FLIP FLOPS & RAINBOWS

Tis the season to start wearing summer shoes. We see an increase in foot problems for those patients with plantar fasciitis, painful tendons,as well as flatfeet start to get worse as people start wearing these types of shoes for the wrong type of activity. Flip flops and rainbows are fine as limited us shoes in the foot that is not painful. Unfortunately this type of foot wear is worn too much in the summer which results in the foot and ankle not being supported properly. Further, patients who have skin conditions such as warts, athletes feet, severe cracks in heels, and other dermatitis issues tend to make these worse by wearing shoes that trap moisture in the feet which helps promote these types of conditions. No matter how hot is it we all need to wear the right shoe for the right situation. For example, when I walk, work in the yard, participate in sports I always wear good supportive shoes with my orthotics inside no matter how hot is it. The problems I see is that people spend too much time in flip flops, rainbows, and less supportive shoes when they are trying to increase their activity. Diabetic in particular place themselves at increased risk for physical injury using these types of shoes as their foot is exposed. One such patient just came in and reported riding a bike with flip flops VERY DANGEROUS!! My advise is if you are going to use flip flops or rainbows do plan on walking more than 30 minutes at a time in these types of shoes, avoid rough terrain, wet spots where you could slip and fall. Remember these are limited use type shoes they where not meant to be your primary foot wear all day long all summer long!