February is Black History Month, a time to reflect on issues of historical importance and to celebrate the many achievements of African Americans in the arts, academia, medicine, and more. At Clifton Foot & Ankle Center, we’re taking a moment during Black History Month to get a closer look at race as it relates to the…

If your child is an infant, he definitely has flat feet! All babies are born with extra fat even in their feet so it looks like they have no arch (that space between the ground and the inside middle of your foot when you’re standing up). By the time they’re about 5 or 6 years old,…

What could there possibly be to say about buying shoes – you go to the store, you pick out something you like, find your size, maybe you try them on, they look pretty good, you take a quick walk up and down the aisle, you pay and walk out. Your closet’s full of shoes, you…

What would we do without our toes?! All ten of them are there for good reason and our body balances best when it has the full cooperation of our toes. That’s not to say that we can’t stand, walk, and run with fewer than 10 – people do it. Toes must sometimes be amputated due…

There’s a particular group of maladies that are named after the person who first “discovered” them. One of these is Raynaud’s disease, also called Raynaud’s phenomenon or Raynaud’s syndrome. A. G. Maurice Raynaud was the 19th-century French physician who first took a group of symptoms that affect mainly the fingers and toes, and named them after…

If you have chronic pain in your toes, heel, ankle, or anywhere else on your foot, what can you do about it? One of the smartest things you can do is to get an evaluation as soon as possible by an expert in all things “feet.” You need a foot doctor and in northern Virginia that means…

It’s resolution time – again! How did we find ourselves in January, once again, resolving to act nicer, stick to a budget, eat healthier, lose weight, etc., etc.? New Year’s resolutions often revolve around ways to be healthier, and one of the best ones you can stick to is to exercise more. If you’ve resolved…

The heat is on. People with diabetes often have problems with dry, itchy skin. So the diabetic foot can get dry as it is, but once the heat goes on indoors, your skin is even more susceptible to drying out and cracking. Keeping feet moisturized in the wintertime becomes even more essential, since cracked skin invites bacteria…

Take the word rice. What does it conjure up in your mind? Images of vibrantly green rice paddies in the Far East? Maybe a healthy dinner of whole grain brown rice topped with some steamed veggies? Some Mexican rice and beans? There’s no question that rice is a staple all over the world. In the…

Ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries of the lower leg. There are so many ways you can twist your ankle in an awkward way: running, jogging, stepping on an uneven surface, and even just standing up and putting weight on a tired ankle can cause a sprain. When it happens, the ligaments…