With spring weather back in full force, Cincinnatians everywhere are dusting off the old running shoes and getting back out on the roads and trails throughout the area. While we encourage you to join the active throngs, a word of advice—if you’ve been sitting for most of the winter, it’s important to get your feet (and gear!) in shape before adding some serious miles. It just might help you prevent a nasty overuse injury.

When you plant your foot and experience pain after making a lateral move while playing tennis, soccer, basketball, or any other sport, it can be cause for concern. Sports injuries can be a real bummer, especially if you think a surgical procedure will be needed to address the issue. The good news is that nonsurgical foot injury treatment is often quite successful, which is one of the reasons we don’t “rush to the knife” here at Family Foot and Ankle Center!

We know, we know—some people will wait until they have a limb hanging by a thread before they’ll see a doctor or consider surgery. Many times per week, we see patients who have been living with painful deformities like bunions for years before they finally stop in for an evaluation.

You’ve probably heard an old concept, commonly known as the law of the instrument or Maslow’s hammer: “If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” Well, what if the hammer is the problem in the first place—or more specifically, a case of hammertoes?

With the spring weather, Cincinnati running season is back in full force. By now you’ve probably seen the sidewalks and trails start to fill up more and more with friendly faces out for a jog. Maybe you’re one of them! We hope you are.

Anyone who does a lot of running knows the dangers of suddenly upping your distance or intensity. It may have been a long time coming, but you can suddenly develop a hairline crack in one of your foot bones from that extra effort, as well as gradually from general overuse. The thing is, even though it’s a surface break, it can hurt as much as an acute break that goes all the way through the bone. Stress fracture treatment is just as important as treating a full break.

At Family Foot and Ankle Center, our doctors have performed countless surgeries over the years for a wide range of foot and ankle problems—bunion removal, hammertoe correction, resetting fractures, tendon repair, and a lot more. Whatever your foot issue, we have the tools and training to provide the highest quality surgical care.

Few things can stop you from enjoying a pleasant summer day in Cincinnati quite like heel pain. If it hurts to walk too much or too far, unfortunately, most people just stop walking. Don’t go down that path! Heel pain is very treatable, and in fact many cases may be effectively managed through home care, including some gentle stretches.

Yoga is an ancient Indian discipline (actually, a group of disciplines) said to promote physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing through the practice of meditation, discipline, and control of the body. While it’s not our job to evaluate the metaphysical, we can say that practicing yoga can and does provide some significant benefits for those who practice it, and those benefits include pain relief and better overall foot health.

Have hammertoes? You’re not alone. This condition (along with its close siblings, mallet toe and claw toe) are among the most common toe deformities, and tend to run in families. If this potentially painful condition strikes your own toes, you may struggle to know what to do. Maybe mom or grandma had to have them corrected with surgery—will that happen to you, too?

You say pa-TAY-to, I say pa-TAH-toe … some differences are merely how we use language (the eternal pop vs. soda debate, for example), while others are more meaningful. Here’s another one you may have heard—hammertoes, mallet toes, and claw toes. Is there a difference between these toe deformities, and if so, what is it?

Hammers are often involved when you’re looking to fix something, but if the hammers are your toes, you probably need something fixed instead.