the risk of heart and only 44% talked about it with the family.

Although it will possibly be annoying, Jones encourages women, especially black women, to talk and tell their health. “Earlier I talked to a friend from Medtronic about underestimated communities, colorful people and women who are nervous about these conversations, which they mean in their lives, how to approach them, and even have access to doctors, and treatment that would allow them to support themselves for themselves. As we know, heart disease is really a number of deadly all women. I thought that this is a disease of an old white guy.”

Jones continues: “The numbers tell us that more than half of the risk of heart disease is hereditary. Therefore, it is really important to understand the history of your family. So you want to start with when you speak behind. And that’s why the letter to my mother’s campaign is so important, because it is a way to combine to start asking family members about health history and so it will start with a potentially reviving life.”

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This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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Health and Wellness

Al Roker shares his journey into prostate cancer and offers an encouragement to Joe Biden

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Al Roker makes sure Joseph Biden knows that he will not be alone amongst his recent diagnosis of prostate cancer.

On Friday, May 18, Biden’s personal office announced that the 82-year-old former president was diagnosed with prostate cancer with a rating of 9 Gleason on 9.

“Although this is a more aggressive form of the disease, cancer seems to be sensitive to hormones, which allows for effective management,” he read the statement. “The president and his family are looking at the treatment options for their doctors.”

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The next day Roker, 70, thought of his journey with the disease that began in 2020. TODAY show.

“When I was diagnosed, I had 8 on Gleason’s scale, but they said they caught it early, even though it was aggressive, so I had a fairly wide range of treatment options,” said Roker.

Television personality for the primary time announced that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in November 2020. Later this month he underwent surgery within the New York Sloan Sloan Cancer Center to remove its prostate and some surrounding lymph and absorbent nodes.

According to Cleveland ClinicThe Gleason result’s a system of assessing prostate cancer, which ranges from 1, when cancer cells look essentially the most like normal cells, to 10, when cancer cells look very different from healthy cells. The lower the result, the slower the cells will probably grow.

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In May 2021 ROKER’s Six months control Nothing detected at the extent of a prostate -specific antigen (dog) was found, which suggests that it was in clarity. At that point he said People magazineHe was “grateful” to have the ability to see his first grandson.

“If there is a reason to make sure you are as healthy as possible, it is,” he said.

Roker, who fought all his life with constant health problems, also shared the words of encouragement to biden within the post on X.

“Mr. President. When I found out from my battle with prostate cancer, you are part of a group in which no one wants to be a part,” he wrote about Rak, which plague, On average, one in eight men. “But knowing you, you will face this latest challenge with courage, humor and grace.”

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Al Roker becomes a grandfather, he insists that the child's name is not related to his work

(Tagstranslate) al corer

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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