January 21, 2024 • 13 mins
Ever found yourself hobbling around after a seemingly innocent jog, wondering why your foot feels like it's plotting against you? It's time to unravel the mysteries of common foot injuries with me, Dr. Lauren Dabakaroff, and my co-host Jeremy Wolf. On today's LMD Podiatry Podcast, we're not just talking about the occasional stubbed toe; we're delving into the nitty-gritty of sprains, stress fractures, and the dreaded tendonitis. Get ready to learn how your everyday activities could be setting the stage for a foot faux pas and, more importantly, how to sidestep these pitfalls for a pain-free stride into the new year.
This episode is your ultimate guide to understanding and preventing those pesky podiatric pains that can come from both high-impact sports and simple daily motions. We'll break down the difference between injuries resulting from repetitive abuse versus sudden, unfortunate encounters with gravity. Plus, we'll share our expert insights on the importance of building a solid foundation through stretching and strength training to keep you dancing through life without missing a beat. So, slip on your comfiest headphones (sorry, we don't do shoe fittings here!) and join us for a journey to happier, healthier feet.
To learn more, visit: LMDpodiatry.com or contact (954) 680-7133
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the LMD podiatry podcast.
Trust us to get back on yourfeet.
Here's your host, Dr LaurenDevakarov.
Jeremy (00:14):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode
of the LMD podiatry podcast.
I'm your cohost, Jeremy Wolfe,joined by your host, dr Lauren.
Dr Lauren, so nice to see youagain.
Dr. Lauren (00:26):
Nice to see you too, Jeremy.
Jeremy (00:27):
Yeah, I don't think we've spoken since the New Year.
So happy New Year to you andhappy New Year, sure, you're
ready for a bright andprosperous 2024.
Dr. Lauren (00:36):
Yes, I'm very excited Hoping it starts on the
right foot.
Jeremy (00:43):
Pun intended.
Oh, and thanks to our listenersfor tuning in.
So, as you know, it's like Ifeel like I'm on a journey here,
like my running journey justcontinues.
I'm still running, I'm stillout there.
Thankfully, I have beenfortunate to not have too many
serious foot injury injuriesfrom my my newfound activities.
But I thought we could get intosome common types of foot
(01:05):
industry industries.
Foot injuries that folks getyou know everything from like
stress fractures to sprains.
So why don't you start off withthat, and then we shall proceed
from there?
Dr. Lauren (01:20):
So you know, foot pain in general is a big thing.
That's like probably the numberone thing that brings patients
walking through my door becausenobody likes pain, nobody looks
like pain in their foot becausethey need their feet to walk.
So when you have an injurythere's like so many different
injuries A person can getanywhere, from like a toe sprain
(01:42):
, a foot sprain, an ankle sprain.
You can get a tendon itis.
You can get partial tear ofeither a tendon or a ligament.
You know ligaments holdtogether bones to bones, tendons
hold muscle to bone togetherand a lot of time people play
(02:03):
pickleball or, you know,basketball.
They get all of these differenttypes of injuries and there's
many, many different approachesto healing it and there's also a
lot of factors that play intothe healing process of injuries
in general.
Jeremy (02:21):
What are some of the most common?
Let's just touch maybe on someof the more common injuries that
folks get maybe, like I'dimagine, sprains and maybe
stress fractures are, to maybeget into those in a little bit
more detail what they, what theyare, what's going on there and
some good ways to prevent thetreatment the most common thing.
Dr. Lauren (02:39):
The most common sprain I see is an ankle sprain,
like someone plays basketball,lands on their foot, rolls it
out and then they get you knowit's called the lateral ankle
sprain, sprain on the outside ofyour ankle, so that's pretty
common.
A lot of people, like mostpatients, have it, so that's a
(02:59):
pretty common sprain.
As far as like running injuriesor other sports injuries, like
if you're, if it's a sportthat's very repetitive, like
running or tennis, so you canget, like you know, a tendonitis
, like your tendon is alwaysinflamed and tight.
So those are like, those areinjuries that are more
(03:22):
repetitive sports.
And then there's like directtrauma, like you fall, you fell
or you tripped.
