Apr. 10–Getting more than 30 artificial legs to long-waiting amputees in the Dominican Republic took a lot of planning and hard work.

After weeks of pre-trip logistical complications, unexpected expenses and fears that the trip might fall through — as one to Mexico had a year before — five prosthetics experts made their journey to the Caribbean nation.

They got what they expected, more hard work, and then some on the March 1-11 trip that they called Operation Compassion.

“In my whole life, this is probably the best thing I’ve ever seen,” Dr. Saul Morris of Warren said of the trip.

Morris coordinated the trip and is founder of M-STAR (Michigan Society to Advance Rehabilitation), an organization that serves amputees.

“We got 30 people walking, and in a short time. We had children who had never walked. We had people who hadn’t walked in 20 years,” Morris said.

M-STAR collected many of the artificial legs that would go to people in the Dominican Republic, and it located the would-be recipients who often wait years to get prosthetic limbs.

The legs, which range in price from $2,000 to $8,000, were donated to M-STAR.

The organization accepts artificial arms and legs that cannot, by law, be reused or resold in the United States. The donations then go to patients in other countries. Before they could be donated, many of the prosthetics had to be repaired and others were made from parts of other prosthetics.

The mission to the Dominican Republic was the epitome of what Morris hoped to accomplish when he formed M-STAR in 2002.

Morris made the trip with Dr. Robert Maniere, who lives in St. Clair Shores and is president and co-owner of Comfort Prosthetics and Orthotics in Clinton Township. Maniere is certified in prosthetics and orthotics.

Both use prosthetic legs. Morris’ leg was amputated in 2000 because of a condition called peripheral vascular disease. Maniere lost a leg as a teenager after he attempted to jump onto a moving train.

Also making the trip was Jim Williamson, a registered prosthetics and orthotics assistant from Clinton Township, David Ballantyne, a certified prosthetist from Harper Woods, and Dr. John Sealey, vice chief of staff and a vascular surgeon at St. John Detroit Riverview Hospital.

Maniere, Ballantyne and Williamson did weeks worth of work, much of it on their own time, getting the legs ready for re-use and packed for shipping. In the Dominican Republic, they did more hard work but also encountered many appreciative patients.

“One man was so excited, he went off and left his wheelchair,” Morris said. He came back for it later “with a big smile on his face.”

Comfort Prosthetics and Orthotics provided about $15,000 to pay for the trip.

The team worked in a prosthetics clinic at a rehabilitation hospital in Santo Domingo. Sealey was on hand in case surgeries were needed to correct vascular problems common in amputees. No surgeries were necessary, Morris said.

In addition to custom-fitting patients for legs, the team showed their local counterparts how to do the work so that they can do more for their patients.

Planning for the next mission has already begun.

“We would like to make this an annual thing,” Morris said. “I’m still 10 feet tall. It touched my heart so much. It touched all of us so much.”

Contact KIM NORTH SHINE at kshine@freepress.com.

—–

Copyright (c) 2007, Detroit Free Press

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Unit opens to study therapy developments

Sufferers of chronic diseases could soon receive new forms of treatment on their doorstep with the opening of a medical centre on Tyneside today.

The Wilson Horne Immunotherapy Centre is the first facility of its kind in the UK to be dedicated to the study and development of new therapies to treat debilitating illnesses such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

The centre was being officially opened by Wilson Horne, a former Newcastle University professor whose generosity has enabled the unit to be developed and in whose honour the centre is named.

Prof Horne was professor of pathology at the university from 1984 until 1997. During that time, he established Novocastra Laboratories, which quickly became a world-leading manufacturer of tools primarily used to detect cancer.

The centre, based in Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, provides a safe environment to carry out early-phase drug trials, typically involving small-scale intensive studies involving 10 to 20 patients.

John Isaacs, Newcastle University’s professor of clinical rheumatology and director of the centre, said: “By early-phase drug development we mean the first time a new drug is administered to humans, or the first time a new drug is introduced in the treatment of a particular disease.”

