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What Are Bunions And What Causes Them? - Dr. Jacoby (VIDEO)

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More Videos from Dr. Richard Jacoby 30 videos in this series

What Are Bunions And What Causes Them? - Dr. Jacoby (VIDEO)
What Are Bunions And What Causes Them? - Dr. Jacoby (VIDEO)
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Dr. Jacoby describes bunions and explains what causes them.

Dr. Jacoby:
Bunions. I think that’s a very good subject to talk about because women have at least 75 to 80 percent of the bunions in the population. At least that’s the statistics that we have from the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, and why is that? Well, I think shoes have the most influence on how the foot is shaped. In other words, the pointed toe, high-heeled shoe is really the number one cause of bunions.

It’s interesting; I had a chance to do a teaching assignment in Taipei, Taiwan in the early 80s, and they did not have a word for bunions in Chinese because I asked them, what do they call this in Mandarin, and they said, “We don’t have a word.”

And I thought that was interesting because that’s in early 80s and I named that as ”jiao xen wifian” so my naming that in Mandarin and because I asked and I said, “What do you call a lump on the side of the foot?” And they said, “Well, that would be jiao xen, like a dumpling.” So wifian is foot so that’s how we named it, which means they didn’t have the disease to begin with, and in the Westernization of their country and their society brought about wearing high heeled shoes, and that’s the number one cause.

In America most doctors would like to say it is a hereditary disease, but it really is not. It’s not a hereditary disease; the foot type might be. In other words, if you have a square-shaped foot and put it in a triangular-shaped container, this will cause a deformity, and the most common deformity is bunions which is a protrusion of the bone on the inside of the foot. And they are very painful, and since it’s 75 to 80 percent women over men, the shoe is the major influence.

About Dr. Jacoby, D.P.M.:
Dr. Richard Jacoby, D.P.M., graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine. He completed his residency at Parkview Hospital, Philadelphia, specializing in foot and ankle surgery. Board certified by the American Board of Podiatric Foot and Ankle Surgeons, he is currently president of Valley Foot Surgeons in Scottsdale, Arizona. In addition, Dr. Jacoby is chairman of the board of Healthcare Networks of America.

Dr. Jacoby has been named the 2010 President of The Association of Extremity Nerve Surgeons.

Visit Dr. Jacoby at Valley Foot Surgeons

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