You know it's a little bitdifferent, different types of
injuries.
Jeremy (03:33):
Yeah, so I guess the ones that come from more
repetitive motions, the onesthat aren't quite as traumatic.
There's clearly a lot of thingsyou can do to prevent those
types of injuries from occurringin the first place.
Maybe touch upon some of thethings I know we've talked about
stretching, obviously.
Strength training is a big partof that, right, right?
Dr. Lauren (03:52):
It is definitely.
There's a lot of ways toprevent injuries from happening.
Jeremy (03:58):
yet yeah, many things that I'll be the first to say
that I don't do enough of.
So I think it's probably whyI've been prone to injury in my
life, because I don't do a lotof the preventative side.
So I really need to do thatmore, for sure.
So what is a stress fracture?
Dr. Lauren (04:16):
for those that don't know, A stress fracture is also
in the category of repetitivemotion.
So like, for example, it'sreally common to get a stress
fracture in your metatarsal,which is the long bone of your
foot, especially in runners,like they are pounding the
(04:38):
pavement with the same motionover and over and over again,
and sometimes you know if theyjust they're not wearing the
right shoes or they're, you know, running on concrete versus
asphalt asphalt's actuallysofter For example, like they
can get that stress fracture.
Basically, it's like the bonebreaks in on itself.
(05:02):
So it's not like it's not abreak, it's a stress fracture.
Like the bone is trying tobreak but it's not, and that's a
stress fracture.
I think that's the best waythat I could kind of-.
Jeremy (05:16):
Is that the same as a hairline fracture?
Is that the same thing?
Dr. Lauren (05:18):
It's similar to a hairline fracture.
Yeah, it's like you know, ifyou just keep using you know,
breaking the bone in the samespot or putting pressure on the
bone in the same spot over andover and over again, you get a
stress fracture which is ahairline fracture, like it
doesn't actually break, like thetwo pieces of bone don't
(05:40):
actually separate, but there is.
The bone is not whole and it'sreally hard to pick up on X-ray
and you know, usually it'sdiagnosed with an MRI pretty
much.
But that does happen from more,from repetitive running and
sports and things like that,like track and field and tennis
(06:03):
and pickleball and all that kindof stuff.
Jeremy (06:05):
So here's a question for you that I have, as somebody
that has been running a lotBalancing rest and activity like
recovery periods should you bedoing I mean, I guess there's a
lot of other factors that gointo this, though, but like, oh,
it's just for me, 44 year oldman started running.
Should I be out there likerunning five, six days a week,
(06:27):
or is that no good?
Should I do like three days onand one off, like, how should I
implement and incorporate restand recovery into that?
Dr. Lauren (06:34):
I mean, you know when you go to the gym, right.
If you haven't gone to the gymfor a while, what happened?
Like your muscles start aching.
You have all the crushed yeah,so it's the same thing with the
foot.
Like you can, you can run everyday.
You just have to kind of Becognizant and mindful about the
(06:56):
environment, like what are yourunning on?
What shoes are you running in?
Are you protecting your feetand your toes?
Are you stretching Before andafter you know?
If you feel like your foot's alittle bit sore, did you ice it
right away, right after?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
the run.
Dr. Lauren (07:16):
You know what I mean .
So some people, just like a lotof people, don't replenish
their electrolytes and don'tdrink enough water, and then you
know they're more prone to.
You know these injuries andthings like that, like muscle
strains, and you know Pull.
You know muscle pulls, musclestrains, which it can happen in
your foot and your leg as well.
Like people get sense.
(07:37):
You know what shin splints are.
Jeremy (07:40):
I've heard shin splint many, many times, but I'd be
hard-pressed to give you anactual explanation.
Dr. Lauren (07:45):
So you know, it's when the front part of the lower
leg hurts when you walk and runand it's mostly because you're
wearing the wrong shoe andyou're not stretching or you
might have an abnormal foot typethat creates that abnormal
tug-and-pull when you are doingmore heavier activities.
Jeremy (08:09):
Now, that makes sense.
Dr. Lauren (08:10):
So it almost feels like the front of your leg is
exploding.
That's what it feels like feelslike it's what exploding.