Prof Isaacs points out that in this early phase experts cannot always predict how the drugs will interact with the human immune system and their effects can differ from those expected.

However, following the incident in March last year when six men became seriously ill after testing an anti-inflammatory drug at a research unit in London, new regulations have been introduced to minimise the likelihood of a similar event happening again.

Prof Isaacs said: “This dedicated facility enables patients for whom standard treatments are not working to be treated with new drugs in a safe clinical environment.

“At the same time, it allows us to intensively investigate the patients so we can obtain as much information as possible about how the drugs work.

“This sort of treatment is only possible in centres like this one, which have appropriate facilities and expertise.”

The centre has a dedicated team of nursing staff, a lab technician and administrative support.

Facilities include a treatment area with the latest ultrasound imaging equipment, a procedures room to enable the biopsy of diseased tissue, and a laboratory to enable samples to be processed rapidly.

Prof Horne said: “With the development of monoclonal antibodies, and our ability to make them suitable for human use, there is an obvious clinical use for them. This is being fulfilled by Prof Isaacs and his team.”

In addition to early-phase trials, the centre will also investigate drugs at later stages of clinical development.

(c) 2007 Evening Chronicle - Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Mar. 19–Scientists hope that someday stem cells will cure diseases.

Pamela Joseph fears that cancer stem cells will kill her first.

As her doctors explain it, stem cells are the source of multiple myeloma, a blood cancer the 56-year-old Clarksville woman has been fighting since 2005. Stem cells might also be the reason that the cancer — which has killed one member of Joseph’s family — is incurable.

The notion of stem cells as potential villains is counterintuitive, given their highly publicized promise for repairing damaged tissues and organs. But some experts say that certain stem cells may be just as good at restoring cancers that doctors are trying to eradicate.

Learning how to destroy cancer stem cells, they theorize, might lead to that most elusive of breakthroughs — the cure for cancer.

This is an old notion, only recently revived. Scientists first explored the cancer-stem cell connection nearly 40 years ago but abandoned it when the scientific techniques of the period weren’t up to the task.

Now, however, advances in molecular biology and the current boom in stem cell research have spurred renewed interest in the idea — and renewed skepticism.

Scientists at the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University are investigating cancer stem cells, making Baltimore one of the few hubs for the nascent science. In January, the Maryland Stem Cell Commission received four proposals requesting state funding for the research.

“This is a very hot topic,” said Dr. Richard J. Jones, one of Joseph’s doctors at Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.

To explain it, Jones compares cancer to a dandelion, that bane of the well-manicured lawn: the flawed adult cells that make up the bulk of a cancer tumor are like dandelion flowers. Like a lawn doctor mowing down the flowers, a cancer doctor uses chemotherapy and radiation to eradicate mature cancer cells.

But just as dandelion flowers return, so, too, does cancer because the offending root — cancerous stem cells — remains intact.

“We have some pretty good lawnmowers,” Jones said of cancer treatments. “But they don’t get at the stem cells.”

The theory holds that cancerous adult cells come from a relatively small number of stem cells. The stem cells can renew themselves through cell division and generate a variety of cell types — properties that make them promising for treating disease.

The same attributes, however, may enable them to become tiny factories that feed and renew cancers.

Simple as the concept seems — stem cells produce mature cancer cells — studying it is a complex matter.

Researchers at the University of Toronto demonstrated in 1971 that only a small percentage of the cancerous cells taken from leukemia-afflicted mice could grow and divide. They called these “tumor stem cells.”

Six years later, a group at the University of Arizona developed a way to culture human versions of the cells in the laboratory.

But technological limits prevented those scientists from completely separating stem cells from other cell types, much less proving that stem cells gave rise to mature cancer cells.

“There was a big debate about whether they were actually stem cells,” said Anne V. Hamburger, a member of the Arizona team that developed the technique.

Just as importantly, the research failed to produce new therapies, said Hamburger, now a professor of pathology at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center.

