There are many roads to pain, and arthritis certainly accounts for more than its fair share. It affects 1 in 4 adults in the United States. Arthritis is a catchall term for more than 100 different conditions that lead to joint pain and inflammation, and this certainly includes your feet and ankles.
As foot health experts, our team here at Aesthetic Podiatry & Sports Medicine Center, including Dr. Mariola Rivera and Dr. Lisa Shah, routinely helps our patients who are experiencing foot or ankle pain due to arthritis.
To give you an idea about what we’re up against, we want to review the four main types of arthritis that can affect your feet and ankles and how we can help.
When it comes to gout, your feet are in the direct line of fire — mainly the joints in your big toe. Gout occurs when uric acid builds up in your body, which can lead to the formation of sharp and painful crystals in these joints.
The good news for the more than 3% of American adults who have this form of arthritis is that there are solutions. From medications we can prescribe during a gout flare-up to lifestyle changes that can prevent gout, we provide you with what you need.
Far and away, the most common form of arthritis is osteoarthritis (OA), which experts predict will affect 1 billion people around the world by 2050. Each of your feet and ankles contains more than 30 joints, and any of them can develop OA, a condition in which the cartilage breaks down.
Also called a wear-and-tear disease, OA has no cure, but there are ways we can help you move more comfortably, such as with custom orthotics. We can also turn to regenerative medicine to provide the joints in your feet and ankles with resources that can boost repairs.
Of the millions of Americans living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), about 90% develop arthritis in their feet and ankles. RA is an autoimmune disease in which your body mistakenly attacks your joints.
While a rheumatologist can help you address the overall disease, we can do our part to make your feet more comfortable through custom orthotics, injections, electroshockwave therapy and MLS laser therapy to reduce pain and inflammation.
If you have psoriatic arthritis, which is an autoimmune issue, you’re more vulnerable to foot and ankle conditions, including:
If you know you have psoriatic arthritis and you’re also experiencing foot issues, please come see us so we can determine whether they’re related. From there, we can find the best path forward to reducing the discomfort in your feet.
As you can see, arthritis can strike your feet and ankles in different forms, but we can fight back against each.
For expert arthritis care in your feet and ankles, we invite you to book an appointment online or by phone 914-328-3400 or 914-939-4101 at one of our offices in Purchase or White Plains, New York.