Jeremy (08:17):
Yeah that's no good.
Dr. Lauren (08:20):
No, it feels like height and like you can't keep
walking.
So you know the best way to fixthat is, you know, stretching
and an orthotic, because thefoot does crave a lot more
support than people think.
Jeremy (08:36):
Yeah, or unless you're David Goggins, in which case the
best way to fix that is just tokeep running until you fall
over.
Dr. Lauren (08:42):
Yeah, let's not be him.
Jeremy (08:46):
Truly a beast that man is for sure.
Dr. Lauren (08:51):
So, yeah, I think there, you know a lot of runners
and athletes they also there's,you know, you tape, you can
tape your foot Like.
A lot of people use kinesiotape and things like that, and I
do show that in my office.
I teach patients how to tapetheir foot Before the run so
that what the what the tapingdoes is it helps the muscles and
(09:14):
tendons move better, like it'sreally in.
You know, it's not better, it'sit helps it go in the right
direction and that's kind of howkinesio tape works.
So there's kinesio tape,there's, you know, ankle and
foot scrappings and toesGrappings and all the kind of
(09:35):
stuff that I do teach patientsin the office and it makes for a
better workout, for a betterrun.
I mean, you even see it indancers how they tape their toes
and things like that.
Jeremy (09:46):
Yeah, I imagine when the toes are, when the toes are
restricted from moving all overthe place, there's gonna be less
friction, there's gonna be lesspropensity for them to kind of
get blisters and rub up like,for if someone has like
arthritis in their big toe Rightand they want to run but
there's no motion there.
Dr. Lauren (10:02):
So I teach patients you know how to tape it so that
they take Less pressure.
They take more pressure offthat joint so that they don't
have pain when they do run,which I could mimic in a custom
orthotic, for example.
Jeremy (10:16):
Okay, a lot of different topics, obviously a lot of
injuries, and I think we kind ofgave a broad overview of a few
of them.
Dr. Lauren (10:23):
Yeah, there's, it's spraying, you know you're.
The major injuries are sprains,strains, muscle, uh, spraying
strains, tendonitis fractures,stress fractures those are like
the main injuries that thathappened.
Jeremy (10:41):
Yeah.
So I think again we kind oftouched on you know these topics
and a really kind of basicoverview.
Maybe it would make sense insome future segments to do to
really hone in on each specifictype of injury and ailment and
really kind of dig deeper andgive listeners you know a little
bit more information oneverything.
But are there any other Typesof injuries that you wanted to
(11:06):
touch upon before we wrapped uphere?
Dr. Lauren (11:09):
No, not specifically , but I will say this the reason
why I brought up Injuries as atopic today in general is the
number one thing that patientsdo wrong when they do have an
injury is they keep walking onit and they think they can walk
it off.
It's very important to come, goand see you, go to an urgent
(11:29):
care, or your local actress, meand you.
It's very important when you dohave a sprain or a strain or
anything, or a fracture, toimmobilize Right away, because
the sooner you force your foot,an ankle, to rest in the correct
position, the faster it heals.
(11:51):
And then, when you don't let itheal correctly, you end up with
chronic Issues, chronic scartissue and things like that.
And then you guys end up herewith chronic pain.
And I'm just this is just aninform for information, so you
guys will prevent that from everhappening.
Like, don't just walk it off,don't just brush it under the
(12:14):
rug.
You have pain, it's telling yousomething, you want to fix it
before it gets bad or worse.
Jeremy (12:23):
That just made me think about David Goggins again.
I just heard I just heard apodcast of them.
He was talking about how he wasin a whatever Ultramarathon and
he had stress, stress,fractures in his legs and the
pain was unbearable and he justhe worked his way through it and
he self through Continuing togo harder, and harder, and
harder, which is just like socounterintuitive and it's
(12:46):
probably not something that thatis made for everybody to do,
and I'm sure that fast forward10, 15 years, no, he's gonna
have a lot of problems.
Dr. Lauren (12:54):
You know I don't want to say anything, but listen
ballet dancers.
They work through it and theytape it and you know there's
ways to get around it.