“The whole idea went out of fashion,” she said. “There was no funding for that type of work, so I moved in other directions.”

As other scientists followed suit, the research ground to a halt. “It disappeared,” Hamburger said. “It was a little mystifying.”

A couple of decades later, science caught up to the theory. Researchers developed methods for using antibodies — important proteins of the immune system — to identify and isolate different kinds of cells in the laboratory.

In 1997, John Dick of the University of Toronto made the first definitive identification of cancer stem cells in leukemia. In 2003, Dr. Michael Clarke, now of Stanford, first isolated them from the solid tumors of breast cancer patients and showed that only cells with properties of stem cells generated new cancers.

Since then, cancer stem cells have also been found in brain and lung cancers.

But whether the cells are the source of tumors remains to be proven, according to Kenneth S. Zaret, a cell biologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. “That’s really the big question now,” he said, adding that stem cells might produce some cancers but not others.

The source of cancer stem cells is also unclear, he said. They could start as stem cells or be mature cells that regain stem cell properties because of genetic mutations.

Dr. Martin D. Abeloff, director of Johns Hopkins’ cancer center, said the reasons that cancers recur may be complicated.

“For years we’ve treated people, and their diseases melted away quickly — but then returned,” he said. “The concept of having a stem cell would explain part of that. But like most things we deal with, it won’t be as straightforward as we would like. It merits, like most research, a healthy skepticism.”

Proponents of the cancer stem cell theory also acknowledged many unknowns. “The majority of scientists are still waiting to be convinced,” Jones said.

But if the theory pans out, he said, it could transform cancer therapy. Treatments targeting stem cells could lead to longer-lasting remissions or eradication of cancers.

Dr. William Matsui, another Johns Hopkins cancer researcher, said therapies developed for one type of cancer might be applicable to others, because the stem cells at the root of different cancers are likely to be similar. “It holds the potential to be the cure for cancer everyone talks about,” he said.

To bolster their argument, the Hopkins scientists hope to produce some hard clinical evidence. They are conducting a clinical trial of Rituxan, a drug that might target the stem cells involved in multiple myeloma — Pamela Joseph’s form of cancer.

Multiple myeloma is a blood plasma cell cancer that causes a weakening of the bones, kidney failure, anemia and death. A drug called Gleevec sends the cancer into remission, but it always comes back.

“That drug mows dandelions, but it doesn’t get at the root,” said Dr. Carol Ann Huff, one of the Hopkins researchers.

Rituxan was largely abandoned as a treatment for multiple myeloma after a 2003 study suggested it was ineffective.

But Huff and her colleagues think it might just take a little patience for the drug to work. Rituxan might take longer than other drugs, they say, but if it destroys the stem cells that lurk in the body and bring the cancer back, the drug might rid patients of the cancer once and for all.

To test the theory, they have added Rituxan to the chemotherapy cocktail some of the patients in the clinical trial receive. If those patients fare better than others, it could be evidence that the drug does target cancer stem cells.

Pamela Joseph decided to join the clinical trial after researching various multiple myeloma therapies with the help of her husband, Malcolm Joseph.

His father, Malcolm Joseph Sr., also developed multiple myeloma and lost the use of one of his arms as a result. Despite that, the retired Army command sergeant continued to drive from his home in New York’s Bronx borough to Baltimore to visit family.

“He was a good guy and a tough guy,” his son recalls. He succumbed to the disease after three years, in 2004. He was 78 years old.

Doctors diagnosed the same form of cancer in Pamela Joseph less than a year after her father-in-law died. “It was devastating,” her husband said. “It’s hard to talk about.”

During a recent chemotherapy session, Pamela said she’s hopeful her doctors’ theories about stem cells will help her avoid her father-in-law’s fate.

“Who knows? Maybe I’ll be the lucky first person,” she said, knitting in an armchair at the cancer center as a machine pumped Rituxan into her veins. Her cancer is in remission.

Other previously abandoned drugs might also prove to be effective at eradicating cancer stem cells. “We think the concept is right,” Jones said. “But we’re not sure we have the right drug.”

