All posts by : Synchro

Proper body alignment

Have you ever felt that when you are walking or running that your body is out of whack, and not aligned properly? If one part of your body isn’t balanced out it can cause havoc on all of your bones, joints, and muscles, which are trying to compensate. With this compensating mechanism, the bones, joints, and muscles surrounding the problem area start pulling out of proper alignments resulting in pain/soreness. This leads to wear and tear of the joint cartilage. The wear and tear of the cartilage can affect the way you walk and even run. In some cases, the damage is so severe that joint replacements are necessary.

Causes

Many people complain about sore knees and hips and sore backs, but where you feel the pain is not always the source of the pain. Approximately 80% of time the problems originate from having a underlying foot condition that is causing this unbalanced feeling and alignment problems.

Without treatment these aches and pains can worsen.

There are different foot disorders that can cause alignment issues.

1. The pressure distribution is different between the left and right feet, and the patients is placing more pressure on one side than the other.
2. There can be 2 different foot types in one single patient. For example, one foot can be a flat foot type and the other can be a high arching foot type. Also, there can be 2 different degrees of flat feet and 2 different degrees of high arches.

Treatment

The most common treatment for these alignment problems are custom molded orthotics. Orthotics will help re-distribute your body weight into places where it should be to balance out both sides. Using orthotics will help your body restore proper alignment and balance between the bones, joints, and muscles and should help calm down the aches and pains of your knees, hips and back.

If you want to further discuss body alignment or are interested in a pair of custom molded orthotics, schedule an appointment with us! We would be happy to help you and your alignment issues. So don’t hesitate to stop on by your friendly podiatrist at any of our 3 Frederick Foot & Ankle offices.

By Coralia Terol

“Je suis Charlie” has been splashed crossed many news headlines recently. But do you know what it really means? Literally, it translates to “I am Charlie”, but it truly stands for and is used as a slogan by supporters of free speech and freedom of expression. This phrase became popular after the massacre in Paris, France, earlier this month.

Many of our patients and staff members were asking about this phrase over the past few weeks and we thought that we could discuss this in our blog this week.

“Je suis Charlie” is a way for people to unify and show their support for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, January 7, 2015. In rallying together, these supporters are in favor of freedom of speech and resistance to other armed threats to society.

However, this can be a very controversial topic. This simple phrase can show support and it can also represent a divide and further segregation by choosing sides from one another.

Its amazing social media can spread the word of a movement to millions of people so quickly. We hope this blog didn’t bore you, we thought we would try something new this week. “Je suis Charlie” is an important message that has been heard all over the world and has been spread via social media, first on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

If you want to further discuss this with us you can, but we really know more about your foot and ankle injuries. So don’t hesitate to stop on by your friendly podiatrist at any of our 3 Frederick Foot & Ankle offices.

By Alvin Bannerjee

College football just ended, congrats to the Ohio State Buckeyes and coach Urban Meyer on his victory. Only a few games left for the NFL. One may wonder how important the health of a quarterback is when it comes to these playoff games. Can having one night out with the boys at the bar hinder his performance on the field in a few days? How about someone weighing in at 307 lbs…

Ndamukong Suh recently won his appeal that resulted from the incident where he stepped on Aaron Rodger’s (Green bay Packer’s Quarterback) ankle. It was an accident, where the temperature was really cold and caused numbness in his feet. This created a loss on sensation where Suh was not aware of what he was standing on.

Depending on the force of the step, the average person’s step pressure is 3x their weight. Therefore, Suh may have applied up to 921lbs of pressure on Rodger’s ankle! Do you think this could affect the Packers playoff chances against the defending champions, Seattle Seahawks?? Or maybe Rodgerswill visit his local podiatrist to get fitted for an ankle brace!

At Frederick Foot & Ankle we fit many of our patients with different kinds of support braces. From fractured ankles to tendonitis, gait instability and flat feet; these are just a few reasons for a trip to your podiatrist.

Come see us at Frederick Foot & Ankle. We have 3 locations: one in Urbana in the FMH building, and two in Frederick on Thomas Johnson Drive. Our newest location, 141 Thomas Johnson Drive, Suite 170, has a state of the art Physical Therapy suite and will soon open an on-sight surgical center.

We look forward to seeing you, and to solving all of your foot and ankle needs!

By Nikki Ho

Flat Feet

Flat feet is a term used to describe a specific foot type. Flat foot is exactly what you might think it mean, when your medial arch collapses when you are standing up; allowing the complete sole of your foot touch the ground.

