• I Learned About Stiffness in Anatomy Lab

    One of the most common complaints I hear from patients is that they experience pain in transitions; going from sitting to standing, standing to sitting, getting out of chairs, getting out of bed. Now let me say, I never hear that complaint from 20 year olds. I only hear it from those over forty.  I often recall my old days in medical school anatomy class when my patients ask me why they begin falling apart sometime after forty. I remember so clearly the first day we were “introduced” to our cadavers. It was so amazing on so many different levels, the first and most significant of which was simply the fact…

  • Humans and Sports Cars Compared

      So, why do we get this heel pain? With few exceptions, plantar fasciitis is a disease which affects women over 40. That’s why I said to start stretching your plantar fascia when you’re 35.  Of course there are exceptions, but let’s add this common condition in a larger category; adult repetitive strain disorders. This group of disorders, which probably accounts for a third of the patients I see, includes disorders like rotator cuff diseases, hip bursitis and tennis elbow. There are hundreds more but I will see at least a half dozen patients every day with those four conditions! Some patients come to see me with all four. Poor…

  • Plantar Fascitis

      If you’re female and over 40, stretch your feet every morning before you get out of bed. I think this was one of my very first advice-giving posts. Why this? Why was this my first tidbit of advice for my readers? Because I see at least one to two women every day in my office with this problem. I have 35 partners, many of whom each see a similar numbers of patients with plantar fasciitis every day. Our foot and ankle specialists, probably see even more. Do a little extrapolation and you can begin to imagine the amount of plantar fascial pain out there and then the cost of…

  • Narcotic Pain Pills

    In my line of work, I get a lot of requests for pain pills. The majority of patients who need them have either just had surgery or an injury, like a fracture. And most people stop taking the pain pills as soon as they feel they don’t need them. Sometimes they wean themselves off of them by lowering the numbers of pills they take, or gradually increasing the interval of time in between the narcotics. Sometimes they supplement the pain medications with non-narcotic pain relievers. But sometimes patients continue to take pain pills. Weeks and even months go by, and they continue to request large doses of pain pills. It’s…