But in the end of the day yourbody just wants you to rest and
you got to let it, because ifyou don't let it it's not gonna
get better.
Jeremy (13:09):
No, makes a whole lot of sense.
All right, cool, dr Lauren.
Always a pleasure your wealthof knowledge.
Thank you for sharing your tipsand insights for our listeners
and to our listeners.
Thanks for tuning in and wewill catch you all next time.
Everyone, have a wonderful dayand take care.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Thank you for listening to the LMD podiatry
podcast.
For more information, visit LMDpodiatrycom.
That's LMD podiatrycom, lmdpodiatrycom, or call
954-680-7133.
Welcome to the LMD podiatry podcast.
Trust us to get back on yourfeet.
Here's your host, Dr LaurenDevakarov.
Jeremy (00:14):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode
of the LMD podiatry podcast.
I'm your cohost, Jeremy Wolfe,joined by your host, dr Lauren.
Dr Lauren, so nice to see youagain.
Dr. Lauren (00:26):
Nice to see you too, Jeremy.
Jeremy (00:27):
Yeah, I don't think we've spoken since the New Year.
So happy New Year to you andhappy New Year, sure, you're
ready for a bright andprosperous 2024.
Dr. Lauren (00:36):
Yes, I'm very excited Hoping it starts on the
right foot.
Jeremy (00:43):
Pun intended.
Oh, and thanks to our listenersfor tuning in.
So, as you know, it's like Ifeel like I'm on a journey here,
like my running journey justcontinues.
I'm still running, I'm stillout there.
Thankfully, I have beenfortunate to not have too many
serious foot injury injuriesfrom my my newfound activities.
But I thought we could get intosome common types of foot
(01:05):
industry industries.
Foot injuries that folks getyou know everything from like
stress fractures to sprains.
So why don't you start off withthat, and then we shall proceed
from there?
Dr. Lauren (01:20):
So you know, foot pain in general is a big thing.
That's like probably the numberone thing that brings patients
walking through my door becausenobody likes pain, nobody looks
like pain in their foot becausethey need their feet to walk.
So when you have an injurythere's like so many different
injuries A person can getanywhere, from like a toe sprain
(01:42):
, a foot sprain, an ankle sprain.
You can get a tendon itis.
You can get partial tear ofeither a tendon or a ligament.
You know ligaments holdtogether bones to bones, tendons
hold muscle to bone togetherand a lot of time people play
(02:03):
pickleball or, you know,basketball.
They get all of these differenttypes of injuries and there's
many, many different approachesto healing it and there's also a
lot of factors that play intothe healing process of injuries
in general.
Jeremy (02:21):
What are some of the most common?
Let's just touch maybe on someof the more common injuries that
folks get maybe, like I'dimagine, sprains and maybe
stress fractures are, to maybeget into those in a little bit
more detail what they, what theyare, what's going on there and
some good ways to prevent thetreatment the most common thing.
Dr. Lauren (02:39):
The most common sprain I see is an ankle sprain,
like someone plays basketball,lands on their foot, rolls it
out and then they get you knowit's called the lateral ankle
sprain, sprain on the outside ofyour ankle, so that's pretty
common.
A lot of people, like mostpatients, have it, so that's a
(02:59):
pretty common sprain.
As far as like running injuriesor other sports injuries, like
if you're, if it's a sportthat's very repetitive, like
running or tennis, so you canget, like you know, a tendonitis
, like your tendon is alwaysinflamed and tight.
So those are like, those areinjuries that are more
(03:22):
repetitive sports.
And then there's like directtrauma, like you fall, you fell
or you tripped.
You know it's a little bitdifferent, different types of
injuries.
Jeremy (03:33):
Yeah, so I guess the ones that come from more
repetitive motions, the onesthat aren't quite as traumatic.
There's clearly a lot of thingsyou can do to prevent those
types of injuries from occurringin the first place.
Maybe touch upon some of thethings I know we've talked about
stretching, obviously.
Strength training is a big partof that, right, right?
Dr. Lauren (03:52):
It is definitely.
There's a lot of ways toprevent injuries from happening.
Jeremy (03:58):
yet yeah, many things that I'll be the first to say
that I don't do enough of.
