Modern podiatry practice is gaining popularity as a medical specialty globally. The terms chiropody and podiatry are inter-changeable, with chiropody being original term used in the UK, with podiatry being developed as a term in the US.
A podiatric physician or podiatrist is a podiatric professional, a person devoted to the study and medical treatment of disorders of the foot, ankle and lower extremity by all systems and means. A podiatrist is also known as chiropodists due to chiropody being the better known term for a foot specialist, especially in the UK.
A good podiatric resource in our opinion, should provides comprehensive, trustworthy information about conditions that affect the legs and feet, such as diabetes, osteoarthritis, and heel pain, and about preventions plus treatments, including orthotics. That is why we setup such a site to give useful information to web users to help them understand their foot health better.
Brief Podiatric Medicine History
The professional care of feet has been in existence since the time of the Egyptians and was evidenced by bas-relief carvings at the entrance to Ankmahor's tomb. Work on hands and feet are clearly depicted and many Egyptologists believe tending, feet both medically and personally, probably spanned the whole of ancient Egyptian civilization. The placement of carvings at the entrance of a tomb typically signified the profession of the buried individual and The Tomb of the Physician dates from 2400 BC. No one can be certain, of course, whether podiatry was practised continuously throughout the past two thousand years.
Corns and calluses were described by Hippocrates who recognised the need to physically reduce hard skin, followed by removal of the cause. He invented skin scrapers for this purpose and these were the original scalpels. Celsus, a Roman scientist and philosopher was probably responsible for giving corns their name.
Later Paul of Aegina (AD 615 -690) defined a corn as "a white circular body like the head of a nail, forming in all parts of the body, but more especially on the soles of the feet and the toes. It may be removed in the course of some time by pairing away the prominent part of it constantly with a scalpel or rubbing it down with pumice. The same thing can be done with a callus."