Problems Associated with Flat Feet

Often people with flat feet have ankle and knee pains or injury because this foot type is not the ideal alignment of your legs. This leads to unstableness and increase stress on the joints and soft tissue surrounding it, including ligaments and tendons. People with flat feet can often have aches and pains in the heel and the arch of their feet, along with swelling on the inside of their ankles.

Surgery to fix Flat Feet

There are many way to surgically correct flat feet. First you need to address all three planes that are affected; frontal, saggital and transverse. To correct the frontal plane you can cut into the heel bone and slide the posterior slice of bone medially to help change the pull of the Achilles tendon to help bring up that medial part of the arch. To fix the saggital plane deformity, you can take out a wedge of the top side of the medial cuneiform bone, in the midtarsal. To correct the transverse plane deformity you can take portion of the navicular tuberosity off and reattach the posterior tibial tendon plantar and distal to the anatomical insertion. Here are just a few options that would be considered to surgically correct a flat foot.

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about flat feet, come on into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our 3 locations in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD. We can set you up the proper evaluation and treatment plan to help you relieve your foot and ankle concerns; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists!

By Brenna Steinberg

New Years Resolutions

As we celebrate the end of a year we also have time to reflect on what we can improve on for the next year to come. Whether, we focus on new career milestones, reaching new fitness goals or just being a healthier person overall. Each new year, we encourage all of our patients to reach a high fitness level and we also want you to do it in a healthy way.

New Exercise Routine

A lot of New Year goals focus on weight loss; however, these can be achieved through eating healthier and living a more active lifestyle. In order to lose weight and keep it off, dieting is not enough; it truly is a lifestyle change. Try to avoid snacking between meals, especially junk food i.e. candy and fried foods. New workout routines, should be started slowly as you get more accustomed to the routine gradually increase the intensity and duration. By starting new exercise routines too quickly at an intensity or duration that your body isn’t used to, may increase your chances of injury. Especially, foot and ankle injuries such as ankle sprains, stress fractures, and muscle strains. Sometimes weight loss and weight gain can the direct source of foot and ankle pain.

Annual Doctors Appointments

Also keeping annual doctors’ appointments will keep injuries at bay. At your annual checkup we can evaluate anything that might be bothering you, each achy and sore that you might be experiencing after starting your new workout routine might turn into a sidelining injury. We encourage all of our patients on visiting us sooner rather than later for any ailment as opposed assuming it’ll heal through time on its own.

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about your foot or ankle health, to prepare you for your new year’s resolutions, don’t hesitate, come into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD.

By Alvin Bannerjee

Tired Feet and Legs holding you back from Last Minute Shopping?

The holidays are here, but there is still time for those last minute shoppers to get in a few more deals! Unless you are shopping from the luxury of your computer, your feet and legs must endure those long lines waiting to buy those special gifts. Hours and hours walking in search of the perfect gift and then standing in line to buy it can be painful.

“Shop until you drop”

That phrase is taking a whole new meaning this time of year! Depending on where you are shopping inside or outside at the outlets standing in long lines in the cold can be mentally exhausting and physically draining on your feet; which might cause you feet and legs to get really cold and start to feel numb. After a long day of holiday shopping your muscles in your arch can become fatigued and tired. This feeling is caused by the flattening of your arch when walking or standing for long periods of time. Thus, much of your foot aches and pains can be generally avoided with the use of arch supports and wearing good supportive shoes.

We advise to all of our patients to take preventative measures to avoid foot and ankle woes from ruining your holiday shopping. First, pick out proper footwear for the day’s events. If you are coming straight from work make sure you switch into a pair of comfortable shoes with good arch supports i.e. custom made orthoses or orthotics; in some cases, regular over the counter inserts can do the job. If you are wearing flats or heels make sure you have an insole in these shoes to lower the impact when walking or standing. These types of shoes tend to provide less support.

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about your foot or ankle health during the last minute holiday shopping rush don’t hesitate, come into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD.

By Coralia Terol

Giving back this Holiday Season

What are you doing to help fight the bulge, this Thanksgiving? With each approaching holiday season there is a sense of urgency to keep off all those extra lbs. from all the seasonal parties! Well this year how about your give back to the community, when you are fighting those excess pounds!

Turkey Trot

Every year Frederick County, MD hosts a Turkey Trot, 1k and a 5k races that help those in need. Thanksgiving morning people gather in the streets of historic downtown Frederick and race around Baker’s Park, in efforts to burn off some extra calories, in anticipation for Thanksgiving dinner. With each year this race becomes bigger and bigger, no thousands are expected to turn out. The events are not limited to adults only; many of your younger patients participate in the 1k, fun run!

