As high-heel fanatic Victoria Beckham considers undergoing surgery to remove a bunion, Jane Wheatley from 'The Times' newspaper, looks at the causes of the condition - and how to prevent it from developing
You think of bunions as mainly an old lady thing, but it transpires that a whole generation of younger women — including Victoria Beckham, who is reported to be considering undergoing surgery to remove a bunion from her left foot — are suffering from them, too.
Dipesh Raja, a Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists chiropodist at Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square, sees bunions every day. “What goes around, comes around,” he says. “Ladies who wore winklepickers in the Fifties had bunions, and the recent trend for high heels and narrow toes makes it much more likely that today’s women will develop them, too.” So should women avoid such shoes? “Of course,” smiles Raja. “But they didn’t listen in the Fifties, and they don’t listen now.”
A bunion is an enlargement of the joint at the base of the big toe; often the toe angles in towards the neighbouring toe and in extreme cases may push all the other toes out of alignment or lie at right angles underneath them. As they are pushed more tightly together, the toenails may grow into the sides of the nail bed, penetrate the skin and cause infection.
Nobody is born with bunions, but some people may have inherited a predisposition to the condition. Wearing the wrong sort of shoes can trigger the growth, which is why nine out of ten sufferers are women. If your gait is causing a bunion, a podiatrist may be able to offer orthotics to correct it.
If the growth is causing pain — either in the joint itself, or by forcing the other toes to press against the side of the shoe — then surgery is the only answer. This used to be — and in many cases still is — a serious undertaking involving general anaesthetic, plaster casts and six weeks on crutches.
But some hospitals now have the equipment to perform a much more sophisticated operation under local anaesthetic in which the bone is cut, realigned and secured by internal screws. Patients can, theoretically at least, walk away from the operating table.
The agony aunt Virginia Ironside underwent such an operation and wrote about it last year: “I was up and staggering about in bandages, flip-flops and Velcro within two days; a week later I was driving; two weeks later I was in a pair of sensible black lace-up walking shoes; and in a month I was back to normal. I can even wear high heels now. Bring on the Manolos!”
Feet with bunions can look very ugly, but may not be painful, in which case Dipesh Raja recommends not surgery but rather a policy of what he calls “footwear compromise”. “Every podiatrist would like his clients to wear sensible flat lace-ups with plenty of support, but we don’t waste time dreaming.
“Women won’t give up wearing fashion shoes entirely, but they should wear them much less often, take them off wherever possible and wear trainers when walking to work.”
How to put your best foot forward
Wash your feet daily in warm soapy water (don’t soak them: this can destroy natural oils) and dry thoroughly, especially between the toes.
If your skin is dry, apply moisturising cream all over the foot, except for between the toes.
Lightly apply a foot powder.
Remove hard skin gently with a pumice stone, but not over a bony area or joint. In this case, or if the hard skin is painful, see a registered chiropodist/podiatrist.
Trim toenails regularly, using nail clippers. Cut straight across, not too short, and not down at the corners as this can lead to in-grown nails.
Find a podiatrist
Source: Jane Wheatley The Times
Soc Chiropodists & Podiatrists 19-Jun-2006
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