Beneath the great toe or hallux joint are a couple of little bones referred to as the sesamoid bones. These sesamoid bones are embedded in tendons in the same way that the patella bone is within the front of the knee. The purpose of these sesamoid bones (as well as the patella) is usually to allow the tendons a far more efficient lever to move the joint. As these sesamoids are beneath the great toe joint, they may be encountered with a lot of pressure when walking as well as actively playing sporting activity. Sports like the game of tennis in which you must use the great toe joint in order to rotate on places a whole lot of pressure to them. In the event that all these pressures are too high, it is possible to get a condition called sesamoiditis in which these little sesamoid bones as well as the tissues about them become inflamed. Using higher heels footwear additionally applies strain around the sesamoid bones and so will needing to stand all day at the job, especially on hard flooring.

The symptoms of sesamoiditis are gradually increasing levels of discomfort underneath the big toe or hallux joint. If you push exactly where these sesamoids are they can be quite painful. Sometimes the bones are very prominent because there has been some wasting of the fat pad. Sometimes, particularly if the beginning of pain can be acute there could be a bone fracture of just one or both of the bones. There are a number of problems which can affect the big toe joint for example gout or arthritis that also must be taken into consideration whenever examining a person with pain in this area.

After a sesamoiditis has been diagnosed then sesamoiditis treatment generally starts with some kind of decrease in activities or adjusting them if that's possible. Getting yourself into well padded and support footwear is also a useful approach. There are self adhesive felts that could be adhered on the foot to get force away from the painful spot. Pads could be used on inserts within the footwear. In the long run foot supports having pressure relief are typically very helpful.

Chinese foot binding had been a especially savage technique which was around mostly in rural China until recently. It was mostly a cultural practice. The technique required the very restricted binding of the feet of young girls and the maintaining of them bound to stop the feet from developing. This was a painful process and brought about significant deformity and handicap. Those who ended up being afflicted by this process had to use specifically created and made shoes. There was quite an art to this and the shoes that these children had to wear were decorated very deliberately and exotically. The main reason for the technique of Chinese foot binding was that smaller feet were considered far more desired in females. A much higher price can be demanded by the family of the bride to be for the dowry. The actual practice was very common in rural China for several centuries and just recently began to die out about 100 years ago as a result of social pressures that have been brought to bear on the practice a result of the pain and impairment that it was causing.

You can still find a number of older Chinese woman living today with these deformed feet from the foot binding when they were younger. The tragedy is caused by what happened once they were young children they do need to keep their feet bound because it is more at ease than not having them bound because the deformity has become so great. There's been lots of cultural and psychological research into the foot binding primarily in the framework of this being done too please the men instead of being of any advantage to the woman. Of recent awareness is the current practice of females using tight fitting high heel shoes has attracted resemblances between Chinese foot binding. Some of the social and psychological analysis of this have certainly pointed out the analogy between the two practices and who actually benefits from the practice. Both are painful, both produce foot deformity, and both are for the benefit of men.