Participants: James Marcum & Charles Mills
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP00049A
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00:01 We know all about headaches, toothaches, backaches,
00:05 and even stomachaches... 00:06 But how many of us sit around complaining about foot aches? 00:10 Maybe we should, stay tuned... 00:14 I'm Dr. James Marcum 00:16 Are you interested in discovering the reason why? 00:20 Do you want solutions to your healthcare problems? 00:23 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:25 Well, you're about to be given the Ultimate Prescription! 00:34 They are usually encased securely in loafers 00:37 or snuggly socks. 00:39 We know they're down there, 00:40 we just don't pay a lot of attention to them UNTIL... 00:44 Our feet are kind of important. 00:46 They help us get around and keep us from falling over 00:49 when we stand still. 00:50 We need them for kicking, running, digging, 00:53 and more often than we'd like to admit, 00:55 for sticking in our mouths, sort of like now... 00:58 Dr. Marcum, tell us what we need to know 01:00 about those strange looking things at the ends of our body. 01:04 Well you know, Charles, the feet are very important. 01:07 And, I had some foot problems last year, 01:11 and that's why I thought I was going to talk about FEET... 01:14 Everyone has to have feet and when your feet aren't happy, 01:17 I don't think anything is happy! 01:20 So feet are very, very important! 01:22 The first thing I like to tell people about feet is 01:26 what would you do without your feet? 01:28 Just think about all the downhill consequences 01:31 we have if we don't have feet; 01:32 we can't walk, we can't exercise, 01:35 we can't move, we can't go from place to place. 01:37 So feet are very worthy of our care... would you agree? 01:42 I would... so you would think knowing THAT, 01:44 that we would be very conscious of our feet, 01:47 and take good care of them. Do we? 01:49 In this article from the "USA Today" 01:52 It talks about feet and, specifically, 01:55 the feet of athletes like "Albert Puljols" 01:58 of the Los Angeles Angels. 02:01 Another athlete called "Pau Gasol" 02:03 He plays for the Basketball Lakers. 02:06 "Antonio Gates" who plays for the Chargers... 02:09 You know, I'm not great with all these sports guys, 02:11 and a basketball player named 02:13 "Joakim Noah" that plays for the Chicago Bulls. 02:16 Well, these athletes all had problems with their feet... 02:20 A problem that I actually had myself called, 02:23 "plantar fasciitis" 02:25 Have you ever heard of that, Charles? 02:26 I haven't - that's a new one. 02:27 Doesn't it sound scary? It DOES! 02:29 All these guys had plantar fasciitis, 02:31 so now they couldn't do their sports, 02:33 and their feet weren't any good and they can't do anything. 02:36 I HAD THE SAME THING! 02:37 I'm very scared of things I can't pronounce! 02:39 Well let me explain what it is, 02:41 and I hope no one out there has it. 02:42 This is pain that comes ACTUALLY from the 02:45 connective tissue of the feet. 02:48 In the foot, you have bones, 02:51 you have muscles that move the foot, 02:53 you have different tissue that connects the muscles 02:55 and the ligaments and all that together. 02:57 Well this is that covering, this connective tissue. 03:00 It mainly supports the arch. 03:02 You know, the arch of the foot where it goes up. 03:04 It helps that and it helps the heel, 03:06 moves the heel towards the bone, 03:07 and it's in the middle of the foot. 03:09 Now what happens in this fasciitis... 03:11 Fasciitis - "itis" means inflammation. 03:14 So this area becomes inflamed and usually it becomes 03:18 inflamed in these athletes because of overuse or trauma. 03:22 And when it becomes inflamed, it causes lots of pain. 03:25 Now what happened to me, I don't know if you remember, 03:27 I was making television programs when I had it, 03:29 and I didn't know what it was. 03:30 Originally, I thought I had sprained my ankle 03:33 because it started to swell because it hurt so much. 03:36 And then for a while, I said - Well maybe I had a bone fracture 03:39 So I got an x-ray done and I didn't have a hairline fracture. 03:42 And then I said - Well, maybe I just sprained my ankle. 03:44 No, I didn't sprain my ankle. 03:46 Finally, after lots of deductions and trying to 03:49 figure out and touching the tendons, 03:51 I figured out I, too, had plantar fasciitis. 03:54 So what does it feel like? 03:55 Can you describe the discomfort? 03:57 Yes, every time you move your foot, 04:00 pain goes all throughout the foot, every time! 04:03 And then, because of the pain and the inflammation, 04:05 it starts to swell. 04:06 The swelling gave me a hard time - I've never had it before, 04:10 and I didn't know what it was and then I read this article 04:14 and said - I think I have that! 04:15 These guys have it too. 04:16 Now, when these fellows had this 04:17 they couldn't play ball anymore. 04:19 Now this is not fallen arches or 04:20 or is it a new name for fallen arches? 04:22 No, this is inflammation... Inflammation IN the foot? 04:24 In the fascia of the foot. All right 04:26 Well this fascia, this connective tissue, 04:28 is in other places as well. 04:31 Some people have it in the foot, 04:33 some people have it in other parts of the body. 04:35 It seems to be worse in the morning, 04:38 and when I would wake up in the morning, 04:39 that's when I would notice the pain the worse, 04:41 the fascia pain there. 