Talks on Health

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18406, 7 March 1928, Page 12

Talks on Health

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR

The Arch of the Foot. The foot is a tripod: the weight of the body is borne on three points—the ball of the big toe, the ball of the little toe, and the heel. If you look at the impression made by a wet foot on the oilcloth you will see a blob for the front part of the foot and a blob for the heel, but what I want you to look at most attentively Is the strip that connects the toe-blob with the heelblob. In a healthy foot this strip is quite narrow; in a flat foot the strip is as broad as the foot; in an intermediate case the strip is broader than the normal shape in varying degree. The width of this strip gives the measure of the falling of the arch. By taking an impression at different times the successive states of the arch may be known, and from this information it may be learnt whether the foot is remaining the same or getting worse. The arch of the foot on the inner side Is maintained in two ways—the strong ligaments of the foot bind the bones together to form an arch; the arch cannot sink so long as the ligaments form tie-beams and supports. The other way is by the leaders that come down from the front and back of the leg; these leaders are attached to muscles, and it follows that weak muscles will conduce to falling of the arch. What Can Be Done? Now there is no way of relieving the pressure on the arch; we must walk on our feet; if we could walk on our hands we should not get flat foot. If I weigh twelve stone the arches of my feet have to sustain that weight. The only way to relieve the pressure is to sit down as much as possible; but we cannot all get a sitting-down job. However, something may be done in the way of choice of work. A lad with tendency to flat foot would not be passed as a recruit into the police force; he would be wise to choose a trade that involved as little standing as possible—perhaps a tailor or bootmaker. If a man weighs sixteen stone his feet would be very much obliged to him if he would reduce himself to twelve stone. But there you are: most of us have to walk about on our feet, and what can be done to strengthen the arch? It must not be forgotten that the muscles and ligaments of the foot are nourished by the blood, and that the richer the bloocf the stronger the foot. Treatment of flat foot often resolves itself into treatment of the general health. The anaemic, feeble young woman with aching feet would probably be relieved if she could get a good holiday in the country and build herself up. Exercise for the Muscles. The muscles of the calf must be exercised to give them more strength to do their work. After about three hours work the muscles go on strike; they cannot manage any more. But if they are made an inch Or two bigger round bv exercises they will cheerfully bear a whole day. Therefore we must do tip-toe exercises, dance on tip-toe, work the ankles in every direction —backwards and forwards, and also sideways. The feet and calves must be rubbed with turpentine liniment to make the circulation brisker.

The Child’s Feet. Little chlidren sometimes have flat feet when they begin to walk. This is not because they start to walk too soon, but because the arch is not strong enough—a different matter. I reccommend the following simple plan. The child's ankles are turned in; very well, we must turn them out. So have a strip of leather sewn along the inner side of the shoes or boots; the effect of this is to raise the inner side of the foot, and it brings the ankle straight, and all will be well. The strip may be half an inch thick, it must only extend halfway across the sole, and it is wedge-shaped in section and gets thinner towards the outer side. Steel arches' for the foot are of some value: the aim of the surgeon is always to encourage Nature to do her own work. If you can improve the arch of the foot by the methods I have mentioned it is far more satisfactory than wearing any form of apparatus. The Ages of Flat Feet. There are three ages at which you must be on the look-out for flat feet. The first is infancy, -when the child first begins to bear its weight on its feet; the second it at the age of fifteen to seventeen, when the lad starts work and may have to lift heavy weights, and when his growing system demands so much nourishment that it does not always get its full supply; and the third is from forty-five to fifty, when the elasticity of limb is beginning to fail. If you want to know if you have flat feet, try the wet footmark on the oilcloth, and then go to your doctor for advice. Cutting Corns. Tf you cut your own corns you must not make them bleed. I take great care to have clean instruments when 1 do an operation, however slight it is. If I am going to take a splinter out with a needle I heat the needle first to kill the germs. But you cut away at your corns with an old knife that has been used for all sorts of dirty jobs and you get the germs in your foot. I see quite a number of inflamed and poisoned feet from injudicious corncutting. You should wash your foot first; then clean your knife by dipping the blade in boiling water, and then be careful to stop short before exposing the blood-vessels. If you do accidentally cut the toe, put some carbolic on the place. In-growing Toe-nails. When cutting the toe-nails do not cut them too close down at the sides. The proper way to cut them is to make them straight along the end; it is when you cut them off too close at the cor ners that you encourage the condition known as in-growing toe-nail. It is not exactly that the nail grows in, but that the soft flesh around the nail grows up. It is, therefore, wrong treatment to keep on cutting the nail away; the nail should be allowed to grow. As is always the case, you must prevent these troubles, and then you will not have to cure them. The whole treatment is a question of boots, boots, boots. You will wear torture-chamber bouts of a shape that bears no rela-

tion to the real shape of the natural foot. The narrow boot presses the soft flesh around tjie nail that you have cut down to the quiirk and forces the flesh over the top of the nail. When you have been wearing deformed boots for thirty or forty years it may be necessary to cut away the soft flesh by an operation; that is the only thing left fur the doctor to do. And all the trouble will come back in a very few weeks if the same boots are worn.