As part of National Diabetes week – I thought why not give you a little bit about your feet and how all types of Diabetes can affect them.

Your feet are supplied with blood to keep them healthy. They also have a multitude of nerves that act as an emergency warning system. For example, if you have a stone in your shoe, nerves will send a message to your brain to investigate. However, if your diabetes is poorly controlled for a long period of time, this may lead to:

• Nerve damage, or “peripheral neuropathy”, which impairs sensation to the feet.
• Reduced blood supply, also known as “poor circulation”.

Are your toes cold and itchy? Do they often become swollen and change colour? If this sounds like your toes this winter, this blog is for you!

Chilblains are something that can make sufferers dread the cooler months. Chilblains are classified as abnormal vascular reactions to the cold where the small vessels in the body narrow to retain warmth of the vulnerable tissue.

Do you have weak ankles? Perhaps and old sprain that continues to bother you? Maybe you are avoiding certain activities because of your ankles?

Well, DON’T PUT UP WITH IT ANYMORE.

As netball season is in full swing and we are almost at the half way point of the season injuries can start to creep in. So far this year here at Border Podiatry Centre we have seen a number of players experiencing hip pain when playing each week, not to forget to mention training as well. You can often find that lower back pain also presents when our hips aren’t feeling one hundred percent.

Meet Cass or at least her M.A.T. Isn’t he beautiful?

So Cass can offer even better services to the client’s of Border Podiatry Centre (like she doesn’t already!) she has just completed a course with Stephen from the ‘Functional Movement Group’ to use the revolutionary 2nd generation M.A.T (Movement Assessment Tool). That sexy picture above.

The question of whether you should you use heat, ice or both has been a frequently asked question at our clinic for a very long time. It’s the topic of a lot of debate.

It really does create quite some confusion. The problem is, that both answers are right…it just depends on the circumstances.

Let me shed some light on the differences between the two and when and why you should consider each treatment option so that you can be more informed when it comes to managing your own injuries.

We have had requests about how some of our orthotics are made. We use 3d printed orthotics and this short video sums it up nicely.

Feel free to get in contact with us if you require any further information, or if you would like your very own sample keyring. They are awesome.

Everyone is excited for the New Year. The kids are excited to be going back to school because they are pretty bored by now, and the parents are excited to be getting them back to school because the kid’s boredom is driving them crazy. And then BANG! Not only have they out grown the school uniform, they need new school shoes.

3 mistakes that we see all the time when people are buying school shoes.

Over the Christmas and New Year period I have had time to catch up with family, friends and met friends of friends. Once they find out you are a Podiatrist, they all like to tell you they are suffering from “plantar fasciitis”. Not only are they suffering from plantar fasciitis, so are their family and friends and friends of friends and friends of friends of friends. What I am trying to say here is there is a lot of people that are suffering from plantar fasciitis. And what seems really sad about this situation is most of them believe there is nothing you can do about it and just have to wait until it goes away. Now that sounds fine in theory but if you are not treating the cause of the plantar fasciitis, I can assure you it will take a very long time to go away if at all. That is why I decided to write about this particular topic.

A while back I blogged about 5 rants regarding custom-made foot orthotics. Now another rant that comes to mind is can anyone prescribe them? In the interest of this blog we are only going to look at custom-made foot orthoses either from a cast or electronic scan.

Podiatrists, orthotists, prothetists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, sports trainers, medical doctors, and orthopaedic surgeons are prescribing custom built orthotic devices. Some with the appropriate training and necessary clinical reasoning skills to do so, and some without.