Meanwhile, scientists at the University of Maryland are testing older drugs and trying to develop new ones for suppressing cancer stem cells. They’re also trying to learn whether stem cells collected from cancer patients are sensitive to various chemical compounds.

But it’s not easy. Cancer stem cells are difficult to find and attack, said Angelika M. Burger, a drug researcher at Maryland.

“Stem cells never die. They can reproduce; they can sleep and hide away,” she said “When they are hidden, they may not be reached by our current drugs.”

Burger and colleagues at Maryland requested research funding from Maryland’s stem cell commission this year, as did the Hopkins team. The commission is expected to make its awards this month.

Hamburger, now a member of the Maryland research team, has revived her lab work from the 1970s.

“Science has evolved a lot, but the research is still pretty technically difficult to do,” she said. And for the time being, she’s enjoying the scientific deja vu.

“It’s really interesting to see the whole thing cycle around,” she said. “There’s still a lot of room for proof. But I think there is a lot more acceptance this time.”

chris.emery@baltsun.com

—–

Copyright (c) 2007, The Baltimore Sun

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Jan. 7–TOWN OF NIAGARA — Dr. Richard L. Sawicki has helped healing the feet of the less fortunate for almost four years at Niagara Cerebral Palsy.

He has his own office in Niagara Falls but also holds a foot care clinic on alternate Thursdays at 9812 Lockport Road.

Sawicki said he needed to open such a clinic because state regulations will not allow him to see patients receiving Medicaid in his office. And he stressed that he sees many, many patients, not just those diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

How many years have you been helping out the feet of the less fortunate at Niagara Cerebral Palsy?

We started the Podiatry Clinic in January of 2003 at Niagara Cerebral Palsy because there were people who were underserved in the community and needed foot care that didn’t have access to it at a private office. It is handicapped-accessible there, so we started the clinic there. [It’s] open to the public.

How many hours a week do you spend working for Niagara Cerebral Palsy?

We have the clinic there that meets from 1 to 5 p.m. every other Thursday, and I’ve been spending twice a month there Thursday afternoon. . . . Initially, it was just once a month. Then we went to twice a month, and so far we’ve been able to handle the load, working with two nurses and an assistant. [To make an appointment, call 297-1478, extension 154.]

What is the most common problem your patients from NCP face?

Most common problem is it’s difficult to take care of their feet themselves. And a lot of people come in for basic care, their nails or callouses, heel pains, a lot of contractures due to physical disabilities that we need to get stretching exercises going for them. I would think that’s probably the most common, and then we see our share of ingrown toenails and plantar warts and the basic things that the general community would see in a private office.

Why do you do it?

We do this because there’s a lot of consumers that need the care that don’t have access to it otherwise. A lot of podiatrists can’t see Medicaid patients in their office because of New York State regulations . . . so that they can only be seen in a clinic setting. How are NCP consumers different from your other patients?

It’s just that they have different types of insurance that doesn’t allow them to come into our office, so they call our office here. . . . Niagara Cerebral Palsy does not just treat cerebral palsy patients, either. We see a variety of people from the community. Our care accessibility is open to the public so there’s not restrictions to who can come there. But it is available because we have the handicapped- accessibility.

A lot of the patients have types of disabilities that we see not only with cerebral palsy, which can be a spastic condition or a flacid condition, where there’s muscles being affected due to neurological problems. But we see all kinds of handicaps. We have a variety of people coming in for foot care in wheelchairs due to previous polio conditions or other types of conditions where they’ve had injuries in automobile accidents. I don’t find that these people are any more difficult to take care of. In fact, they’re some of my most enjoyable patients that I see because they’re so appreciative, a lot of them.

Where else would families go to get help for their loved ones?

There is another Medicaid clinic that I also administer at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center at the Mizer Clinic. What kinds of prices do you charge at your clinic?