04:42 The pain - of course, any pain is bad, Charles, 04:46 because pain makes your blood pressure go up; 04:48 it makes inflammation; you don't sleep as well, 04:51 and you know what? 04:52 You get grumpy when you're in pain. 04:54 So I was feeling pretty bad. 04:56 So, what was the treatment? 04:58 So I went to the internet and I looked at all these things. 05:00 For a lot of people, all they did was rest the foot. 05:03 You went to the internet... 05:04 a cardiologist went to the internet for answers. 05:07 I had to go somewhere! Okay 05:09 You know, I went to the internet... 05:10 This is a diagnosis that's not a blood test. 05:13 You don't make it with an x- ray. 05:16 You make it by a clinical diagnosis. 05:18 What happened, how does it feel? 05:20 And you had to eliminate other things like... 05:22 It wasn't in my big toe, so it wasn't gout. 05:24 I didn't have some trauma, like playing basketball, 05:29 so it probably wasn't a swollen ankle. 05:31 I didn't feel like I had point tenderness which would 05:33 point to a broken bone. 05:35 I didn't have an infection, so something else was going on. 05:39 It can mimic another condition where the tendons get inflamed 05:43 called "tendinitis" 05:44 And I didn't know this when I started my research, 05:46 but as people get older, it's more likely to happen. 05:50 The parts, the fascia gets worn off, we can't do as much, 05:53 and the weeks before that, I was climbing up big hills 05:56 on my treadmill as part of my exercise. 05:58 ...Putting a lot of pressure going 10 miles an hour. 06:02 So all of this happened and I wanted some answers for it, 06:05 and I was thinking - Well, maybe if I can figure out 06:07 this answer, maybe I should call these sports guys, 06:09 and help them out a little bit too - oh, I don't know. 06:12 Typical doctor, you want to help people. 06:13 So the first thing is REST. 06:15 So people wear these boots and let rest. 06:17 Rest of one of the best treatments for the body. 06:19 Some people, if rest doesn't do the trick, 06:22 they do stretching exercises once things heal up a little bit 06:26 Some people put nonsteroidal creams on it, 06:29 that helps a little bit. 06:30 It's pretty hard to stretch something that's 06:32 swollen and that's inflamed. 06:33 That's what I had to do first; I had to wait for the swelling 06:35 to go down and then I had to deal with the inflammation... 06:38 And finally, one of the causes of this is poor footwear. 06:42 People aren't wearing good FEET! 06:44 Good SHOES. OH! They wear that too. 06:47 I have good feet, but anyway, people aren't 06:51 wearing good, healthy foots. You're messing me up... Feet! 06:57 Don't mess me up here, but anyway... 06:58 This is my story about feet- I hope you're enjoying this. 07:01 I hope someone has this condition that we can help today 07:04 Yes, we talked about it. But anyway, the foot... 07:07 People do not have support on their arch, 07:10 and this puts more pressure as the years go on 07:13 on this tendon and the fascial planes, all of that. 07:16 So I got some supports for my feet. 07:19 They call this "orthotics" and they can actually 07:21 measure it for your feet and once I put those in, 07:24 that is now eliminating the problem. 07:27 I just thought of something... 07:28 Support for the arches - we were not designed to walk 07:33 on cement, put out feet into shoes. 07:37 Our feet were meant to conform to the soil to the sand, 07:42 to the ground. Yes 07:44 We weren't designed to have this FLAT. No 07:48 Because I've had the problem too, not that exact problem, 07:50 but I've had the problem too, and I have to wear 07:52 those things that support the arches there, 07:54 and now I've figured out why. 07:55 You've always said that we were designed 07:57 a different way than we're living. 07:58 But we weren't really designed to have shoes, 08:00 with the wrong type of shoes, 08:01 do the wrong type of exercises, 08:03 then you have all this inflammation. 08:05 Dr. Robert Klapper who is Chief of Orthopedic Surgery 08:09 at Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles. 08:11 He thinks the problem is... 08:13 and I'm thinking it might be the shoe wear... 08:15 He thinks this is an overuse problem. 08:17 People are using their foot too much. 08:20 He also suggests - lack of stretching. 08:22 How many people get up and actually stretch the part... 08:25 We stretch our arms, we stretch our backs, 08:28 and our muscles and everything, but how many of us 08:30 sit around stretching our feet? Good thought! 08:33 And he also thinks that extra weight 08:35 puts pressure on it... That makes sense 08:37 The aging process does it and I want everyone today to 08:40 think about how valuable your feet are, 08:43 and start doing some basic foot care which is making sure 08:46 you have the right shoes. 08:48 If you need arch support, get it. 08:50 If your feet hurt at the end of the day, 08:51 something is not going right. 08:53 It doesn't seem fair to box your little foot up in 08:56 something all day long, whether it be high-heels 08:59 or tight shoes - just don't want that to happen, Charles 09:02 Well let's talk about the right shoes. 