What causes bunions on the feet?
Bunions are a growth of bone of the big toe joint that could become uncomfortable and it is associated with a deviation of the great toe over towards the other toes. There are only two things that may cause bunions: an innate risk and inadequate fitting shoes.
There is not very much that you can do about the innate or inherited risk because you get that from your parents. If you'd like to blame somebody, then fault your parents. The science shows that it's perhaps a autosomal dominant attribute. I am not saying that you will definitely get a bunion, it just suggests that you may be at a higher risk of getting a bunion deformity. This inherited risk shows within the dysfunction of your foot and how your foot functions. Biomechanics plays a huge role with the development of bunions and is also a significant factor in how rapid a bunion progresses. There are certain things that podiatrists can do as a measure to help the biomechanics of the foot which can make a difference with the long-term outcome.
One other big issue will be the selection of shoes and that is something that you can alter to make choices that can impact the results of bunions. Footwear that is too small through the front foot which forces on the great toe or hallux and pushes on the big toe joint is of course the most important risk element for bunions. Put together these more restrictive fitting shoes with the innate risks and bunions usually are extremely likely to come about eventually. The matter is going to be simply how much and how frequently you wear the inadequate fitting footwear. Even if you do not have the innate predisposition from your parents, the using of poor fitting shoes is still a risk, but probably not as much as if you are genetically susceptible. Footwear is furthermore the reason for resulting in the force over the swollen bunion which makes them painful. This is certainly assumed is the explanation why bunions tend to be more prevalent in women as they usually tend to use higher heel more restrictive fitted dress shoes more often. However, the increased occurrence in females may be as a result of hormonal differences among men and women and the way those hormones affect the ligaments round the joints.
Perhaps surprisingly, bunions nevertheless do occur in people who never wear shoes, therefore footwear is not the whole issue. Even so, within these communities the bunions aren't that bad and don't get problematic. Wearing shoes ensures they are worse, causes them to be progress more and also ensures they are painful. There is also research from archaeological digs that there must have been a substantial development of bunions found in skeletons from the middle ages times as soon as many people started wearing tighter fitting shoes.
Bunions might be prevented when you take care of the risk factors early on. The wearing of footwear which are broad enough to not cause the stress on the great toe is just about the more important protective measures. If you have a genetic predisposition, then it's much more fundamental you do this because you can not replace your genetic parents. Knowing the reason for bunions is definitely the starting point to avoiding getting one.