The clinic has the same prices that are charged anywhere else in any other type office depending on the procedure, and they’re paid by a fee schedule set by the insurance companies. It doesn’t matter what we charge, they’re going to pay us a certain amount, and that is the amount that we accept from the clinic.

What if somebody asks to see you at the clinic on a different day?

We only have the ability [alternate Thursdays] because the nurses that assist me also assist the dental clinic, they assist the audiologist there, the therapists, the wheelchair clinic. We’re flexible and they are, too. If someone’s having a problem and needs to be seen, I will make myself available for them.

How many patients do you have at your Niagara Cerebral Palsy clinic?

I don’t know exactly how many are going to the podiatry clinic total, although the Cerebral Palsy clinic told me last year they provided 3,500 to 4,000 services to our consumers through all of the clinics, including podiatry, dental, audiology and wheelchair, etc.

e-mail: pkowalik@buffnews.com

—–

Copyright (c) 2007, The Buffalo News, N.Y.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

PODIATRY and chiropody as a profession throws up images of elderly ladies having their corns removed or bunions treated. A younger person might need to pop in for assistance should an in- growing toenail prove troublesome. It’s such outdated notions about her profession that Karen Martin is eager to quash. And the talkative Dubliner is quick to point out while it is possible to qualify as a chiropodist through short courses and even correspondence courses, she undertook a full three-year degree to secure her BSc in podiatric medicine.

She explains that chiropody in effect is just one area of podiatry. “Podiatry as a term is really an umbrella for lots of different areas, so I cover things like sports podiatry, diabetes care, orthotic treatments, nail surgery and the old fashioned chiropody,” she says.

“I cover all those areas, so in the morning I could be a dermatologist looking at skin problems, and in the afternoon I could be at a rheumatology condition. It’s very difficult to get it all into one box.

“When we look at a client we look at the big picture. It’s all about health and well-being, and the feet hold the whole body up, so there’s a lot of links in the chain that have to be right.

“Sometimes people can suffer from neck pain, but the problem could really be with the feet because the body’s not aligned properly when the client stands up. I look at the position of the shoulders and the hips, how the spine is, and how he or she walks. The feet are really only the link at the bottom of the chain.”

Podiatry has been an accepted branch of medical care in its own right for 15 years and more, but it’s availability can be very hit- or-miss. Karen, 36, says the NHS tends to target its podiatric treatment at certain groups. “Podiatry is one of the smallest professions, and a very specialised area. Within the NHS it tends to look specifically at high-risk groups such as diabetics, arthritics and the elderly. I qualified in 1991.

She originally wanted to go into nursing, but found Ireland was flooded with a surfeit of qualified nurses, many of them having to cross the Irish Sea to look for work. Determined not to join the exodus, she looked at alternative prospects within healthcare.

“I liked the idea of what was then called chiropody because I could work independently. I make the diagnosis and I prescribe the treatment.

“And to be honest it was also a bit of a business decision, because there are very few professionally trained graduate podiatrists in Ireland - still only about 100. I did my training in London and went straight back to Dublin. I never intended to leave, until I met my husband, who’s from Liverpool.”

They now live in Y Felinheli, with Karen working out of the Utopia Salon in Menai Bridge. She’s hopeful the market exists for her expertise in north west Wales, and says clients have been travelling from as far as Pwllheli to see her. She says that her biggest challenge is persuading people that it’s not just the elderly who need to care for their lower limbs.

“Some problems have been 50 or 60 years in the making and you can’t undo a lot of them. With the younger clients I’m looking at preventing them getting to that stage.

“Your occupation can have a huge effect on limbs, so I do a lot of preventative medicine with nurses, hairdressers, and others who stand a lot.”

(c) 2006 Daily Post; Liverpool. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Whether due to sports injuries, recreational overuse or just a gradual buildup of biomechanical stress, most foot, ankle and knee joint subluxations will need custom-made, stabilizing orthotics in addition to the extremity and spinal adjustments and corrective exercises doctors of chiropractic provide. And while the connection is less obvious, supportive foot orthotics play a vital role in the proper care of several conditions of the pelvis and spine.