09:04 In your research, did it tell you what the right shoes were, 09:07 and how to identify when your foot is in one? 09:09 Well, you know, one of the things you want is arch support 09:12 so I had to go to a specialist that put this thing called, 09:16 "orthotics," and he measured my foot, 09:18 saw what kind of support it needed and every foot is 09:21 different and he made the support for me that I put 09:24 in my shoe to take the pressure off the fascia, 09:27 so I wouldn't get this inflammation over and over. 09:31 Now some people, that doesn't even get it better. 09:33 There are some people that are doing surgery on this. 09:35 The problem with this part of the foot is 09:38 it doesn't have a lot of blood supply, 09:39 and it doesn't heal very quickly. 09:41 Because it's never not being used, 09:43 other than the fact when you're sleeping. 09:45 If you're walking, if you're climbing, if you're awake 09:48 and moving around, you're using all of your feet. Yes 09:51 And some people, when their feet hurt, 09:54 they either ignore it or they take pain meds. 09:56 You know, give me an anti-inflammatory, my foot 09:59 hurts. But what I've learned about this is when you have a 10:02 problem, you've got to find out what's causing it, 10:04 and then try to find the simplest, safest, 10:07 way to deal with it. 10:08 Now I'm still not brave enough, right now, 10:10 to start running up the treadmill again, 10:13 but I'm now going flat again. 10:15 But I think everyone needs to take care of those feet, 10:18 they're so VALUABLE and I see people all around - 10:22 you know, we weren't made to wear these shoes. 10:24 Now luckily, they're getting better and better shoes 10:26 this time that are more comfortable, but years ago, 10:29 people didn't wear healthy shoes and they wore the same 10:31 things every day and that could put stretch problems 10:36 with your foot - it doesn't move the way it needs to, 10:38 lots of problems, so I wanted to talk about foot. 10:40 Now we have a bunch of other questions regarding foot 10:44 that has come into Heartwise, right? 10:45 Yes, I want to get to those too, but before that 10:47 I think of the high-heels instantly, 10:50 and you've told a story, on this program, a couple of times 10:52 about a lady that was forced to wear high-heels 10:55 because of her job and the problems that brought about. 10:57 So, we need shoes apparently that have arch supports in there 11:01 so that when we step down, we feel the support everywhere. 11:04 Stretches! How do you stretch your foot? 11:07 Is there any particular thing 11:08 you do or does that vary from person to person? 11:10 You know, physical therapists will actually tell you how to 11:13 stretch every part of your foot, up, down, all around, 11:16 so you stretch it out, starting with the big toe, 11:19 to the little toe, every joint in your foot, 11:22 every part of your foot needs to be stretched. 11:25 A food massage might accomplish the same thing. 11:27 You have to limber up the parts 11:30 before you start using the parts in the feet. 11:32 You got to stretch out and get them warmed up, 11:35 get the metabolism flowing, get the blood flowing, 11:37 get the oxygen heading down there, 11:39 get everything working as good before you put it through 11:41 some type of trauma. 11:42 And I've also heard from podiatrists and others 11:46 that when you try on a new pair of shoes, 11:49 they need to feel comfortable right then. 11:52 Don't wait for a break-in period. 11:54 Shoes need to feel comfortable in the store, 11:56 when you walk across the rug there, pat-pat-pat-pat-pat 11:59 They need to feel comfortable on your foot THEN. 12:01 Then they're going to feel comfortable throughout. 12:03 I think people shouldn't be too proud if they're not 12:06 feeling good a week in that shoe - take it BACK! 12:09 Because you don't want to damage your foot 12:11 over long-term put stress on that foot, 12:13 that could have long-lasting damage, 12:16 and the foot just doesn't heal quickly. 12:18 Now these athletes who go around and they're kicking 12:20 and they're jumping and they're stomping and they are 12:23 flying through the air, is there any way of protecting 12:27 your feet from that situation. 12:29 I mean, they wear cleats so they won't slip and that means 12:32 their feet are stopping and jamming into the toes, 12:35 jamming into the heels and the side like that... 12:37 That can't be good for them. 12:38 No, they put a lot of trauma to their feet, 12:40 and I assume a lot of them, when they get older, 12:42 they have inflammation in the joints, in the fascia. 12:44 That's why these athletes have all these problems at young age. 12:47 These fellows are younger than I am, 12:49 and they're having all these massive foot problems right now, 12:52 and they can't even do their profession right now. 12:55 So this is a big problem that we're going to talk about. 12:57 We got to talk about our feet. 12:58 We're going to answer some more questions about our feet. 13:01 And I want everyone out there to concentrate... 13:04 What am I going to do to make sure my feet are happy today? 13:07 Well I know I'm thinking a lot about feet right now, 13:09 and as you were talking, I was sort of stretching 13:11 and bending them and whatnot. 13:13 I'm going to be more AWARE of our feet, 13:15 and things we need to do that, we need to stretch them 13:18 in the morning and do a little foot exercise 13:19 with foot stretching. 13:20 Okay, we'll take a short break and when we come back, 13:23 we'll be answering questions from 13:24 heartwiseministries. org 13:25 that have been sent in to us on the subject of feet, 13:29 so stay right where you are! |
Revised 2014-12-17