Happy New Year to all our patients and web visitors. What is it that fully describes a state of true happiness when it comes to foot health? Think about it, healthy feet are not really something you spend much time thinking about. Whenever there are reasons for feet to be painful, you need a specialist qualified to assess what factors have led to the pain developing. Very often we downgrade the importance of addressing foot pain. We fail to fully understand the long term potential foot pain has, to alter our quality of life. Think of any member of your family, no matter how young or how old, and the effect foot pain can have on their life. For children it may mean being less able to carry out social games or sport at school, for a teenager it may be discouraging to enter a profession that they may really like to choose, because of pain in their feet. For young mothers it can mean an added burden, putting up with foot pain that distracts away from the pleasure of caring for their families. For a worker, it can very easily lead to danger in the workplace and potential life threatening accidents, if unable to concentrate on work due to pain. For a potentially A grade athlete or sports person, unaddressed foot problems can lead to missing out on professional career paths. So if you feel like your feet are killing you, take the necessary steps and come and see me, and with over 200 foot problems that I treat, your answer to relief from your pain may not be so far away!

Overseas patients

When our patients come to see us from overseas, we are able to assist them with recommendations and arrangements for accommodation. Why not take a holiday in Cairns while you are having Podiatric medicine treatment at our surgery? Cairns is a beautiful tropical city in Far North Queensland, and beautiful beaches and Rainforests are only the surface of what our beautiful city of approximately 120,000 people offers.

Questions about long standing foot and lower limb pain.

Patients ask me every day, “Jeremy, if the solution to my foot pain was so obvious, why didn’t another health professional pick this up years ago?” And the answer is quite easy, if more health professionals were trained in biomechanics and pathomechanics of the foot and lower limb, then they would have picked up many things a lot earlier too. We have specialist training in the biological link to the physical mechanics and physics of the human body. Our specialist training takes us into Chemistry, Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology, Dermatology, Radiology, pharmacology and Pathology, to mention some of the areas! When we make a diagnosis, it is formed from the complex relationship between many different disciplines. So, remember, when it comes to your foot health you need a specialist qualified and trained to treat over 200 identified conditions in the feet, and we treat them all. If you ever require further information about a foot or lower limb treatment program, give us a call or email us anytime.

When were your Orthotics last checked?

Prescription foot Orthotics are exactly that, they have been prescribed for you. No matter how well you look after your orthotics, they are undergoing high ground reaction force loads, and need to be re-assessed on a regular basis. I recommend a yearly check minimum, and this is necessary anyway, as anybody who is prescribed orthotics should be having a yearly podiatry visit. Prescription orthotics are made of specially selected materials that have different polymer memories and supporting capabilities. A return of your foot pain may be an indication that the present prescription is now inadequate for the originally intended podiatric medical application. It does not matter who made your first pair, they will be re-assessed from the beginning, to establish whether they are still suitable, or whether you still require them. So bring them in and I will arrange for them to be checked.

Exercise and Podiatric Medicine.

Never ignore the place of exercise in our podiatric medical health. The presence of exercise in our week can lead to a 50 year old man having better aerobic fitness than a non-active 20 year old. Vital systems of the body will work and function better in the presence of well planned exercise programs. If you have any chronic medical conditions, you should consult your Doctor or Podiatrist before embarking on a program. But even 20 minutes of walking three times a week is a move in the right direction. I am able to work with you to set an exercise program, and I am also able to look at your nutrition as well, and assist in establishing whether it is suitable for your overall podiatric health. Come and let’s talk about it soon. Remember, every day of delay in an exercise plan, is a day where you have missed one of the most important medicines you can give yourself.

Have a beautiful 2010 and see you soon!

Jeremy Hawke and the GeoClean Health Podiatry Team.