Since the pelvis and spine are at the end of a closed kinetic chain from the lower extremities, abnormal biomechanical forces are transmitted in both directions - upward and downward. Fortunately, the use of well-designed foot orthotics can balance and stabilize the lower extremities, and significantly reduce the deleterious effects of lower extremity subluxations on the spine.

Foot and Ankle

It’s not surprising abnormal biomechanics of the foot and ankle can cause local symptoms that need support from a stabilizing orthotic. In fact, almost any subluxation in this region will respond much better with a combination of custom-made shoe inserts and adjustments. The specific problems identified most commonly in chiropractic practice include: plantar fascitis, hallux valgus, pain under the metatarsal joints, interdigital neuroma, heel spur, arch collapse, Achilles tendinitis, recurrent ankle sprain and shin splints (i.e., strain of the anterior or posterior tibialis muscle).

Often, patients will seek treatment for spinal problems, and their foot or ankle symptoms will be mentioned only in passing. Once they have experienced relief of their lower extremity subluxation (which often has been quite chronic) with adjustments and orthotics, they can understand much better the whole-body treatment philosophy of chiropractic.

Knee

Many patients with anterior knee pain (whether it is called patellofemoral pain, chondromalacia patellae or retropatellar arthralgia) report almost-immediate relief from a combination of adjustments and custom-made, stabilizing orthotics. That is because the orthotics reduce the extent of foot pronation, thereby decreasing internal rotation of the tibia and improving the tracking of the patella in the femoral groove. Especially when there is a high Q angle, correction of excessive pronation is necessary for a complete response. Other knee conditions, such as iliotibial band syndrome in runners, popliteus tendinitis and recurring fibular head subluxations, indicate the need for orthotic support throughout the gait cycle.

Hip

When a patient presents with a trochanteric bursitis or evidence of hip joint degeneration, casting for orthotic support should become almost automatic. The hip joint develops symptoms only when there is a biomechanical asymmetry of the lower extremity. A strain or chronic tightness of the tensor fascia lata, recurrent groin pulls in an athlete or a piriformis syndrome all require close evaluation in determining the need for custom foot support.

Sacroiliac Joints

When each foot pronates during the stance phase of the gait cycle, there is a normal inward (medial) rotation of the entire limb and pelvis on that side. In patients with excessive pronation, this twisting movement is accentuated (on one or both sides), and is transmitted to the pelvis, especially the sacroiliac (SI) joints. A chronic SI subluxation complex develops, one that can only be treated with a combination of chiropractic adjustments and stabilizing orthotics. Particularly when a patient describes the pain in the region of the sacroiliac joint as being made worse with standing, walking and/or running, the need for orthotics must be considered. Whenever a strenuous sport or recreational activity also is reported, I immediately look to the lower extremities for the source of biomechanical stress.

Pelvis/Short Leg

The pelvis is the structural foundation for the spine. If there is leg asymmetry anywhere from the feet to the femurs, the pelvis and the spine will suffer. Anterior tilting, rotations and lateral tilts of the pelvis all interfere with chiropractic spinal care and must be addressed. All of these pelvic distortions are frequently caused by foot and leg imbalances, which require stabilizing orthotics and occasionally permanent heel lifts.

When there is an anatomical difference in leg length, any permanent buildup should be attached to an orthotic to ensure balanced foot and ankle function. If the discrepancy is functional, it will most commonly be caused by a lower arch on one foot, producing a lowering of the femur head during standing and walking (positions of function). To treat the current spinal problems and to prevent the development of recurring subluxations, stabilizing orthotics should be fitted immediately upon determination of a structural short leg.

Spine/Disc Degeneration

The long-term result of the microtrauma caused by poor structural support from the lower extremities is degeneration of the spinal discs. Of course, frank trauma and a history of overuse also can damage the intervertebral discs. Once this has occurred, reducing the forces transmitted to the less elastic and less flexible joints is necessary. I find that foot orthotics constructed with extra shockabsorbing materials are often the only way to provide long- lasting relief for patients with disc and/or sciatica symptoms.

