All posts by : Synchro

Hey FFA bloggers! I hope you guys are getting ready for Maryland Blue Crab season, I know we are here at FFA! This is our favorite time of year. Who doesn’t like some sun, an ice cold beer, and some old bay seasoned, freshly steamed blue crabs? But beware of indulging too much!

You might be asking yourself what is exactly is gout and what does Blue Crab season have to do with it? Gout is a painful condition with occasional flare ups that causes your joints to be inflamed and painful with movements. This is actually because of a buildup of uric acid in your body causing the acid to crystallize in your joints. This can either be because your body is over producing or under excreting uric acid.

And what does your diet have to do with gout? Well the types of foods you eat are many times the cause of these flare ups. For instance, diets heavy in beer, wine, cheese, red meats and seafood can predispose you to a flare up. If you want a full list of what to eat and what not to eat, swing by our office and we can give you a proper gout free diet!

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about your foot and ankle health and possible gout flare ups with me or another one of our knowledgeable podiatrists, come on into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our 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!

Hey FFA bloggers, how was your Memorial Day Weekend? I hope it was full of sun, sand, and sunscreen! That’s right folks, I know Memorial Day is the unofficial start of showing some skin in the summertime, but FFA wants to remind you the importance of using sunscreen!

Memorial Day weekend is the first exposure to the sun for a lot of people, and it is crucial to use sun block. As too may of us know, one bad burn can be the start of a rough season! All of us want that golden bronzed look that is plastered on all the magazines and TV shows, not to mention all the golden tanned guests at Kim Kardashian and Kayne West’s wedding!

Even after applying sunscreen, make sure that you are covering all the exposed areas like your feet and ankles, as these places are often missed! Also make sure you are reapplying as instructed! Applying once isn’t enough for a day at the beach or for the entirety of a BBQ session outside. As the summer season approaches make sure that you are protecting yourself and your family from the deadly rays; this is the time where the prevalence of skin cancer increases exponentially!

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about your foot and ankle skin health for the upcoming summer season with me or another one of your knowledgeable podiatrists, come on into the office of Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our 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!

How many of you bloggers are diabetic or know someone who is diabetic? All of us occasionally have a sweet tooth, but over time this can develop into a serious condition, Type II diabetes.

Type II diabetes really means that your body doesn’t react normally to you eating sugar. When you eat, this causes a rise in sugar (glucose) in your bloodstream, which is normal. However, the way a diabetic body reacts to sugar is abnormal. Usually your pancreas produces insulin into your bloodstream which retrieves that glucose and feeds it to your muscles, heart, brain etc. BUT in a type II diabetic person this streamlined system runs amuck. The insulin doesn’t pull out the glucose from your blood and you can get hyperglycemic, which is a fancy way of saying too much sugar in your blood. The can cause multiple systems to slowly start to malfunction over years of dealing with diabetes. The nervous system in your feet is most commonly the one that starts to go bad first.

You might feel little pins, burning, or the sensation of needles on the bottoms of your feet or a the tips of your toes at first. Then it might start to intensify and become more frequent. It will eventually progress into feeling unsteady or your shoes are too loose when walking. This is because slowly your perception nerves are dying because of the high sugar in the blood system. That’s why we recommend that all of our diabetic patients come in and get a diabetic foot risk assessment and to get a new pair of diabetic shoes yearly. These special shoes are made only for diabetic patients. They offer a larger toe box to protect your toes from getting stubbed and it also allows for a deeper heel depth to allow room for an orthotic to help realign you in your gait. Also there are special features of the shoes that allow the lacing to be more formfitting to your foot!

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about your diabetic foot and ankle health risk assessment with me or another one of your knowledgeable podiatrists, come on into the office of Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our 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 pains; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists! We hope to see you this upcoming week to get your diabetic shoes for the summer!

What did you do this Sunday to celebrate your mom this weekend? Did you shower her in gifts, take her to the spa or out to brunch? We have so many mothers that work at Frederick Foot and Ankle we would like to give a big round of applause to them for what they do at home and at the office; without them we would truly fall apart because they are the backbone of our FFA family!