The Friends of Way Station

The Way Station is a non- profit dedicated to helping adults with mental illness, developmental disabilities, and substance addictions; children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral challenges; and veterans with service needs. For the past 30 years, the Way Stations have been aiding others through the principles of recovery and perseverance and are committed to providing evidence-based, consumer-driven, and family-focused services; such as to assist then with their daily living, housing and employment goals.

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about your foot or ankle health, in order to participate in the Turkey Trot, don’t hesitate! Come into the offices of Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD.

By Yenisey Yanes

Happy New Year- 2015

Happy New Year from our family to yours! We had a fantastic 2014, with the addition of many staff members, a new associate Dr. Alvin Bannerjee, and- our biggest addition to date- our new office at 141 Thomas Johnson Drive! We couldn’t have done this without your support in the community. We all look forward to seeing your smiling faces in the office!

New Office

We are proud to debut our new office at 141 Thomas Johnson Drive, just a short distance down the road from our original office. We have grown so much as learned a lot along the way! We have unmatched support from our staff members from our front desk girls, billing department and medical assistants; each and every one of you have dedicated so much for the greater good of our patients and giving them the best medical treatment that we can offer!

We hope that your holiday season is as wonderful as ours was; we celebrated this year at our annual holiday party, a party twice as large as last year. We are wishing you are your family a Happy New Year and we hope to see you soon!

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about your foot or ankle health, to prepare for new adventures in 2015, don’t hesitate, come into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD. We have had a most wonderful 2014 and we can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store for us!

Acute Ankle Fractures

When you are diagnosed with an acute ankle fracture, do you know exactly what that means? When you are diagnosed with something “acute” it simply means that it happened recently and suddenly. Acute injuries are usually associated with traumatic events i.e. from a motor vehicle accident, to a traumatic fall, or even a crash into another player in the field.

Changes your Body Undergoes Post Acute Ankle Fracture

Your body may undergo many changes after your injury. For instance, there may be immediate bruising that you may notice; this might form around torn muscles, ligaments and tendons. You can experience some sharp pain that is often severe and knife-like. Instability in that affected ankle will prevent you from putting your full weight on the affected side.

Bone Healing- Inflammatory Phase

This is the phase where there is hematoma formation that sends fibrin, blood cells and clotting factors, to the area to help stop initial bleeding and to activate the healing process. This usually last only 3-5 days.

Bone Healing- Induction Phase

The next phase is the induction phase where a “soft callus” is formed and it is slowly replaced by new bone formation. New cartilage, fibrocartilage and collaged are deposited at the fracture site. This can last for weeks to months.

Bone Healing- Remodeling Phase

The remodeling phase is the major phase that most of the bone healing occurs. At this point all the callus formation has been replaced by new bony formation. New blood supply is developing in the new bone. This can take weeks to years to complete.

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about your foot or ankle health, don’t hesitate, come into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD.

As the temperature is dropping and the weather is changing, you needed to prepare for the wintery weather! Wintertime is exciting time of the year and brings a whole new set of outdoor activities and sports to enjoy. For instance, there is ice skating, hockey, sledding, skiing, snowboarding and other cold wintery activities. Each and every one are to keep you active during the colder months of the year. On the other hand, winter actives can be the culprit to many injuries as well.

Common Winter Injuries

Broken bones are amongst the most common injuries in the wintertime. In winter sports, there are a lot of slips and falls that can particularly target your foot and ankle.

Foot and ankle Fractures

The most commonly broken bone is the tibia, aka your shin bone. IN your ankle there are 3 main bones that are working together, the tibia, fibula, and talus. Most of the time your tibia is the bone that take most of the impact when there is trauma or fall.

Physically active children and adults are used to getting bumps, bruises, and other minor injuries. But there are common signs that you can check for if you a suspicions of a fracture. First, the inability to play or weight-bear following an acute or sudden injury. Secondly, decreased ability to play due to a chronic or long-term complications following a] previous injury. Thirdly, physical deformity of the athlete’s limb or joint ie bumps and lumps. Catching these injuries the earlier the better for you or your child, especially to prevent a minor injury from turning into serious.

There are many different mechanism of actions for ankle fractures however, most fractures can be treated with a cast and crutches, but more serious fractures may require surgery.

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about your foot or ankle health, in the wintery weather and safety precautions don’t hesitate, come into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD.