Our veins are tasked with returning de-oxygenated blood to the heart. You can think of them as being akin to one-way highways. Valves in the veins ensure the one-way flow of this bluish, purple blood (because it lacks oxygen). They prevent backflow. But in our legs, our veins have an entirely uphill route back to …
Now that this hottest of Utah summers is over, it’s time to turn our focus from walking a golf course or pedaling a mountain bike to shoving our feet into ski boots and sliding down a mountain. You’re looking to get new boots for the upcoming season and you’re wondering what to do if the …
It’s a good thing to keep your toenails trimmed, especially during our hot Utah summers when everyone’s going to see your feet. But don’t trim them too short or you may be setting the stage for an ingrown toenail. Ingrown toenails are a pain in the toe! They occur when the skin either grows over …
Our Utah summers aren’t long enough for most of us to get out there as much as we’d like. We all try to sandwich as much activity into the four or so months of warm, balmy weather because we know the snow is coming. That can lead to lots of sports injuries. Some come from …
A neuroma is a thickening of nerve tissue that may develop in different areas around the body. At Foot & Ankle Clinics of Utah, we’re concerned with a specific neuroma known as Morton’s neuroma. It is the most common neuroma in the body and occurs on the nerve between the third and fourth toes. Morton’s …
We often have some sort of pain on the bottom of one of our feet. It could be from a bruise or simply fatigue after a 10-mile hike in the Uintas. But when the pain is ongoing and typically worse in the morning when you first awake, it’s more likely plantar fasciitis, probably the most …
Americans love their fast food and other dietary splurges, and we lead an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. The result? About 1 out of every 10 people (34 million) now has diabetes. And 90-95 percent of those cases are type 2 diabetes, usually linked to obesity. Diabetes is the inability of the body to manufacture or properly …
Just about everyone has sprained their ankle at one time or another, but there is some misunderstanding about what’s involved. Is it a muscle thing or a ligament thing? Are the bones involved? Since we see lots of severely sprained ankles at our five Foot & Ankle Clinics locations, let’s get into what happens with …
Everyone has heard of orthotics, special shoes or heel inserts that are typically custom made for the patient. The goal of using an orthotic is to correct an abnormal, or irregular, walking pattern. At Foot & Ankle Clinics of Utah, we use orthotics to treat a variety of foot problems, but they can also help …
In crime movies or political thrillers there’s often a patsy, someone who takes the fall but didn’t actually do anything. In the world of heel pain, the patsy would be the heel spur. At Foot & Ankle Clinics of Utah, we treat heel pain from all sorts of causes with conservative treatments and occasionally surgery. …