A significant decrease in the pounding stress on the joints from the feet to the knees, hips, pelvis, and spine during walking and exercising can be a godsend to elderly patients. Flexible, shock- absorbing orthotics are always included in my treatment recommendations when X-rays demonstrate substantial spinal joint degeneration.

Locate the Source of the Problem

When chiropractic patients report lower extremity symptoms, or when their spinal problems are chronic and become worse with standing and walking, I always look carefully for lower extremity subluxations. Excessive pronation or supination, if not addressed, will interfere with even the best chiropractic care. Degenerated joints will magnify the forces transmitted to the spine during normal activities. Identifying those patients who need custom-made, stabilizing orthotics and/or shock absorption right from the beginning gives chiropractic adjustments the best chance for success.

Mark N. Charrette, DC, is a 1980 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic. He resides in Las Vegas. For more information, including a brief biography, a printable version of this article and a link to previous articles, please visit Dr. Charrette’s columnist page online: www.chiroweb.com/columnist/charrette.

Copyright Dynamic Chiropractic Dec 3, 2006

(c) 2006 Dynamic Chiropractic. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

“The extra layers of dead skin (or callous) that develop to protect exposed summer feet will crack if not treated appropriately,” says Siegal. “Cracked heels can not only be painful, but can also leave you at risk for infection if the cracks provide a direct path to deeper skin layers.”

A few simple, preventative tactics will keep your feet beautiful and healthy throughout winter.

–  Moisturize and Cover Up — Moisturizing creams will seep into the skin
more effectively if applied at night and covered with clean cotton socks
immediately after application and just before bed.

–  Carry Cream — Buy a travel-sized bottle at the drug store and fill it
with your cream.  Keep this bottle in your purse to quench your heels’
thirst throughout the day.

–  Super Charge — For severely dry skin with superficial cracks,
supercharge your moisturizing routine by applying cream to the skin after
your morning shower, twice more during the day, and before bed. As skin
hydration improves, decrease the application to morning and night.

–  See Your Podiatrist — If you notice cracks affecting deeper than the
top layers of skin, contact your podiatrist immediately for proper
treatment. This condition can lead to an infection if left untreated.

–  Continue Your Mani/Pedi Habit — A luxurious pedicure in winter is the
ultimate indulgence. Enjoy a deep moisturizing treatment or massage to
nurture your feet as the temperature drops. Keep it safe by carrying your
own tools to each nail appointment.

“Dr. Carolyn’s Savvy Nail Kit” was recently awarded Best New Product at the New York 2006 EXTRACTS, a show for new discoveries in beauty and wellness. It has earned a loyal following among mani/pedi lovers and Hollywood celebrities. Packaged in small stylish totes, the Couture Collection and the Cool & Casual Line, both contain eight high-quality nail tools plus one disposable foot soaking tub liner. The Couture Collection ($49.99) has special fabric details such as quilted fabrics, metal bullet motifs, sweetheart corner patches, and textured/faux croc handles. The Cool & Casual Line ($39.99) sports high quality, fun fabric designs, and it is great for holiday gifts and party favors. Couture bag designs include: Cream Canvas, Black Quilted, and Floral with Red Trim. The Cool & Casual Line is available in Cheetah, Midnight, and Retro Delight. The nail kits and replacement products can be purchased online and from several leading retailers including Henri Bendel (New York), Intuition (Los Angeles), Fred Segal (Santa Monica), and select Nordstrom locations. “Dr. Carolyn’s Savvy Velvet Creme” retails for $15 and can be purchased online at www.drcarolyncollection.com and www.dermstore.com.

For more information and other foot care tips, visit www.drcarolyncollection.com.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=369802

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=369799

Contact:
Lisa Elia
Phone: 310-479-0216
e-mail: Contact via http://www.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=6815A6B2C3B002BD

SOURCE: CLS Healthy Feet