If you didn’t see your mother on Sunday hopefully you had a chance to make a phone call or even Skype her! Make sure you check up on her occasionally! Mother’s tend to cater to the family and they often overlook their own issues, especially foot problems!

Many women develop changes in their feet after welcoming their new bundle of joy. Some of these changes include splaying of the toes, widening of the foot and collapsing of the arches. OUCH! So if not for the love of Mother’s Day, just from her sacrifices you should be taking your Mom to your local podiatrist to get her feet and ankles checked out!

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about foot or ankle health to get you or your mother into tip top shape for the summer, come on into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our 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 pains; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists!

Hey all you FFA bloggers out there! If you follow us on Facebook, you would know that recently the FFA running team completed the 2nd Annual Nike Women’s Half Marathon! werundc !! It was great running weather and as always Nike hosted a great weekend full of amazing events; from the packet pick up, personalized billboard welcome, all the way to the finisher’s boutique!

It was a tough race because we really didn’t have enough time to recover and retrain from our last team race on St. Patty’s day. In order to beat our own personal records for this course it was a tough battle for each of us! We were all triumphant and managed to break our personal records from last year. Next year we hope to continue the trend!

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about foot or ankle health to get you into tip top shape for the next Nike Race, come on into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our 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 pains; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists! werundc

Who yesterday watched the Boston Marathon? Every one of us runners came together and trained harder than ever to take back our finish line. No matter if you participated in the marathon past or present, we all were bostonstrong.

We were lucky enough to have a FFA team member volunteer at the medical tents at the finish line of the Boston Marathon yesterday. It was an amazing experience to be one of the podiatrists treating all of these amazing athletes. Amongst the athletes that were treated were some wheelchair athletes, marines, elite men and women, and last but not least all the charity runners. In light of the events last year, there were many more charity runners allotted to run this year at the 118th Boston Marathon.

The race kicked off as smoothly as possible with a touching tribute to all those lost, injured, and affected at last year’s Boston Marathon 2013. The race ended with course records being broken and lots of tears shed after crossing the big yellow finish line. It was truly a special day full of a lot of emotions for all the participants, volunteers and fans!

If you or someone you know might be interested in training for the next Marathon Monday, discussing more about your foot and ankle health with me or another one of your knowledgeable podiatrists, come in to our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our locations in Frederick, MDand Urbana, MD. We can set you up the proper evaluation and treatment plan to help you relieve your foot and ankle pains; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists!

Hey FFA bloggers! I hope you guys are taking advantage of this amazing weather! High 60’s and not a cloud in sight, it’s a runner’s dream! With this warm weather we can start focusing our outdoor training session again! WOOT!

Did you know that you are more likely to obtain an ankle sprain or injury from running than any other type of exercise? Lateral ankle sprains are amongst the most common injuries that will keep you sidelined.

3 key stretching exercises that will keep you up and running are ankle circles, ankle alphabet, and calf raises. For the ankle circles you just need take a seat and perform slow circles with your ankles. Make sure you go clockwise and counterclockwise. This is an easy one to do at your desk while at work. Ankle alphabets are an easy exercise to do while taking a break at work. Sit in a chair and spell out the alphabet with your toes, making sure to exaggerate the range of motion of your ankle. Calf raises allows your body to learn how to control your muscles when your body weight shifts. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, then slowly raise yourself to your tippy toes and lower yourself slowly back to the ground. You can repeat these exercises 1-2 times a day to help combat those potential ankle sprains.

The typical signs and symptoms of ankle sprains may include: pain or soreness, swelling, bruising, difficulty walking, and stiffness in the ankle joint. These symptoms may vary in intensity depending on the severity of the sprain. If you are not experiencing any pain or swelling with a sprained ankle, medical treatment is vital to a successful race. If left untreated this may lead to chronic ankle instability.

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about ankle sprains or ankle injury prevention for the spring training season with me or another one of your knowledgeable podiatrists, come on into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle Specialists. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our 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 pains; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists!

Hey all you bloggers! How many of you went out this weekend to run errands or to celebrate Sunday Fun-day? I know I did, and when I came out of my Sunday Brunch I was in shock. Nowhere in the weather forecast did it call for sleet and snow. However, after dashing out of the restaurant anticipating only rain, my friend and I were paralyzed by the sight of the roads.

