5 Lifestyle Habits for Managing Ankle Arthritis
When you develop arthritis in joints, such as your ankles, you want to improve your mobility. Here, we review five steps you can take to manage ankle arthritis. Read on to learn more.
Your feet are workhorses — they support your body while you’re standing and propel you through life. Given their critical roles, it makes sense to provide a little extra support for your feet with orthotics.
However, before you head to your local pharmacy for inserts, the team of podiatrists here at Neuhaus Foot and Ankle wants to make a compelling case for considering custom orthotics over store-bought.
One of the first points to consider regarding your feet is just how complex these small appendages are. Each of your feet contains 26 bones, 30 joints, and more than 100 connective tissues, including muscles, ligaments, and tendons.
If your feet are having problems, it’s essential to identify the underlying cause of the issue. As podiatrists, we can examine your feet, gait, and any symptoms to determine whether orthotics are necessary and, if so, what type of support you need from them.
Another advantage of custom orthotics is that they’re custom-made to your feet. When you get orthotics through us, we take impressions of your feet and send them to an orthotics lab. That means your orthotics will fit your feet perfectly, as opposed to generic, store-bought orthotics.
When we create orthotics for your feet, we take into consideration your unique needs. For example, if you’re dealing with a structural issue, such as flat feet, we ensure that your orthotics feature ample arch support.
Or, perhaps you’re prone to certain conditions, such as plantar fasciitis, or you have degenerative arthritis in your feet. We take these conditions into consideration when we create your custom orthotics. That can’t be said of store-bought inserts.
If you don’t have any problems with your feet, but you want orthotics to enhance your performance or provide a little extra support because you routinely “pound your feet,” through exercise, we can ensure that your custom orthotics are tailored toward these goals.
If you’re experiencing knee or hip pain, the problem may lie in your feet. After a gait analysis, we can determine whether excessive pronation (you place more pressure on the inside of your foot) or supination (you place more pressure on the outside) may be causing a misalignment in your knee and hip joints.
With custom orthotics, we can correct some of these gait issues for better alignment in your legs.
To receive the full benefits of custom orthotics, please contact one of our offices in Hermitage, Brentwood, Nashville, Mount Juliet, Waverly, Smyrna, Gallatin, Columbia, Pulaski, or Lebanon, Tennessee, to schedule an appointment.
