The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-11-18

you can do to get any relief is to
sit down. At any rate the fellow
who suffers from painful feet is
very vehement in telling you that
he will trade his kind of pain for
anyone else's.
The belief is so widespread as
10 be almost universal that pain in
the feet is due to fiat feet and that
the cause Of this is bad shoes and
standing too much, and that If only
you can get the right kind Of arch
support all your troubles are over.
Such a conception of the subject
of painful feet is far too simple.
The fact that lot Of people can
never get the right kind of arch
supports alone proves that some
thing must be wrong with the
theory.
The foot is a very complicated
mass of bones, joints, tendons, ar
teries, veins, muscles, nerves, bur-
sac, skin and nails and it is used
nearly as much as any organ of the
body and in performing its func-
tons it goes through quite COM
plicated set Of maneuvers. So n
number of things besides just get
ting fat can be wrong with it.
Every foot that is giving troublS
Is entitled to examination by all
the means available to modern
medicine, and that is not complete
when you just stand on piece Of
smoked paper in shoe store. The
cause of the trouble in your feet
may be revealed by blood count,
by heart examination, by nerve
test, by blood pressure reading,
an Xray, or, most of all, by a pa
tient and time consuming recital OF
the history Of your life.
The troublesome foot may be
explained by one or combination
of these factors. ~ Variations in
structure at the time Of birth that
are not consistent with severe
usage. (2) The adventures that
occur to the foot, including usage,
injury and disease. (3) The dele
FERROUS effect Of wearing apparel
which includes socks as well al
shoes.
Some feet are better burden
bearers than others. Foot wear
ing apparel becomes the sole con-
tributing factor to discomfort
when it interferes with natural
use by limiting the room the foot
should have, and altering the dis
tribution Of weight.
Causes Of Painful Feet
In naming some Of the other fac.
tors which cause painful feet be-
sides fat feet will avoid such ia
miliar subjects as bunions and
corns and mention a few causes
that the man in the street does not
ordinarily think Of.
Arthritis. The foot has over
fifty joint surfaces and joints can
go haywire. Freiburg's disease is
a form Of arthritis Of the joints Of
the big and second toe due to some
circulatory trouble and repeated
slight injury. 1t mimics fiat foot
very closely, is revealed by the
Xray, can be successfully treated.
Arthritis may affect the feet and
no other joints in the body.
Epiphysitis of the calcanei or
heel bone often affects children,
is often ascribed to fat feet, chill
dren seldom have fiat feet.
Shortness of the metatarsal, or
long bones, Of the feet. This is a
congenital defect, comes under
heading one of our classification,
but is not strictly fat foot. The
bones are too short right on the
ball Of the foot. High heels bring
torture TO women with this condi-
ton. So does a standing occupa-
ton. II can be easily seen on the
Xray. Proper and especially con-
structed shoes-high-toed shoes
bring great and heartfelt relief.