September is Fall Prevention Awareness Month, so it’s an excellent time to focus on the increased age-related tendency towards balance and stability problems that can lead to dangerous and debilitating falls. Taking care of your overall health can minimize the effects of systemic diseases and foot and ankle issues that tend to increase with age. Contact your foot doctor for the proper footwear, custom orthotics, and balance braces that can help avoid, treat, and postpone age-related foot and ankle problems.

Some of the foot and ankle problems that tend to increase with age include the following:

• Balance and stability problems—One of the leading causes of stability and balance problems is from systemic diseases like diabetes and peripheral artery disease that cause numbness and tingling in the extremities. The weakening of the ankles is also a primary culprit when it comes to damaging falls. Regular exercise, physical therapy, and the use of custom orthotics and ankle braces improves stability and helps prevent falls.
• Pain and stiffness from arthritis—A variety of arthritic conditions tend to increase as you age, with the joints of the ankles and the big toes often being adversely affected. Proper diet and regular exercise can help mitigate some of these adverse effects.
• An increase in skin conditions—Skin anomalies like lesions, warts, corns, and calluses all tend to increase with age. It’s imperative to have any skin lesions and changes evaluated by your foot doctor to determine whether or not they are cancerous.

 

As you get on in years, it’s essential you have your foot and ankle problems evaluated and treated by your trusted podiatrist to decrease complications and help prevent future problems.

You can count on the foot doctors at Foot & Ankle Specialists, PC, to provide fast relief for your aching feet using a full range of both conservative and surgical therapies. Our expert team, including board-certified podiatrists Dr. Scott E. Hughes, Dr. Greg P. Vogt, and Dr. Christine I. Tumele, serves patients of all ages with state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment technologies including onsite digital x-ray, ultrasound, diabetic shoes, and digital scanning for custom orthotics. For any questions or to make an appointment, please contact us at one of our Southeast Michigan facilities in Monroe (734-241-0200) and Lambertville (734-856-8900) (Bedford and Monroe counties). We also offer convenient house calls from Monday through Thursday, so give us a call!