So I think it's probably whyI've been prone to injury in my
life, because I don't do a lotof the preventative side.
So I really need to do thatmore, for sure.
So what is a stress fracture?
Dr. Lauren (04:16):
for those that don't know, A stress fracture is also
in the category of repetitivemotion.
So like, for example, it'sreally common to get a stress
fracture in your metatarsal,which is the long bone of your
foot, especially in runners,like they are pounding the
(04:38):
pavement with the same motionover and over and over again,
and sometimes you know if theyjust they're not wearing the
right shoes or they're, you know, running on concrete versus
asphalt asphalt's actuallysofter For example, like they
can get that stress fracture.
Basically, it's like the bonebreaks in on itself.
(05:02):
So it's not like it's not abreak, it's a stress fracture.
Like the bone is trying tobreak but it's not, and that's a
stress fracture.
I think that's the best waythat I could kind of-.
Jeremy (05:16):
Is that the same as a hairline fracture?
Is that the same thing?
Dr. Lauren (05:18):
It's similar to a hairline fracture.
Yeah, it's like you know, ifyou just keep using you know,
breaking the bone in the samespot or putting pressure on the
bone in the same spot over andover and over again, you get a
stress fracture which is ahairline fracture, like it
doesn't actually break, like thetwo pieces of bone don't
(05:40):
actually separate, but there is.
The bone is not whole and it'sreally hard to pick up on X-ray
and you know, usually it'sdiagnosed with an MRI pretty
much.
But that does happen from more,from repetitive running and
sports and things like that,like track and field and tennis
(06:03):
and pickleball and all that kindof stuff.
Jeremy (06:05):
So here's a question for you that I have, as somebody
that has been running a lotBalancing rest and activity like
recovery periods should you bedoing I mean, I guess there's a
lot of other factors that gointo this, though, but like, oh,
it's just for me, 44 year oldman started running.
Should I be out there likerunning five, six days a week,
(06:27):
or is that no good?
Should I do like three days onand one off, like, how should I
implement and incorporate restand recovery into that?
Dr. Lauren (06:34):
I mean, you know when you go to the gym, right.
If you haven't gone to the gymfor a while, what happened?
Like your muscles start aching.
You have all the crushed yeah,so it's the same thing with the
foot.
Like you can, you can run everyday.
You just have to kind of Becognizant and mindful about the
(06:56):
environment, like what are yourunning on?
What shoes are you running in?
Are you protecting your feetand your toes?
Are you stretching Before andafter you know?
If you feel like your foot's alittle bit sore, did you ice it
right away, right after?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
the run.
Dr. Lauren (07:16):
You know what I mean .
So some people, just like a lotof people, don't replenish
their electrolytes and don'tdrink enough water, and then you
know they're more prone to.
You know these injuries andthings like that, like muscle
strains, and you know Pull.
You know muscle pulls, musclestrains, which it can happen in
your foot and your leg as well.
Like people get sense.
(07:37):
You know what shin splints are.
Jeremy (07:40):
I've heard shin splint many, many times, but I'd be
hard-pressed to give you anactual explanation.
Dr. Lauren (07:45):
So you know, it's when the front part of the lower
leg hurts when you walk and runand it's mostly because you're
wearing the wrong shoe andyou're not stretching or you
might have an abnormal foot typethat creates that abnormal
tug-and-pull when you are doingmore heavier activities.
Jeremy (08:09):
Now, that makes sense.
Dr. Lauren (08:10):
So it almost feels like the front of your leg is
exploding.
That's what it feels like feelslike it's what exploding.
Jeremy (08:17):
Yeah that's no good.
Dr. Lauren (08:20):
No, it feels like height and like you can't keep
walking.
So you know the best way to fixthat is, you know, stretching
and an orthotic, because thefoot does crave a lot more
support than people think.
Jeremy (08:36):
Yeah, or unless you're David Goggins, in which case the
best way to fix that is just tokeep running until you fall
over.
Dr. Lauren (08:42):
Yeah, let's not be him.
Jeremy (08:46):
Truly a beast that man is for sure.
