Doc On The Run Podcast

I just got a great question from a runner who had been using a thing called a dancer's pad.  A dancer's pad is sometimes used to help an injury to these little bones under the big toe joint called the "sesamoid bones." If one of the sesamoids is painful and irritated and you're trying to take the pressure off of it, an easy way to do that is to place a dancer's pad in your shoe.  How can a dancer'...

If you're a runner and you are listening to this, you probably have some kind of injury that's doing one of two things.  Either it's keeping you completely off of your feet and you're not running at all, or you are basically running in a halfway fashion. You are not really doing your full workouts. Your workouts are not really gratifying.  And you don't really feel like you're making progress.  Yo...

In this episode of the Doc On The Run Podcast we have a real treat for you. Kate is someone I met through the Grand Canyon R2R2R Run Group and she has an amazing story! If you are not familiar with what running the Grand Canyon entails, you start at one side, run from the rim of the Grand Canyon Down treacherous trails all the way to the bottom, then run across the bottom of the canyon and back up...

I just got a call from an ultra-marathoner I have seen a number of times over the years.  He is not a wimp. He's a tough guy. He's very smart. He knows his body really well, and he got what we suspected was a partial tear in the plantar fascia.  He didn't get better. He took weeks off. He couldn't run. He couldn't even hike! it was killing him, so I ordered an MRI.  I diligently prepared the order...

Imagine this scenario. You are out on a long run. You have been training hard for your race. But near the end of your run, your foot starts to ache a little bit. The next day when you wake up, it hurts. So maybe you take a day off, you don't run that day, and you skip a workout.  The day after that, you go for a run and predictably it gets worse. You call your local podiatrist. You make an appoint...

Achilles tendinosis is one of the worst injuries you can get as an injured runner.  It is chronic, it's hard to get rid of, and the tendon feels noticeably different.  The tendon gets thicker and it becomes constantly painful. Every time you run on it, you may worry that it might rupture or rip apart. There are lots of different ways to treat Achilles tendinosis. Two of those options are PRP or pl...

If the top of your foot hurts because you have extensor tenosynovitis, it can cause a lot of pain. But the condition is not complicated. The extensor tendons run down across the top of your foot. The extensor tendons continue all the way out to the toes. The function of the tendons is to pull your toes up when you swing through in the swing phase of gait, so you don't trip over your toes when you...

All of us want to get better when we have a running injury.  We just want to run. But when you go to the doctor, things can start getting confusing.  The doctor may tell you what you need to do, but it doesn't always jive with what you really want to do.  I thought it might be helpful for you to understand a little bit about the difference between true wants and needs when you go to the doctor. Th...

Any time you get a running injury you are facing a tremendous task.  You might think that your job is to get help and heal the injuries quickly as possible.  But that would only be partially correct. Your real job as an injured runner is to seek the full solution. Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we're talking about how injured runners need the full solution.

If you are a runner who thinks you have a tendon tear, ligament tear or other overtraining injury, you may want an MRI. In fact, you may be convinced an MRI will give you a crystal clear picture of what may be wrong inside your foot or ankle.  But, I believe many many runners and doctors rely way to heavily on MRI for running injuries.  Today we are going to talk about a study published in Foot an...

I got a call recently from a runner with a torn plantar fascia. It was a unique situation, but truthfully really not that rare. Any time you have an injury and you want to run, you have to make some really important key decisions, based on only a few important factors.  This case will be instructive in helping you figure out how you can make that decision, and decide if (and when) it might be safe...

Most runners understandably feel like a victim of an over-training injury. They say something like, "Well, I was feeling strong, I was feeling ready for my race, I was really feeling great, and then this happened to me. I got a stress fracture, I got Achilles tendonitis, I got peroneal tendonitis, got plantar fasciitis, something happened to me and now I feel like I've lost all my fitness and I ca...

Today's episode actually comes from a comment and a question sent in by one of the viewers of the Doc On The Run YouTube channel.  This was Jean, wrote in and she said,  "Hello, Dr. Segler. I had a fifth metatarsal fracture repair surgery five weeks ago. I was started to walk without crutches and a knee walker or a scooter as of yesterday, but my foot feels achy, though. Well, as a runner, when ca...

I was just talking to a runner over webcam who had been researching metatarsal stress fractures, but heard something about a "malunion" and knew that a fracture malunion was a really bad thing.  He had been diagnosed with a stress reaction in one of his metatarsals.  If you continue to stress a metatarsal stress reaction enough, it can progress to a full-on metatarsal fracture.  So, he wanted to k...

Many years ago when I was first in practice, I met someone who was a doctor, and who was a runner herself. She liked to treat runners and she happened to make a lot of money. A whole lot of money! I was very impressed with her, so I actually flew across the country to spend one day in her office following her around to see exactly what she does to make so much money working with runners.  There wa...

Today's episode comes from one of the YouTube viewers Doc On The Run YouTube channel who had watched one of the videos on fractures. He asked a great question. This is from Saif. What he said was,  "Thank you for such a short and effective, informative video. My question was, does displaced fracture heal naturally without medical treatment? And the thought process was that how did our ancestors an...

Today's episode actually comes from a question sent in by Melissa.  She signed up for the Plantar Plate Masterclass and she asked a very specific question. She asked: Should I run with a pad for a plantar plate sprain?  Great question!  And that's what we're talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast. 

What if you could be out on a run, sun on your face, running two weeks ahead of schedule, faster than what you thought, or what some doctor told you?  That would be amazing, right? Let me tell you that neither me, nor anyone, can promise you that a bone stimulator, snake oil, or fairy dust is going to make that happen. However, it is true that bone stimulators have been shown to actually speed up...

Everyday I help runners who are stuck by giving them a different perspective during a second opinion call.  When we get on the call, we do a couple of things to get focused in the right direction and get them unstuck. 1) We figure out what their real goal is with running, not with injury. What race did you sign up for? How fast do you want to run? What are your long term goals with running?  2) If...

Ankle sprains are probably the most common musculoskeletal injury affecting runners. It is really easy to roll an ankle and find yourself limping, unable to run. You might have sprained your ankle tripping on a root or rock when you're out running on a trail. Maybe you were wearing some fancy shoes going out to dinner and you stepped on a little reflector on a crosswalk, twisting your ankle.  No m...

In this episode, we're talking about three mistakes I see almost every runner make when they call me for help. Let's be clear, runners do not call me when they are on their run and first start getting foot pain.  More often, aching runners go see a doctor, talk to a running buddy, or seek information online to get a rough idea of what's going on. When those steps don't help, it is my job to help t...

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to give some lectures at the Heartland Podiatry Conference in Des Moines, Iowa.  The conference organizers asked me to give an entire "Doc On The Run session" during which I presented five lectures back to back...all on how doctors could approach treatment of  injured runners differently.  During the attendee question and answer session, a doctor asked:  "Do yo...

If you have trouble with your Achilles tendon and a doctor told you that you might actually rupture it and tear completely if you continue to run, you should probably be worried. If you are anxious about your Achilles, stay with me. I have some good news and some bad news. A recovering runner in the Runners Aid Station asked me... “If I rupture my Achilles tendon, if I just ignore the tendinosis,...

Today's episode comes from a question from one of the YouTube viewers. The specific question was, are calcified Achilles tendons more prone to tendon rupture in runners? That's a great question. I think if you ask most doctors, their answer is probably going to be yes.  But since I got this very specific question, I actually wanted to see if there is any research that truly proves whether or not A...