Joint Replacement Archive

Many factors can impair balance and lead to falls, such as vision, hearing, or joint problems; medication side effects; and environmental hazards. To improve balance and reduce the risk for falls, one can remove fall hazards from the home, treat underlying conditions that increase fall risk, consider adjusting medications that affect balance, get physical therapy, use an assistive walking device, wear supportive shoes that hold the feet in place, and frequently challenge balance with balance exercises.

Thick, dead skin patches (calluses) on the heels sometimes become cracked. The condition, known as cracked heels, makes it hard to walk and increases the risk for infection, since cracks open the door for bacteria to enter the body. If infected, cracked heels can turn into foot wounds that become hard to heal, especially in people with diabetes or peripheral artery disease who have poor circulation in their legs and feet.

Painful conditions like de Quervain's tenosynovitis, inflammation of the tendons that move the thumb, and stenosing tenosynovitis, or trigger finger, when a digit becomes locked, can develop due to overuse or repetitive movement.

News briefs

When you have knee pain, you just want it to go away so you can walk without having to limp or wince with every step. And a small, randomized trial published online Jan. 12, 2021, by Annals of Internal Medicine found that one type of shoe might be best for the job. Researchers took 164 people ages 50 or older with moderate or severe knee arthritis and randomly assigned half of the group to wear stable, supportive shoes with thick soles that didn't bend much. The other half was assigned flat shoes with thin, flexible soles, which are believed by some to provide a benefit by allowing more natural movement of the leg and foot. Both groups wore their assigned shoes for six hours per day and took part in activities such as walking during that time. After six months, 58% of people in the stable, supportive shoe group reported a reduction in knee pain while walking, compared with 40% of people reporting pain reduction after wearing the flat, flexible shoes. In both groups, the pain reduction probably was a benefit of regular walking. The people wearing flexible shoes were also twice as likely to develop ankle or foot pain, compared with those wearing sturdy shoes. So if you have knee pain, keep walking — in sturdy shoes.

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Ask the doctors

Q. I was worried about drying my nails with a lamp or light box at the nail salon because of the potential risk of cancer from the ultraviolet radiation, but my salon recently switched to LED lamps. Are they safer?

A. The light boxes used to cure polish during gel manicures, and to dry traditional nail polish, have raised some concern because — like tanning beds — they emit ultraviolet A (UVA) radiation, which is associated with a higher cancer risk. A 2014 study in JAMA Dermatology found that the level of UVA exposure associated with a gel manicure every two weeks probably isn't high enough to increase the risk of skin cancer significantly, but you are wise to be aware of the issue.