- Do you have some big old bunions that just won't go away?
- Well stay tuned because we have five non-surgery
based recommendations for you that can help you out.
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- So before we get into all the details of this,
we'd like to say that we've taken this information
from Dr. Ray McClanahan, who works
at Northwest Foot and Ankle, and he is a podiatric
surgeon with lots of experience.
- That's right.
He's really done a lot in the...
Under his observation and experience,
he says the first thing you must address
is the the footwear that you're wearing.
So that's the great toe.
If you look at these nice socks showing
the bones of the first or great toe,
we wanna have a shoe that keeps enough room
so the toe can go straight and does not get pushed in
in this direction, into the second toe.
Very important concept.
If you do not do this,
the rest of these recommendations will not be helpful.
- So what you wanna do is you want to get
some shoes that have a wide toe box.
So these are some running shoes I had.
These are just Ultra brand.
Because they're running and road running
they're a little bit thicker cushioned,
but they are zero drop, so the heel
is the same height as the front.
And the toe box for bunions is extra wide.
So that allows your toe to spread and be more natural.
The problem with most modern shoes is the toe box
gets narrow and it makes your big toe go in,
which can create bunions.
- That's right.
So these are a good sample of the traditional
pointy shoes pushing those toes together.
It's no good.
Secondly, what you'll want to do
once you get the proper footwear
is to get some of these spreaders, toe spreaders.
Now these are called YogaToes.
You can see how they look,
and they are made to fit between your toes.
I've already have a pair on, or a set on this foot.
You can see they literally spread the toes out wide.
Now with these YogaToes, the price is nice.
They are about $37.
However, you cannot, obviously, wear 'em in your shoes,
which you will want to do, depending on your severity
and what you wanna do.
But Mike does have a pair you can wear
in your shoes while you walk or run.
- Yes. These are called the Correct Toes.
You could put 'em inside, on your foot,
and put a normal sock over it if you have normal socks.
If you have toe socks like me,
you can simply put 'em on the outside like this.
These will stay put.
And they also have these additional spacers on each end.
So for me, my big toe spreads pretty well,
but my pinky toe does not.
So I might need to put a little bit of extra spread in there
to keep it in place.
It comes with instructions.
And these are actually created by Dr. McClanahan,
so you know they're recommended by a podiatrist.
- That's right, and I've walked and ran with those in,
and they're very nice.
- Yeah, and I will say my father has a very large bunion
and he's been wearing these and runs with them
and he has seen good changes and he enjoys them.
- Say no more.
We've got proof in the field.
- Yes.
The next tip we have for you
is something you don't have to purchase anything with,
and it's simply trying to stretch your big toe
back to where it's supposed to be in a nice straight line.
So you can just grab onto your toe and pull it
back to normal, stretching in this area here.
- That's right.
So yeah, it's like you said,
when you got nothing else to do,
If you're working at a desk, take your shoe off,
if you got a second, give your big to stretch.
- You can hold this for time.
You can do reps.
Just don't pull it so hard that it's painful.
Obviously if you have a severe bunion, it's gonna take time.
Wearing a toe space is gonna be more convenient
'cause it's just passively stretching for however
long you can tolerate wearing them.
Where this is pretty short-lived.
It's just as long as you're doing it.
- Right, but it's important. - Yes.
- Alright, the fourth exercise,
what you'll want to do is actually a massage.
Between your great toe or your big toe and your second toe,
you come above and you're gonna feel
a gap between the bones there.
And what you wanna do is get in that gap.
It might be a little sensitive,
but you can see you can do it with one finger
you can do it with your thumb,
but you're just gonna get in there and massage,
deep massage in there, and get those muscles
loosened up, get that soft tissue loosened up,
and that's gonna allow mobility in between those two joints
and it's gonna help allow that great toe
and the other toes to become relaxed and separated.
- [Mike] So if you dig in there, if you see me,
I'm actually spreading my toes out so I can get
into the muscle belly more cause I'm closer together.
I just feel like I'm hitting my bones there.
- They're small muscles
but there's definitely muscle belly in there.
- They're touchy.
- Sensitive, huh? - Yes.
And the last tip we have for you is actually
applying a little traction to your big toe.
So if it's bent in like this,
what you wanna do is pull your toe away from you.
You're gonna be distracting the MCP joint here.
And if it's bent in when you're pulling, distracting,
you want to try to straighten it and hold it here.
- Yep, and a couple little nuances you
could add to that is actually grab it,
and I'm gonna pull, go out laterally or out to the side,
and maybe just rotate a little bit.
Again, if it creates sharp pain, that's too aggressive.
Just a nice stretch, maybe a little pain but not a lot.
And you're gonna help loosen up those soft tissues
and that connective tissue,
getting that to some freedom that it needs.
- All right, so give those different options a try
and see what works for you.
You definitely wanna work on the shoes
and the toe spacers, I would say are important.
The other ones are just a bonus.
- And please give us your comments.
If you've experienced or you're working on this
and certain aspects of treatment work better for you,
share it with everyone else.
Put it in the comment section,
and it's really a nice thing to help
other people out through that means.
So what else you got to say, Mike?
- Well, I'm gonna say if you want more information
on feet specifically, you can
check out Dr. Ray McClanahan's site,
or we also did a podcast with him
talking about many of these subjects.
- Yeah, he's definitely a pro expert,
and I respect his opinion.
- He's smarter than me.
- Yeah, I can believe it. (Mike and crew laugh)
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