Foot pain can be excruciating. When it affects your performance at work, it can be even worse. Our jobs can take a large toll on our bodies, which isn’t surprising given how active many of us are throughout our workday. An Australian study looking at steps taken per day over different occupations found that on average [1]:
- Waiters and waitresses take 23,000 steps per day
- Nurses take 16,390 steps per day
- Retail workers take 14,660 steps per day
- Farmers take 14,037 steps per day
- Mothers take 13,813 steps per day
- Teachers take 12,564 steps per day
- Tradesmen take 11,585 steps per day
- Hairdressers take 9,209 steps per day
- Office workers take 7,570 steps per day
With all the time on our feet comes the force through our feet and legs that may make us vulnerable to injury and pain. My FootDr helps countless working professionals stay happy and healthy on their feet and we want to share ten problems you may be facing and how we can help.
1. Pain from high heels
High heels are a necessity for many occupations, yet they have been shown to:
- Significantly increase the pressure on your forefoot
- Compromise your stability [2]
- Increase your risk of falls [3]
- Rotate your pelvis, increasing the curvature of your spine [4]
- Shift the position of your knees in hips to one that places more pressure on the inside of your knee [5]
We can help you wear high heels more comfortably by helping manage any pains and problems that are being exacerbated by your high heels. We also make recommendations on heels that are better for your feet, and can create slimline orthotics for some high heels too.
2. Heel pain
Heel pain is often caused by plantar fasciitis (heel spurs), arising from overusing and straining the fascia that spans the arch of your foot. It can cause sharp stabbing pain, especially in the first few steps of the morning. As one of the most common foot complaints we see, we have many treatment options available, ranging from shockwave treatment to custom orthotics.
3. Ingrown toenails
Ingrown toenails develop when a piece of your toenail pierces the skin and grows into it. It can be extremely painful, mimicking the feeling of a sharp pain in your toe. We can remove the small section of nail that is causing your pain, giving you almost instant relief. If this isn’t your first ingrown toenail, we can also perform a procedure to permanently prevent the troublesome section of nail from growing back.
4. Bunions
While bunions may start as painless changes to the big toe at the ball of the foot, without management, they can progressively worsen to cause pain and discomfort. As the protrusion grows, it can become difficult to fit into shoes, with normal shoes causing rubbing and blisters. Your big toe may start to angle towards the smaller toes, ultimately moving over or under the second toe as the angle keeps shifting.
We help bunions by:
- Supporting their correction in their early, flexible stages
- Reducing the rate at which they progress and worsen
- If fixed in place, we can help alleviate pressure away from the bunion to reduce your pain or discomfort
5. Corns and calluses
A build-up of hard skin can quickly turn into a painful corn or callus, leaving you feeling like you’re walking on a small pebble with every step. Our podiatrists can reduce the thickness of your callus and remove your corn in one appointment. As the skin is already dead, the process is painless, and you’ll often feel instant relief when your feet touch the floor.
6. Fungal nail infections
Fungal nail infections can quickly spread between the toes, and within your household. Once infected, they can be difficult to treat, with many pharmacy products having a poor efficacy rate. We use laser treatment to safely and painlessly manage fungal nail infections, with greater efficacy than both creams and oral medication [6].
7. Foot pain
Foot pain can have numerous causes, ranging from stress fractures to tendon strains, bursitis and more. Our podiatry team follows comprehensive methods to assess and diagnose the cause of your foot pain, differentiating it from the other possibilities. Your treatment plan will focus on not only the best way to alleviate your current pain and problems, but also on preventing it from recurring in the future, too.
8. Achilles pain
Your Achilles is the strongest tendon in your body. It transmits power from your calf muscles to your foot, allowing you to push up off the ground and keep walking. It can take on up to four times your body weight during walking, and over seven times your body weight in running. This makes it vulnerable to injury and pain.
We help restore healthy function to the Achilles tendon and facilitate healing if damage has occurred. As it has a relatively poor blood supply compared to other tendons in the body, Achilles injuries tend to have a longer recovery time, especially without assistance. We work to help repair the tendon using treatments like shockwave, keep it supported using therapies like orthotics, and help reduce your risk of re-injury in the future.
9. Tired, achy legs
When our legs feel achy and tired at the end of the day, it is likely that the muscles have been overused. When this happens regularly after work, it may be that your lower limb alignment is causing your muscles to work harder, resulting in their aches and tiredness.
We perform comprehensive biomechanical assessments, including a treadmill gait analysis, to understand what your bones, joints and muscles are doing while you walk, and why you’re experiencing your symptoms. From there, we can help alter the alignment to relieve excess strain from your muscles and reduce or alleviate that end-of-day tiredness.
10. Comfy orthotics for working shoes
With a variety of occupational shoe requirements, the shoes you must wear aren’t always the comfiest – or the best for your feet. We help you overcome this by creating custom orthotics made from a 3D scan of your feet. Being made to fit the natural contours of your feet and legs, and fitting into a variety of work shoes, we can help you stay comfortable on your feet throughout the day.
Have foot pain that won’t go away?
Visit your local My FootDr podiatrist, we keep Australians active and on their feet. Click here to find your nearest clinic or call 1800 FOOTDR to book an appointment today!
1 – https://www.ibtimes.com.au/study-waiters-take-average-23000-steps-day-1295370
2 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26155823
3 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8185452