First, of all we weren’t prepared with the proper foot wear and our feet were soggy. We prematurely took out the windshield snow sweeper from the car. So we were left with our bare hands and our ill equipped shoes to walk to the car and ready it for the roads.

But luckily, we didn’t fall because we used the correct techniques of walking in the snow and ice that works for all types of shoes. The trick is to adjust from your normal walking pattern to a snow walking pattern. What I mean is when walking on ice you need to keep your center of gravity over your front leg. This allows both of our legs to work together in stride to propel us forward. Without the sweeping motion we normally have this allows up to walk at a decently quick pace while keeping out balance out in the blizzard like terrain.

Hopefully this is the last winter weather we will see, I know all of your friends here at Frederick Foot & Ankle have their finger’s crossed!!

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about walking or injury prevention from the icy roads and sidewalks with me or another one of your knowledgeable podiatrist, come on into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our locations in Frederick, MD and Urbana, MD. We can set you up the proper evaluation and treatment plan to help you relieve your foot and ankle pains; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists!

To all our Dancing Bloggers out there, we feel your pain and we definitely understand your agony! As a matter of fact, a few of your FFA team members are a passionate part of the dancing community around Frederick. And you can ask anyone of these ladies about their past and present foot and ankle sacrifices for the love of dance.

For instance, the constant twirling, spinning, jumping, and leaping performed in most dance moves makes you most susceptible for painful ankle sprains. Overtime each move makes you into a more elegant dancer and more flexible with each repetition, however to do this you must increase the laxity within your ligaments. The same ligaments that allow the most beautiful ballet dancers to stay en pointe can also cause their career downfalls, predisposing them to chronic ankle sprains. Also in the foot of a dancer there are bones that can shift into abnormal positions from constant strain with types of classical dancing.

You might develop chronic tendon problems such as Achilles tendonitis or FHL tendonitis. Your Achilles tendon runs along the back of your ankle into your heel bone with might cause sharp pain when you’re trying to bust a move. Also the FHL tendon runs from the back of your ankle under your foot to the bottom of your big toe. So if this tendon gets inflamed from overuse, each time you go to push off is a painful one.

Not to mention somehow shoving your regular sized feet into tiny ballet slippers or tight tap shoes. Think about what that does to your poor little toes. This can predispose you to bunions of the 1st and 5th toes. It can also cause painful blisters and calluses to form at the tips, tops and between your toes!
If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about common dancing foot or ankle injuries with me or another one of your knowledgeable podiatrist, come on into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle Specialists. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our locations in Frederick, MDand Urbana, MD. We can set you up the proper evaluation and treatment plan to help you relieve your foot and ankle pains; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists!

Hi FFA Bloggers, I hope you have been enjoying this glimpse of spring weather recently! Since we are in our second week of March I thought we could discuss the damage we, “Weekend Warriors”, do to our bodies. You might be asking yourself what exactly are “Weekend Warriors”? Weekend warriors are people who participate in physical strenuous activities only on weekends or part- time. Most of us fit this category… we train hard on the weekend, however the rest of the week we live rather sedentary lifestyles.

Most of us are so exhausted after work that we save our major workouts for the weekends; long runs, extra heavy lifts or even our extended swimming workouts. Can you imagine the stress and the strain that we put our bodies through each weekend? In our minds we feel accomplished as we push though the grueling workout and prove that we are mentally strong. However, our bodies are the ones that are struggling and are weakened by our inconsistent training! For instance, one of the top injuries that Weekend Warriors struggle with is Achilles Tendon Ruptures.

The Achilles tendon is the large tendon in the pack of your ankle. This injury is most common in men 30 – 50 years old. It is very common to tear or rupture your Achilles from overuse while participating in intense sports, like Weekend Warriors do. With this injury you might feel a pop or snap, followed by an immediate sharp pain in the back of your ankle and lower leg. Immediately, this injury will affect your ability to walk normally.
If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about Weekend Warrior injuries, such as Achilles tendon ruptures with me or another one of your knowledgeable podiatrists, come on into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our locations in Frederick, MDand Urbana, MD. We can set you up the proper evaluation and treatment plan to help you relieve your foot and ankle pains; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists!