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Hammer Toe Your forefoot is made up of 4 phalanges (smaller toes) and 1 hallux (big toe). Your phalanges have 3 bones as well as 3 joints (MTP - nearest base of foot, PIP joint - middle, and DIP joint - tip of toe); your big toe only has 2 bones and joints. Your midfoot (metatarsal bones) and hindfoot (tarsal bones) make up your foot arches, instep, heel and ankle; these are responsible for weight bearing and propulsion. Your arches contain bones, ligaments, muscles and tendons of your foot, which require a lot of stability and flexibility.  Hammer toe makes your toes bend and look like a hammer. It causes your MTP joint to bend up and your PIP joint to bend down. This normally affects your second toe; however it can affect any of your small toes. It can be flexible (joint has ability to move) or rigid (joint has limited and/or no ability to move). Failure to treat it can breakdown tissues which affect the way you walk and lead to serious toe, foot, knee, or hip ailments, and/or infection. Hammer toe is among the most common toe deformities. Both men and women are at risk; however women are 5 times more likely to experience it than men. Also, the chance of suffering from hammer toe increases by 2 - 20% with age. Causes If you have hammer toe your flexor digitorum longus muscle (on bottom of toes) is often stronger than your other muscles; which creates an imbalance (your weaker toe muscles are overpowered). It exerts more tension on your foot which pulls your normal foot arch down - creating a flatter and longer foot.  Inappropriate footwear (short, tight, narrow, pointed, or high heels) puts pressure on your feet and keeps your toes in an unnatural, bent position. Wearing this type of shoe for long periods of time prevents your muscles from straightening your toe even when not wearing shoes. Often corns or calluses (hard growths of dead skin) or bunions (enlargement of bone or tissue on big toe) will develop around these pressure points from rubbing against shoes, which initiates hammer toe.  Conditions from birth, hereditary characteristics or abnormal toe bone lengths Muscle, nerve and joint damage from osteoarthritis, stroke, neuromuscular diseases (multiple sclerosis, Charcot-Marie Tooth disease, cerebral palsy, degenerative disc disease), inflammatory diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis) or diabetes, poor blood flow to your feet (peripheral arterial disease) Previous toe injuries, dislocation of toe joints or poor foot mechanics. Excessive weight and activity levels Symptoms You will often have constant pain in your toe when moving it as a result of corns, calluses, bunions or blisters; generally found on the top, tip or base of your toes. The discomfort from this and cramping in your toes can radiate to your entire foot and lower leg, and can lead to posture and balance changes (affecting the way you walk). Other hammer toe symptoms:
Diagnosing Hammer Toe  Your doctor will take your medical history and will examine your foot and toe for any deformities and inflammation (swelling, redness, heat, pain). He/she will analyze your flexibility, stability, and gait (the way you walk). Occasionally an x-ray (check for arthritis or bone and joint inflammation) or blood tests (rule out diseases or infections) may be requested. Treatment and Prevention Early diagnosis and proper treatment are important, however hammertoe can be difficult to prevent as symptoms often start long after you've had the condition. The goal is to relieve pain, reduce friction and transfer pressure from your sensitive areas. If your hammertoe is flexible, you can often manually straighten your toe. If your hammertoe is rigid, extra stress at the ball of your foot prevents your toe from straightening; you may require more extensive treatment. Failure to see improvements after conservative treatments may make surgery your only option.  Ultrasound is an excellent tool to reduce pain and inflammation when treating hammer toe. The application of ultrasound over the affected toe and foot area reduces swelling, increases blood flow, decreases pain, relieves tension making muscles and tendons more flexible, minimizes scar tissue, and helps tissues heal more quickly. It can be performed at home easily and safely with a portable ultrasound device. Other conservative treatments:
 Toe surgery (tenotomy, tendon transfer, arthroplasty, or arthrodesis) helps to straighten your toe joint in severe cases when the soft tissues in your toes become very stiff and don't move at all. However, surgery is not always effective; it may improve the look of your foot, however there's no guarantee the problem won't come back after surgery. Recovery from hammer toe can take between 4 weeks - 6 months, depending on the severity of your condition and your commitment to proper rehabilitation. The more dedicated you are with your treatments, the faster you will see successful, long-lasting results. See Toe Deformities for more detailed information. BFST™ - Using Your Body's Natural Healing System Your body can heal itself! In fact, your body starts healing itself the moment you are injured and it's the blood in your body that makes it all happen. Your blood is the transport mechanism for everything that is good inside you. It carries oxygen, nutrients, water and antibodies. Proper blood flow is essential to healing. Unfortunately, when you injure your body you stop moving and the swelling sets in. That means your vital blood flow can be reduced to a trickle! If you want to heal quickly, you need to keep your blood moving and that's where Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy™, or BFST™, comes in. Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy™ promotes the flow of blood through the injured area without the need to exercise your already damaged tissue. You can really feel it work. Within moments of applying an Inferno Wrap™ you can feel the healing sensation and the increase in blood flow. During a treatment, and for quite some time after you finish, your injured area will experience increased blood flow even though your body is at rest. It's a soothing sensation and extremely effective. With BFST™ your injury is constantly being fed with healing, nutritious, oxygen and energy filled blood. This is exactly what your body needs to heal. How An Inferno Wrap™ Works
Inferno Wraps™ have been specifically designed for the treatment of deep, soft tissue injury. Inferno Wraps contain a patented Energy Web™ which is flexible and shaped to conform to your body. This Energy Web™ emits a uniform wave of perfectly safe electro-magnetic energy over its entire surface. This energy travels deep inside your body and stimulates the blood flow needed to heal your injury.  If you suffer from mild inflammation or pain after certain activities or movements use ultrasound therapy when you complete the activity and then rest and elevate your area of injury. Limit the application of ultrasound to a couple of treatments per day (the manual will recommend treatment frequency depending upon the injury). In between ultrasound treatments, maximize your pain relief and injury recovery by using the Inferno Wrap™ Personal Therapy System. When you're on the go, and not near an electrical outlet, take advantage of the "wear anywhere" concept of our hot/cold wraps - the highest rated wraps in the industry. Proven Performance, Proven Relief - only found at MendMeShop.com. If you have been given a treatment plan by your health professional, make sure you adhere to it to ensure pain free living. In general, people who are committed to their therapies and exercises will have the best medical outcomes.
| Dear MendMeShop, At the end of the 2009 school year, (I'm a teacher) I developed plantar fasciitis in my right foot. I remember literally being in agony the last day of school and calling my orthopedic surgeon for an emergency appointment. He saw me, prescribed ice, supportive shoes, and offered to give me a shot of corticosteroid. He informed me that the shot might help but it also might make it worse! Needless to say, with that comment, I passed on the shot. I was really having a hard time with the pain. I began to search on the internet to find out all I could about plantar facsciitis and possible regimens to follow to aleviate my problem.. One site led to another and I finally found MendMeShop. MendMeShop offered a foot wrap that sounded like the perfect way to ice my foot. The plantar Freezie gel pack didn't freeze solid and the wrap molded perfectly to my foot. It certainly beat a tub full of hard ice! After that, I began researching the little ultrasound machine offered at MendMeShop. I was a little afraid of the price, but decided, after reading many testimonials, to invest in something many said worked well for them. I used the ultrasound regularly with great success along with the plantar Freezie. Following the directions in the ultrasound box, (I also got a phone call from MendMeShop to help me with the machine) I felt a great deal of difference in the level of pain in my foot after just a couple of days treatment. The condition is now gone from my right foot. I routinely exercise fairly vigorously including jogging on the treadmill. I would never have been able to do that last summer! My husband and I continue to use the ultrasound on sore tendons and muscle spasms. The ultrasound was a bit of an investment, but who can put a price on freedom from pain? Rating: Caroline Withers           |