Dr. Lauren (08:51):
So, yeah, I think there, you know a lot of runners
and athletes they also there's,you know, you tape, you can
tape your foot Like.
A lot of people use kinesiotape and things like that, and I
do show that in my office.
I teach patients how to tapetheir foot Before the run so
that what the what the tapingdoes is it helps the muscles and
(09:14):
tendons move better, like it'sreally in.
You know, it's not better, it'sit helps it go in the right
direction and that's kind of howkinesio tape works.
So there's kinesio tape,there's, you know, ankle and
foot scrappings and toesGrappings and all the kind of
(09:35):
stuff that I do teach patientsin the office and it makes for a
better workout, for a betterrun.
I mean, you even see it indancers how they tape their toes
and things like that.
Jeremy (09:46):
Yeah, I imagine when the toes are, when the toes are
restricted from moving all overthe place, there's gonna be less
friction, there's gonna be lesspropensity for them to kind of
get blisters and rub up like,for if someone has like
arthritis in their big toe Rightand they want to run but
there's no motion there.
Dr. Lauren (10:02):
So I teach patients you know how to tape it so that
they take Less pressure.
They take more pressure offthat joint so that they don't
have pain when they do run,which I could mimic in a custom
orthotic, for example.
Jeremy (10:16):
Okay, a lot of different topics, obviously a lot of
injuries, and I think we kind ofgave a broad overview of a few
of them.
Dr. Lauren (10:23):
Yeah, there's, it's spraying, you know you're.
The major injuries are sprains,strains, muscle, uh, spraying
strains, tendonitis fractures,stress fractures those are like
the main injuries that thathappened.
Jeremy (10:41):
Yeah.
So I think again we kind oftouched on you know these topics
and a really kind of basicoverview.
Maybe it would make sense insome future segments to do to
really hone in on each specifictype of injury and ailment and
really kind of dig deeper andgive listeners you know a little
bit more information oneverything.
But are there any other Typesof injuries that you wanted to
(11:06):
touch upon before we wrapped uphere?
Dr. Lauren (11:09):
No, not specifically , but I will say this the reason
why I brought up Injuries as atopic today in general is the
number one thing that patientsdo wrong when they do have an
injury is they keep walking onit and they think they can walk
it off.
It's very important to come, goand see you, go to an urgent
(11:29):
care, or your local actress, meand you.
It's very important when you dohave a sprain or a strain or
anything, or a fracture, toimmobilize Right away, because
the sooner you force your foot,an ankle, to rest in the correct
position, the faster it heals.
(11:51):
And then, when you don't let itheal correctly, you end up with
chronic Issues, chronic scartissue and things like that.
And then you guys end up herewith chronic pain.
And I'm just this is just aninform for information, so you
guys will prevent that from everhappening.
Like, don't just walk it off,don't just brush it under the
(12:14):
rug.
You have pain, it's telling yousomething, you want to fix it
before it gets bad or worse.
Jeremy (12:23):
That just made me think about David Goggins again.
I just heard I just heard apodcast of them.
He was talking about how he wasin a whatever Ultramarathon and
he had stress, stress,fractures in his legs and the
pain was unbearable and he justhe worked his way through it and
he self through Continuing togo harder, and harder, and
harder, which is just like socounterintuitive and it's
(12:46):
probably not something that thatis made for everybody to do,
and I'm sure that fast forward10, 15 years, no, he's gonna
have a lot of problems.
Dr. Lauren (12:54):
You know I don't want to say anything, but listen
ballet dancers.
They work through it and theytape it and you know there's
ways to get around it.
But in the end of the day yourbody just wants you to rest and
you got to let it, because ifyou don't let it it's not gonna
get better.
Jeremy (13:09):
No, makes a whole lot of sense.
All right, cool, dr Lauren.
Always a pleasure your wealthof knowledge.
Thank you for sharing your tipsand insights for our listeners
and to our listeners.
Thanks for tuning in and wewill catch you all next time.
Everyone, have a wonderful dayand take care.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Thank you for listening to the LMD podiatry
podcast.
For more information, visit LMDpodiatrycom.
That's LMD podiatrycom, lmdpodiatrycom, or call
954-680-7133.
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